Quote:
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501
Tell me if you've seen this movie before. Plays a solid first drive where we move all over the defense. Maybe a second drive. 2nd and third quarter we look like shit. 4th quarter or late when it feels like a must score possession, we suddenly unstick ourselves.
It's not conformation bias. It's consistency. Watch how Alex attacks the 4q. On every single play of the last 3 drives that ball is out of his hand immediately. Maybe this year he's sprinkling a deep throw here and there. But in that middle part of the game you see lots of pump fakes and third down coverage sacks. Two games in a row we hit a huge middle of the game rut. In both games our offense responded only after we hit a point where we were nervous the defense might let it slip away.
I have complimented Alex when he plays aggressive all game long. Yesterday was game managed. So was new england.
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We didn't hit a huge middle of the game rut in NE. We fumbled a ball and lost a possession but Smith continued to run the offense well in the 1st half. And the third had plenty of times where they attacked. They scored a TD in every quarter in that game.
In the Eagles game he did appear to get rattled about midway through the 2nd quarter. I think it was Barnett that came flying through on a stunt when he dove through the RB and then I believe it was Cox that brought pressure from the left side and blew the play all to hell. The rest of that series and then the subsequent series was pretty ugly. But you're also looking at some odd playcalling there with those odd sprint-boots that Reid called at least 3 times. Those aren't 'read' plays - Smith has one guy in the pattern and everyone else is blocking. That play failed all 3 times and you can't put it on Smith when that happens.
But yeah, he needed the half to re-regroup after that play. The OL did as well. They weren't in sync at all. But starting in the 3rd, they found it again.
He has maybe 3-4 possessions of combined risk averse football to this point and 2 of those came immediately after that play referenced above; it clearly rattled him. Apart from that, he's running the offense decisively and aggressively.