Glad you found a slightly better look here. Looks like the WR at the top was easily blanketed. The CB was ready for the route. I wouldn't ever recommend throwing that shit. As for Moeaki? It does look like Alex locked in forever on the WR at the top, but with the right side of the OL collapsing in? I doubt Alex even could have seen him.

Now if Alex had turned away and spotted Moeaki as his first read as he ran to the 43? He could have gotten the ball through that mess before it collapsed and we would be talking about a nice quick completion to beat the rush. The risk is that Moeaki isn't yet looking for the pass.. since he isn't the first read.. so Lord only knows what could happen. Add to that, there was no passing lane to do so. The WR route had to be waited on by Alex, since the CB never backpedaled.

Do you even realize how ironic your posts are? ROFL

Seems he has an interest in being here. He likes the QB and probably likes multiple aspects of KC. So what's your excuse? Your SD forum is empty and boring, so you have to come here and make nice with division rivals?

You think somehow that is less pathetic? :shake:

Yet he admitted he wasn't a real Chiefs fan - so when he had a Chiefs avatar and Jamaal Charles signature, he was just pretending to be a Chiefs fan to gain acceptance.

He's a bandwagon Niners/Browns "fan" trolling on a Chiefs board because he has a crush on Alice Smiff.

Seems easy to conclude that he has a few interests around the League. So whatever... more a matter of semantics than anything, as far as this "real fan" talk goes.

Stone Statue Smith.

Well, that pretty much confirms all of the concerns about that play in this thread.

Step 1: Lock onto a single target
Step 2: When that target is blanketed, shit pants instead of progressing through reads
Step 3: Take sack

That's the type of timid QB play that I and many others are afraid is coming with Alex Smith. And the type of timid QB play that makes him a middling starter rather than a star.

More accurate would be:

1) Start read progression
2) Recognize there's no time to read whole field
3) Brain switches straight to minimizing turnovers:
A) Run?
B) Throw it away?
C) Sack?

3.C is about 70% of the time...

Just like voting: Check your checkdowns early and often

I would add 1.A) hold the ball slightly too long

If only there were a "more Jamal Charles" option in politics...

Here's the problem, though.

Watch the LCB. It looks for all the world like Smith looked up, saw the LCB squatting on the route, and recognized that he shouldn't throw it. Then he continued staring. Why?

He appears to have recognized that the CB had diagnosed the play. So at that point he has 2 choices: 1) Throw it anyway and rely on Bowe to be able to use his body as a shield to make the play or 2) Move onto the next option.

1 is actually a viable option with Dwayne Bowe - he'll make that play as often as he doesn't. So why didn't Smith throw it at all? If he believed 1 to be an option right at the back of his drop, why didn't he wait a half a heartbeat and release as Bowe was hitting the top of his route. That's essentially how a comeback route has to work anyway.

And if he didn't believe 1 was a viable option (also a defensible decision, BTW) - why didn't he move to the next progression? What exactly was he hoping to accomplish by staying locked in on Bowe? The time to 'throw him open' had passed - was he just praying that the LCB would fall down at that point? There was just no reason for him to still be looking at Bowe there - either the ball should've been out or he should've been moving on.

The problem is his actions immediately as he starts to 'reload' on that back foot. He hits his back foot, starts forward, stops, goes back to the back foot and suddenly all hell has broken loose. What he needed to have done was either release that damn ball just as he 'reloads' with the belief that Bowe will get it anyway or simple move to the next read. Had he reloaded at that time and moved across the the middle, he'd have likely seen Moeaki just as he was breaking open for 8 or so.

Reloading and staring at the same thing you just analyzed is straight up, deer in the headlights, Matt Cassel shit.

It was a bad play.

Smith is more afraid of the mistake. With him the negatives will always outweigh any positives. High risk = do not risk it. He over thinks EVERYTHING.

Ca$$#ole didn't even understand the risks or recognize they were there...

Play it safe. Sounds about right.

Our franchise and fan base seem to love that move.

All of the last several posters are dead on, from Alex's desire to play it safe, to observing how Alex won't throw receivers open, to the way Alex locks on to a receiver and does not go through progressions, to the fact he is much better than Cassel PROBABLY was, I don't know.

Alex is bright and efficient and will keep the short passing game moving so you can nibble on red zone TDs or get lots of FGs. You will win some games. Not backing off my view you could win 7-10 games. Alex is not a bad QB, but soooo limited, stuck in mid tier.