49ers declare Alex Smith OUT for Monday Night Football vs. Bears

The 49ers made official what was reported earlier in the day by Chris Mortensen. The 49ers will deactivate QB Alex Smith for Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears. According to the 49ers, Smith was evaluated by team medical director Dr. Dan Garza and was not cleared to play. Colin Kaepernick will get the start in place of Smith and Scott Tolzien will be active as the backup quarterback. The emergency quarterback will likely be Kyle Williams, who filled that role last week when Smith first went down.

The reports out of practice had indicated Alex Smith was receiving most of the snaps all week long. These reports leave a couple of situations. The first is that the team really did expect Alex Smith to be cleared to play, and this has come out of nowhere, leaving them in a tough situation with a potentially somewhat unprepared Colin Kaepernick.

The other situation is that the team has been playing a game of misdirection. The media is allowed to observe practice during individual drills, but is not allowed to watch the team drills. It is possible the 49ers coaching staff has played it out as if Smith would play, but really was doing that to keep the Chicago Bears in the dark for their own preparations.

Bears head coach Lovie Smith had indicated they were more concerned with the run anyway, so the QB was not a huge deal for them. That makes a certain amount of sense. Although Kaepernick can potentially open up the offense a bit more, having his first career start come against the dominant Bears defense would seem more likely to force a more conservative game plan on the 49ers offense. It is hard to figure out exactly what will happen, but I would be a bit surprised if the 49ers did not come out looking to establish the run game in a very decisive manner. They could very well open things up, but that just does not strike me as the likely play, at least initially.

It certainly does make for an interesting matchup. The game was already plenty interesting with the playoff stakes, but getting the second year "QB of the future" into the game makes it that much more interesting for all involved. All I want is a win, but there is a certain buzz with the uncertainty of Kaep getting the start. It should make for quite the night (good or bad remaining to be seen!).

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Alex Smith concussion: Colin Kaepernick in after Smith knocked from game

In a big turn of events, QB Colin Kaepernick has entered the game in place of Alex Smith. On the 49ers touchdown-scoring drive, Alex Smith took a couple big hits, including an instance where he dove/slid shoulder-first and took a big hit from Jo-Lonn Dunbar. We now have confirmation that Alex Smith has suffered a concussion and is out for the rest of the game.

The trainers were talking with Smith, including the team's concussion expert before he left the game for the locker room. The announcers confirmed the concussion, which means Colin Kaepernick is the 49ers quarterback the rest of the game. Kaepernick came in for his first drive and was unable to do much to move the offense. Kaepernick picked up ten yards on an early scramble, but a holding penalty a couple plays later cost the team a first down and they had to punt.

The 49ers trail 14-7 and will look for some kind of life from Kaepernick to get things going.