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Saturday, August 30
 
GameDay picks

ESPN.com

The Matchup:
Washington QB Marques Tuiasosopo vs. Miami WR Santana Moss.

The Question:
Who's the bigger game-breaker?

Santana Moss   Marques Tuiasosopo
 
By Rod Gilmore
Special to ESPN.com

I think Santana Moss will have the bigger impact on Saturday's Washington-Miami game.

Moss is a nightmare. First, as a receiver, he will force the Huskies to make several adjustments. They will have to know where he is at all times in order to rotate coverage toward him. Washington will have to double-cover him, and pick spots to play man-to-man. Moss will also force Washington to use a lot of zone blitz packages.

The Huskies may blitz, but play zone coverages behind it, which will leave the Huskies vulnerable to short passes and the Jackson/Davenport running game.

In this situation, Moss will have an impact without even touching the ball.

Second, on special teams, the smartest thing for Washington to do is kick the ball away from Moss. But it isn't always that easy. Using that strategy could cause bad kicks which could give Miami great field position.

Finally, whenever Moss makes a big play, it seems to jack up the rest of the 'Canes. His breath-taking display of speed gives Miami an emotional lift and can deflate the opposition.

On the other hand, Tuiasosopo is an impact player without a supporting cast to take heat off of him. Miami will try to force Tuiasosopo to pitch the ball, and keep him in the pocket when he passes. That's a pretty standard game plan. Tuiasosopo could have a bigger impact if he were to get help from running back Paul Arnold, or from a yet-to-emerge wide receiver.

Don't get me wrong. The first time Marques scrambles to pick up a third-and-18, you'll be saying "Now that's impact." However, I think Miami's speed will be able to handle this.

  By Bill Curry
Special to ESPN.com

Santana Moss is a game-breaker. He runs like the wind, as evidenced by his championship track exploits. Lucky for the University of Miami, he prefers football.

This season, in one of the most talent-laden traditions in all of football, he is likely to break the all time receiving yards record at Miami held by Michael Irvin and the punt return yardage record held by Eddie Dunn.

But he is not as dangerous to opponents as Marques Tuiasosopo. Honest, I know.

I was an offensive center, a position in which one can make it pretty well if one can hike the ball and stay alive. I had the privilege of handling the ball every play. So did the fellow behind me, the quarterback.

The major difference between the two of us was that he went on to do much more with the pigskin. No one could deny Bart Starr or John Unitas the football for so much as one play. Same thing with Mr. Tuiasosopo.

If the coaches have their way, and Marques stays healthy, he will have the ball in his remarkably talented hands every single play Washington runs in the 2000 season. Every single play.

Moss is a wide receiver and double-coverage does to a wide receiver what no one can to do a quarterback. It almost eliminates the talented catcher of footballs from the game.

If I am coaching the punter in a game against Miami, we will kick the ball away from Moss every time we kick. I predict that some coaching staffs will limit Moss' touches to a very small number this year. Through no fault of his own, Moss will have to watch much of the action this year.

Marques will be right in the thick of things, guaranteed.