Poll: Robinson or Miller.

Based on what he's shown as a receiver... I'll go with Miller.

I was a Robinson fan, and I still am. He's doing a darned good job in Seattle, and he's made some plays against us that have had me tearing at my hair. But Miller, who is becoming a darned fine blocker, has made more outstanding catches... with fewer drops. He just seems a lot more reliable when it comes to the QB dumping the ball off to him to pick up a first down. (And it doesn't hurt that he's a good deal younger.)

A note on Aldon Smith and the recent drop off in his production of late.

I was pretty happy with my conclusion that Aldon was pretty much a one trick pony, and that he needed Justin Smith to be in front of him for Aldon to be effective. But I started wondering about that a few days ago, and I looked something up.

Justin has been with us since 2008. And in that time the OLBs (Pass Rushers) behind him have been Manny Lawson, Parys Haralson, Tully Banta-Cain, and Ahmed Brooks.

In their time playing for us, with a healthy Justin Smith in front of them, those guys didn't exactly rack up the sacks.

Lawson: 3 sacks in '08. 6.5 sacks in '09. 2.5 sacks in '10.

Haralson: 8 sacks in '08. 5 sacks in '09. 4 sacks in '10.

Banta-Cain: 0.5 sacks in '08.

Brooks: 6 sacks in '09. 5 sacks in '10 7 sacks in '11.

Aldon Smith came in and got 14 sacks as a rookie, and he's got 19.5 this season.

That's one heck of a jump. And it made me think that I might just have been wrong in assuming that it was just the loss of Justin that shut him down.

Which brings me to something Bill Romanowski said the other night on Comcast. (For the out of towners, Romo has been doing a lot of media work locally for the Niners and the Raiders since he played for both. And it helps that he's nuts. Makes for good tv.)

When asked why Aldon has slowed down he said part of it was the loss of Justin. But most of the problem (In Romo's opinion) stems from the fact that Aldon Smith is spent. He's exhausted. He's played darned near every defensive snap the entire 16 game season, and his body is simply done. Romo went on to mention that contrary to most people's memory, Charles Haley and the other Niner pass rushers always rotated in and out of every game through the season. It was considered a basic survival tactic for both Chuck Studly's and George Seifert's defenses.

Now I remembered George being big on rotating his D-Lines, once he took over as HC. But I didn't have a clear memory of what was going on earlier with the defense.

Fortunately for me, one of my sisters gave me a great Birthday present this year. The 5 disc set of the Niner Superbowls. So I dragged out an old DVD player, dusted it off, wired it up, and spent a wonderful couple of hours watching the 1981 Niner Defense rotate in a seemingly endless supply of defensive players. (Fred Dean was on the field a lot in that game, but only after Dwayne Board hurt his knee and had to sit out the rest of the game)

Maybe there's something to what Romanowski was saying.

Maybe this business of only playing the same 12 guys on defense throughout the course of a season is... stupid.

So now the question is; Will an extra week of rest be enough to restore Aldon's zip?