After seeing little action in preseason play, Alex Smith delivers two touchdowns for Tampa Bay.
By STEPHEN F. HOLDER
Published September 11, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS - There were times during the preseason when the Bucs treated Alex Smith more like a CIA operative than a rookie tight end drafted in the third round.
But Tampa Bay's coaches didn't want the rest of the NFL to have even an inkling of what they knew.
The Bucs wanted to catch the Vikings flat-footed when it came to Smith, which explains why the emerging talent caught exactly one pass in the preseason.
"That was one thing Coach (Jon) Gruden said: "Be patient,' " Smith said. "He said, "We're not trying to show all our cards yet.' I knew sooner or later my number would be called."
It was sooner rather than later.
In the season opener, Smith became the Buc of choice in critical situations, and he rewarded that faith by catching two touchdown passes - each in dramatic fashion.
On his first, Smith got off the ball lightning fast and sprinted past linebacker Rod Davis on a vertical seam route. Quarterback Brian Griese did the rest, placing a precise pass over Smith's left shoulder in the back of the end zone. The 23-yard score was as pretty as they come.
On Smith's second score, the Bucs again called his number. But instead of pulling the play off seamlessly, Smith recovered from a near stumble to bail out the scrambling Griese, who found Smith in the end zone between two defenders. The Bucs took a 14-7 lead on the play.
Griese stuck with the sure hands of his intended target, even as the majority of the Vikings defense was bearing down on him.
"I told him, "Man you must not have wanted the ball,' " Griese said. "I was waiting and waiting and waiting trying to buy time. Finally he got open in the back of the end zone."
That Griese waited so long made quite the impression on Smith.
"Just for him to have that faith in me to know that I would try to get open means a lot to me," Smith said.
On both scores, Smith exploited matchups with linebackers, and that is something the Bucs think he can continually do. Though well built at 6-foot-4, 258 pounds, the former high school basketball star has agility and speed not commonly found at his position.
"I always like to think that's a matchup I want to win when I'm one on one with a linebacker," Smith said.
That might sound cocky. But on this day, it wasn't bragging. It was speaking the truth. Even though Gruden stopped by Smith's locker to playfully tell him, "Don't get the big head," Smith was doing nothing of the sort. In fact, he was still trying to grasp the fact that this reality, not fantasy.
"I couldn't have dreamed this in a million years," he said.
