Losing To Troy Smith Is Not Acceptable
November 20th, 2010
The more Joe does his homework on this Niners-Bucs game Sunday, the more Joe realizes the game is extraordinarily winnable for the Bucs and nearly a must win if they want to make the playoffs.
Joe just suffered through last weekend’s 49ers-Rams game and watched Troy Smith lead the Niners to a stunning 0-for-11 mark on third down. (That’s not a typo.) … The Bucs will have plenty of opportunities to move the ball Sunday.
Yeah, Smith converted a 4th-and-18 to lead the Niners to a near miracle overtime victory at home, but it was anything but pretty.
Smith hasn’t really made big mistakes in his two starts, but he hasn’t faced a secondary near the quality of the Bucs’.
Smith was barely wanted this offseason, as the Ravens slapped a fifth-round restricted free agent tender on him in the spring and there were no takers. Nobody else thought the former Heisman Trophy winner was worth the fifth-round draft pick and $1 million, so he was cut and has hung on in Frisco, and now he’s the starting QB against the Bucs on Sunday.
Dress him up however you want, the guy is a backup quarterback.
Kurt Warner, color analyst Sunday for the Bucs-Niners on FOX, is hardly sold on Smith and says it’s likely a matter of time before he gets exposed, so Warner told the San Francisco Chronicle.
[Warner] just wonders how long before opposing defenses figure out Troy Smith, a relative unknown with four career starts. He said it’s like baseball hitters who struggle at first against new pitchers but find a way to adjust, and that the jury is still out on him.
“Eventually, teams are going to say, ‘OK, we’re going to try and keep him in the pocket, we’re going to change up some of our coverages, we’re going to see if he can do these kinds of things,” Warner said. “Eventually, he’ll be forced to do some other things, and that’s going to be the true sign of how good he can be.”
Joe’s braced for Frank Gore to have a 100+ yards with the usual big chunks on first and second down, the kind that get Joe hitting the Tums bottle every week. But the Bucs should be able to move the ball up and down on the Niners and they just can’t freakin’ lose to Troy Smith and come away thinking they’re a contender.
As Joe said during an interview on 620 WDAE-AM this week, the playoffs in 2010 are nothing more than a fantasy if the Bucs lose Sunday.
November 20th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Troy Smith started the offseason as Joe Flacco’s #2 in Baltimore, not San Fran. The Ravens slapped the tender on him, nobody wanted him, and they cut him after signing Marc Bulger. That’s when the 49ers signed him.
Jameson, always appreciate the correction. Joe was thinking Ravens and wrote Niners. –Joe
November 20th, 2010 at 11:28 am
I agree Joe. This is a winnable, yet trap, game.
November 20th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Troy is a great player met him a couple times cause I am a OSU alum and I live in columbus. But with that being said he is in enemy colors tommorow. Troy is good but he cant see over the line of scrimage 49ers love to roll him out becasue he cant see. the 49ers O line is there for the taking especialy since ther best oline man is out for 6 weeks. Mccoy I ethink will get his first sack
November 20th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Troy Smith will eat us alive. Look at the Jimmy Claussen who had a pretty decent game against us and are fearless defense. Time and time again we make some of these QBs and running backslook like probowlers against us…only to have our offense bail us out. I will be going to the game on Sunday wearing my Freeman jersey proudly. Go BUCS!
November 20th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Dont know about Troy eating us alive … cause I watched the 49ers rams game last week andif there was not for a pass interfernce call we may be talking about Alex smith and not Troy smith . And remember I love Tory. But he did not light it up against Denver who gave almost a 100 to the raiders It would make more sence if you said Frank gore would light us up
November 20th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Ok lets face it the key to winning this game for the Bucs is:
* Keep Gore to 1 TD and less than 150 yards (sad that that’s a goal)
* Allow Freeman to throw the ball against the 49ers week secondary
* Stay close until the 4th quarter
* No turnovers on the Bucs
If we can ‘force’ the 49ers to throw it works to our advantage and hopefully we get an INT.
I expect the 49ers to take shots against Grimm, especially on 2nd down. Let’s face it when they can run Gore on 1st and 10 and reel off 6 yards why not try down the field against our rookie safety?
If the 49ers screw up and play the Bucs like the Cincy Bengles did THEN we can win.
If the Bucs lead at halftime – money in the bank.
November 20th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Funny hearing a former Arena League, grocery store bag boy turned future potential Hall of Famer talking about a scrub backup QB coming in and having success, but he’s just a new guy that will get figured out. Really Kurt? Isn’t that what you were? Look how that turned out for you? Don’t underestimate Troy Smith. The Niners could have scored more points if it weren’t for penalties calling back TDs. Troy Smith was keeping plays alive by sliding around in the pocket, using his feet to extend plays, which exposes even good secondaries.
To win this game, we’ll need to contain Smith, don’t give him room to move even if we don’t get the sack. Force them to dink and dunk down the field, as they make as many or more penalties as the Bucs have recently that kill drives. And most importantly, the offense cannot give up on the run against the #10 run defense. We have to keep the play-action alive with the “threat” to run. Freeman can win this game for us, but not when the Niners can ignore the run to get after him and drop 6 or 7 in coverage.
November 20th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Well a little birdie told me that it is going to be raining in SF so they should have fun trying to stop Blount in those conditions. 😉
November 20th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
We should have signed a UF D-linemen for this game he would have at the very least doubled are team sack total for the season.
November 20th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
lol @ JakeJLP I do beleive Alex boone who was abused in the Florida Nationl champoinship game is starting I do beleive
November 20th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Ahoy mi matelots! Ze boucaniers have a tough game on ze horizon. But this team can surely make manatee kabobs out of ze niners so long as the good Lord keeps blessing mi matelot Raheem Morris, ze captain of this ship, with the stroke of luck, we will find ze ye pot o gold. Arrrrgghhh.
November 20th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
4 years ago, I remember I actually wanted the Bucs to consider drafting Troy Smith. LOL who cares, we have Freeman!
But yeah, we can’t lose to him. Unknown running backs always seem to have career days against us now, so don’t let an unknown QB have a great day against us.
November 20th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
“Ha-Haaaaah” to le Pierate
Hopefully the bucs can keep it close and then Freeman will lead a comeback in the 4th quarter (in the rain? why not!) so that I can go nuts when I watch the highlights. Otherwise, it’ll be “heart break city.”
November 20th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Kurt Warner hit it right on the head. This happens all the time. A relatively untalented guy makes a start or two with much success. Then after a couple games d-coordinators have enough tape to dissect the guy and put together a game plan to expose his weaknesses. Its likely that Smith has some serious weaknesses as a passer to drop to the fifth round and then have Baltimore decide he wasn’t even worth a backup role. HOWEVER, the way the Bucs D is playing right now I worry that they might not be capable of exploiting QB’s weaknesses no matter the gameplan. Yes they immediately jumped all over Max Hall but Smith is more experienced than Hall. Hopefully this guy doesn’t take a page from Jimmy Claussen last week and throw the ball away when he’s pressured. I think we need picks to win this game.