San Francisco 49ers: Winners and Losers from Niners' Win vs. Buccaneers

With the season now officially entering its second quarter, Week 5 was hailed as the chance for teams to prove how good they really were.

Turns out, the San Francisco 49ers really are actually good.

San Francisco dominated from start to finish on Sunday in a 48-3 dismantling of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, beating a division-leading team with a 3-1 record. San Francisco racked up 414 yards of offense and forced three turnovers by the Bucs.

Coming off a 24-23 comeback win against Philadelphia in Week 4, San Francisco now carries a significant amount of momentum and promise into a Week 6 matchup in Detroit against another surprisingly strong Lions team.

San Francisco's victory against the Bucs showed so much promise for the 49ers, and just a tiny bit to worry about, so let's check out the winners—and loser—for the 49ers against the Buccaneers.

Winner: Alex Smith

If you had said before the season that the 49ers starting quarterback would have seven touchdowns and only one interception after five games, the entirety of the San Francisco faithful would have asked, "Who did the Niners trade for?"

It's just old Alex Smith with a whole new look—calm, cool, collected and precise.

He finished the day with 11 completions on 19 attempts for 170 yards and threw for three touchdowns, tying his career high.

He had a few scary passes, including two that almost were picked off, but Smith is obviously playing with a whole lot of confidence that we'd rarely seen in his career up to this point.

Winner: San Francisco Secondary

The 49ers secondary was rebuilt this offseason and had an absolutely monstrous performance on Sunday.

San Francisco came into the game ranked 27th in passing yards allowed per game, giving up 284 yards each week in their first four contests. Against the Buccaneers, San Francisco gave up just 184 yards and forced three turnovers by Tampa Bay.

First, at the beginning of the second quarter it was Carlos Rodgers, who stepped in front of the Bucs' Kellen Winslow. He intercepted Josh Freeman's pass and weaved his way 31 yards for the touchdown to give San Francisco a 14-3 lead.

On the next Tampa Bay drive it was Chris Culliver picking off Freeman again at the San Francisco 20-yard line, which set up another 49ers scoring drive to put the score at 21-3.

Not to be left out, Dashon Goldson forced a fumble late in the third when he produced a brutal hit on Tampa Bay's Mike Williams. Linebacker Patrick Willis recovered the fumble for the 49ers and the next San Francisco drive produced another touchdown for a 40-3 lead.

There are still question marks for the San Francisco secondary, especially with mediocre performances earlier in the season against Dallas and Philadelphia, but a dominating performance like this will hopefully give them confidence going into next week's matchup against the Lions and star wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

Winner: Frank Gore

Despite a slow start to the season, despite an injured ankle, and despite having a young running back to share the ball with, Frank Gore racked up big numbers again on Sunday.

Gore rushed for 125 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown against the Buccaneers, making some huge plays and proving to be a huge part of what is shaping out to be a really solid San Francisco offense.

He had one fumble early in the contest at the Bucs 11-yard line, but San Francisco's secondary intercepted the ball on the very next play and scored a touchdown. He made up for his mistake midway through the second quarter when he scored his touchdown, making it a 21-3 lead for San Francisco.

Gore will have to continue his stellar play going into next week's contest against the Detroit Lions.

Winner: Vernon Davis

Vernon Davis only saw three passes fly his way on Sunday, but he caught all three of them and two of them were touchdowns. He finished the day with 39 yards and now has three touchdowns on the season.

There had been much speculation as to Davis' lack of targets early in the season, but as Davis proved again on Sunday, he's a big time playmaker and can catch them when it counts.

Davis also continues to do a great job as a blocker on the run, and he made some excellent blocks that helped Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter get their yards on Sunday.

Loser: Josh Morgan and the 49ers Receiving Corps

Josh Morgan led the team with 75 receiving yards in Sunday's contest, but left the game late in the fourth quarter after injuring his ankle.

After receiving a pass from backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick late in the game, Morgan was pulled from behind by Athony Gaitor. Morgan's ankle was trapped under his body as he fell and had to be carried off by his teammates.

His status for next week is unknown, but San Francisco is already without wide receiver Braylon Edwards. With Michael Crabtree playing so inconsistent, a loss of Morgan for next week's contest against the Lions would be a big blow for San Francisco.

Winner: Jim Harbaugh

Certainly winning has to do a lot with it, but there was an awful lot of ear-to-ear smiles down on the sideline in San Francisco's victory.

The entire team seems to have bought into Jim Harbaugh's system, and to Harbaugh's credit, he's building the system as they go.

At the beginning of the season, San Francisco played exceptionally conservative football that didn't produce a lot of exciting moments. Over the last two games, Harbaugh has let his team off a bit more and they produced two victories and a ton for the highlight reels.

Most impressive is the chemistry that seems to be building on the field for San Francisco. The number of smiling and excited players so far this season would dwarf all those from the past several years, and a ton of that credit has to go to Harbaugh and his staff.