Geno Smith beats Bucs in debut thanks to LaVonte David's big mistake

Geno Smith came away with a win in his debut, but he had some unexpected help. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) The shame about the end of the New York Jets'

Doug Farrar | Sep 8, 2013

Geno Smith beats Bucs in debut thanks to LaVonte David's big mistake /

Geno Smith came away with a win in his debut, but he had some unexpected help. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

The shame about the end of the New York Jets' 18-17 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is that second-year linebacker LaVonte David is one of the NFL's most underrated defenders, and now everybody will know his name for the wrong reason. With 15 seconds left in the game and the Buccaneers up 17-15, Jets quarterback Geno Smith ran from his own 45-yard line to the Tampa Bay 45. As he ran out of bounds, David gave him an extra push and drew a 15-yard personal foul for his trouble. (Find the play below.)

So, with the ball now at the Tampa Bay 30, Jets kicker Nick Folk booted a 48-yard field goal to take the game.

"[Expletive]," David said after the fact. "They just called the flag, I don't know what to say. I guess I hit him late."

David also said, per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, that he would not have hit Smith if he thought the quarterback was going to go out of bounds.

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Outside of the David penalty, the big news in this game was the performance of the Jets rookie quarterback. Smith may have won the starting job by default, but he had some nice moments after an offseason in which he was ripped by some draft analysts, saw his draft stock plummet and had to learn to deal with the 24-7 circus that is the Jets. In his regular-season debut, Smith -- who missed crucial preseason time due to injury -- completed 24-of-38 passes for 256 yards, a touchdown, an interception and a lost fumble. He had a couple of plays to tight end Kellen Winslow, including a seven-yard touchdown near the end of the first half, and played pretty well overall despite near-constant pressure between the guards.

Former Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason, deflected two passes, but didn't come up with an interception. Smith made news this week by claiming that he hadn't watched any game film on Revis, relying instead on the injured mark Sanchez and the Jets' staff for tips on Revis.

Stephen Hill

Published Sep 8, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.