Cro and Wilson should have made the initial tackle, but the fault with Smith lies on his lack of speed. If he was faster, he could have caught up to Cruz and tackled him/pushed him out of bounds. My point being, Eric Smith does not have the speed cut/coverage ability for a starting NFL safety, but is solid on ST.
^ look at that black bastard levitate! that silver medal around his neck is for brain speed:foot speed ratio. he gets the gold when stephen hawking croaks.
How a player that is so unphysical got signed to a Rex Ryan team is beyond me. We were in a rough position though and signing him was necessary, and I think Cromartie got the good end of the bargain.
Wilson played pretty soft all game, I think both him and Cromartie simultaneously assumed of each other "you can have this tackle." Weak effort and lack of instinct of aggression.
Brandon Marshall: "What's 33's name?" Rod Boone: "Eric Smith. What about him?" Marshall: "He gotta get Cruz on that play man. He's gotta make that play" https://twitter.com/#!/rodboone/status/152144617284968449 Unprompted. I don't expect Eric Smith to make that play because he's too slow. I wish we had a safety who COULD make that play because it wasn't impossible to make, he's just not fast at all.
Want a really good laugh? Count the missed tackles by our vaunted defense. I'm sitting here watching the game again...I know, I'm a masochist....and the number of yards gained by the Gints after 1st contact by our D was stupefying. Especially for a team headed by a defensive genius. Schemes are one thing...you still have to tackle. And there's debate about our offense's "execution"?
I hope you are not blaming Rex for that ish. Blame the offseason stuff, the limited practices the players wanted. The whole situation is effed up. Rex is not one of them.
Eric Smith is responsible for some of the biggest mistakes on defense this year.The Blitz on 3rd and 4 against Tebow,Gronk burned him 10 times,now a 10 yard pass turns into a 99 yard touchdown. Great
I'm not blaming Ryan. I'm pretty sure he can tackle better than Poole. I'm dead certain he can tackle better than Cro.
IIRC Smith sort of went the wrong way (to the inside) then took a step back outside and was stuck chasing Cruz at a bad angle. EDIT: I might be thinking of the wrong play, I can't see smith on the replay of this to figure out if this was the one I saw.
Pretty classic scenario where E> Smith, the defender, misjudges the speed of Cruz, the WR. I'm sure Smith thought he had the angle, but by the time he realized he's no where near as fast as Cruz it was too late. Obviously Smith should never have had to make that tackle in the first place, its a huge mismatch in their favor once it gets down to Cruz vs Smith. I'll knock Smith for lots of sh1t, deservedly so, but that one, meh, we're pointing the gun at the wrong person IMO.
