Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs. Colts)

If you say so ... I just know I personally spoke to Dan Schonka (Ourlads, on a radio call-in show) and he said the same thing -- the reason Hankerson fell to the third round was his issue with drops. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the guy.

But we already had one wide receiver here with the nickname "50/50". He didn't last too long.

Dan Shonka!...the official scout of TheWarpath.net

who cares if he can throw 60 yards? He's accurate and makes good decisions

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

Dan Shonka!...the official scout of TheWarpath.net

Yep -- he's great. They have him on every week with the local sports station here and I'm always pestering him with questions on the Skins.

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

This.

Yep -- he's great. They have him on every week with the local sports station here and I'm always pestering him with questions on the Skins.

That's pretty cool. Good guy

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.


I also want to see his deep ball but I was JS if he just has an AVG arm he could still win... Drew Brees for example

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

The problem with that being that the defense didn't afford Beck any opportunities to throw deep. I suppose Kyle could've dialed up a deep pass just because, but what's the point if a low percentage pass has even less of a shot of being completed? Just to make everyone sorta feel better that Beck could throw the pass deep?

Seems more likely that if Beck "took a shot" just for the hell of it, and his checkdown or a guy underneath was open, people would be complaining that he took a shot down field instead of getting the first down, like I saw people complain that Rex went deep to Stallworth when he had Fred Davis open for the first down.

In this offense, you take what the defense gives you. You think if Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers or Drew Brees or Peyton Manning or Matt Schaub sees a defense dropping 7 dudes into coverage and rushing four, they're going to force a pass down field when they can dump it off underneath and keep the chains moving? I don't.

I guess you could argue those guys have "proven" themselves, but they're also smart football players who aren't going to a risk a shot they don't have too often.

So in 2009 Schaub averaged 3 deep balls a game and 2.5 deep balls a game last year.

We've thrown maybe 2 deep balls in 2 games (I say "maybe" because the Stallworth throw was right about 20 yards and thus not that deep). Even if we count the Stallworth throw, we thus average 1 deep ball per game.

1 per game vs. 2.5 or 3 per game. There's a difference here.

If Houston's offense is the standard - which is debatable - then we have a lesser vertical element in our offense so far. That was my point.

As I said above, things may change with time.

Yeah, we took two shots deep in the Steelers game. The first was off the play action bootleg where Rex rolled out and tried to hit Stallworth (yeah, I count that as deep.) The next was when Banks had that big return, Rex dropped back and tried the pump and go to Moss, which also fell incomplete.

Which brings us back to the Colts game. Again, just go back and look at the game tape--you never see the Colts safeties on the screen. They played two deep safeties and dropped seven every. Single. Down. Or almost every single down.

So the concept of "well we should've taken a shot deep because if not they're going to stick a safety in the box"...the Colts never dropped a safety in the box. The idea that we should've taken a shot deep just for the sake of taking one, even if there was practically no chance whatsoever of the pass being completed given how many guys were in coverage, is flawed.

I guess it would've made fans feel better, but it wouldn't have helped to win the football game.

I feel like maybe you glossed over the part where I said "when needed"

I feel like maybe you glossed over the part where I said "when needed"

I saw it. I just didn't see any opportunity when the Redskins "needed" to stretch the field versus the Colts.