SF 49ers vault: Alex Smith’s touchdown run vs. Saints changed his career

The SF 49ers welcome back their former quarterback, Alex Smith, whose playoff touchdown run against the Saints cemented his legacy.

One can only wish the SF 49ers were welcoming back their former top pick from the 2005 NFL Draft, quarterback Alex Smith, in front of a jam-packed house at Levi’s Stadium when the Niners and the Washington Football Team square off against each other in Week 14.

As the pandemic and country restrictions have it, San Francisco not only won’t be playing in front of fans at Levi’s Stadium, it won’t be playing at its own home venue either.

Instead, Smith will be making his second career start against his former team from the “home” confines of State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

Smith’s legacy needs little review. Those early years with the SF 49ers weren’t pretty, as he went from a franchise-saving hopeful to earning the “bust” moniker amid a slew of ever-changing offensive coordinators, clashes with head coaches and other quarterback controversies before finally getting into a groove under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2011.

Except only to be ousted by quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2012, then sent packing to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013 and then suffering a similar fate because of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, which ultimately landed Smith in Washington.

Then, of course, there was Smith’s horrifying leg injury in 2018, which not only endangered his football career, but it also nearly took his life as ESPN’s E60 documentary, Project 11, so vividly pointed out.

It’s safe to say most Niners fans now embrace Smith despite him being wildly unpopular during the late 2000s.

But if there was one play that forever cemented Smith’s legacy with San Francisco, it was that magical run against the New Orleans Saints in the 2012 divisional round, his first-ever postseason appearance.

Alex Smith turned his SF 49ers reputation around on one magical play

Smith was effective and efficient in 2011. But he was still trying to overcome the negative stigma from the previous decade.

Fortunately, the divisional bout against the Saints provided a wonderful opportunity. Anyone who watched that game won’t soon forget it.

In that crazy, wild back-and-forth contest, Smith’s 28-yard off a bootleg scramble that gave the Niners the lead with just over two minutes remaining regulation:

Insane. Incredible. Improbable.

Smith’s reputation in San Francisco was already changing for the better. But this was the moment where he cemented himself as a fan favorite.

What’s even crazier is the Saints retook the lead their following possession, which required Smith and the SF 49ers to engineer a game-saving drive not unlike his predecessors in Niners uniforms had in postseason bouts forever cemented in franchise lore. While Hall of Famer Joe Montana gets credit for “The Drive” in Super Bowl XXIII, perhaps Smith’s comeback after his 28-yard run should be nicknamed “The Drive II.”

After all, his touchdown pass to tight end Vernon Davis to finally beat New Orleans is often christened “The Catch III.”

Still, it’s that touchdown run standing out the most for Smith in a career that has seen so many ups and downs, both with the Niners and elsewhere.

And one San Francisco fans won’t forget.