Blame Alex thread

it seems to me like a lot of people and the media love playing the blame game. I wish more people actually used/had logic when assessing who is to blame at the qb position when a qb's performance is bad.

A lot of people will say Alex Smith is a bust....well....have those same people analyzed why he may have done poorly. Also, if Smith is a bust, then i guess so are many other qb's that are on great teams that cover up for how bad they really are. Take for instance Cutler. Good qb on the broncos....right??? WRONG. he had 2 great wr's and arguably the best OL in football not to mention a great OC. He goes to the bears and is Horrible, and Orton is a bad qb and goes to the broncos and is doing great. Well i think both are not good qb's, and i wish people could just admit it instead of saying....well that wasn't really his fault....the blame game. Here are some of the best excuses:

He forced it in
his pass blocking wasn't great
he had no time to throw,
he has no weapons,
bad play calling,
the wr ran the wrong route,
the wr did not come back to make a play on the ball.

While some of these excuses ARE valid, you CAN blame the qb for a poor decision. Like Cutler so many times, or even Favre so many times or whoever.

That being said, Alex Smith is not a very good qb but many qb's that are not great like him become great with help (O line, good wr's, time to throw, good rb's) and he is certainly one of those qb's.

How many of you are sick of people blaming other things than the problem itself....the QB play? I am. That being said how many of you think with HELP, Smith will be a very good qb? I do. Some qb's don't need much help and are great (Manning, Brees and Brady come to mind).

He would be better with a better line and some additional weapons. But he's not where we would prefer him to be at this point.

do you even watch these games? Time after time I see nothing but pressure in smith's face. From what I see is that he has only time in the pocket to look at two reads and than he must either get rid of the ball or flush the pocket and try to make a play. Most of smith's bad decisions come at the end of the game, where he is forced to make a play down field with 1.5 to 2 seconds from the snap of the ball to make a decision. He can't throw it away like he can in the beginning of the game cuz we are usually playing from behind. The reason we are usually playing from behind is because we can't seem to sustain enough drives to score alot of points due to the fact that we keep getting false start, delay of game and holding penalties. These stupid mistakes stall our drives and plague our team.

The OP nailed it when he mentioned the decision making ability of the qb. When everything else being equal, often times what sets a guy apart from other qb is the ability to make the right decision on a good play or when the play broke down. Its the first thing that Walsh mentioned when talking about the position. The guy must have the physical talent to get the ball to the WRs with the right decision on any given plays.

Does a bad team or a good team affect his decision making ability...I think for most guys the answer is Yes. There are guys that can overcome a bad team and will give you a few wins but not in a consistent basis. And they are very rare and few. Of recent memory Marino, Elway, and possibly Farve. Being on a bad team for the rest of the other qb, forces them to make hurried, something out of nothing, I want to make play for us, decision that often results in a turn over.

Take the JTO situation we had. With us he was terrible. He was pretty good throwing the ball. His decision making was horrible. Tries to do too much early, late, and often. If he had more experience playing the game and on a good team, he would be a good qb too. Having a good team let the qb realized his major responsibility is to get the ball to the playmakers on offense, not necessarily forcing something out of every plays. Chances are he's not a member of only a handful of guys that can make things happen, like Marino or Elways.

As to A. Smith, I don't see him as a guy that will force things and have turnovers on a consistent basis. He may take a shot here and there and risk an INT but for the most part he has been playing within his ability. Getting the ball to his WRs and scrambling to buy more time. I was disappointed in the Tennessee game with the turnovers late in the game cause that's unlike what I seen in Smith. His thought process of the offense and knowing the defense isn't there yet, and given time it would comes quicker and more efficient.

Alex is going to have his ups and downs, but he can't keep throwing INTs and expect to be a starter in this league. That's the fastest way to get you benched. Trying to force balls into recievers that are double and sometimes triple covered is something he has to stop doing. I don't think that has to do with the line protecting or not, but more of just being smart with the ball. If I see anything that's wrong with Alex is that he's careless with the ball at times. He needs to take care of the ball more.

We've seen these threads a billion times!

Well, we do need some of our WRs to start making some plays. That is probably my only argument for Smith. If you watch the good QBs in the league right now (manning, brady, etc.), their WR's consistently make good plays. By catching almost anything in their vicinity, it makes the QB look great and severely impacts things such as stats and overall performance.

Crabtree is beginning to show the ability to make those difficult catches, and Vernon is finally getting some good hands as well. I am still skeptical of Morgan, as I feel his "catching range" is much closer to the numbers than the others.

After watching the Sunday night game, I noticed this. Manning and Brady make some great throws, and some very mediocre throws. The WRs will catch the great throws, obviously, and most of the mediocre throws. AS still needs to work on his accuracy, and timing with the WRs.

I really hope he shows me wrong, in that I do not believe he will be the starter next year because starting from square one with another QB will just be too painful.

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

yea. I mean, i don't think Alex is a bust, but hes awfully close.

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

yea. I mean, i don't think Alex is a bust, but hes awfully close.

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

yea. I mean, i don't think Alex is a bust, but hes awfully close.

got a problem with my opinion? Hes got 7 games to step up. After that, there's no escaping the tag.

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

yea. I mean, i don't think Alex is a bust, but hes awfully close.

got a problem with my opinion? Hes got 7 games to step up. After that, there's no escaping the tag.

I don't really think you have much say in the matter one way or another.

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by darkknight49:

Originally posted by backontop:

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:


We've seen these threads a billion times!

a trillion times

yea. I mean, i don't think Alex is a bust, but hes awfully close.

got a problem with my opinion? Hes got 7 games to step up. After that, there's no escaping the tag.

That is odd because I was under the impression that the official tag bust shouldn't be applied till the player is no longer with the original team that drafted them. I'm sorry I wasn't aware that your opinion resulted in changing how things have always been done. My bad carry on

its not a game. Its about replacing pieces until you find a Championship combination. And replacing them wisely not just randomly. So you poke and prod to determine who is good candidates to simply be replaced. Thats not blaming

Originally posted by insanemike27:
do you even watch these games? Time after time I see nothing but pressure in smith's face. From what I see is that he has only time in the pocket to look at two reads and than he must either get rid of the ball or flush the pocket and try to make a play. Most of smith's bad decisions come at the end of the game, where he is forced to make a play down field with 1.5 to 2 seconds from the snap of the ball to make a decision. He can't throw it away like he can in the beginning of the game cuz we are usually playing from behind. The reason we are usually playing from behind is because we can't seem to sustain enough drives to score alot of points due to the fact that we keep getting false start, delay of game and holding penalties. These stupid mistakes stall our drives and plague our team.

DO YOU EVEN WATCH THESE GAMES??? We have not been playing from behind....actually it is quite the opposite. We have have the lead or the back and forth lead for most every game except hou and ATL.

And i have acknowledged that if smith has HELP (O line better players or time to throw) he will be very good.....not just very good on his own like only a few qb's can be