Smoot Lays the Smack Down (Preseason Week 1)

Jim Zorn/offensive staff-The logic behind giving your starters one or two series is all well and good when you have an established offense and you're just looking to get some reps. The Patriots had their offense in for the entire 1st half, the Eagles did the same. Both of them are well established but they wanted to get in a rhythm offensively. Our offense needed to play at least 5 drives in this game. What exactly did we learn from our starting offense last night? That for 2 drives Rinehart can hold up? That we can basically replicate 70% of our drives from last season? Last year since we had 5 pre-season games I understand doing that but in a make or break year for coach and QB, I'd think that he'd be more aggressive in getting the offense a good look with live bullets flying. This was a failure in the game planning and preparing for the season.

Speaking of the Patriots. Tom Brady looked like he hasn't missed a beat.

hagans called for a fair catch on the 5 yard line. wtf? dont care if its preseason, you are vying for a spot on this team as a special teamer. thats unacceptable.

And I knew you would, there are lots of "Maryland Lovers" on this board :). The thing is....lots of people were praising this pick, and suggesting this was a pre-cursor to getting Smoot off the field. That wont be happening anytime soon IMO, this guy has a long ways to go. Gonna end up being a situation like last years 3rd rounder(Rhinehart), he is gonna need alot of seasoning before he is ready for the bigtime.

I couldn't really care less about the Maryland Terps to be honest. I still think though this was a really good move and he will be our nickel back...in 2010. But I think he'll get significant playing time in 2009.

Kevin Barnes-for us to spend a 3rd round pick, this guy wont see the field this year.

I don't know man. He got beat by a pump fake. He tried to make a play and screwed it all up. He's going to learn. Thats why we have preseason. I'm not going to hold that against him. Besides, he should have had help over the top anyways.

Too early to be making any season long predictions for guys like Barnes.

And can we start spelling Rinehart correctly already? My gawd.

I was more concerned about how the backup DBs (Tryon, Barnes, Dutch, etc) looked frustrated after getting burned. They can't let themselves get down mentally when playing that position. They have to be able to get right back out there as if nothing just happened.

Jim Zorn/offensive staff-The logic behind giving your starters one or two series is all well and good when you have an established offense and you're just looking to get some reps. The Patriots had their offense in for the entire 1st half, the Eagles did the same. Both of them are well established but they wanted to get in a rhythm offensively. Our offense needed to play at least 5 drives in this game. What exactly did we learn from our starting offense last night? That for 2 drives Rinehart can hold up? That we can basically replicate 70% of our drives from last season? Last year since we had 5 pre-season games I understand doing that but in a make or break year for coach and QB, I'd think that he'd be more aggressive in getting the offense a good look with live bullets flying. This was a failure in the game planning and preparing for the season.

Yeah, I don't think Zorn can afford to leave them in that long. Having a lack of depth on the team means that we can't expose our starters to injury in a prolonged stay in a preseason game. The Pats and Eagles are pretty deep teams so they are afforded the luxury of leaving people in there longer.

Also, they don't rely on the output or welfare of one key player, as witnessed when Brady went down. They scheme their roster around their gameplan so the responsibility doesn't just fall to one or two key players.

I think they should leave the first team in until they can score a touchdown, eff an injury. If Randy can't play, cut him. If Samuels gets hurt, there should be someone with talent that can step up.

Losers = those who do not win.

Jimmie Johnson = Winner
Tigger Woods = Winner
Pittsburgh = Winners
Lakers = Winners
Obama = Winner
Michael Felps (however you spell his name) = Winner

Big Losers = those who don't win and can't even score a point!

That's how I see it, plain and simple.

And I knew you would, there are lots of "Maryland Lovers" on this board :). The thing is....lots of people were praising this pick, and suggesting this was a pre-cursor to getting Smoot off the field. That wont be happening anytime soon IMO, this guy has a long ways to go. Gonna end up being a situation like last years 3rd rounder(Rhinehart), he is gonna need alot of seasoning before he is ready for the bigtime.

I am far from a Terp fan. But third rounders typically do need seasoning before they are ready for the big time. Otherwise they'd be first rounders.

With how shaky the OL has been and the injuries, I think the coaches were overly cautious and didn't want to risk any further injuries to them or to JC. That said I think in the next two games we'll see the starters get an extensive look in these next 2 games.