Alex Smith lacks confidence? That's just 'gobble, gobble, turkey' to Jim Harbaugh (VIDEO)

The calendar hasn't quite yet turned to November, but San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh apparently has Thanksgiving on his mind already.

Or something like that. We're not exactly sure.

The 49ers trounced the Arizona Cardinals 24-3 on Monday night, led by Alex Smith, who was nearly perfect in completing 18 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns.

After the game, Harbaugh was asked if Smith's performance put to rest an confidence issues the quarterback might have.

"I don't think there was ever a question there. I think it's just a lot of gobble, gobble turkey," Harbaugh said. "Just gobble, gobble, gobble turkey from jive turkey gobblers. That paints a pretty good picture of it."

To you, coach. But to the rest us, um, yeah, we won't even try to figure out the part of your brain where that response came from. It's your world, and we in the media just live in it.

As for Smith, well, this is the short-leashed nature of NFL quarterbacks, isn't it? Three weeks ago he was a darling after an impressive 303-yard, three-touchdown game in the blowout win against the Bills. Then came back-to-back poor performances against the Giants and Seahawks, respectively, and whispers that Colin Kaepernick should take over could be heard in the distance. Now comes Monday night, and all is right again in Niner Land.

San Francisco, now 6-2, continues to be a Super Bowl favorite among NFL experts. The bottom line is, with that stingy defense and power running game, Smith could be the only thing that holds back the Niners.

We think Smith would be wise to ignore those jive turkey gobblers and just do as Harbaugh says.