[Rausch]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

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...