Alex Smith scores rushing touchdown after faking to ... nobody

Alex Smith trucks into the end zone. (Colin E. Braley/AP) The Houston Texans did not give up rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks Jake Locker, Russell Wilson or

Doug Farrar | Oct 20, 2013

Alex Smith scores rushing touchdown after faking to ... nobody /

Alex Smith trucks into the end zone. (Colin E. Braley/AP)

The Houston Texans did not give up rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks Jake Locker, Russell Wilson or Colin Kaepernick when they played the Tennessee Titans, Seattle Seahawks, and San Francisco 49ers this season. But they did give up a rushing touchdown to quarterback Alex Smith with 59 seconds left in the first half of Sunday's game -- and the way in which Smith did was rather embarrassing to any defense.

The Chiefs went with a little option play, and Smith faked a handoff to ... well, nobody. Running back Jamaal Charles was in the backfield, but he went to Smith's right before heading left to block Texans linebacker Whitney Mercilus. Smith faked to air, paused a second and then rushed easily into the end zone from five yards out as his teammates blocked it to perfection.

The score brought the Chiefs back into the game from a 14-3 deficit.

Smith has never put up amazing stats as a passer or runner, but it's worth remembering that he played in a pseudo-spread offense at Utah under Urban Meyer, and he's athletic enough to give defenses pause when they're not paying attention.

Published Oct 20, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.