As a colleague over at Niners Nation will have you know, Troy Smith is not some wayward gunslinger who quite honestly, just does not care. The media's recent propensity for labeling him as such due to a few wayward throws is, how you say: jumping the gun. Get it? Still though, he does have a tendency to go with the deep route as opposed to the short or intermediate route. When he does go for the deep route, it's not always a sure-thing when he does pull the trigger. Does that make him a gunslinger? It's debatable at best.
With someone like say, Brett Favre, he'll toss the ball with reckless abandon regardless of coverage. Troy, up to this point, has at least looked like he was reading coverages before he let loose. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Troy will fire deep and complete it every time. When he's on the run, he'll still fire off deep and complete it, though not so much a sure-thing completion in this regard.
The Buccaneers have only the 22nd-ranked defense in the NFL this year, but that's a product of extremes on both ends of the spectrum. Their rushing defense is one away from being the league worst, whereas their passing defense is just inside the top ten at number nine.
They're tied for seventh in the league in takeaways and are positively licking their chops at the prospect of a Brett Favre-esque quarterback with which to feast on delicious interceptions off of. Troy has gotten away with some over-zealous throws thus far, but will his luck run out on Sunday? Is it luck at all?