|
That Pittsburgh game was the end of my backing of Alex Smith.
The whole offense is built on forcing teams to spend all of their resources on stopping the quick passes and making the sure tackle, so it opens up the deeper throws and the scheme had worked perfectly against Pittsburgh and Alex was scared to take the shots that the defense was literally giving him.
That gif of Hill running wide open was one of at least 2 times that happened in the game. Tomlin KNEW Smith wasn't going to take those shots, so he cheated corners and backers up all game long to blitz and keyed his defense on the short stuff.
Alex Smith simply refused to make that defense pay by being agressive and we lost the game because of it.
It's as simple as that.
That gif pisses me off every time I watch it because you can clearly see Alex never even looks at Hill. He simply doesn't trust himself to make the throw.
Watch his helmet...he immediately looks at Maclin and the. Scans to see the defender cheating and looking to break up the pass....never even looks at Hill.
For a QB to win a superbowl, he needs to ability to diagnose coverage. Smith should have seen presnap that it was zone and that he had to get the ball to either Maclin or Hill unless the safety cheated over...once the safer stayed put and the corner sat on Maclins route, he NEEDS to have the anticipation to just throw it up to Hill.
I'm surprised the other gif hasn't been posted, Hill was wide open like that twice. You could see it clear as day from the stands.
|