Was Smith Good or Not? | Page 2 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Was Smith Good or Not?

As far as the play Kearse forced Lucas up into the pocket , hell I'll let him do that all day. Lucas stepped up, and looked around , had time. The only problem with that play was Lucas's inability to complete a pass. I think we're being a bit to critical if we're worrying about a DE running past our QB. Yeah he had a sack but other then that he didn't look about as dumb as Mark Gastinuea running up field.
 
Yeah but a lot of quarterbacks wouldn't have had the intuition to step up in the pocket like Lucas did. Kearse was coming off the blind side and I was pretty frickin amazed that Lucas had the awareness to step up to avoid that one. If you've got a left tackle that can't adequately protect the quarterback's blind side the quarterback spends too much time thinking about the end thats coming at him at 100 mph, rather than thinking about where to throw the ball. And most QBs in this league can't be really effective that way and I can't remember a guy since Dan Marino having pocket awareness THAT good while still being able to toss a pinpoint throw. The only difference between that play and the ensuing sack, was Lucas having the awareness to step up.
 
Going into a game against Kearse you would probably be expecting to have to do that. Seeing Kearse makes it more understandable why he took a step back last year, he needs to come up with some more moves. To me the disappointments were Konrad, Lucas(of course his arm is hurting him), Not seeing more running, the fact that our defense just tagged the Titans and theyre D seemed to be putting their shoulders into it, covering a RB coming out of the backfeild. Of course it's early, no game planning, and really no contact so it's really just getting guys used to the speed and look of playing a real opponent..
 
Brent Smith was most definitely a disappointment as well. Jevon Kearse may be the freak but he's not super-man. If you extrapolated the success he enjoyed against Smith in just that limited amount of snaps, onto a whole game, Jevon would probably finish the game with 5 sacks and 15 pressures/hurries. I don't care if the Freak is the Freak, those are unheard of figures and there's no way you take a look at your LT after that game and say "Well, it WAS the freak so I thought our guy did well"

Kearse gets contained by other LTs.
 
Overall I think its hard to say that there could have been a showing that was more motivating to move Dixon to LT. Jamie Nails looked like maybe the most impressive lineman on the OL during the scrimmage, and Brent Smith looked like a pylon. Could we see Dixon to LT and Nails at LG as early as today's practice? I think so.
 
Really??? I think if a DE wants to run upfield any good LT will let him.
 
Not if it means that Lucas has to make a great awareness move to escape otherwise get mauled.
 
ckparrothead said this..."If you extrapolated the success he enjoyed against Smith in just that limited amount of snaps, onto a whole game, Jevon would probably finish the game with 5 sacks and 15 pressures/hurries..."
Click to expand...

Firstly, I'm sure you know that football is not a game of extrapolation. Don't go there it is just useless hyperbole.

IMO, Smitty had a slighty below average game. Yes, there were some outside pressures that required the QB to simply step up into the pocket. On the sack...The TE was on the outside and released in front of Smith to run his route. There was no way possible that Smith could get a hand on Kerse on the outside (screened by the TE).

On the flip side, Kerse did not run over Smith. He did not get an inside lane on Smith. Kerse would have loved to get Smith off balance and brought it back inside for a direct lane to the QB. Smith would have been content to let Kerse run circles around the pocket as long as the pocket was intact.

Smith did well on the TD pass from Lucas to Chambers. I believe on that play "The Freake" tried to run through Smith and it wasn't going to happen. Oh yea, Ricky picked up the blitz nicely on that play.

Overall, Smitty is still a work in progress. He needs more quickness off the ball. Let's see how he does in the preseason, especially as a run blocker.
 
I think you're minimizing how much a QB does have to do. I think they would much rather have Kears trunning outside like that then cutting back inside. The games a matter of fractions of inches and seconds between success and failure, Kears was given a sack other then that he did alot of running for naught.
 
Like I said, only difference between the two plays, one a sack and one an incompletion toward Ricky, was Ray Lucas making a good move after seeing a blindside rush that normally a QB isn't expected to see (this is why its called the BLINDSIDE...this is why the LT is considered the most important position on the line....this is why LTs get paid much more than LGs and RTs). No, Jed Weaver was not screening Brent Smith off from blocking out Jevon Kearse. I watched the play close up and Kearse ran to the outside and Smith couldn't get out there. Weaver was already long gone. The play before that, same thing just Lucas saw it coming. Put that together with runs where he let Kearse handle him and it most definitely was not a good day for Smith. A capable LT is supposed to win more than he loses against even the best DEs in the game.
 
OK ckparrothead, I watched the play several times also. Did not the TE travel between Smith and Kerse? That is what screening means. LOL! Weaver was long gone. Are you saying that he left before the snap? Smith's vision was screened at the very least. The TE was in between Smith and Kerse immediately after the snap.

It is the QB's job to watch this because he knows where the TE is going. He knows that the LT is out of range if the DE takes a far outside route.
 
Thats just not true. A normal capable tackle is supposed to be able to bounce Kearse upfield enough so that he's out of the play. Brent Smith could very well have done it easily. I can't believe you're trying to say that Brent had no choice but to give up the sack when Brent HIMSELF admitted to reporters that he let Kearse get by him once. That play isn't even an issue. Whats at issue I believe are other plays where Kearse was allowed to either affect the play, or he had the potential to had the play been different.

John Clayton's report on the Dolphins training camp just said that Smith struggled in the scrimmage against Kearse, yet if you listen to you guys Smith is already slated for the pro bowl because he either "let kearse take himself out of the play" or kearse got a sack from something that was not Smith's fault but rather Lucas' fault who should have known that he was supposed to get the ball off in 1.2 seconds before getting hammered from the blindside.
 
Is that really what you've taken out of what's been written??????????????????????
 
Don't let me seem a bit inflammatory sorry if I do. I just wanna call for a little bit of perspective. Because you have to realize, that I know you're trying to defend Smith here against what you feel is unwonted over-criticism, which is all fine and good.

But at some point you have to step back and realize that your individuals arguments are adding up to saying that Smith did not in fact have a bad day after all. First we start hearing about how on plays other than the sack Smitty was letting Kearse "take himself out of the play" or Lucas is supposed to be able to move up in the pocket, etc. Then even on the sack play we're hearing excuses that Weaver was screening Kearse and Kearse just ran a completely unblockable passrush which Lucas should have known about and recognized and gotten the ball off in quarter time...

Go ahead add that up cuz when you do you're suggesting that Smitty in fact didn't do anything WRONG when 95% of the people including professional analysts came away from watchin that scrimmage thinkin to themselves that Smitty got abused.
 
But as you said you have to take it into perspective. The fact is it's only been 5 days of practice, he had one sack a questionable one at that, and hasn't played in 18 months. Not saying he did great, in fact I specifically said just that he didn't do that bad. Hell I saw Todd Wade get run by 2 plays in a row against the Colts two years ago, I didn't think that it warranted a change in poersonel though. I mean CK if Kearse is going to just take that outside rush what exactly is Smith going to do??? Was he half a step slow possibly, yeah, but jeez it's early there's 5 weeks left in camp. While it may have made the plays seem hairy the fact is Kearse had a non tackling "sack" and a tackle. He did play the second series and wasn't mention at all.
 
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