KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh sought out Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith on Friday night, warmly greeting him on the field before their preseason game. It was the kindest the 49ers were to their former teammate all night. Smith struggled against a relentless pass rush while playing the entire first half for Kansas City, even taking a couple wicked shots from the San Francisco defence, and then watched as backup quarterback B.J. Daniels threw a late touchdown pass to give the 49ers a 15-13 victory. "It was different, definitely different," Smith said. "Those are guys I played a long time with and know very well. There was a lot of talking out there, back and forth from a lot of guys." It turned out to be a strange reunion for Harbaugh, too. "It felt a lot like going against my brother," he said. "It was different. It was personal, in the best kind of way. I wish him great success and health. Well be following him." Great success and health? Hardly. Smith was wrestled to the ground at least half a dozen times by the 49ers defence, the most vicious blow coming in the second quarter, when defensive tackle Tony Jerod-Eddie levelled a helmet-to-helmet hit. He was flagged for a personal foul on the play. All the pressure prevented the Chiefs from moving the ball the way they did last week in New Orleans, when the No. 1 offence scored a touchdown on its only drive in a 17-13 defeat. Smith was just 7 of 16 for 62 yards through the air. "Listen, I expect us to score every time we have the ball," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "I dont expect any less than that. So did I expect more? Yeah." Phil Dawson hit all three of his field-goal attempts for the 49ers, two of them 55-yarders, while the Chiefs Quintin Demps returned a kickoff 104 yards for a touchdown. Colin Kaepernick, who took over Smiths starting job in San Francisco last season, only played the first offensive series. He threw just two passes, one a completion for minus-3 yards and the other a misfire toward wide receiver Chad Hall, who was running free to the end zone. "It was a little overthrown," Kaepernick said. "We got the perfect look." Colt McCoy and Scott Tolzien alternated series for the 49ers once Kaepernick left, but neither distinguished himself in the race for the No. 2 quarterback job. McCoy threw for 35 yards but also tossed an interception, while Tolzien threw for only 30 yards. The Chiefs played without Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles, who strained his right foot when he stepped on a teammate in practice Monday. Charles worked out before the game and the team considers him day-to-day, though Reid wouldnt discuss his status for next weeks game. "Well see when we start practice on Sunday how I feel," Charles said. "Im trying to get my body ready and back in shape." The main story line, though, was Smith facing his former team. After leading San Francisco to the playoffs and getting off to a good start last year, he lost the top job when he got hurt. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh stuck with Kaepernick once Smith was healthy enough to return, and then traded the former No. 1 pick to the Chiefs this past off-season. Smith has mostly taken the high road when asked about how things went down. And if there was any lingering animosity, it seemed to dissolve when he spoke to Harbaugh before the game. "The first time I ever played against my former team was in a preseason game and it was a great thrill," Harbaugh said. "Im sure that he felt that tonight." Once the game started, it was special teams that provided the thrills. Demps, whos trying to solidify a job returning kicks for Kansas City, sent the first shock through a meagre crowd at Arrowhead Stadium in the first quarter. He fielded a kickoff after the first of Dawsons field goals, found a crease and out-ran the coverage for a touchdown. The Chiefs havent had a kickoff return for a score in a regular-season game November 2009, when Charles brought one back against the Pittsburgh Steelers. "Jamaal Charles? He got some return game?" Demps asked? "I got to get some tips from him." The 49ers special teams also shined in the third quarter, when backup linebacker Parys Haralson blocked a punt by Dustin Colquitt. Haralson recovered the ball to set up the second of Dawsons 55-yard field goals -- both of them had plenty of distance to spare. Those were the 49ers only points until Daniels hit Chuck Jacobs from 14 yards out with 2:02 left for the go-ahead touchdown, their first touchdown of the preseason after managing only field goals in a 10-6 loss last week to Denver. Notes: Chiefs TE Travis Kelce (bruised knee) and CB Dunta Robinson (shoulder) left the game. ... RT Eric Fisher, the Chiefs No. 1 overall pick, missed a few plays while getting his hand examined. ... Four of the 49ers top seven draft picks didnt play due to injuries: DE Tank Carradine (knee), TE Vance McDonald (leg), RB Marcus Lattimore (knee) and DE Quinton Dial (toe). ... 49ers LT Joe Staley was in uniform after missing four recent practices with an undisclosed injury. He had returned to practice Wednesday. ... Haralson also had a sack. Fake Air Max 90 Black . As TSN reported Thursday, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport is under intense pressure from the federal government to focus drug testing on athletes who compete in international events representing Canada. Since funding for the tests has been frozen and the cost of testing can eclipse $1,000 per test, university athletes in a number of sports are being tested less often. Fake Air Max 90 Mens . - Robert Griffin III has a sprained throwing shoulder that limited him in practice Wednesday as the Washington Redskins prepared for their season finale against the Dallas Cowboys. http://www.outletairmax90cheap.com/outlet-air-max-90-2019-cheap.html . Claude Noel will be the man behind the bench when the team hits the ice of the MTS Centre to begin its inaugural season. Cheap Air Max 90 Ultra China . The United States clinched the final berth into the Ford Worlds, March 28-April 6 at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, on Saturday in Blaine, Minn. Cheap Air Max 90 Black .ca presents a week long look at some of the teams and stories that will shape the up coming campaign.One of the most interesting questions that the hockey analytics community has dealt with in recent years has concerned the old Ryan Suter and Shea Weber defence pairing in Nashville. When that pairing existed, both players were individually recognized as elite defenders, with Shea Weber being received as the slightly better of the two. The pairing eventually broke up in the summer of 2012, when Ryan Suter left Nashville for a $98-million contract in Minnesota. Though both are still great players, I think it’s fair to say that the reputation of each has taken a slight hit since the break. Part of this is tied into the fact that their underlying numbers have never been as impressive as some of the other game-changing defenders around the league at even-strength, who generally post quality on-ice Goal% rates and on-ice Corsi% year after year. This, of course, is because most every team is usually moderately to significantly better with their first pairing on the ice, with performance depreciating as lesser pairings and players replace them. Suter was the first to go through this. Last year, talk about Suter’s performance wasn’t critical, but appropriately focused on whether or not the team was simply playing their top-defenceman too many minutes. At the time, I think those concerns were at the very least fair – the Wild were a better possession team with him off of the ice than on, and he was playing basically half of every game. Despite improving on those underlying numbers this year, those concerns have not subsided. What’s interesting is that Suter isn’t the only player who has looked a bit unimpressive by first-pairing standards since the split. For the third straight year, Weber is posting negative possession numbers relative to his team – that is to say, with Weber off of the ice, Nashville’s in better territorial control of things. And, this season, Nashville’s actually getting a better portion of the goal-scoring with Weber off of the ice. I think this gets into a larger question about first-pairing and heavily-used second-pairing defenders who may be playing too many minutes, and how we can go about identifying them. What I’ve decided is to pull the twenty-two defencemen who have already logged at least 700-minutes at 5-on-5, then eliminate any defender who (a) is posting positive possession rates relative to the rest of his teammates; and/or (b) is posting positive goal rates relative to the rest of his teammates. As you would expect, this criteria cuts the 22-defenders (including Subban, Giordano, Karlsson, Doughty, et al.) down considerably. Who are we left with? I’ve graphed out the remaining heavily-used defencemen by relative possession rates, relative goal rates, and relative zone start rates below. Bubble color will indicate zone starts – players with blue bubbles see softer deployment, and players with white bubbles see tougher deployment. The size of the bubble indicates how big of a disparity the player’s zone starts are from the team average. The first thing you will notice – no Ryan Suter! Despite the unparalleled ice-time, he’s actually putting together a respectable season. Furthered development of Jonas Brodin – his frequent defence partner – may be helping. I think there are two other bubbles that stand out here pretty considerably, and those are Dennis Wideman and Johnny Oduya.dddddddddddd Wideman, because he’s the only defenceman posting negative possession and goal rates despite seeing favorable zone start deployment and Oduya because he is just getting absolutely crushed this season, and the disparity in Chicago’s numbers with him on the ice versus with him off of the ice is jarring. What’s interesting here is that both are regarded as second-pairing defencemen. Oduya (and by extension Niklas Hjalmarsson) actually plays more than the venerable Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook pairing at 5-on-5, though the margin is somewhat small. The same is true with Wideman (and by extension Kris Russell), who generally play as much as, if not a sliver more than the great Giordano/Brodie duo at 5-on-5. Now, there’s no doubt that their big step-up in minutes at 5-on-5 has created opportunity for other, more skilled defenders to get more power-play time. But, is the trade-off worth it? It’s a legitimate question, based on the above. There is, also, Shea Weber – the player we talked about earlier. He’s become the player in the middle of the analytics debate, where the ‘eye test’ suggests he’s one of the best in the business, and the numbers suggest that’s probably not accurate. His frequent partner, Roman Josi, sits right next to him on the graph. It’s clear to me that Weber and Josi are being used in a shot and goal deterrence role after a quick glance at their deployment – aside from the zone starts, they currently rank #1 and #2 in quality of competition faced, another item worth recognizing. Jump through that hyperlink, though, and you’ll notice that Weber’s deployment is identical to that of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Mark Giordano. Both of those players thrive in similarly difficult minutes. It’s certainly one of those topics where I think more in-depth examination is warranted, especially as it pertains to Weber – the player that we thought was carrying Ryan Suter around for all of those years in Nashville. The numbers say he’s doing a decent job in very challenging 5-on-5 minutes, but they also say he’s underperforming a bit relative to other Norris Trophy hopefuls, and maybe has been for some length of time. Nashville is likely satisfied with having a player of Shea Weber’s abilities on your roster. He’s playing the toughest minutes on the team, and one could easily take the side that his getting beat-up a bit with some harsh deployment is of the benefit to the Predators as a whole. Would the likes of Ryan Ellis (56.1% Corsi%), Mattias Ekholm (55.2% Corsi%), Seth Jones (55.4% Corsi%), and so forth be as successful territorially this year without the Weber/Josi shutdown pairing eating up some of the tough minutes? I think the reasonable answer to that is no. But, on the other hand, Weber’s not in a position unseen around the league – we talked about Vlasic and Giodano being deployed in almost identical spots, for example. Why does this particular group in Nashville seem to struggle relative to other great players and pairings around the league? If I’m David Poile, and I’m paying this particular player $7.8-million through the 2026 season, it’s an issue I’m investigating further. ' ' '