"Jim Harbaugh said it was fair to say that Alex Smith would be his starter opening day against Seattle after the game. Harbaugh also liked what he saw out of Kendall Hunter and suggested he would be Frank Gore's backup.

Harbaugh said that Aldon Smith played with "passion" in collecting two and a half sacks.

Thanks to the 49ers, here's some comments from Alex Smith.

Did the offense have to come out and prove something tonight?

I don't know if we had anything to prove. It's the fourth preseason game. We definitely wanted to get the taste out of our mouth from last week though. Get some rhythm, convert on some third downs, move some chains and hopefully points on the board and we were able to do that. We took the opening drive all the way down and stuck it in and we were able to get the ball on the turnover and put that one in as well. So, yeah, it was a good start.

Was that what you were looking for on the first drive?

Yeah, I think so. We'll take a look at the film, but maybe some little things here and there, but it was pretty much like we hoped it would go."