New reel question

[Gator]

I picked up a Daiwa Tatula this past week and fished it for steelhead yesterday. There was some funny stuff going on with the drag where it would suddenly back off during a run (to the point I thought I'd lost the fish), and there was a lot of play in the spool. When I got home, I pulled the spool off and it appears to me that the play I was experiencing might be normal. The spool sits on top of a wire spring that allows it to respond to side pressure even though it's tight to the shaft. Is this something that's completely new or did I just miss an innovation from Daiwa? Does anyone else have a feeling for this model reel? It's marketed as extremely light (6.2 oz) for bass anglers, but has nearly 22 lbs of drag in the 2500 model and accepts nearly 200 yards of ten pound test mono, so I figured it should work for steelies. I'm contemplating sending it back, but it feels great in the hand...maybe it's just not made for handling sustained runs. Thoughts?