Summary of my Plays of the week : 5-1 Reg season

Week 1 : San Diego Padres - 9.5 ( vs Oak )  Lost
Week 2 : Oakland + 3 ( vs KC ) WON
Week 3 : Cincinnati + 4 ( vs Pittsburgh ) WON
Week 4 : New Orleans - 7 ( vs NYJ ) WON
Week 5 : Cincinnati + 9 ( vs Baltimore ) WON
Week 6 : New Orleans Saints - 3 ( vs NYG ) WON

Week 7 : Houston - 3 ( vs SF 49ers ) ...pending

( 3 unit play )

This pick pains me as I am going against my team , but the only consolation to losing this pick will be the continued SF 49ers success.

That being said , despite the fact that San Francisco is coming off a bye week with ample time for Mike Singletary to fire up his troops , the return of one the best running backs in the league Frank Gore , and the highly anticipated debut of Michael Crabtree in San Francisco ......
despite all of this ......
I believe this is a bad spot and a bad matchup for the 49ers .

Noone has been more impressed with the defensive unit of SF in this early part of the year , and the relative efficiency with which Shaun Hill has run SF's offense. 
Alex Smith's name has not been mentioned once and with the defeat of Arizona  on the road , the easy victory over Seattle , and near victory of still undefeated Minnesota Vikings on the road,  the deficiencies and inadequacies of this team were temporarily supressed.

Before the bye , we saw what the 29th ranked offense in the league can look like on an average day . Even with the reentering of Frank Gore , this offense is no juggernaut .
Michael Crabtree won't make an inmediate impact even against an average Houston's defense . 
It will take some more time .
One week won't fix SF's offensive woes . 
 It is simply not possible for the solid defense of SF to keep the team in every game , particularly when they will facing a very solid offense and a very good quarterback .
SF scored 35 points against ST Louis , but anyone that watched that game saw that the outcome of the game was very much in doubt for most of the first half .
The offense had a very modest performance on a day where it could afford to be the 29th ranked unit in the league .
Atlanta utterly exposed SF as a team with much promise but many flaws .
Playing catchup is certainly not the strength of the 49ers and in houston , and on the road the 49ers will be tested simply because Houston is much more talented offensively , and are coming off a solid win against a red-hot Bengals team that was fresh off upsets of Baltimore and Pittsburgh and winners of 4 in a row coming into that contest .
Houston limited the Bengals to 17 points and the stats point to a total dominance in every category .
It was the houston team everyone expected , and it showed up big on sunday .
Matt Schaub had a field day throwing for 392 yards with 4 TD's and 1 Int , while Houston kept the ball for 36:15 compared to 23:45 for the Bengals .
So , despite the fact that Houston passed for nearly 400 yards and only rushed for 87 yards , they controled the clock .
Steve Slaton doubled up as a Roger Craig or Marschall faulk catching 6 balls for 102 yards . Not bad , for a 5'9" running back !

What impressed me the most was the Houston's defensive effort as they limited Cedric Benson to only 44 yards , and this unit completely shut down the Bengals in the second half giving up 0 points in the final 2 quarters .
They held their own when they visited a resurgent Arizona Cardinals team only giving up 7 points in the second half , and nearly stole the game in the end .
Mario Williams and Brian Cushing who is 100 % heatlhy will anchor a defense that is improving and does not need to be in the top 10 .

While this Houston team is one that no serious gambler/handicapper wants to back in fear of being made a fool , I do like what I see , and I am most impressed with Matt Schaub who is simply one of the top 5 QB's in the league .
This is what I see , and simply look at the stats for the last 49ers game and you will see why this is the right pick.
I expect the 49ers to put up a better all around affort coming off the bye with focus and the return of gore , leaving Crabtree as the intangible addition ....but bye weeks are not the bandaids for all of a team's problems , and I'm afraid there is at the moment a gap in talent between the squads that can't be overlooked .
I could talk about SF 's stout defense and I love some of the players in it such as patrick Willis , but I am not yet sold on the offense and its ability to trade punches with a very hot offensive squad playing in their own stadium . 
Again , I believe it is a bad spot for my squad and growing pains are hopefully just the process to someday return as champions .

That is my play of the week : Houston Texans