49ers' latest win should bring national respect

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Jim Harbaugh, the man of no comparisons, is suddenly generating buzz that his spot-on, creative coaching resembles that of the late Hall of Famer, Bill Walsh - and that his 49ers are performing much like those great San Francisco teams of old.

Alex Smith, the oft-maligned former first-round pick, is now the Bay Area's quarterback of the hour - after another Harbaugh-groomed QB, Stanford's Andrew Luck, faltered on The Farm against Oregon and might have hurt his Heisman Trophy chances in the process.

Ricky Jean Francois, the outspoken defensive tackle, has no qualms acknowledging the 49ers finally silenced any remaining doubters after Sunday's thrilling 27-20 victory against the New York Giants and fellow NFC division leader.

"It might change the perspective of everybody now, that we're not just a team that's a joke," Francois said Monday. "We're a team to actually take serious. Last night I was watching NFL Network and I heard Deion Sanders say he wasn't giving us our props and we weren't a team to take serious. But now that we won the game, everybody's taking us serious. Everybody was probably looking at us like, 'They're not that good, they have certain things they need still to work on.' Don't get me wrong, we're not perfect. We're still working on a lot of things - offense, defense special teams - because we've got to make sure every game we win with all three phases. To us, it doesn't matter if the league takes us serious."

Six straight wins and the second-best record in the NFL hadn't quite done the trick for some skeptics, who still questioned whether the Niners truly were among the league's top teams.

n Hall got forearm on Browns' missed field goal: Maybe the St. Louis Rams made their own luck.

Coach Steve Spagnuolo said Monday that game tape showed defensive end James Hall getting a piece of Cleveland's blown field goal near the end of their 13-12 victory over the Browns a day earlier. Spagnuolo said tackle Gary Gibson had good penetration on the line and the Browns' timing was off, a combination that allowed Hall to deflect the ball with his right forearm.

"We know the timing of their kick was not perfect," Spagnuolo said. "I'm not so sure with all the mishandling they had it might have still gone through. I'm not so sure it might knuckleball through there."

Attention focused on the snap from Ryan Pontbriand that glanced off a lineman's leg and then fluttered back to holder Brad Maynard. He still got the ball placed, but Phil Dawson's kick hooked left.

The Rams improved to 2-7 headed into Sunday's home game against NFC West foe Seattle (3-6).

n Whisenhunt: No QB issues because Kolb hurt: Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt said there is no reason to even address a potential decision at quarterback as long as Kevin Kolb is injured.

Backup John Skelton has had two uneven performances, but they were both victories. On Sunday, he led Arizona to a 21-17 win in Philadelphia, where the big second-year pro overcame two interceptions to direct three long drives that each ended with a touchdown pass.

Kolb was acquired in a trade with Philadelphia and signed to a five-year, $63 million contract - $21 million guaranteed - as Arizona's quarterback of the future. The game in which he was injured was Arizona's sixth loss in a row, and Kolb has not practiced for two weeks.

The Cardinals (3-6) play at the NFC West's runaway leader San Francisco (8-1) next Sunday.

"Kevin is doing everything he can to get healthy again and get back on the field," Skelton told the NFL Network on Monday. "He's a competitor and he wants to be out there just as bad as anyone. That's not for me to say or me to speculate about. It's really up to the coaching staff. I'm sure if Kevin's healthy, he'll be able to go."