The saying goes in football – be ready when your number is called.
That is a message that has emanated throughout the Panthers locker room in 2018 and has particularly resonated with the eight year veteran wide receiver Torrey Smith. He patiently waited over 47 minutes of game time to finally be targeted by quarterback Cam Newton. And when it happened in a flurry on one singular scoring drive, Smith tallied four receptions totaling 34 yards including a touchdown that utilized a ‘legal’ pick from Devin Funchess in the span of nine snaps. Not to mention the eight-year vet also completed the two-point conversion – which put the Panthers in prime position to attempt to come back from behind and win against the Redskins.
“I don’t know. It was nothing before then,” Smith smiled with reporters after the game. “You just have to always stay ready; we rotate at receiver so you never really know and with our offense you never know where the ball is going to go because Cam does a good job getting it to where it’s supposed to be.”
“So I just had to stay ready.”
The Panthers were down by 11 points with roughly 12 minutes to go in regulation when the “Torrey Smith Drive” began – the four receptions and 34 yards on the drive were higher than any game total Smith had produced in the 2018 season.
“Well, you’ve just got to be a professional,” Newton, who was 7-for-8 for 69 yards and the score on the drive, said when asked about Smith not being targeted all game before getting four in eight attempts. “Nobody cares. I don’t care. Nobody cares if you haven’t gotten targets all game; Torrey is a professional and he knows how the game goes. Sometimes you may have 11 catches, sometimes you may have one catch and that one catch may be for the game, so at the end of the day we have to be ready for our job.”
TD Torrey Smith
This offense is so versatile it seems like there are not enough footballs to go around to the various options that lie before Newton – the quarterback completed passes to seven different receivers over the course of the afternoon in Washington – it’s worth noting that prior to today’s game, Smith was targeted 16 times with only seven receptions on the season – despite seeing 73% of the snaps.
“You just have to keep going,” Smith said. “Keep working. Sometimes the ball comes your way, sometimes it doesn’t. So I just have to make sure I stay ready and make some plays.”
Smith said he and his teammates will put this 23-17 loss behind them because they have to focus on what’s to come next weekend — playing against the defending champions, and Smith’s former team, in a very hostile environment.
“It has to be,” Smith said about approaching this loss with short-term memory. “It’s a one game a week season; it doesn’t matter if you won last week if you don’t win the next. So, let’s go out here and focus on [the next one], especially on the road – road games are tough to come by. So, we have to go out there and play clean and it starts with practice next week.”
Smith said Philadelphia will be “live” and the atmosphere will be electric, but mentioned that it is imperative that he and team stays disciplined throughout the week and play to the best of their abilities so they can perhaps steal one on the road from the reigning Super Bowl champions in the City of Brotherly Love.
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