Heading into Week 11’s matchup with the Chicago Bears on Monday night, the San Francisco 49ers had to take the field without their leader on the offensive side of the football. Quarterback Alex Smith was ruled out with a concussion suffered in the tie against the St. Louis Rams a week earlier and second-year man Colin Kaepernick was given the nod as the starter.

Fortunately, the Bears also had to play without their starter with Jay Cutler also battling a concussion, but the 49ers were thought to be at a disadvantage against one of the league’s elite defenses with wet-behind-the-ears sophomore under center.

Despite all the speculation surrounding a potentially bad performance for Kaepernick in his first NFL start, the Nevada-Reno product passed the test with flying colors. Kaepernick threw for 243 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions finishing with a passer rating of 133.1.

The second-year pro led the 49ers to a convincing 32-7 victory over the Bears and created quite the quarterback controversy in San Francisco as a result.

Although Smith has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league this season, head coach Jim Harbaugh is considering going with Kaepernick next weekend against the New Orleans Saints via ESPN.com:

“I usually tend to go with the guy that has the hot hand and we have two quarterbacks that have a hot hand,” Harbaugh said after Monday’s 32-7 victory. “So I thought Colin did an outstanding job. I thought he did a great job, poised in the pocket pushing the ball throwing with accuracy, did a nice job running the game plan. Everything he did was exemplary and really acquitted himself great, very proud of him for that.”

It’s never a bad situation to have two great quarterbacks on the depth chart and the 49ers franchise is no stranger to such a situation with Steve Young backing up Joe Montana in the past. Obviously, San Francisco’s current quarterback tandem can’t really be compared to the two Hall of Famers mentioned above, but it seems that Harbaugh can’t go wrong with starting either one against the worst defense in the NFL in Week 12.

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