Really Eric Smith, Really!

At some point, the idea of containing became lost upon defenses and strangely enough I think it starts at the NFL level.  I have played a good amount of football in my life and have coached a good amount as well and never have I seen such a dismissive attitude towards containing.  Don't get me wrong, it happens at every level, every once in a while, but it is at epic levels in the highest level of the sport.  Next time you watch a game, take a look at the defensive end or outside linebacker on a stretch run going to the opposite side.  They go flat down the line to try and make a tackle on the other side of the field.  There is nothing wrong with this hustle, but they don't even flinch at the quarterback most of the time to see if it is a possible bootleg or even a play action pass.  Guess what, they will come back to those plays if they see this lack of discipline.  You would think this would be much more common at the lower levels, but you see it much more on Sundays, which to me is embarrassing.

Let's get to the point of the blog and that is to rip Eric Smith, the strong safety of the New York Jets, whose main job on that all out blitz on a third and 4 was to contain and make sure Tim Tebow could not get outside of him.  I will go as far to say, that Tebow was running no matter what and that Smith just made it easy.  John Fox had his team down 3, well within his kicker's range and was most likely not going to allow Tebow to make a throwing mistake.  If you look at the routes that Tebow's receivers were running, they all looked like clear routes, meaning they were just trying to take the defensive backs out of the run defense.  Tebow saw the all out blitz and quickly found his mark as seen on the replays he looked right at Eric Smith's side and was able to get wide of him as Mr. Smith took too much of an inside route.  Had he played it safe, Tebow would have had to Eric Smith's tackle, which would have been an even match as Mr. Smith is a good tackler, but instead he took a terrible angle and made it easy for Tebow, who did what he had to do and good for him.  NFL Defenses need to teach discipline or they will be losing a lot more games to guys who have a 76.4 rating while going 4-1 as a starter.