As great as Tom Brady and Eli Manning were this weekend, no one impressed me more than Niners Q.B. Alex Smith. The first two have been here before: you expect them to ball up in that situation. But Smith hadn’t; and most assumed never would be: which is what made his performance against New Orleans so (cold-blooded). He and Urb rolling up a 3 loss Pittsburgh squad in the Fiesta Bowl isn’t exactly going strike for strike with Drew Brees. But you would never know it watching him drop daggers in the fourth quarter at the stick Saturday night. The guy led them on two game winning drives. And yes, I said it myself before the game. There’s no way the Niners could win a shoot out with the Saints; no way Alex Smith was going to be able to trade T.D.’s with Drew Brees.

Wrong. That’s exactly what he did. It would have been so easy to turtle late and call it a day, next thing you know, he’s bolting up the sideline on third and long to take the lead. Then, when Brees hit Jimmy Graham with just over a minute and a half to go and seemingly ripped all their hearts out again, and Smith really could have just tapped out, he comes back yet again, throwing the slickest dart you’re ever going to see to Vernon Davis for the win.

Photos: Alex

Smith had been left for dead so many times before. And rapped as draft bust. It would have been so easy for the franchise to give up on him or for him to give up on himself. Tim Tebow gets a lot of credit for being resilient, but he’s never been through anything like Alex Smith has on the field. Really almost no one has. And now after being compared to Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell. He’s being compared to Joe Montana and Steve Young. And no one’s objecting.