49ers notes: O-line welcomes next challenge, etc.

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SANTA CLARA -- From Ndamukong Suh to Jared Allen, the 49ers' offensive line faces another tough challenge in their Week 3 matchup in Minnesota.

Allen came within a half-sack of the all-time single season sack record last year, wrestling quarterbacks to the turf 22 times (Michael Strahan set the record with 22.5 sacks in 2001).

"He's a great player," Joe Staley said of Allen, who he became familiar with at the Pro Bowl. "He presents a great challenge, especially at home. He's slippery, long arms, really good with his hands. It's going to be a great one-on-one battle."

"It's the NFL, man," Anthony Davis said. "Everybody's good. He's good. But we're all competitors. It's not like 'Oh no, we got Jared Allen this week.' It's like, 'Yeah, we get Jared Allen this week.'"

Playing in his ninth NFL season, Allen is third among active players with 105 career sacks and led the league in 2007 (15.5) in addition to last season.

Alex Smith was sacked four times by Clay Matthews and the Packers in Week 1 and three times by Suh and the Lions in Week 2. How many will the offensive line give up against the Vikings?

The replacement referees have never been too far from the conversation through two weeks, and after the 49ers defense was put in a deep hole on their second time on the field Sunday, referee Matt Nicks and his team of seven other officials were top of mind.

Matthew Stafford went deep down the right sideline for Titus Young, and Chris Culliver made a spectacular play to separate from the receiver, locate the ball, leap and deflect it with an outstretched arm. There appeared to be minimal contact between Culliver and Young, but the yellow hanky appeared close by.

"My view is that he played it very well,"Harbaugh said of his second-year cornerback's defensive effort.

And Culliver agreed, though his takeaway from the play was a little more pointed.

"We need the old refs back," Culliver said.

Culliver isn't alone. Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young made his opinions crystal clear on Monday.

The 49ers are quietly ensuring their snapping duties are accounted for as they got Larry Grant -- last year's backup and this year's third string long snapper -- some reps firing the ball to Andy Lee last week in practice, and he was firing it.

"It was coming out good," Grant said.

Fullback Bruce Miller agreed, suggesting that Grant is the hardest snapper on the team. But it isn't all about speed, it is imperative that the ball is delivered directly to the punter's hands.

"Oh, they're accurate, too," Grant followed up.

The 49ers aren't even expecting to use backup long snapper Dan Killgore, although Pro Bowl starter Brian Jennings does have a lot going on right now. The Jennings gave birth to their second son after Sunday's victory.

"He came out for the victory party," Jennings told 49ers.com of his newborn's timing.

You might have noticed Vernon Davis celebrate a pair of touchdowns with a pair of jump shots over the goalpost in Sunday's win. If you watched Davis' Week 1 attempted dunk clang off the post and send him rolling to the turf, you'd also know the reason why.

"Very smart," Joe Staley said of Davis' adjusted celebration. "He didn't want to embarrass himself twice, 'cause I'm sure if he tried to dunk it again, I think he would have got rejected again. His hops aren't what they used to be. He knows it. The goalpost told him that."

Davis -- who claimed last Tuesday that he could not only dunk a basketball, but throw down specialty dunks like the windmill -- didn't get a chance to respond. But we will be watching closely to see how he approaches the uprights on his next score.

After Sunday's win, Alex Smith and Joe Staley are "nose bros."

Staley has been sporting a busted bridge since training camp, when his helmet came down and created a wound that the team's medical staff has had trouble keeping closed. They glue it shut every day, but seemingly every day his face feels fresh blood.

It is such a problem that Staley is switching helmets. He's using an older model that fits tighter on the head in hopes of keeping helmet movement from re-opening the wound.

His quarterback might be joining him soon. Smith was hit with a forearm by Lions safety John Wendling at the end of a 20-yard, fourth-quarter scramble Sunday and suffered a similar injury.

"It looks very good," Staley said of the new fashion statement, proud to be joined by his quarterback.

Starting a team-wide trend?

"I think so," Staley said. "Nose bros."

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