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I was at the Claymores game on Sunday, and I am amazed that Smart shook off that hit so quickly. There was a hell of a crunch when he got hit! I like the guy, but I think sometimes he tries too hard - so many times he has fielded a punt with the coverage teams right on him, taking hard hits and occasionally losing the ball. While the Jets might be impressed with his toughness and desire to make plays, they won't be too keen on him turning the ball over inside the 20 yard line on a regular basis.
What I found interetsing was that the Claymores kick returns were fairly average until they swapped the return men round. (The Rhein kicker always kicked to his left, and Smart was on the other side for the first few returns). Smart then ripped off a 32 yard return.
On the Alan Harper debate, he had a good game on Sunday - following last week's no tackle, 30 yards in penalties. He had 4 tackles (2 solo) and 0.5 sack, plus a lot of pressure on Chad Hutchinson. He showed he could close quickly on the QB and force him to throw it away (and the good downfield coverage helped too). What still worries me is how often the Claymores give up big runs on 1st down, right up the middle. The D still ranks #1 in the league - but #5 (out of 6) against the run. On the season Harper has something like 15 tackles.
One interesting side note - two of the most vocal leaders on the D lately have been Harper and Myers. Even though the D was strong and the O sucked, they refused to play 'them and us' and stressed that they still had to play better on D - create turnovers and so on. They certainly ramped it up on Sunday (the D line had its best day yet) - I just hope it continues and the O can start putting points on the board.
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