Was Al Smith's strength with Catholics overstated?

[Orser67]

1916 was the lone fairly close election between 1901 and 1947, so it's interesting to compare Wilson's 1916 victory with Smith's 1928 defeat.

Even while winning 49% of the vote nationally, Wilson only took one Northeastern state (NH), while Smith, who won 40% nationally, took two Northeastern states (MA and RI). The interesting thing, to me, is that Wilson actually came pretty close to winning MA and RI. So I'm also curious whether Smith was especially strong among Catholics, or if his victories in MA and RI were less about Smith's strength with Catholics and more the result of long-term trends and the Democrats losing by a slightly smaller margin than they had in 1920 and 1924.