Not to take too much credit or anything, as I know the 49er organization doesn’t read my articles, but I couldn’t help but notice how the Niners won by doing what I said they should do last week. They were as aggressive on offense as they have been on defense staying in the spread (whether it was out of the shotgun or single back set) all game and making the other team play from behind against their attacking defense.

In all seriousness this is the offense that we should be seeing from the Niners for the rest of the year as they finally proved that they perform best out of the spread. The most important aspect of this Niners team that should be taken away from the game against the Jaguars is how confident Alex Smith looked and played all game. Granted he missed a few passes he should have hit, but his receivers had a few drops and he made plays for them as he continues to throw well down the middle of the field and extend plays outside of the pocket.

The reason the Niners picked Alex Smith with their first overall pick in 2005 was evident on Smith’s great pass to Frank Gore for the Niners second touchdown. With no open receivers Smith broke the pocket and took off for the sidelines to extend the play, seeing Frank Gore drift towards to corner of the end zone Smith stepped up to fake the run drawing the coverage off of Gore and as soon as Gore was uncovered Smith tossed a strike threw the smallest of windows for the touchdown. Brilliant.

In fact, after Sunday’s solid performance Smith is the second highest rated quarterback in the division over two former pro-bowlers in Matt Hasselbeck and Marc Bulger and is the 8th highest rated QB in the NFC (with a minimum 14 passes attempted per team’s games played). Considering that is only out of 16 quarterbacks 8th isn’t so impressive but it is defiantly a step forward for a player that has struggled as much as Smith has so far in his career.

Looking forward to the playoff picture this weekend was a big help to the Niners cause since not only did the Niners win but the Cardinals lost.  Next week the Niners play a team that they have already beaten this year, and is on the decline, in the Seattle Seahawks, and the Cardinals have to play the Vikings in the Metrodome where the Vikings are undefeated. Granted the Niners have to play Seattle at home and they are much tougher to play at home as they have one of the better home field advantages in the league, but they only have a 3-2 record there so far this season. So if the Niners can beat the Seahawks a second time and the Cardinals loose to the Vikings then the Niners would only be one game behind the Cardinals going into their head to head match up at Candlestick Park where the Niners own a 4-2 record giving them a good chance to even up the division standings.

After their head to head both the Cardinals and the Niners play the Lions, the Rams, and a team that will be in the wild card race, The Packers and the Eagles respectively. Assuming the next two games go as I predicted above for both teams (a stretch I know but bear with me here) and assuming both the Niners and Cardinals beat the Lions and the Rams (less of a stretch) then the season could come down to which team can come through and win the tough game. Unfortunately for the Niners the Cardinals get the advantage here as they get to play Green Bay in Arizona while the Niners have to play the Eagles in Philadelphia where they will have to deal with the time change and the cold weather. The Niners need to keep in mind that while very talented the Eagles are very beatable as we saw in their loss to the Raiders and near loss at home to the Redskins this past Sunday.

This scenario may have a number of “if’s” in it, but if the Niners can make it happen they will find themselves in the playoffs for the first time in seven years. As I have said before good teams take advantage of opportunities and the events of this past Sunday have opened one up for the Niners. This home stretch is where Mike Singletary can really earn his keep and show why he is the rookie head coach of the year.