Mike Johnson was on the Baltimore Ravens coaching staff when quarterback Troy Smith, then a rookie, started two games for the Ravens at the end of the 2007 season.

Still, the 49ers offensive coordinator said he was racing to learn as much as he could about Smith, Sunday's starter, in order to formulate a game plan Sunday against the Broncos.

"I'm still trying to figure out some of the things he does well," Johnson said. "... Now that I have a chance to really see what he can do, I can put a game plan together. So I'm still learning basically what he does well also."

Wednesday was the first time that Smith had thrown a practice pass with the 49ers first-team offense. He had shared scout-team snaps with David Carr since joining the 49ers on Sept. 6. Because of Smith's lack of familiarity with the first-team unit, the 49ers dedicated extra practice time this week to the offensive group.

Johnson also has been busy watching old game film of Smith and having long chats with him in an effort to figure out what the quarterback does best.

Still, Johnson said Smith's lack of familiarity with the first-team offense means that he'll have to simplify the game plan.

"You have to cut back, you have to scale back, and you can't pull from as many things," Johnson said. "So third-down (plays), red zone -- they are going to be things that suit him."

--A week and a half after quarterback David Carr was signed during the offseason, general manager Scot McCloughan and the 49ers parted ways. Coach Mike Singletary assumed control of the team's roster, and it soon became clear that Singletary didn't care for Carr, or at least he didn't like him as much as McCloughan.

On Wednesday, Singletary made that clear by choosing Troy Smith as his starting quarterback instead of Carr, who has been the No. 2 quarterback to Alex Smith all offseason.

Carr struggled Sunday in Carolina when Smith went down with a shoulder injury a minute into the second half. Carr was 5 of 13 for 67 yards, and he threw a devastating interception at the end of the game that set up the Panthers' go-ahead field goal. Singletary seemed to sour on Carr during the offseason when he routinely gave the quarterback only faint praise. Indeed, that's why the team signed Troy Smith on Sept. 6.

"I've talked to David Carr about it and he understands," said Singletary, who told the team of the decision shortly after arriving in London on Monday. "We had a couple of conversations about it. That's a personal thing between he and I and I'm going to leave it there. Troy Smith is our starting quarterback this week."

Smith has strong leadership skills and may be better than both Carr and Alex Smith in two key areas -- improvising and picking up yards with his feet. As a junior at Ohio State, he ran for 611 yards and had 11 rushing touchdowns.

But he's only started two games in his career, both of which came as a Ravens rookie in 2007, and he's still learning the offense.

Singletary said he thought Smith knew enough of the offense to be effective, but conceded that this week's practice in Hertfordshire, England -- which is the first time Smith has worked with the first-team offense -- will be revealing.

"It's one thing when you are sitting down and you are looking at different plays or whatever," Singletary said. "You say, 'Sure I got it,' and then you go out on the field and you have to do it fast, and you have to do it under pressure, and maybe you forget to make a call here or there. As a staff you have to look at that and that's why we practice, to kind of figure that out. We'll go from there, but I do know that however limited it'll be, it will be a situation that we put him in the best situation to win."

SERIES HISTORY
12th regular-season meeting. Broncos lead series, 6-5. The 49ers won the most recent game, in 2006, with a field goal in overtime. The teams also met in Super Bowl XXIV, a 55-10 win for the 49ers.

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