49ers quarterback Alex Smith has been a beneficiary to Coach Harbaugh's modified hot route scheme. A 1st round 2005 draft pick, Smith has spent 5 years as a borderline flop. But half way thru the 2011 season, Smith has a QB ranking of 106 in the 4th quarter, 4th in the league, he has the lowest percent of batted balls and picks. Bolstered by one of the best running games in the league Alex Smith has led the 49ers to a 7-1 record.
What Coach Harbaugh has done is to simplify the hot reads. Normally a receiver and a quarterback needs to learn 2 routes, the regular route and the hot read route, this requires recognizing the blitz and altering the route. What the 49ers receivers do is to run a route, say a 15 yard out, and during the route the receiver at say the 6 yard mark, turns to the QB to see if he has thrown the ball because of the blitz.
Alex Smith didn't suddenly get better this year, but instead he's running an offense that suits his skills. The question is whether the Giants can expose Smith's fundamental weakness thru their pass rush and coverage.
Heres great article by Chris Brown explaining this in detail.
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