American Football: King of the Bay Area

"Hike!" Lu Ke announced the snap again, completely immersed in the game.

It was the same play, but the running routes were slightly different. Crabtree started to cut outside, while Ginn began to cut in. Meanwhile, Newman pulled wide horizontally.

Lu Ke didn't move far back; he took just two dropback steps, adjusted his posture, and with a light flick of his forearm, made a passing motion. Was this one real or a fake? The Defense Team players were instantly on alert, but before they could make a judgment, the football was already out of Lu Ke's hands.

It was a smooth, straight bullet pass, fired fast and hard into the open space in the middle of the field. Ted Ginn Jr. arrived right on cue, easily collecting the football. There wasn't a single defender nearby to provide coverage. Ginn jogged a few steps forward, then realized the path ahead was wide open, completely clear. He slowed his pace.

Instant snap, instant pass, instant finish. The entire play, from start to finish, took less than ten seconds. It was over before anyone could even blink, the play executed once more. Everything happened so fast that it was hard to process.

The same play, executed twice in less than five minutes. With just minor changes in the details, the players on the Defense Team were like puppets on a string, completely led by the nose in Lu Ke's hands. Both times resulted in a defensive mismatch. In a real game, both Logan Newman and Ted Ginn Jr. could have run all the way for a touchdown.

Clean and decisive. Thunderously powerful. He pinned the Defense Team down, grinding them into the dirt, then grinding them again.

Fast. Efficient. Direct. The Defense Team was utterly humiliated.

Lu Ke clenched his right fist and gave a short, forceful pump, clenching his jaw to pump himself up. After that small celebration, Lu Ke left the field, making way for Scott, who was up next.

For Lu Ke, after this week's game, he had added his base points to Tactical Awareness and Observation Field of View. The improvement was undeniably obvious; his ability to seize opportunities had improved yet again. This was only practice, and its intensity was ultimately different from a real game. All his passes felt effortless, and the effect was invisibly magnified to its peak.

But for the defensive players, it was a humiliating nightmare.

Parris stood with his hands on his hips, taking a deep breath, then another. But even so, he couldn't quell the anger and frustration. The rage simmering inside him was about to explode. Finally, he ripped off his helmet and violently threw it to the ground. Unable to contain his emotions any longer, he stormed off the practice field. He needed to cool down.

All conflicts were to be settled on the practice field, and so to the practice field they had come. But who could have imagined that in the span of a few breaths, a few blinks of an eye, the outcome would already be decided—and with such a vast, heaven-and-earth difference?

Powerless to fight back. Truly, utterly powerless. The humiliation was so intense that Parris's entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The coaches all wore expressions of amusement and anticipation. Based on Lu Ke's performance alone, he showed no trace of being an undrafted rookie. Judging by today's practice, his competitive form had actually surpassed Colin Kaepernick's—not in terms of absolute skill, but competitive form.

Of course, sports were never just about numbers. A real game is full of countless variables; the strongest don't always come out on top, and the weaker aren't necessarily without a chance. This is the charm of competitive sports. Therefore, you couldn't measure skill in such a simple and crude way.

The question now was, faced with Lu Ke's meteoric rise, could the other three quarterbacks keep up?

The tense atmosphere on the practice field began to spread. Both the Defense Team and the Offense Team were a little on edge, and the quarterbacks even more so.

Next up was Scott Torsin, who had an off day. The play call wasn't wrong, but his passing accuracy was off by quite a bit.

After him, Alex Smith also seemed to be affected. He was actually sacked and couldn't complete the pass.

Then came Colin Kaepernick. He deviated from the intended play, once again using his legs to run out of the pocket, and successfully completed an eight-yard pass. Although the pass was complete, the execution of the play was a failure.

As this trend continued, the gap between the four quarterbacks' abilities began to show.

Under heavy pressure, Torsin's performance became unstable, and he gradually fell behind. His execution in critical moments was still lacking.

Kaepernick still had his old problem: his passing accuracy was inconsistent, and he always wanted to rely on his athleticism. While he had improved since the preseason, with significant progress in memorizing and understanding the playbook, it still wasn't enough. In truth, this was a common issue for all rookie quarterbacks—they needed time, more time.

It was worth mentioning that when faced with the same deceptive play, Kaepernick was the only quarterback who was a beat slow to react. He stepped onto the field, got behind the Offense Line, and only then realized the error in the play call. Although he bit the bullet, pretending he knew what he was doing and forced the snap, the result was a disaster. The entire execution of the play was wrong.

Clearly, as a rookie, Kaepernick still needed more time on his journey of learning the plays.

As for Lu Ke, his understanding of the playbook seemed to have adapted to the Alliance's pace with incredible speed. The logical explanations were his perfect score on Fonderick's test and the relentless studying he did in his spare time—Lu Ke never actually rested on his Mondays and Tuesdays off; his playbook and game film filled all his hours.

One month of preseason and three weeks of the regular season—in less than two months total, his growth was astounding.

Finally, there was Alex Smith. Stable, as consistently stable as ever. After that one sack, his performance returned to its usual track. His understanding and execution of plays, his reading of the game and command of the situation—none of these were problems. But under pressure, attempting mid-range and long passes remained a persistent issue.

It seemed like everything was the same—the familiar formula, the familiar flavor. Ultimately, it all came down to the same old question: choose Alex Smith, or choose Lu Ke? In other words, choose the veteran, or choose the rookie?

Before the regular season, Jim's plan was to go with the veteran, letting Smith lead the team forward while helping the rookie quarterbacks develop smoothly. After a series of unexpected events, Lu Ke became the starter, serving as a transitional quarterback, but the result was an unbelievable three-game winning streak. So, what should they do now?

Should they stick to the original plan, put Smith back in, and give Lu Ke and Kaepernick more time to grow? Or should they ride the momentum, keep Lu Ke as the starter, and hope to continue the team's winning ways?

To put it simply, the conflict within the locker room had now been transferred into the hands of the coaching staff. They had to make a judgment, make a choice—the best choice for the San Francisco 49ers.

However, this was only the first part of the quarterback competition. Selecting the starter obviously involved more than this—otherwise, based on the three regular-season games alone, choosing Lu Ke would have been the obvious, unquestionable decision. The reason for holding an open and transparent competition in practice was, on one hand, to resolve the locker room conflict, and on the other, to evaluate them in every possible aspect.

On Thursday afternoon, the team ran a few more different quarterback drills, including passing drills, Pocket Footwork, and collision avoidance, to comprehensively assess the quarterbacks' skills and, most importantly, their current form.

On Friday morning, the team held another internal scrimmage, a full eleven-on-eleven matchup. It wasn't just for the quarterback selection; they also began to practice the plays for this week's regular-season game, running targeted drills based on their opponent's defensive strategies and offensive style.

On the practice field, the scrimmage was still going on in full swing. Alex Smith was leading the Offense Team at this moment, playing a steady, methodical game. The effects of his injury were unavoidable—his footwork and passing choices when the pocket collapsed were not very sound—but overall, he had returned to his average level of play.

There was still some time before the scrimmage ended. But this was practice; winning or losing wasn't really important.

"Alex is still steady. Sometimes he's almost too steady, but other times, we need that kind of stability," Craig Roman offered his opinion. "Our team is too young, and our performance fluctuates too much. It's been like that for the past two games. If we had Alex to control the tempo a bit, the games would look a lot better."

Kip Kester looked up with a smile. "So, you're backing Alex?"

Craig's smile faltered for a moment. "And you?"

"I'm backing Lu Ke. You know I've always supported Lu Ke. The courage and guts he shows are just too rare. Yes, his form might be unstable, leading to a total team collapse and a lost game, but I believe he would never just roll over and surrender," Kip stated his opinion resolutely. "What do you think?"

Craig laughed, at a loss for words. Then he noticed Jim's gaze land on him, a questioning look in his eyes. He let out a long breath. "Alright, my head tells me I should choose Alex. The team's stability is one thing, the locker room is another, and most importantly, both Colin and Lu Ke are too young. They still have a lot to learn."

"But?" Kip raised an eyebrow, sensing the unspoken part of Craig's sentence.

Craig had a helpless look on his face. "But." He then saw Kip's triumphant smile. "But, I'd still choose Lu Ke. We're facing a lot of problems right now, but miraculously, Lu Ke is still leading the team forward. So, why should we change anything? Still, the final decision rests with Jim."

Craig and Kip both turned to look at Jim at the same time.

Jim didn't speak or give any sign, his gaze fixed silently on the field. He waited quietly for the scrimmage to end, then gathered all the players together again. "There are less than two days of prep time left before this week's regular-season game. I know everyone is concerned about the starting quarterback situation for this week. The coaching staff has discussed it and has made a decision. We will now announce the starter, and the rest of our practice will be structured around the first team."

Clean and to the point, Jim didn't waste any words and got straight to the heart of the matter.