After a rather restless night. It's time to get up off the floor and move on from what was a stunning night as a Jets fan. After the game was over I decided to check out my facebook page, just to get a sense of what the initial reaction was to this loss. Obviously there was a lot of venom and rightfully so coming from most of you. But then I saw a post that had 3 little words that drove me insane.
Same....Old....Jets!
I won't say who wrote it but if you feel the same way as this severely misguided individual then I have 3 words for you.
Chill....Out....People!
There's no question that this was so far the biggest loss in franchise history and not because of the score but because of what transpired from the outcome. This was supposed to be the game that proved to us that the Jets were for real and that they could step up in the bright lights of prime time. Last night sadly proved to me what I was feeling for a while now.
This team is not ready to win because they are simply not used to it. As talented as this team is they are lacking experience in dealing with success and the 2 biggest aspects that make a football team successful.
Head Coach and Quarterback.
Mark Sanchez is clearly in a slump and it has been made clear this season that the team will go as far as he can take them. That's a lot to put on a 24 year old kid. That's right people. HE'S A KID! People (myself included) tend to forget the fact that Sanchez has played a grand total of 30 professional games, including postseason. This kid is still learning how to play QB in this league while trying to lead a beaten franchise out of mediocrity in the biggest media market in the world. Nobody remembers that when he plays well but then the amnesia goes away when he has a stinker like last night.
You can't have it both ways.
You either hate Sanchez and call him overrated (you know who you are) for his mistakes or you embrace the fact that the kid has a lot of work to do and give him enough time to grow into the QB we all know he can be. Mark Sanchez is going to be a terrific QB for this team. If I have to explain why then you haven't been watching at all this season. I know you don't want to hear this but when it comes to Sanchez we need to show a lot more patience. Always keep in mind that this team is making a run for the ring with a child at the most important position for the franchise. Look at it this way. What were you doing in your life when you were 24 years old. Reflect on that then think about what Sanchez has to go through every day playing QB for the New York Jets. He's only in year 2 people. If he's playing like this in year 4 or 5 then you can hate on him all you want. He deserves it. Until then, give the kid a break.
I now move on to our Head Coach. I know he's getting killed in the press and by the fans and you know what, he deserves the heat. This unfortunately has happened too often with Rex's mouth writing a check that his team couldn't cash. I understand that fans and some of the media are pissed a Rex for picking a fight with the NFL's greatest Head Coach. Conventional wisdom would dictate that it just isn't the smart thing to do. Of course now the monday morning quarterback reaction from fans is that Rex needs to just shut up and coach this team. Makes sense for the most part but I have to use the same argument with Rex that I used with Sanchez.
You can't have it both ways.
When Mangini was fired and Rex stepped up to the podium and said these words.
"The Jets are comin and we're gonna give you everything you got and I think it's gonna be more than you can handle."
And
"You take a swipe at one of ours, we'll take a swipe at two of yours."
We ALL ate that shit up and loved every minute of it. Why? Because for once this team had a coach that expressed a passion and a desire to make this team relevant again. This guy is a believer in his system and his players. This is a guy that shoots from the hip and makes no apologies for what happens. That press conference instantly began the change of culture for this franchise. Then last season when the team began to show signs of his attitude and philosophy, capped off with a magical playoff run, we all bought in and was ready for 2010.
The problem with this is that Ryan's early success last year and this season has hid some serious deficiencies that the team has yet to correct. It also gave Rex more freedom to run his mouth. Not that he wouldn't have anyway but you know what I mean. Which leads me to my point. When the team is winning and the offense is scoring and the defense is dominating, we all love the tough smack talk. Then when the team is playing like shit everyone starts to panic and fall off the bandwagon. There's no question that Ryan's tough talk isn't standard practice in the NFL but keep this in mind. Yes he talks a TON of shit about his team and his players but he takes responsibility for his words. When he fails he takes all of the blame as he should. This is a quality to respect and reject but this is the way Rex Ryan is wired. You have to take the good with the bad.
What's most interesting about the bad aspect of his personality is that it's rooted from an undying devotion and belief in his players. The man has an unquestionable faith in his roster and that for me is something that I want my Head Coach to have. That being said, it doesn't change the fact that Rex has a LOT to learn when it comes to complete in game coaching. He clearly exhibited his lack of experience on Monday night. He was lost from the 1st possession. This will change with more time under his belt. The problem is that he set such a high bar for himself and this team that when they underachieve it's looked at as failure rather than a learning experience.
The point to all of this is to help some of you guys from jumping off the ledge and pushing the panic button. There's no question that this team shit the bed in the biggest regular season game of their season and most likely their history to date. Does this mean that the season is over? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Does this team have a lot of work to do? HELL YEAH! But you can't lose sight of the fact that as Rex and Sanchez grow into their jobs, so is the team with this new idea of winning football. For years, the Jets have been synonymous with losing and mediocrity. You never knew what kind of season you were getting from this group and on the rare occasions the team was successful, some crazy shit would happen that flushed the season down the toilet.
Like the '86 collapse. Testeverde shredding his achilles on the 2nd play of the '99 season. Or more recently the collapse in 08 headlined by Text Favre and his 22 interceptions caused by his bullshit gimpy elbow. That stuff hasn't happened here since Rex's arrival. He has changed the atmosphere for the better. This team has a very bright future ahead of itself and they are moving forward. I realize that Monday night's game does very little to inspire confidence but remember. The Jets lost to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. These are 2 men that have beaten EVERYBODY this year. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Indy, San Diego. There is no shame in losing to the team that is equipped with the games greatest coach and greatest QB who also just happens to be playing unconscious football right now. The only shame here is the effort or lack of effort that the Jets put up.
That's on Rex and company.
As you do our best to recover from Monday's nightmare, keep in mind that the Jets are still in great position to get into the playoffs and get themselves right before they enter the tournament. We all saw what happened when the Jets backed in last year. After the Chargers game the word was out that this was a team you didn't want to see and all it takes is 1 good game to get the ball rolling and it's on. I know the knee jerk reaction is Same Old Jets but you can't go there. Those 3 words need to stay dead and buried. Embrace the growing and improving New York Jets. Stay on the bandwagon because when they develop into the juggernaut team that they have the potential to be, you will be glad you stuck around way back when when the shit hit the fan.
IT'S NOT OVER! The Jets are comin!
Week 10 Recap : New York Jets vs Cleveland Browns
Final Score: Jets 26 - Browns 20 OT
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 27/44 - 299 yds 2 TD 1 INT - 87.2 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : S. Greene - 20 car 72 yds 3.6 ypc
L. Tomlinson - 18 car 57 yds 3.2 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : S. Holmes - 5 rec 76 yds 1TD
B. Edwards - 4 rec 59 yds
L. Tomlinson - 6 rec 53 yds
D. Keller - 3 rec 25 yds
J. Cotchery - 3 rec 43 yds 1TD
First Downs
NYJ - 28
CLE - 19
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 11-21
CLE - 4-12
Turnovers
NYJ - 1
CLE - 2
Penalties
NYJ - 9-70
CLE - 4-52
Time of Possession
NYJ - 47:08
CLE - 27:36
Going into this game there were several story lines that made it more of a circus than a football game. You had the Jets going up against their former coach. You had both rosters dealing with former teammates and you had the Ryan brothers coaching against one another. The distractions could have been disastrous but the Jets weathered the storm and pulled another game out of their ass.
The Browns got the ball to start the game and proceeded to methodically move it down the field with relative ease. The defense had a hard time with the Browns motion and play action passing game. They seemed to be so keen on stopping Hillis that Cleveland went the opposite way and threw on the Jets. It was a smart way to start the game since the Jets are ranked near the bottom in Pass Defense.
Despite the well executed drive, the defense was able to keep the Browns out of the end zone. Enter Phil Dawson and the Browns had an early 1st quarter lead.
Jets 0 - Browns 3
Then came Mangini's attempt to catch the Jets sleeping. They tried to onside kick and it fooled the Jets and the Browns. The ball ended up bouncing around and going out of bounds giving the Jets great field position at their 40 yard line. They used that field position to their advantage and drove the ball all the way to the Cleveland 5 yard line but the offense stalled out and they were forced to settle for 3 also. This had been a continuing trend with the offense of late. They would move the ball inside the red zone but come away with 3 or no points.
Jets 3 - Browns 3
After trading possessions, the Browns would get the ball at their own 39 yard line and move the ball into the end zone in just 4 plays. The big play of the drive was another personal foul penalty on Bart Scott. He came free on a blitz off the edge and drilled Colt McCoy too high after the pass was thrown. The roughing the passer penalty put the ball at the Jets 20 yard line. Hillis would run the ball in 2 plays later for a 12 yard score. The defense looked out of position and confused by what the Browns were doing. The end result was a 7 point deficit.
Jets 3 - Browns 10
Fortunately for the Jets they came right back and tied the score on their next possession. The plays run on the drive weren't exotic by any means until the final play. On 3rd down and 8 from the Cleveland 25 yard line, Sanchez in the shotgun looked downfield. He couldn't find anybody, sidesteps a pass rusher and scrambles to his left. He then fires a pass in the endzone to a wide open Jerricho Cotchery just standing there all alone. From the endzone replay the Browns were playing zone with the focus on Dustin Keller. Sanchez was obviously looking for him but saw that he was blanketed by several defenders. On the play, Cotchery running a skinny post route just slipped past the defense who never followed him in the endzone. Sanchez saw him alone and tossed him the ball. Simple pitch and catch.
Jets 10 - Browns 10
The browns would counter with another FG. They got the ball to the Jets 5 yard line but the defense stiffened again keeping the Browns out of the endzone.
Jets 10 - Browns 13
This was a little unsettling after the offense just scored to tie the game and the defense gives the lead right back. Last year the defense would have been able to get a stop and give the ball back to the "O". For some reason this year the defense is taking more time to settle into the game and while they do they are giving up yards and points.
Thankfully it's not TD's for the most part.
This of course became irrelevant when the Jets got the ball with 5:13 to go in the half. Sanchez drove the ball 76 yards in 11 plays using mostly ground and pound. A pass interference penalty helped the cause and on 3rd and goal at the 1, Sanchez in shotgun looked to Braylon Edwards in the corner of the endzone for a fade pass. He saw that he was covered so he took off and dove into the endzone for the TD. I'm not sure if this was a pass/run option play or if Sanchez just improvised on the fly but either way he made the right choice. This was a sign of things to come from this kid later on in the game.
Jets 17 - Browns 13
Moving on to the 2nd half. The Jets played defense with their offense.
Getting the ball to start the quarter, they went on a 19 play 65 yard drive that just punished the Browns. The Jets were physical from the beginning and it showed. The Browns looked like they didn't want to tackle and they were completely worn down. It was quite a drive to watch and I was thinking that if they got a TD out of this then this game might have been over. Of course we all know that didn't happen. The drive stalled yet again at the Browns 6 yard line. So here comes Nick Folk on for the chip shot 24 yard FG. He already missed once in the game but that was from 48 yards away in a stiff wind so you figured that he would have made the adjustments and with 24 yards less in distance, this should be a slam dunk.
CLANK!!!!!!!!!!
Off the right upright. Not even close. I was stunned. The Jets came away with nothing. After all that work, all the punishment, all the time taken away from the clock. There was nothing to show for the effort. This gave me a sick feeling because not only did the Jest fail to score on a drive that was executed as well as you could possibly draw it up but it gave the Browns momentum. They took the Jets best shot and were still standing. The one thing you would like to avoid in a football game is having to chase points and this is exactly what the Jets were doing after this missed FG.
Thankfully the long drive gave the defense enough time to rest because they stopped the Browns cold on every possession they had until late in the 4th quarter. The Jets would continue to play keep away with the ball in the 4th quarter with another long, methodical drive. At the 10:27 mark the Jets ran a 13 play drive that ate up 7:45 of the clock. But the end result was the same.
NO TD'S.
Folk this time makes the short FG making it a 7 point game. Forcing the Browns to go the length of the field to tie the game.
Jets 20 - Browns 13
With 2:42 left on the clock the Browns got the ball. This was the time for the defense to step up and make a play to end this game.
Well a guy can dream right.
For the second straight week, the defense let the opposition drive on them late and score either a game tying or leading TD. The Browns went to the air and it was effective mostly to the mismatches that the Browns presented over the middle. The Jets have one of the NFL's better linebacking corps but they are not good pass defenders. None of the LB's can stay with a RB or TE and the Browns took advantage of that with crossing routes and plays over the middle of the field. Then the unthinkable happened. McCoy started to pick on Revis. He was matched up with TE Evan Moore who would be the last guy you would think to challenge the island. But he did and for one big play it worked.
On 1st down at the Jets 21 yard line. Moore ran up the field and had inside position. McCoy made a perfect throw that Revis couldn't deflect. The play ended up at the Jets 3 yard line. The next play Cromartie was picked on with a quick crossing pattern and the Browns tied the game up late in the 4th.
Jets 20 - Browns 20
Just a terrible defensive stand. The blitz was scarcely used and when used was blocked well. The zone coverage was soft and the man to man was beaten by double moves and missed tackles. For a defense that's supposed to be dominant, this was a moment to prove that claim and it didn't happen. The same thing happened against the Lions the week before. This also happened a lot last year. The defense showed signs of brilliance and big play ability but when they absolutely had to make a stop, they couldn't do it.
So now we move to their 2nd straight OT game in 2 weeks. The Jets won the toss but that didn't matter because they gave up the ball after 4 plays. This would go on back and forth for both teams until the 10:04 mark of the OT period. The Jets had the ball and started to move the ball into Cleveland territory just deep enough to try a game winning FG attempt from 47 yards away. This would have been redemption for Folk after going 2 for 4 in the game and never missing 3 FG's in his career, all factors led to this being it.
Nope. Wide right and this one wasn't even close.
Folk on this day returned to the old Folk from Dallas. His kicks not only were misses they were BAD misses. Granted this was a tough kick to make considering the situation and the distance but let's be real about this. Folk's job is to make these kind of kicks. His only responsibility is ti kick the ball off as far as he can and put the ball through the uprights. At this point I just knew that the Jets were going to lose this game because I started to rewind the events prior to this latest miss and it's a simple matter of missed opportunities. All the red zone possessions, having to settle for FG's instead of TD's. You throw in the missed FG's, you have the recipe for a blown game.
The defense however stepped up and held the Browns to a 3 and out giving the ball back to the offense with 3:06 left in the OT and the ball at the Jets 9 yard line.
The ball would get past midfield. Then the Browns defense would clamp down and ground the drive. This led to Sanchez making a pretty smart play. On 3rd down and 14 at the 46 yard line, Sanchez heaved the ball towards then end zone in Braylon's direction. The pass was a bit under thrown and picked off by CB Joe Haden at the Cleveland 3 yard line. At first glance the pass seemed liek a stupid play but in reality it was a pretty smart move. Just throw it deep and see what happens. Maybe Braylon catches the ball or maybe you get a flag like in Denver. Instead the pass was picked off and Haden was tackled immediately. So this play actually doubled as a punt. With the ball pinned inside the 5 yard line, the Browns had a decision to make on offense. Do they try to win the game or just run out the clock and play for the tie.
Here's where Mangini bailed us out. In his attempt to go for the win he passed on 1st down. Incomplete. This stopped the clock and allowed the Jest to save their last timeout for 2nd or 3rd down. The Browns ran the ball on 2nd down for 2 yards. Rex chose to keep his time out in his pocket until after 3rd down. A questionable move but in the end it paid off. The Browns passed on 3rd down and McCoy was sacked by Jason Taylor. If the rush got there a second or two sooner the Jets would have won by a safety. McCoy just got out of the endzone in time to avoid the sack in the endzone. The Jets used their final timeout stopping the clock with :35 seconds left in OT.
Cleveland punts, Jim Leonhard fields the ball at the Jets 45 yard line and returns the ball to the Cleveland 37 yard line. A HUGE play that didn't get the recognition it deserves. With :24 seconds left, the Jets were in position to gain a couple of more yards and make Folk's final FG attempt more manageable. Thank God they didn't need to worry about that becasue on the 1st play, Santonio Holmes ended the game and sent us home happy.
It was a simple slant route. CB Eric Wright was playing press coverage at 1st look then dropped back about 5-7 yards before the snap. Holmes cut inside, Sanchez fired the ball, Holmes caught it and dodged 3 Browns defenders and sprinted into the end zone for the game winning TD. After Holmes caught the pass. LB Eric Barton who was playing man to man on Tomlinson read Sanchez's eyes and broke off his man and went right at Holmes as the pass was heading his way. Wright who was trailing on the play had the chance to tackle Holmes from behind but when he saw Barton charging at Holmes, Wright pulled up and gave Santonio the smallest window to slip through. The 3rd man on the play was SS T.J. Ward who completely whiffed on the tackle attempt. He also had a plat on Holmes after the catch was made but once he saw the potential collision he backed off and that was all she wrote.
After all the hard hitting and physical play in this game. The Browns lost because 3 defenders were afraid of running into each other trying to tackle 1 man. So they all backed off at the same time and Holmes turned on the speed and finished off the improbable last second win.
Jets 26 - Browns 20 OT
That's all for the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) The kid becomes a man....Of all the games so far in his very young career, this one was as telling for Mark Sanchez when it comes to his maturity, decision making, play making, and most importantly HEART. He was solid all the way through with his accuracy and his ability to elude a fierce pass rush. His pocket presence and poise allowed him to keep plays alive down field and extend drives and even lead to points. The biggest showing he put on was his ability to play hurt. After injuring his right leg in the 3rd quarter, he came back into the game and on the 1st play he could barely limp over and give LT the ball on a hand off. After a couple of minutes he fought through the pain and made plays that helped the Jets stay in the game and pull this one out. Fellas, we got ourselves a QB.
2) Speaking of heart....Staying with the topic of playing through pain. Jerricho Cotchery may have given us the play of the year. In the OT period on 3rd down and 9, Sanchez avoided a sack and scrambled to his left. He ended up floating a pass across his body to Cotchery over the middle. J. Co made a tremendous full body, diving catch for the 1st down. What made this play so amazing wasn't that he dove for the ball, it was the fact that before he made the play, Cotchery pulled his groin while running his route. The replays showed him coming up limp then hobbling around. Clearly in pain he stayed with the play and dove for the ball. Just an incredible display of guts and athletic ability. Even though the play never factored in the decision of the game it was a defining moment that showed teamwork and heart.
3) What the Folk?....Just when it was safe to think that the Jets kicking issues were over. Nick Folk decides to throw out a stinker. Now this very may well be just a bump in the road. All kickers have them. I am not so convinced. Giving his past as an erratic booter there might be some cause for concern. I wasn't so confident in his ability when he was kicking well. Now I have very little to no faith in him now. I just hope that we can just have him kick his way out of this slump without it having to be in a clutch situation.
4) The Cardiac Jets....Sunday's game marks the 1st time the Jets have won back to back road games in overtime in franchise history.
5) Home away from home....The Jets continue to win away from home this year 5-0 and overall 12-4 under King Rex. This is a very good sign. It's very hard to win on the road especially in the post season. The Jets got a ton of great experience with that last year having to win in Cincy, San Diego and going to Indy for the AFC crown. Though it would be nice to have a playoff game at home, the Jets suck at home right now so until they establish the new digs as a tough place to play, the road seems to suit them just fine.
6) Greene is good....After begging for more of Shonn Greene, we finally got our wish and it paid off. He didn't by any means light up the stat sheet but his effort was seen more by his contact and running style on the field. Greene has that rare mix of power and speed. He can get by a defender or go through him and his early fumble issues clearly lost the trust of the coaches and kept him off the field. Obviously he was being held out way too long but now that he seems to be in a more regular rotation he can establish himself as a legit RB and send the team a message that he was worth saying goodbye to Thomas Jones.
That's it for Quick Hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This is from his post game press conference on Santonio Holmes game winning catch and run.
"Run baby run and I've seen it before. Unfortunately I was on another sideline when he was in a different uniform. He cost me a Super Bowl ring when I was with Baltimore. He can make a play to beat you, simple as that. He could be quiet all day and make 1 or 2 plays to beat you. You gotta see that young man's eyes when the 4th quarter rolls around cause that's Santonio time and he's a game changer. He's a winner, he finds a way to get it done. Great players make great plays in big times, in crucial times and that's what he did."
Plays like that is why Tader Mike T rolled the dice and got him from Pittsburgh. Anyone thinking that we were going to get the 80 catch 1,000 plus yard threat was kidding themselves for 2 reasons.
1) He missed the 1st 4 games.
2) The Jets offense isn't suited for individual numbers.
But at any one time there is the potential for the game changing or in this case game winning play and you need play makers for that. The Jets now have a bonafide play maker to go with their running game.
This game revealed a lot.
To start it begs the question....Are the Jets good or just lucky? The answer to that is simply Yes. This team is good and they have been the recipient of very fortunate circumstances. But that's a product of being good to begin with. It's a fact, bad teams don't get breaks like the ones the Jets have gotten so far.
Secondly, we now know that the Browns are a couple of skill players away from being a contender. They are practically a carbon copy of the Jets. They have a strong running game and a solid defense and they are a physical group. You are going to get hit when you play this team. I think the Jets took that for granted and it took them a while to get into gear and strap it on. It doesn't change the fact that the Jets are still the better team.
Finally we saw that winning allows a team to hide some of their weaknesses. The offense with all their talent continues to sputter in the red zone and the defense is clearly not going to be as dominant as they were last year. They have yet to play a complete game and they are still 7-2. It's a real scary thought how nasty this team will be once everything clicks together.
Next up is Houston at home to be followed by a Turkey Day date with the Bungles. This is a great opportunity for the Jets to show the fans that they can be a good home team and pick up a couple of conference wins on the way. Houston while loaded on offense doesn't inspire any fear on defense and the Bengals are just dreadful regardless of the short week. If things go well we should be looking at 9-2 and 10 days to get ready for the rematch with New England on Monday night.
That's all I got....T-Rich....Break us down....And the home of the....JETS!!!!!
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 27/44 - 299 yds 2 TD 1 INT - 87.2 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : S. Greene - 20 car 72 yds 3.6 ypc
L. Tomlinson - 18 car 57 yds 3.2 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : S. Holmes - 5 rec 76 yds 1TD
B. Edwards - 4 rec 59 yds
L. Tomlinson - 6 rec 53 yds
D. Keller - 3 rec 25 yds
J. Cotchery - 3 rec 43 yds 1TD
First Downs
NYJ - 28
CLE - 19
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 11-21
CLE - 4-12
Turnovers
NYJ - 1
CLE - 2
Penalties
NYJ - 9-70
CLE - 4-52
Time of Possession
NYJ - 47:08
CLE - 27:36
Going into this game there were several story lines that made it more of a circus than a football game. You had the Jets going up against their former coach. You had both rosters dealing with former teammates and you had the Ryan brothers coaching against one another. The distractions could have been disastrous but the Jets weathered the storm and pulled another game out of their ass.
The Browns got the ball to start the game and proceeded to methodically move it down the field with relative ease. The defense had a hard time with the Browns motion and play action passing game. They seemed to be so keen on stopping Hillis that Cleveland went the opposite way and threw on the Jets. It was a smart way to start the game since the Jets are ranked near the bottom in Pass Defense.
Despite the well executed drive, the defense was able to keep the Browns out of the end zone. Enter Phil Dawson and the Browns had an early 1st quarter lead.
Jets 0 - Browns 3
Then came Mangini's attempt to catch the Jets sleeping. They tried to onside kick and it fooled the Jets and the Browns. The ball ended up bouncing around and going out of bounds giving the Jets great field position at their 40 yard line. They used that field position to their advantage and drove the ball all the way to the Cleveland 5 yard line but the offense stalled out and they were forced to settle for 3 also. This had been a continuing trend with the offense of late. They would move the ball inside the red zone but come away with 3 or no points.
Jets 3 - Browns 3
After trading possessions, the Browns would get the ball at their own 39 yard line and move the ball into the end zone in just 4 plays. The big play of the drive was another personal foul penalty on Bart Scott. He came free on a blitz off the edge and drilled Colt McCoy too high after the pass was thrown. The roughing the passer penalty put the ball at the Jets 20 yard line. Hillis would run the ball in 2 plays later for a 12 yard score. The defense looked out of position and confused by what the Browns were doing. The end result was a 7 point deficit.
Jets 3 - Browns 10
Fortunately for the Jets they came right back and tied the score on their next possession. The plays run on the drive weren't exotic by any means until the final play. On 3rd down and 8 from the Cleveland 25 yard line, Sanchez in the shotgun looked downfield. He couldn't find anybody, sidesteps a pass rusher and scrambles to his left. He then fires a pass in the endzone to a wide open Jerricho Cotchery just standing there all alone. From the endzone replay the Browns were playing zone with the focus on Dustin Keller. Sanchez was obviously looking for him but saw that he was blanketed by several defenders. On the play, Cotchery running a skinny post route just slipped past the defense who never followed him in the endzone. Sanchez saw him alone and tossed him the ball. Simple pitch and catch.
Jets 10 - Browns 10
The browns would counter with another FG. They got the ball to the Jets 5 yard line but the defense stiffened again keeping the Browns out of the endzone.
Jets 10 - Browns 13
This was a little unsettling after the offense just scored to tie the game and the defense gives the lead right back. Last year the defense would have been able to get a stop and give the ball back to the "O". For some reason this year the defense is taking more time to settle into the game and while they do they are giving up yards and points.
Thankfully it's not TD's for the most part.
This of course became irrelevant when the Jets got the ball with 5:13 to go in the half. Sanchez drove the ball 76 yards in 11 plays using mostly ground and pound. A pass interference penalty helped the cause and on 3rd and goal at the 1, Sanchez in shotgun looked to Braylon Edwards in the corner of the endzone for a fade pass. He saw that he was covered so he took off and dove into the endzone for the TD. I'm not sure if this was a pass/run option play or if Sanchez just improvised on the fly but either way he made the right choice. This was a sign of things to come from this kid later on in the game.
Jets 17 - Browns 13
Moving on to the 2nd half. The Jets played defense with their offense.
Getting the ball to start the quarter, they went on a 19 play 65 yard drive that just punished the Browns. The Jets were physical from the beginning and it showed. The Browns looked like they didn't want to tackle and they were completely worn down. It was quite a drive to watch and I was thinking that if they got a TD out of this then this game might have been over. Of course we all know that didn't happen. The drive stalled yet again at the Browns 6 yard line. So here comes Nick Folk on for the chip shot 24 yard FG. He already missed once in the game but that was from 48 yards away in a stiff wind so you figured that he would have made the adjustments and with 24 yards less in distance, this should be a slam dunk.
CLANK!!!!!!!!!!
Off the right upright. Not even close. I was stunned. The Jets came away with nothing. After all that work, all the punishment, all the time taken away from the clock. There was nothing to show for the effort. This gave me a sick feeling because not only did the Jest fail to score on a drive that was executed as well as you could possibly draw it up but it gave the Browns momentum. They took the Jets best shot and were still standing. The one thing you would like to avoid in a football game is having to chase points and this is exactly what the Jets were doing after this missed FG.
Thankfully the long drive gave the defense enough time to rest because they stopped the Browns cold on every possession they had until late in the 4th quarter. The Jets would continue to play keep away with the ball in the 4th quarter with another long, methodical drive. At the 10:27 mark the Jets ran a 13 play drive that ate up 7:45 of the clock. But the end result was the same.
NO TD'S.
Folk this time makes the short FG making it a 7 point game. Forcing the Browns to go the length of the field to tie the game.
Jets 20 - Browns 13
With 2:42 left on the clock the Browns got the ball. This was the time for the defense to step up and make a play to end this game.
Well a guy can dream right.
For the second straight week, the defense let the opposition drive on them late and score either a game tying or leading TD. The Browns went to the air and it was effective mostly to the mismatches that the Browns presented over the middle. The Jets have one of the NFL's better linebacking corps but they are not good pass defenders. None of the LB's can stay with a RB or TE and the Browns took advantage of that with crossing routes and plays over the middle of the field. Then the unthinkable happened. McCoy started to pick on Revis. He was matched up with TE Evan Moore who would be the last guy you would think to challenge the island. But he did and for one big play it worked.
On 1st down at the Jets 21 yard line. Moore ran up the field and had inside position. McCoy made a perfect throw that Revis couldn't deflect. The play ended up at the Jets 3 yard line. The next play Cromartie was picked on with a quick crossing pattern and the Browns tied the game up late in the 4th.
Jets 20 - Browns 20
Just a terrible defensive stand. The blitz was scarcely used and when used was blocked well. The zone coverage was soft and the man to man was beaten by double moves and missed tackles. For a defense that's supposed to be dominant, this was a moment to prove that claim and it didn't happen. The same thing happened against the Lions the week before. This also happened a lot last year. The defense showed signs of brilliance and big play ability but when they absolutely had to make a stop, they couldn't do it.
So now we move to their 2nd straight OT game in 2 weeks. The Jets won the toss but that didn't matter because they gave up the ball after 4 plays. This would go on back and forth for both teams until the 10:04 mark of the OT period. The Jets had the ball and started to move the ball into Cleveland territory just deep enough to try a game winning FG attempt from 47 yards away. This would have been redemption for Folk after going 2 for 4 in the game and never missing 3 FG's in his career, all factors led to this being it.
Nope. Wide right and this one wasn't even close.
Folk on this day returned to the old Folk from Dallas. His kicks not only were misses they were BAD misses. Granted this was a tough kick to make considering the situation and the distance but let's be real about this. Folk's job is to make these kind of kicks. His only responsibility is ti kick the ball off as far as he can and put the ball through the uprights. At this point I just knew that the Jets were going to lose this game because I started to rewind the events prior to this latest miss and it's a simple matter of missed opportunities. All the red zone possessions, having to settle for FG's instead of TD's. You throw in the missed FG's, you have the recipe for a blown game.
The defense however stepped up and held the Browns to a 3 and out giving the ball back to the offense with 3:06 left in the OT and the ball at the Jets 9 yard line.
The ball would get past midfield. Then the Browns defense would clamp down and ground the drive. This led to Sanchez making a pretty smart play. On 3rd down and 14 at the 46 yard line, Sanchez heaved the ball towards then end zone in Braylon's direction. The pass was a bit under thrown and picked off by CB Joe Haden at the Cleveland 3 yard line. At first glance the pass seemed liek a stupid play but in reality it was a pretty smart move. Just throw it deep and see what happens. Maybe Braylon catches the ball or maybe you get a flag like in Denver. Instead the pass was picked off and Haden was tackled immediately. So this play actually doubled as a punt. With the ball pinned inside the 5 yard line, the Browns had a decision to make on offense. Do they try to win the game or just run out the clock and play for the tie.
Here's where Mangini bailed us out. In his attempt to go for the win he passed on 1st down. Incomplete. This stopped the clock and allowed the Jest to save their last timeout for 2nd or 3rd down. The Browns ran the ball on 2nd down for 2 yards. Rex chose to keep his time out in his pocket until after 3rd down. A questionable move but in the end it paid off. The Browns passed on 3rd down and McCoy was sacked by Jason Taylor. If the rush got there a second or two sooner the Jets would have won by a safety. McCoy just got out of the endzone in time to avoid the sack in the endzone. The Jets used their final timeout stopping the clock with :35 seconds left in OT.
Cleveland punts, Jim Leonhard fields the ball at the Jets 45 yard line and returns the ball to the Cleveland 37 yard line. A HUGE play that didn't get the recognition it deserves. With :24 seconds left, the Jets were in position to gain a couple of more yards and make Folk's final FG attempt more manageable. Thank God they didn't need to worry about that becasue on the 1st play, Santonio Holmes ended the game and sent us home happy.
It was a simple slant route. CB Eric Wright was playing press coverage at 1st look then dropped back about 5-7 yards before the snap. Holmes cut inside, Sanchez fired the ball, Holmes caught it and dodged 3 Browns defenders and sprinted into the end zone for the game winning TD. After Holmes caught the pass. LB Eric Barton who was playing man to man on Tomlinson read Sanchez's eyes and broke off his man and went right at Holmes as the pass was heading his way. Wright who was trailing on the play had the chance to tackle Holmes from behind but when he saw Barton charging at Holmes, Wright pulled up and gave Santonio the smallest window to slip through. The 3rd man on the play was SS T.J. Ward who completely whiffed on the tackle attempt. He also had a plat on Holmes after the catch was made but once he saw the potential collision he backed off and that was all she wrote.
After all the hard hitting and physical play in this game. The Browns lost because 3 defenders were afraid of running into each other trying to tackle 1 man. So they all backed off at the same time and Holmes turned on the speed and finished off the improbable last second win.
Jets 26 - Browns 20 OT
That's all for the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) The kid becomes a man....Of all the games so far in his very young career, this one was as telling for Mark Sanchez when it comes to his maturity, decision making, play making, and most importantly HEART. He was solid all the way through with his accuracy and his ability to elude a fierce pass rush. His pocket presence and poise allowed him to keep plays alive down field and extend drives and even lead to points. The biggest showing he put on was his ability to play hurt. After injuring his right leg in the 3rd quarter, he came back into the game and on the 1st play he could barely limp over and give LT the ball on a hand off. After a couple of minutes he fought through the pain and made plays that helped the Jets stay in the game and pull this one out. Fellas, we got ourselves a QB.
2) Speaking of heart....Staying with the topic of playing through pain. Jerricho Cotchery may have given us the play of the year. In the OT period on 3rd down and 9, Sanchez avoided a sack and scrambled to his left. He ended up floating a pass across his body to Cotchery over the middle. J. Co made a tremendous full body, diving catch for the 1st down. What made this play so amazing wasn't that he dove for the ball, it was the fact that before he made the play, Cotchery pulled his groin while running his route. The replays showed him coming up limp then hobbling around. Clearly in pain he stayed with the play and dove for the ball. Just an incredible display of guts and athletic ability. Even though the play never factored in the decision of the game it was a defining moment that showed teamwork and heart.
3) What the Folk?....Just when it was safe to think that the Jets kicking issues were over. Nick Folk decides to throw out a stinker. Now this very may well be just a bump in the road. All kickers have them. I am not so convinced. Giving his past as an erratic booter there might be some cause for concern. I wasn't so confident in his ability when he was kicking well. Now I have very little to no faith in him now. I just hope that we can just have him kick his way out of this slump without it having to be in a clutch situation.
4) The Cardiac Jets....Sunday's game marks the 1st time the Jets have won back to back road games in overtime in franchise history.
5) Home away from home....The Jets continue to win away from home this year 5-0 and overall 12-4 under King Rex. This is a very good sign. It's very hard to win on the road especially in the post season. The Jets got a ton of great experience with that last year having to win in Cincy, San Diego and going to Indy for the AFC crown. Though it would be nice to have a playoff game at home, the Jets suck at home right now so until they establish the new digs as a tough place to play, the road seems to suit them just fine.
6) Greene is good....After begging for more of Shonn Greene, we finally got our wish and it paid off. He didn't by any means light up the stat sheet but his effort was seen more by his contact and running style on the field. Greene has that rare mix of power and speed. He can get by a defender or go through him and his early fumble issues clearly lost the trust of the coaches and kept him off the field. Obviously he was being held out way too long but now that he seems to be in a more regular rotation he can establish himself as a legit RB and send the team a message that he was worth saying goodbye to Thomas Jones.
That's it for Quick Hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This is from his post game press conference on Santonio Holmes game winning catch and run.
"Run baby run and I've seen it before. Unfortunately I was on another sideline when he was in a different uniform. He cost me a Super Bowl ring when I was with Baltimore. He can make a play to beat you, simple as that. He could be quiet all day and make 1 or 2 plays to beat you. You gotta see that young man's eyes when the 4th quarter rolls around cause that's Santonio time and he's a game changer. He's a winner, he finds a way to get it done. Great players make great plays in big times, in crucial times and that's what he did."
Plays like that is why Tader Mike T rolled the dice and got him from Pittsburgh. Anyone thinking that we were going to get the 80 catch 1,000 plus yard threat was kidding themselves for 2 reasons.
1) He missed the 1st 4 games.
2) The Jets offense isn't suited for individual numbers.
But at any one time there is the potential for the game changing or in this case game winning play and you need play makers for that. The Jets now have a bonafide play maker to go with their running game.
This game revealed a lot.
To start it begs the question....Are the Jets good or just lucky? The answer to that is simply Yes. This team is good and they have been the recipient of very fortunate circumstances. But that's a product of being good to begin with. It's a fact, bad teams don't get breaks like the ones the Jets have gotten so far.
Secondly, we now know that the Browns are a couple of skill players away from being a contender. They are practically a carbon copy of the Jets. They have a strong running game and a solid defense and they are a physical group. You are going to get hit when you play this team. I think the Jets took that for granted and it took them a while to get into gear and strap it on. It doesn't change the fact that the Jets are still the better team.
Finally we saw that winning allows a team to hide some of their weaknesses. The offense with all their talent continues to sputter in the red zone and the defense is clearly not going to be as dominant as they were last year. They have yet to play a complete game and they are still 7-2. It's a real scary thought how nasty this team will be once everything clicks together.
Next up is Houston at home to be followed by a Turkey Day date with the Bungles. This is a great opportunity for the Jets to show the fans that they can be a good home team and pick up a couple of conference wins on the way. Houston while loaded on offense doesn't inspire any fear on defense and the Bengals are just dreadful regardless of the short week. If things go well we should be looking at 9-2 and 10 days to get ready for the rematch with New England on Monday night.
That's all I got....T-Rich....Break us down....And the home of the....JETS!!!!!
Week 9 Recap New York Jets vs Detroit Lions
Final Score: Jets 23 - Lions 20 OT
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 22/39 - 336 yds 1 TD 1 INT - 82.9 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 15 car 55 yds 3.7 ypc
S. Greene - 10 car 46 yds 4.6 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : S. Holmes - 5 rec 114 yds
B. Edwards - 3 rec 78 yds 1 TD
D. Keller - 5 rec 49 yds
L. Tomlinson - 6 rec 47 yds
J. Cotchery - 2 rec 29 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 23
DET- 21
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-13
DET - 5-15
Turnovers
NYJ - 2
DET - 0
Penalties
NYJ - 11-99
DET - 11-102
Time of Possession
NYJ - 29:32
DET - 32:46
There is so much to come away with after digesting this game. Since I couldn't watch the game live I had to go over the "game film" a lot more in depth than I normally do. And I have to say that this game was weirder than most people have made it out to be. Going into this one I felt pretty confident that the Jets would dominate this Lions team despite their prolific passing game and it is a real prolific passing game. But just like last week they came out of the gate flat, uncoordinated and undisciplined. And this time it was the defense that began poorly.
The Lions took the ball to start the game and drove the ball 80 yards for an opening score. This TD has an asterisk because the Jets "D" helped them out on 2 occasions that kept the drive going. The running game was stuffed right at the outset so the Lions went to the air and it was highly effective. Then a personal foul chop block penalty moved the Lions back. The defense couldn't hold court and the Lions completed a 13 yard pass on 2nd and 28 then a 27 yard pass on 3rd and 15.
OK. No big deal, that happens sometimes but then Bart Scott gets hit with a very stupid personal foul after the very next play for grabbing a lineman off the pile and tossing him to the ground. Now in Bart's defense, he was protecting his teammate which is something that I will never get mad at. But you have to realize that if you are going to do something like that be mindful of the zebra's because the #1 rule in a play like that is.....The second guy ALWAYS GETS CAUGHT. The guy that starts the fight mostly never gets flagged, the guy that retaliates does. Bart needed to be smarter than that. Your defense just gave up a big play that put the ball in Jets territory and now you just gave them a free 15. Not smart at all.
You all know what happened a few plays later. Stafford took advantage of a major coverage mismatch. The 5' 7" Jim Leonhard was one on one with 6' 5" Brandon Pettigrew.
No contest. TD Lions.
Look I love Jim Leonhard's heart and ability to play SS in the NFL being so small but he just can't cover a guy that almost has a foot height advantage on him. It's a weakness in the secondary that every team has exploited this year and it will continue to happen until Rex Ryan decides to roll him on to a RB or smaller receiver. This was the end result of a horrible defensive possession by the Jets. The TD scored by Detroit is the 1st one scored on the Jets defense in the 1st quarter so far this season.
Jets 0 - Lions 7
The good news is that the defense would rebound very nicely stopping the Lions on every possession they would have the rest of the 1st half. They needed to because the offense was not getting anything going early on. Sanchez would show signs of a rhythm but then he would throw one of his trademark horrible inaccurate passes that kills a drive forcing a punt. In fact they punted on their 1st 4 possessions of the half and the playcalling early on was suspect as well. There were several plays on 3rd down where passes were called and every receiver would run routes either at or short of the 1st down marker.
Here are 2 examples.
1) 3rd and 15 they run a WR bubble screen to Holmes for 3 yards.
2) 3rd and 7 Sanchez completes a pass to Edwards running a drag route for 3 yards.
Let's talk about the 1st play. It's 3rd and 15. Why in the HOLY HELL WOULD YOU RUN A WR SCREEN! You are calling that play expecting 2 blockers to take on at least 3 to 4 defenders and hope that they can clear a path for Holmes to run or you're expecting Holmes to break 9 tackles and run 16 yards for the 1st down because we all know that a WR screen isn't thrown upfield. The pass is caught at the line of scrimmage.
Just an insanely stupid call in that situation.
The other play was not as dumb but the dumb idea was still the same. Every receiver on the play wasn't down field. They were just at the sticks or in front of it. So Sanchez threw the ball to Edwards crossing the field hoping he could turn the ball up field and get the 1st down. Why not call a play where the same routes are run but they are executed past the marker so when the ball is caught the extra work is for more yardage up the field. I just don't get it and this happens everywhere in the league but since this is about the Jets I'm staying close to home.
After the slumbering work by the "O", the Jets started to get some momentum in the 2nd quarter. The ran a 9 play 53 yard drive that looked pretty sharp. The passing game started to click and they got the ball inside the Lions 10 yard line. Until 3rd down when Sanchez fumbled his 2nd snap of the half which killed the potential game tying score forcing the Jets to go for 3.
Jets 3 - Lions 7
The defense would once again come up and stop the Lions giving the ball back to Sanchez with 1:48 left in the half. What followed was one of the biggest plays of the game. After a sack and fumble recovery on 1st down. The Jets ran a play, the Lions were only rushing 4 giving Sanchez tons of time to scan the field. He saw Edwards running a go route and beat his man CB Alphonso Smith. Mark fired a bomb that traveled at least 60 plus yards in the air and fell right into the waiting hands of Braylon in stride. He slipped past a last gasp tackle attempt and coasted into the endzone for a 74 yard TD. This was an amazing pass by Sanchez only because of what Edwards had to do to get it. He didn't have to do anything. The ball just dropped into his hands while still running up field. You couldn't hand him the ball better.
Jets 10 - Lions 7
The big play gave the Jets the lead at the half with the ball to start the 3rd quarter so the momentum was on thir side.
Until....Braylon giveth and Braylon taketh away.
The Jets were looking pretty good to start the 3rd. They managed one 1st down until Edwards fumbled the ball at the Jets 47 yard line. The ball was recovered by Louis Delmas. Lions ball. This was another classic Braylon Edwards bonehead play. The play was a bootleg quick pass. Edwards caught the pass and proceeded to do an insane amount of juking and jiving that fooled nobody but himself. As he was trying to get away from Delmas he never secured the ball properly and started to lose the grip. It was then punched out. Delmas then just dropped to the ground and landed on the ball. This is what has always been frustrating about this guy. As talented as he is, there's just nothing going on between the ears and you as a fan are subjected to seeing these kind of dumb ass plays by a guy who should know better.
This led to the Lions 2nd TD of the game. A TD that should have only been worth 3 points. Confused by that statement. Well you shouldn't because despite the turnover, the defense was able to hold a goal line stand and force the Lions to kick a game tying FG. The kick was good but what do we see next. Yellow on the field. DE Trevor Pryce gets flagged for roughing the kicker. Personal foul, half the distance to the goal and automatic 1st down. The replay showed Pryce plowing through the line up the middle but then after PK Jason Hanson boots the ball he lunges forward and crashes right into Hanson's legs. Another stupid penalty and this one costs the Jets because Stafford runs an amazing play fake roll out that completely fools the defense and the cameraman to boot. Lions score.
Jets 10 - Lions 13
Then came the extra point try. Hanson injured his knee on the collision with Pryce so Detroit sent DT Ndomukung Suh to kick the extra point. He bangs it off the right upright so the Jets are now only trailing by 3 instead of 4. Big play of the game. It was revealed later that Suh had played soccer in high school so he had experience kicking but I have to question why he was out there. Why didn't the punter kick the XP. I asked that same question to some of my friends on monday and some of them said that the punter isn't used to kicking that way. That logic makes absolutely no sense to me and here's why. I'll just list them to save you the extra reading.
1) The punter is a KICKER plain and simple. They are supposed to know how to kick the ball in any way shape or form. You can't convince me that a punter can't kick a 19 yard FG.
2) If you go with the reasoning that the punter isn't used to kicking XP's or FG's then how in the world can you expect a DT to be used to it. This kid spent most of his football life with a hand in the ground rushing after the QB. So you send him out to kick an XP cause he played pee wee soccer? Please.
3) The punter kicked the ball off the rest of the game. He didn't punt the ball, he kicked it off the tee. When you kick the ball off you are using the same motion and technique that you would use kicking FG's more or less. You can't tell me that this guy couldn't have kicked the XP.
Anyway, the special teams blunder by the Lions gave the Jets a huge break. They didn't have to chase any points. They just needed to SCORE some.
And on the very next possession after the Lions TD, the Jets looked like they were going to do just that until. Sanchez threw a horrible interception. He was looking for Holmes who was streaking down the seam. He was open but the ball was inaccurate and under thrown. CB Alphonso Smith picked it off in the end zone and stupidly tried to return it and was tackled at the 1 inch line. This is going to be a little off the beaten path but I have to comment on this.
After Smith picks off the pass and is tackled literally just outside the 1 yard line. He starts to celebrate and play to the crowd. It was a big play and it continued his hot streak of interceptions. It was his 5th pick in 3 games but what are you celebrating? The fact that you intercepted a pass or the fact that you put your offense in a hole by getting tackled at the 1 yard line when you could have taken a knee in the end zone and give them the ball at the 20. Once again bonehead plays are celebrated instead of chastised. You can't celebrate a good play when you make a bad play at the exact same time. I would have grabbed this knucklehead by his facemask and opened up a can of whoop ass after that display of stupidity.
Well the pick didn't hurt mostly due to the field position but the defense did their part. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. After the offense couldn't get anything going, the Lions ran a 9 play 92 yard drive that gave them what seemed to be an insurmountable lead. The secondary for the most part was doing their thing holding down the outside threats but nickel back Drew Coleman got lit up by Nate Burleson and he was the go to guy on this drive. A pass interference penalty on Jim Leonhard put the ball at the 1 yard line. He was matched up again on Pettigrew and it was over after that.
The next sequence of plays ended up being an embarrassment to the Jets coaching staff. On 2nd and goal from the 2 yard line, the Jets had to use a timeout because they had 12 men on the field. 10 times out of 10 that's an inexcusable reason to use a TO on defense but 1 play later they had to burn another timeout for the exact same reason. This was just unacceptable and sloppy. I have no idea what these guys were thinking at the time but it clearly wasn't football because game management like this is reserved for pee wee and high school ball and even those guys don't screw up like that. After all that, the Lions scored anyway so now the Jets are down by 10.
Jets 10 - Lions 20
With the game seemingly over, the Jets woke up and went to work on offense. With 4:28 left in regulation they went on a drive that got them right back in the game and it took little time to do it. The highlight play was a 26 yard leaping catch by Keller to the Lions 6 yard line. Sanchez made a great throw into a small bit of traffic. He put enough air on the ball that either Keller was going to get it or no one was. Keller made the leap and snatched it out of the air for the great play. 2 plays later Sanchez QB sneaks it in for the TD.
Jets 17 - Lions 20
Here's where the major questionable stuff took place and it didn't concern the Jets. With 2:46 left in the game the Lions had the ball. Stafford who left the game after re-injuring his right shoulder had been replaced by 3rd string QB Drew Stanton. The Jets had only 1 timeout left which they used after the 1st play. A run that they stopped for a 2 yard loss. The ran the ball again for 6 yards and let the clock run down to the 2 minute warning. Then for some inexplicable reason they passed on 3rd down. It was a play action bootleg that the Jets sniffed out and stopped. So not only did the Lions not get the 1st down, they are giving the Jets the ball back with 1:40 left and the clock stopped because the pass was incomplete. This was mind boggling. If the Lions had run the ball again and got stopped they would have given the Jets the ball back with about 50 seconds left.
So now the Jets have new life at their own 22 yard line. This time only needing to get into FG range. They have no timeouts but because of the extra time on the clock the middle of the field was still an option. The drive wasn't looking too good until 3rd down when Keller made another tremendous play. Catching an 11 yard pass on 3rd and 9. This play was better than the leaping catch because of the heavy traffic around him and the hit he takes after catching the ball. So the Jets now have a fresh set of downs which set up the other big play of the game. Sanchez throws a simple pass to LT over the middle. He shakes a tackle and gets the 1st down and runs out of bounds when LB Julian Peterson pushes him late and gets hit with a personal foul. The penalty put the Jets into FG range but they were able to gain a few more yards and kill enough clock for the FG try.
Enter Nick Folk. Kick is up and it's good. We're going to overtime folks.
Jets 20 - Lions 20
The Jets scored 10 points in about 2 min and 20 seconds. With a little help from the Lions of course. But the game wasn't over. The Jets win the coin toss and get the ball. Brad Smith runs the kick back to the Lions 30 yard line. So here we go and what do I see. The Jets in shotgun running their 2 minute offense. At this point I'm screaming at the TV at work wondering why in the world are they in their 2 minute offense. This only got worse after the 1st play on the drive when Sanchez missed a wide open Holmes on a slant. The ball was thrown towards the sideline when Holmes was cutting inside. Then came the play that won this game.
On 2nd down still in shotgun. Sanchez drops back to throw. He feels the rush, steps up and fires a pass over the middle to Holmes who makes the catch and turns upfield for a 52 yard catch and run. The only thing that stopped this from being a game winning TD was the MLB playing a deep zone. He hauled ass and caught Holmes from behind and brought him down. 2 plays later, Folk comes in and kicks the Jets to victory.
This was another ugly grind it out win for the Jets. This one should not have been this hard but it still doesn't change the fact that when plays needed to be made the Jets made them. On both sides of the ball.
Jets 23 - Lions 20
That's a wrap on the recap. Now it's time for some quick hits.
1) What homefield advantage? The Jets are now 4-0 on the road and 2-2 at their new house. To be able to win on the road in hostile environments is a real good sign going into December and January. I'm a but concerned about not being so great at home. Hopefully that will change as the season goes on.
2) Time to clean up the laundry....The Jets continue to play mistake filled football in the penalty department. 11 for 99 yards including 3 personal fouls. This bullshit has got to stop and in a hurry. The Jets have been extremely lucky to avoid losses from these penalties. Sooner or later their good fortune will change if they don't start playing smarter.
3) The "O" line continues to shine....Coming into this game the Lions were known for 2 things with their personnel. Their passing game and their front four. The latter was neutralized by the great play of the offensive line. Particularly RG Brandon Moore who shut down Ndomakung Suh all game long. Sanchez was sacked only once in the game and that came late in the 2nd quarter right before the Braylon bomb TD pass. LG Matt Slauson has improved by leaps and bounds since the start of the year. LT D'Brickashaw Ferguson is on his way to Hawaii if he keeps his play going and RT Damien Woody has been solid. Once Mangold gets past his cranky shoulder this line will be straight.
4) Welcome back to Revis Island....The hammy is healthy and that nothing but bad news for everyone's #1 receiving threat. Darrelle Revis completely put the clamps down on Megatron Calvin Johnson. Holding him to 1 catch for 13 yards which came on the Lions 1st TD drive at the start of the game. I had a feeling that Revis was going to be on hos game when on the 1st play from scrimmage the Lions tested him out going deep to Johnson. Megatron had a step on #24 but just as the ball is coming down, Revis leaps and sticks his hand in the way deflecting the ball away. From that point on it was going to be a long day for Calvin Johnson and it was.
5) Sanchez comes through in the clutch....This was a telling game for Mark Sanchez on several levels. You saw that he still has a lot to learn. His accuracy needs a lot of improvement and his decision making must be sharper. Having said that though he has shown the ability to stay poised in the pocket in the face of a heavy rush. He has good mobility, escape ability and he throws superbly on the run. He also seems to make a play when the team needs one in a close game no matter how poorly he plays. When the team is being blown out he shuts down but in a close game he turns on a switch and leads. This is what is so enigmatic about this kid. If there was a little more consistency on all of these phases we would be talking about a bonafide superstar in the making. Will Sanchez be a star in this league. I truly believe so. It's hard not to remember that he's just in his 2nd year with very lofty expectations put on him.
6) It's time for the Jets to move to "Greene"r pastures....With the running game going through a bit of a stall right now it might be time to give the ball to Shonn Greene more. The balance isn't there between him and Tomlinson.
LT: 123 carries for 599 yards and 5 TDs
Greene: 87 carries for 391 yards and 1 TD
I realize that a lot of trust in him was lost after the Week 1 fumble but he hasn't coughed it up since and he's showing a lot of power and speed when he touches the ball. He doesn't go down after the 1st hit and has the ability to break a run that LT can't do anymore. His pass catching skills need work but for now just ground and pound with him. The offense will be much more explosive with him in it because he can punish defenders softening them up in the 4th quarter where the Jets like to wear you down.
That's it for quick hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
"These games are fights. We knew this team was tough, they were gonna get after it. They're confident, this is not the same old Lions, this is a good football team. Quite honestly we'd preferred a 1st round knockout, that didn't happen. We got knocked down a few times but we won it in the championship round. And that speak volumes of your football team. Just a great effort by our team, resilient, never said die, kept fighting, kept fighting and obviously felt fortunate that we got the win but we don't care. We got the win, we'll take it. That's what good teams do, find a way to win."
I think Rex was being too complimentary about the Lions. Yes they are better than in years past but the Jets should have dominated them. This game should never have been this close so let's not start making the Lions this juggernaut squad. This was another very ugly and sloppy win by a team that's going through an identity crisis. Last year they were ground and pound with a dominating defense. The defense is there but let's face it they're not dominating yet. And the ground and pound has been grounded by a moronic play caller. This team is fortunate to be in the position they're in and the bright side is that they have time to get this right and be the team we all know they can be.
Next up is the Mangini bowl. This is another game that the Jets should dominate. I don't care how hot the Browns are. They are still the Browns and the Jets are just flat out the better team. End of story. What worries me here are all the outside subplots. Mangini vs The Jets. Rex Ryan vs Rob Ryan. This is stuff that the team doesn't need to be worrying about and it's this kind of stuff that gets them out of focus. I fully expect the Jets to win this game and go to 7-2.
That's all I got. T-Rich....Break us down....1-2-3....And The Home of The JETS!!!!
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 22/39 - 336 yds 1 TD 1 INT - 82.9 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 15 car 55 yds 3.7 ypc
S. Greene - 10 car 46 yds 4.6 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : S. Holmes - 5 rec 114 yds
B. Edwards - 3 rec 78 yds 1 TD
D. Keller - 5 rec 49 yds
L. Tomlinson - 6 rec 47 yds
J. Cotchery - 2 rec 29 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 23
DET- 21
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-13
DET - 5-15
Turnovers
NYJ - 2
DET - 0
Penalties
NYJ - 11-99
DET - 11-102
Time of Possession
NYJ - 29:32
DET - 32:46
There is so much to come away with after digesting this game. Since I couldn't watch the game live I had to go over the "game film" a lot more in depth than I normally do. And I have to say that this game was weirder than most people have made it out to be. Going into this one I felt pretty confident that the Jets would dominate this Lions team despite their prolific passing game and it is a real prolific passing game. But just like last week they came out of the gate flat, uncoordinated and undisciplined. And this time it was the defense that began poorly.
The Lions took the ball to start the game and drove the ball 80 yards for an opening score. This TD has an asterisk because the Jets "D" helped them out on 2 occasions that kept the drive going. The running game was stuffed right at the outset so the Lions went to the air and it was highly effective. Then a personal foul chop block penalty moved the Lions back. The defense couldn't hold court and the Lions completed a 13 yard pass on 2nd and 28 then a 27 yard pass on 3rd and 15.
OK. No big deal, that happens sometimes but then Bart Scott gets hit with a very stupid personal foul after the very next play for grabbing a lineman off the pile and tossing him to the ground. Now in Bart's defense, he was protecting his teammate which is something that I will never get mad at. But you have to realize that if you are going to do something like that be mindful of the zebra's because the #1 rule in a play like that is.....The second guy ALWAYS GETS CAUGHT. The guy that starts the fight mostly never gets flagged, the guy that retaliates does. Bart needed to be smarter than that. Your defense just gave up a big play that put the ball in Jets territory and now you just gave them a free 15. Not smart at all.
You all know what happened a few plays later. Stafford took advantage of a major coverage mismatch. The 5' 7" Jim Leonhard was one on one with 6' 5" Brandon Pettigrew.
No contest. TD Lions.
Look I love Jim Leonhard's heart and ability to play SS in the NFL being so small but he just can't cover a guy that almost has a foot height advantage on him. It's a weakness in the secondary that every team has exploited this year and it will continue to happen until Rex Ryan decides to roll him on to a RB or smaller receiver. This was the end result of a horrible defensive possession by the Jets. The TD scored by Detroit is the 1st one scored on the Jets defense in the 1st quarter so far this season.
Jets 0 - Lions 7
The good news is that the defense would rebound very nicely stopping the Lions on every possession they would have the rest of the 1st half. They needed to because the offense was not getting anything going early on. Sanchez would show signs of a rhythm but then he would throw one of his trademark horrible inaccurate passes that kills a drive forcing a punt. In fact they punted on their 1st 4 possessions of the half and the playcalling early on was suspect as well. There were several plays on 3rd down where passes were called and every receiver would run routes either at or short of the 1st down marker.
Here are 2 examples.
1) 3rd and 15 they run a WR bubble screen to Holmes for 3 yards.
2) 3rd and 7 Sanchez completes a pass to Edwards running a drag route for 3 yards.
Let's talk about the 1st play. It's 3rd and 15. Why in the HOLY HELL WOULD YOU RUN A WR SCREEN! You are calling that play expecting 2 blockers to take on at least 3 to 4 defenders and hope that they can clear a path for Holmes to run or you're expecting Holmes to break 9 tackles and run 16 yards for the 1st down because we all know that a WR screen isn't thrown upfield. The pass is caught at the line of scrimmage.
Just an insanely stupid call in that situation.
The other play was not as dumb but the dumb idea was still the same. Every receiver on the play wasn't down field. They were just at the sticks or in front of it. So Sanchez threw the ball to Edwards crossing the field hoping he could turn the ball up field and get the 1st down. Why not call a play where the same routes are run but they are executed past the marker so when the ball is caught the extra work is for more yardage up the field. I just don't get it and this happens everywhere in the league but since this is about the Jets I'm staying close to home.
After the slumbering work by the "O", the Jets started to get some momentum in the 2nd quarter. The ran a 9 play 53 yard drive that looked pretty sharp. The passing game started to click and they got the ball inside the Lions 10 yard line. Until 3rd down when Sanchez fumbled his 2nd snap of the half which killed the potential game tying score forcing the Jets to go for 3.
Jets 3 - Lions 7
The defense would once again come up and stop the Lions giving the ball back to Sanchez with 1:48 left in the half. What followed was one of the biggest plays of the game. After a sack and fumble recovery on 1st down. The Jets ran a play, the Lions were only rushing 4 giving Sanchez tons of time to scan the field. He saw Edwards running a go route and beat his man CB Alphonso Smith. Mark fired a bomb that traveled at least 60 plus yards in the air and fell right into the waiting hands of Braylon in stride. He slipped past a last gasp tackle attempt and coasted into the endzone for a 74 yard TD. This was an amazing pass by Sanchez only because of what Edwards had to do to get it. He didn't have to do anything. The ball just dropped into his hands while still running up field. You couldn't hand him the ball better.
Jets 10 - Lions 7
The big play gave the Jets the lead at the half with the ball to start the 3rd quarter so the momentum was on thir side.
Until....Braylon giveth and Braylon taketh away.
The Jets were looking pretty good to start the 3rd. They managed one 1st down until Edwards fumbled the ball at the Jets 47 yard line. The ball was recovered by Louis Delmas. Lions ball. This was another classic Braylon Edwards bonehead play. The play was a bootleg quick pass. Edwards caught the pass and proceeded to do an insane amount of juking and jiving that fooled nobody but himself. As he was trying to get away from Delmas he never secured the ball properly and started to lose the grip. It was then punched out. Delmas then just dropped to the ground and landed on the ball. This is what has always been frustrating about this guy. As talented as he is, there's just nothing going on between the ears and you as a fan are subjected to seeing these kind of dumb ass plays by a guy who should know better.
This led to the Lions 2nd TD of the game. A TD that should have only been worth 3 points. Confused by that statement. Well you shouldn't because despite the turnover, the defense was able to hold a goal line stand and force the Lions to kick a game tying FG. The kick was good but what do we see next. Yellow on the field. DE Trevor Pryce gets flagged for roughing the kicker. Personal foul, half the distance to the goal and automatic 1st down. The replay showed Pryce plowing through the line up the middle but then after PK Jason Hanson boots the ball he lunges forward and crashes right into Hanson's legs. Another stupid penalty and this one costs the Jets because Stafford runs an amazing play fake roll out that completely fools the defense and the cameraman to boot. Lions score.
Jets 10 - Lions 13
Then came the extra point try. Hanson injured his knee on the collision with Pryce so Detroit sent DT Ndomukung Suh to kick the extra point. He bangs it off the right upright so the Jets are now only trailing by 3 instead of 4. Big play of the game. It was revealed later that Suh had played soccer in high school so he had experience kicking but I have to question why he was out there. Why didn't the punter kick the XP. I asked that same question to some of my friends on monday and some of them said that the punter isn't used to kicking that way. That logic makes absolutely no sense to me and here's why. I'll just list them to save you the extra reading.
1) The punter is a KICKER plain and simple. They are supposed to know how to kick the ball in any way shape or form. You can't convince me that a punter can't kick a 19 yard FG.
2) If you go with the reasoning that the punter isn't used to kicking XP's or FG's then how in the world can you expect a DT to be used to it. This kid spent most of his football life with a hand in the ground rushing after the QB. So you send him out to kick an XP cause he played pee wee soccer? Please.
3) The punter kicked the ball off the rest of the game. He didn't punt the ball, he kicked it off the tee. When you kick the ball off you are using the same motion and technique that you would use kicking FG's more or less. You can't tell me that this guy couldn't have kicked the XP.
Anyway, the special teams blunder by the Lions gave the Jets a huge break. They didn't have to chase any points. They just needed to SCORE some.
And on the very next possession after the Lions TD, the Jets looked like they were going to do just that until. Sanchez threw a horrible interception. He was looking for Holmes who was streaking down the seam. He was open but the ball was inaccurate and under thrown. CB Alphonso Smith picked it off in the end zone and stupidly tried to return it and was tackled at the 1 inch line. This is going to be a little off the beaten path but I have to comment on this.
After Smith picks off the pass and is tackled literally just outside the 1 yard line. He starts to celebrate and play to the crowd. It was a big play and it continued his hot streak of interceptions. It was his 5th pick in 3 games but what are you celebrating? The fact that you intercepted a pass or the fact that you put your offense in a hole by getting tackled at the 1 yard line when you could have taken a knee in the end zone and give them the ball at the 20. Once again bonehead plays are celebrated instead of chastised. You can't celebrate a good play when you make a bad play at the exact same time. I would have grabbed this knucklehead by his facemask and opened up a can of whoop ass after that display of stupidity.
Well the pick didn't hurt mostly due to the field position but the defense did their part. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. After the offense couldn't get anything going, the Lions ran a 9 play 92 yard drive that gave them what seemed to be an insurmountable lead. The secondary for the most part was doing their thing holding down the outside threats but nickel back Drew Coleman got lit up by Nate Burleson and he was the go to guy on this drive. A pass interference penalty on Jim Leonhard put the ball at the 1 yard line. He was matched up again on Pettigrew and it was over after that.
The next sequence of plays ended up being an embarrassment to the Jets coaching staff. On 2nd and goal from the 2 yard line, the Jets had to use a timeout because they had 12 men on the field. 10 times out of 10 that's an inexcusable reason to use a TO on defense but 1 play later they had to burn another timeout for the exact same reason. This was just unacceptable and sloppy. I have no idea what these guys were thinking at the time but it clearly wasn't football because game management like this is reserved for pee wee and high school ball and even those guys don't screw up like that. After all that, the Lions scored anyway so now the Jets are down by 10.
Jets 10 - Lions 20
With the game seemingly over, the Jets woke up and went to work on offense. With 4:28 left in regulation they went on a drive that got them right back in the game and it took little time to do it. The highlight play was a 26 yard leaping catch by Keller to the Lions 6 yard line. Sanchez made a great throw into a small bit of traffic. He put enough air on the ball that either Keller was going to get it or no one was. Keller made the leap and snatched it out of the air for the great play. 2 plays later Sanchez QB sneaks it in for the TD.
Jets 17 - Lions 20
Here's where the major questionable stuff took place and it didn't concern the Jets. With 2:46 left in the game the Lions had the ball. Stafford who left the game after re-injuring his right shoulder had been replaced by 3rd string QB Drew Stanton. The Jets had only 1 timeout left which they used after the 1st play. A run that they stopped for a 2 yard loss. The ran the ball again for 6 yards and let the clock run down to the 2 minute warning. Then for some inexplicable reason they passed on 3rd down. It was a play action bootleg that the Jets sniffed out and stopped. So not only did the Lions not get the 1st down, they are giving the Jets the ball back with 1:40 left and the clock stopped because the pass was incomplete. This was mind boggling. If the Lions had run the ball again and got stopped they would have given the Jets the ball back with about 50 seconds left.
So now the Jets have new life at their own 22 yard line. This time only needing to get into FG range. They have no timeouts but because of the extra time on the clock the middle of the field was still an option. The drive wasn't looking too good until 3rd down when Keller made another tremendous play. Catching an 11 yard pass on 3rd and 9. This play was better than the leaping catch because of the heavy traffic around him and the hit he takes after catching the ball. So the Jets now have a fresh set of downs which set up the other big play of the game. Sanchez throws a simple pass to LT over the middle. He shakes a tackle and gets the 1st down and runs out of bounds when LB Julian Peterson pushes him late and gets hit with a personal foul. The penalty put the Jets into FG range but they were able to gain a few more yards and kill enough clock for the FG try.
Enter Nick Folk. Kick is up and it's good. We're going to overtime folks.
Jets 20 - Lions 20
The Jets scored 10 points in about 2 min and 20 seconds. With a little help from the Lions of course. But the game wasn't over. The Jets win the coin toss and get the ball. Brad Smith runs the kick back to the Lions 30 yard line. So here we go and what do I see. The Jets in shotgun running their 2 minute offense. At this point I'm screaming at the TV at work wondering why in the world are they in their 2 minute offense. This only got worse after the 1st play on the drive when Sanchez missed a wide open Holmes on a slant. The ball was thrown towards the sideline when Holmes was cutting inside. Then came the play that won this game.
On 2nd down still in shotgun. Sanchez drops back to throw. He feels the rush, steps up and fires a pass over the middle to Holmes who makes the catch and turns upfield for a 52 yard catch and run. The only thing that stopped this from being a game winning TD was the MLB playing a deep zone. He hauled ass and caught Holmes from behind and brought him down. 2 plays later, Folk comes in and kicks the Jets to victory.
This was another ugly grind it out win for the Jets. This one should not have been this hard but it still doesn't change the fact that when plays needed to be made the Jets made them. On both sides of the ball.
Jets 23 - Lions 20
That's a wrap on the recap. Now it's time for some quick hits.
1) What homefield advantage? The Jets are now 4-0 on the road and 2-2 at their new house. To be able to win on the road in hostile environments is a real good sign going into December and January. I'm a but concerned about not being so great at home. Hopefully that will change as the season goes on.
2) Time to clean up the laundry....The Jets continue to play mistake filled football in the penalty department. 11 for 99 yards including 3 personal fouls. This bullshit has got to stop and in a hurry. The Jets have been extremely lucky to avoid losses from these penalties. Sooner or later their good fortune will change if they don't start playing smarter.
3) The "O" line continues to shine....Coming into this game the Lions were known for 2 things with their personnel. Their passing game and their front four. The latter was neutralized by the great play of the offensive line. Particularly RG Brandon Moore who shut down Ndomakung Suh all game long. Sanchez was sacked only once in the game and that came late in the 2nd quarter right before the Braylon bomb TD pass. LG Matt Slauson has improved by leaps and bounds since the start of the year. LT D'Brickashaw Ferguson is on his way to Hawaii if he keeps his play going and RT Damien Woody has been solid. Once Mangold gets past his cranky shoulder this line will be straight.
4) Welcome back to Revis Island....The hammy is healthy and that nothing but bad news for everyone's #1 receiving threat. Darrelle Revis completely put the clamps down on Megatron Calvin Johnson. Holding him to 1 catch for 13 yards which came on the Lions 1st TD drive at the start of the game. I had a feeling that Revis was going to be on hos game when on the 1st play from scrimmage the Lions tested him out going deep to Johnson. Megatron had a step on #24 but just as the ball is coming down, Revis leaps and sticks his hand in the way deflecting the ball away. From that point on it was going to be a long day for Calvin Johnson and it was.
5) Sanchez comes through in the clutch....This was a telling game for Mark Sanchez on several levels. You saw that he still has a lot to learn. His accuracy needs a lot of improvement and his decision making must be sharper. Having said that though he has shown the ability to stay poised in the pocket in the face of a heavy rush. He has good mobility, escape ability and he throws superbly on the run. He also seems to make a play when the team needs one in a close game no matter how poorly he plays. When the team is being blown out he shuts down but in a close game he turns on a switch and leads. This is what is so enigmatic about this kid. If there was a little more consistency on all of these phases we would be talking about a bonafide superstar in the making. Will Sanchez be a star in this league. I truly believe so. It's hard not to remember that he's just in his 2nd year with very lofty expectations put on him.
6) It's time for the Jets to move to "Greene"r pastures....With the running game going through a bit of a stall right now it might be time to give the ball to Shonn Greene more. The balance isn't there between him and Tomlinson.
LT: 123 carries for 599 yards and 5 TDs
Greene: 87 carries for 391 yards and 1 TD
I realize that a lot of trust in him was lost after the Week 1 fumble but he hasn't coughed it up since and he's showing a lot of power and speed when he touches the ball. He doesn't go down after the 1st hit and has the ability to break a run that LT can't do anymore. His pass catching skills need work but for now just ground and pound with him. The offense will be much more explosive with him in it because he can punish defenders softening them up in the 4th quarter where the Jets like to wear you down.
That's it for quick hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
"These games are fights. We knew this team was tough, they were gonna get after it. They're confident, this is not the same old Lions, this is a good football team. Quite honestly we'd preferred a 1st round knockout, that didn't happen. We got knocked down a few times but we won it in the championship round. And that speak volumes of your football team. Just a great effort by our team, resilient, never said die, kept fighting, kept fighting and obviously felt fortunate that we got the win but we don't care. We got the win, we'll take it. That's what good teams do, find a way to win."
I think Rex was being too complimentary about the Lions. Yes they are better than in years past but the Jets should have dominated them. This game should never have been this close so let's not start making the Lions this juggernaut squad. This was another very ugly and sloppy win by a team that's going through an identity crisis. Last year they were ground and pound with a dominating defense. The defense is there but let's face it they're not dominating yet. And the ground and pound has been grounded by a moronic play caller. This team is fortunate to be in the position they're in and the bright side is that they have time to get this right and be the team we all know they can be.
Next up is the Mangini bowl. This is another game that the Jets should dominate. I don't care how hot the Browns are. They are still the Browns and the Jets are just flat out the better team. End of story. What worries me here are all the outside subplots. Mangini vs The Jets. Rex Ryan vs Rob Ryan. This is stuff that the team doesn't need to be worrying about and it's this kind of stuff that gets them out of focus. I fully expect the Jets to win this game and go to 7-2.
That's all I got. T-Rich....Break us down....1-2-3....And The Home of The JETS!!!!
Week 8 Recap Green Bay Packers vs New York Jets
Final Score: Packers 9 - Jets 0
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 16/38 - 256 yds 0 TD 2 INT - 43.3 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 16 car 54 yds 3.4 ypc
S. Greene - 6 car 22 yds 3.7 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : D. Keller - 2 rec 45 yds
S. Holmes - 3 rec 43 yds
B. Edwards - 1 rec 32 yds
J. Cotchery - 4 rec 89 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 13
GB- 15
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 7-17
GB - 2-14
Turnovers
NYJ - 3
GB - 0
Penalties
NYJ - 7-55
GB - 3-15
Time of Possession
NYJ - 31:23
GB - 28:37
There's no other way to put this one. This was one of the WORST performances by an offense I have seen in a long time. The numbers in this case don't lie, but here are a couple of numbers that truly tell the story.
1) 3 for 3 turnovers. ALL IN GB TERRITORY
2) 7 for 7 dropped passes
3) 42% for Sanchez's completion percentage
4) 24 for 24 rushing attempts
5) 38 for 38 pass attempts
There was so much wrong with this game offensively that it's almost impossible to assign blame on just 1 person. I however am placing the blame on 3 people and I think you know who they are.
1) Mark Sanchez
2) Brian Schottenheimer
3) Rex Ryan
For the 2nd straight game Sanchez played like SHIT! He has regressed from his hot start. His accuracy is just dreadful right now. Up, Down, Left, Right. Almost every throw took a circus effort by the receivers to catch. WHEN THEY ACTUALLY CAUGHT THE DAMN BALL! It's time for Sanchez to stop talking about needing to get better with his accuracy and ACTUALLY GET BETTER! In his defense, when Sanchez did throw the ball well his guys couldn't bring the ball in. These guys couldn't have picked a worse time to suffer a case of the dropsies. And as far as his 2 picks go. Those really don't fall on him either. They were simply a case of a tie up and the DB's winning the wrestling match for the ball. The only thing I would say about the picks is that the throws were not as sharp as they should have been. The decision making wasn't too good either. The 1st interception was a 3rd down and 11 and Sanchez threw the ball to Cotchery for a 3 yard slant. That decision makes no sense whatsoever.
So the passing game wasn't clicking maybe they should have tried....
RUNNING THE BALL MORE!!!
Once again Schottenheimer got too cute with the playbook. It's no secret that the Packers front 7 resembled a hospital unit. The Jets claimed to have the league's best running game well WHERE WAS IT???? 24 rushing attempts? UNACCEPTABLE. It may not have been working well early on but you can't just abandon your best strength on offense even if it's taking a while to get going. Maybe it's just my initial anger coming through here but I'm really getting sick and tired of this out think your opponent style of playcalling. Just line up and smash the ball in their face. That will open up the passing game and help Sanchez get the ball to the right guy. The stats didn't lie last year. When the Jets ran the ball more than passed, they were much more successful on the scoreboard and in the win column. I realize that there are more toys for Sanchez to play with in the passing game but you have to stay with what your identity really is. This team is a running team. HANDS DOWN!
RUN THE GOD DAMN BALL!
This is the perfect segue to Rex Ryan. He needed to lay down the law and tell Schottenheimer to run the ball more. Instead he let him call the game and this is what the end result was. Sadly, this wasn't the only thing that Rex did wrong on this day. His game management was very questionable.
The fake punt he ran in the 1st quarter was just a terrible call.
Now I know what you are all gonna say. "It's a bad call because it didn't work. If he got it, it was a great call."
9 times out of 10 you would be right but here is why this is the 1 time it was the wrong call. Weatherford was punting inside his 20 yard line on 4th and 18. You just can't take the risk of allowing a short field for GB if you don't make it. Now it has come to light from Rex's press conference that Weatherford had the Punt/Fake option depending on what he saw from the GB coverage. Clearly Weatherford thought he could make it and he took off. I don't know if this was Rex throwing his punter under the bus but the real point is simple.
HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPTION IN THE 1ST PLACE!!!
Just punt the ball and play defense which was awesome all game long.
Rex also did a poor job with his challenges. I have no problem with him challenging the fumble but the 1st interception he needed to keep the flag in his pocket and save it.
Here's why.
He just lost a challenge on the Brad Smith fumble. The defense forced a 3 and out. Now you have this questionable interception play. Just hold on to the challenge and play defense. The Packers clearly had a hard time moving the ball all day long. You trusted your defense to hold on if the fake punt didn't work. The defense held up after the fumble so trust them to hold down the Packer offense again. Finally, the Jets had nothing to gain if they won the challenge. The pass wasn't close to a 1st down so Rex was challenging the right to punt the ball instead of having the turnover. Of course the Jets never needed the challenge due to the pathetic offense but it would have been nice to have it just in case.
The biggest factor for Rex in this one was the simple fact that the team was coming off their bye week. They had 2 weeks to get healthy and prepared for a Packer team coming off a Sunday night game against Text Favre. Rex needed to have this team better prepared for this one.
AT HOME!!!!
Just a bad job all the way across the board.
That's it for the recap.
Now it's time for some quick hits.
1) LT makes history....With his 54 yards rushing today. Tomlinson became only the 2nd player with over 13,000 yards rushing and 4,000 yards receiving. It's a shame that he didn't have more yards rushing in this game. Thanks for nothing Schotty.
2) The ghosts of the old meadowlands came out today....One of the biggest factors/distractions for the Jets and Giants playing in NJ is the swirling winds. This time the wind helped and hurt the Jets. On Mason Crosby's 50 yard FG attempt, me missed it badly due to mostly the wind taking the ball and sending it wide left. So when Folk made his only FG attempt of the day from 37 yards away on the sae side of the field. He clearly compensated for what he thought was going to be a swirling wind and he pushed the ball to the right missing the kick by a mile. It was just a terrible attempt but I think the wind and how bad Crosby's kick looked got into his head. He still has to make that kick.
3) Bad after the bye....The Jets are now 0-2 coming off their bye week during King Rex's rule. The two things that both games had in common was that the team came out flat and were just 1 play away from winning the game despite the poor play.
4) Props to the Packer's "D"....I know I have spent most of this blog ranting about how poorly the Jets were on offense but a lot of that has to do with the Packers defense. They showed up and played very well. The 8 man coverages gave Sanchez very small window's to throw and forced bad decisions. I still think the Jets should have been better on offense but the Packers defense does deserve some credit.
That's all for quick hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This is another daily double
"We let one get away from us. We were in great position to the way our defense played in particular to win this football game. We just never got it done."
"With this football team you gotta win the close ones. We gotta win these games, I don't care who we play. You play at our place you should win. I thought our fans gave a great effort. Left a little early but that was our fault, not theirs."
That pretty much sums it up when it comes to this game. This team looked out of sync and poorly prepared coming out of the bye week. What really steams me about this one is the fact that in spite of all the poor play on offense, the turnovers, the missed FG. They were still in the game until the very end.
The defense was great today shutting down one of the NFL's best quarterbacks who plays for a team that lives and dies by the pass. Rodgers' was non existent all day. The pressure wasn't as strong but when they needed to dial up the blitz they got to him. They also did a great job of containing him between the numbers. One of Rodgers' best skills is throwing on the run. The "D" took that away.
All it took was just ONE FUCKING PLAY! And the Jets would have escaped with an ugly win instead of dealing with an uglier loss.
Now they go to Motown to take on a Lions team that's not as bad as last year. Should the Jets dominate? Absolutely but Detroit will not go down quietly and they have some weapons so the Jets have a lot of work to do to get the shitty taste of this game out of their mouths.
That's all I got. No chant this week. They don't deserve it.
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 16/38 - 256 yds 0 TD 2 INT - 43.3 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 16 car 54 yds 3.4 ypc
S. Greene - 6 car 22 yds 3.7 ypc
Receiving
NYJ : D. Keller - 2 rec 45 yds
S. Holmes - 3 rec 43 yds
B. Edwards - 1 rec 32 yds
J. Cotchery - 4 rec 89 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 13
GB- 15
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 7-17
GB - 2-14
Turnovers
NYJ - 3
GB - 0
Penalties
NYJ - 7-55
GB - 3-15
Time of Possession
NYJ - 31:23
GB - 28:37
There's no other way to put this one. This was one of the WORST performances by an offense I have seen in a long time. The numbers in this case don't lie, but here are a couple of numbers that truly tell the story.
1) 3 for 3 turnovers. ALL IN GB TERRITORY
2) 7 for 7 dropped passes
3) 42% for Sanchez's completion percentage
4) 24 for 24 rushing attempts
5) 38 for 38 pass attempts
There was so much wrong with this game offensively that it's almost impossible to assign blame on just 1 person. I however am placing the blame on 3 people and I think you know who they are.
1) Mark Sanchez
2) Brian Schottenheimer
3) Rex Ryan
For the 2nd straight game Sanchez played like SHIT! He has regressed from his hot start. His accuracy is just dreadful right now. Up, Down, Left, Right. Almost every throw took a circus effort by the receivers to catch. WHEN THEY ACTUALLY CAUGHT THE DAMN BALL! It's time for Sanchez to stop talking about needing to get better with his accuracy and ACTUALLY GET BETTER! In his defense, when Sanchez did throw the ball well his guys couldn't bring the ball in. These guys couldn't have picked a worse time to suffer a case of the dropsies. And as far as his 2 picks go. Those really don't fall on him either. They were simply a case of a tie up and the DB's winning the wrestling match for the ball. The only thing I would say about the picks is that the throws were not as sharp as they should have been. The decision making wasn't too good either. The 1st interception was a 3rd down and 11 and Sanchez threw the ball to Cotchery for a 3 yard slant. That decision makes no sense whatsoever.
So the passing game wasn't clicking maybe they should have tried....
RUNNING THE BALL MORE!!!
Once again Schottenheimer got too cute with the playbook. It's no secret that the Packers front 7 resembled a hospital unit. The Jets claimed to have the league's best running game well WHERE WAS IT???? 24 rushing attempts? UNACCEPTABLE. It may not have been working well early on but you can't just abandon your best strength on offense even if it's taking a while to get going. Maybe it's just my initial anger coming through here but I'm really getting sick and tired of this out think your opponent style of playcalling. Just line up and smash the ball in their face. That will open up the passing game and help Sanchez get the ball to the right guy. The stats didn't lie last year. When the Jets ran the ball more than passed, they were much more successful on the scoreboard and in the win column. I realize that there are more toys for Sanchez to play with in the passing game but you have to stay with what your identity really is. This team is a running team. HANDS DOWN!
RUN THE GOD DAMN BALL!
This is the perfect segue to Rex Ryan. He needed to lay down the law and tell Schottenheimer to run the ball more. Instead he let him call the game and this is what the end result was. Sadly, this wasn't the only thing that Rex did wrong on this day. His game management was very questionable.
The fake punt he ran in the 1st quarter was just a terrible call.
Now I know what you are all gonna say. "It's a bad call because it didn't work. If he got it, it was a great call."
9 times out of 10 you would be right but here is why this is the 1 time it was the wrong call. Weatherford was punting inside his 20 yard line on 4th and 18. You just can't take the risk of allowing a short field for GB if you don't make it. Now it has come to light from Rex's press conference that Weatherford had the Punt/Fake option depending on what he saw from the GB coverage. Clearly Weatherford thought he could make it and he took off. I don't know if this was Rex throwing his punter under the bus but the real point is simple.
HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPTION IN THE 1ST PLACE!!!
Just punt the ball and play defense which was awesome all game long.
Rex also did a poor job with his challenges. I have no problem with him challenging the fumble but the 1st interception he needed to keep the flag in his pocket and save it.
Here's why.
He just lost a challenge on the Brad Smith fumble. The defense forced a 3 and out. Now you have this questionable interception play. Just hold on to the challenge and play defense. The Packers clearly had a hard time moving the ball all day long. You trusted your defense to hold on if the fake punt didn't work. The defense held up after the fumble so trust them to hold down the Packer offense again. Finally, the Jets had nothing to gain if they won the challenge. The pass wasn't close to a 1st down so Rex was challenging the right to punt the ball instead of having the turnover. Of course the Jets never needed the challenge due to the pathetic offense but it would have been nice to have it just in case.
The biggest factor for Rex in this one was the simple fact that the team was coming off their bye week. They had 2 weeks to get healthy and prepared for a Packer team coming off a Sunday night game against Text Favre. Rex needed to have this team better prepared for this one.
AT HOME!!!!
Just a bad job all the way across the board.
That's it for the recap.
Now it's time for some quick hits.
1) LT makes history....With his 54 yards rushing today. Tomlinson became only the 2nd player with over 13,000 yards rushing and 4,000 yards receiving. It's a shame that he didn't have more yards rushing in this game. Thanks for nothing Schotty.
2) The ghosts of the old meadowlands came out today....One of the biggest factors/distractions for the Jets and Giants playing in NJ is the swirling winds. This time the wind helped and hurt the Jets. On Mason Crosby's 50 yard FG attempt, me missed it badly due to mostly the wind taking the ball and sending it wide left. So when Folk made his only FG attempt of the day from 37 yards away on the sae side of the field. He clearly compensated for what he thought was going to be a swirling wind and he pushed the ball to the right missing the kick by a mile. It was just a terrible attempt but I think the wind and how bad Crosby's kick looked got into his head. He still has to make that kick.
3) Bad after the bye....The Jets are now 0-2 coming off their bye week during King Rex's rule. The two things that both games had in common was that the team came out flat and were just 1 play away from winning the game despite the poor play.
4) Props to the Packer's "D"....I know I have spent most of this blog ranting about how poorly the Jets were on offense but a lot of that has to do with the Packers defense. They showed up and played very well. The 8 man coverages gave Sanchez very small window's to throw and forced bad decisions. I still think the Jets should have been better on offense but the Packers defense does deserve some credit.
That's all for quick hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This is another daily double
"We let one get away from us. We were in great position to the way our defense played in particular to win this football game. We just never got it done."
"With this football team you gotta win the close ones. We gotta win these games, I don't care who we play. You play at our place you should win. I thought our fans gave a great effort. Left a little early but that was our fault, not theirs."
That pretty much sums it up when it comes to this game. This team looked out of sync and poorly prepared coming out of the bye week. What really steams me about this one is the fact that in spite of all the poor play on offense, the turnovers, the missed FG. They were still in the game until the very end.
The defense was great today shutting down one of the NFL's best quarterbacks who plays for a team that lives and dies by the pass. Rodgers' was non existent all day. The pressure wasn't as strong but when they needed to dial up the blitz they got to him. They also did a great job of containing him between the numbers. One of Rodgers' best skills is throwing on the run. The "D" took that away.
All it took was just ONE FUCKING PLAY! And the Jets would have escaped with an ugly win instead of dealing with an uglier loss.
Now they go to Motown to take on a Lions team that's not as bad as last year. Should the Jets dominate? Absolutely but Detroit will not go down quietly and they have some weapons so the Jets have a lot of work to do to get the shitty taste of this game out of their mouths.
That's all I got. No chant this week. They don't deserve it.
Week 6 Recap : New York Jets vs Denver Broncos
Final Score: Jets 24 - Broncos 20
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 17/30 - 198 yds 1 TD 2 INT - 60.1 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 16 car 55 yds 3.4 ypc 2 TD
S. Greene - 9 car 43 yds 4.8 ypc 1 TD
Receiving
NYJ : D. Keller - 3 rec 75 yds
S. Holmes - 4 rec 47 yds
B. Edwards - 4 rec 46 yds 1TD
J. Cotchery - 4 rec 18 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 17
DEN- 21
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-13
DEN - 7-18
Turnovers
NYJ - 3
DEN - 2
Penalties
NYJ - 6-74
DEN - 5-81
Time of Possession
NYJ - 29:37
DEN - 30:23
There are several words that can describe this game overall. Here's my Letterman-esque top 10 words that I think best fit what this game was like to watch and what the end result meant.
1) Sloppy
2) Undisciplined
3) Sluggish
4) Anemic
5) Careless
6) Frustrating
7) Resilient
8) Gutsy
9) Lucky
10) Unapologetic
I have one more to add and this one probably trumps all 10 up there.
DEFINING!!!!
Coming off the high spirited victory last Monday against Text Favre and the Vikings, the Jets had to go on the road to Mile High. A very tough place to play even with the normal amount of preparation. You throw in the altitude for good measure and you have a recipe for a potential stinker. There were some analysts and "experts" who predicted a Jets loss citing that the factors I just mentioned being the main hurdles that the Jets wouldn't be able to overcome. I had one word to respond to that line of thinking.
BULLSHIT!!!!
My line of thinking was that in spite of the short week, the Jets were on a roll. The team was starting to get healthy and click on Offense, Defense and Special Teams. Plus, they were playing the Broncos, a team that got punched in the face against the Ravens the week before and they ran away from the fight like little bitches. This was telling me that if you out physical this team you got em. Aside from the Steelers and Ravens, the Jets are one of the toughest teams in the NFL on both offense and defense. I thought for sure that intimidation factor would be enough to compensate for the lack of rest and time to gameplan.
Clearly I don't know anything. That's why I'm a fan who blogs and not a coach.
The Jets couldn't start this game any worse than the way they did short of turning the ball over on their 1st posession.
Which they almost did....On back to back plays.
It was obvious from the 1st play that the Broncos were fired up. They were called out by Josh McDaniels for being soft against the Ravens. Ray Rice ran all over their defense and with the NFL's best running game up next it looked like more of the same.
That wasn't the case.
The Jets came out in what was clearly a run formation. They went with a jumbo package with Braylon Edwards up top. The Broncos crowd the line and stuff the run for a 1 yard loss. This was the 1st of MANY questionable calls that Schottenheimer made in this game. The entire world knows that the Jets run the ball better than anyone else in the league. The world also knows that the Broncos have the league's worst run defense so logic would dictate you go with your teams strength against their weakness right?
WRONG!!!
That's what a predictable person would do. I would have kept the formation but run a play action pass and took a shot down the field. As long as the pass isn't intercepted, the play call serves 2 purposes.
1) You stretch the Denver defense right at the gate by taking advantage of the 1 on 1 coverage that's being played.
2) You force Denver to honor and respect the threat of the pass a lot sooner than they would have expected.
The Jets didn't do that and they ended up in a hole right away on 2nd down. The Jets passed the next play, Sanchez couldn't find anyone open so he tried to force a throw on the run to Edwards, Champ Bailey jumped the throw and almost picked it off. OK.
Disaster avoided.
It's now 3rd down and 11. Sanchez goes back to throw and looks for Edwards down the left sideline. Sanchez's throw almost gets picked off by CB Parrish Cox. 4th down. Jets punt. The 3rd down play was an odd one so looking back at the game I noticed that there was a miscommunication. Sanchez threw a timing pass toward the sideline and Edwards ran his route a couple of yards longer than Sanchez expected. The ball came up short and Cox dropped the sure pick. That possession was just dreadful but the defense was able to force a Denver fumble so in just under 2 minutes game time, the Jets had a chance to set their offense straight.
Nope....3 and out.
The "D" would once again get the ball back but Sanchez gave it right back with his 1st of 2 interceptions on the day. It was a 2nd down pass. The play was covered well by Denver, Sanchez rolled a bit to his left and threw it to Cotchery crossing the field. The problem was he never saw LB Jason Hunter playing zone in the flat. Sanchez threw the ball right to Hunter who returned the ball to the NYJ 18 yard line. This was a terrible read by Sanchez. Hunter was right in his eye line and he still threw the pass. This INT ended a streak of 184 straight pass attempts without an pick.
You knew the good fortune wasn't going to last all year but you have to make a better decision with the ball than that. After his 1st 2 passes in the game you just knew he was going to throw one. The fact that CBS mentioned his near misses this season and the 184 attempts streak right before he threw the real pick didn't help either. If you believe in that sort of announcer jinx. I personally don't but that kind of thing always seems to happen. A player is due to do something good or bad, the announcer brings it up and right after the last word comes out the player does the exact thing he was setting up.
Weird.
Once again the defense bailed out the sluggish offense and forced a Denver FG attempt.
OOPS....Bad snap, the ball starts rolling away, it's fallen on by K Matt Prater and the Jets get the ball on the NYJ 23 yard line via the turnover.
At this point I'm thinking that maybe the football gods were in the Jets favor. They couldn't have been more awful on offense and twice the defense holds down the fort or forces a turnover. This was good fortune that good teams take advantage of.
Finally, the offense did. On 3rd and 10, Sanchez found a streaking Braylon Edwards running down the seam for a 32 yard TD pass.
Jets 7 - Broncos 0
This was a well designed and executed play. Edwards and Keller were lined up together up top. Keller went into motion and stood right next to Edwards creating a stack formation. This created confusion with Denver's man to man coverage. Parrish Cox was on Keller but when the stack formation happened before the snap, both Champ Bailey and Cox lost their assignments. That was mostly due to the routes that were run by Keller and Edwards. At the snap they ran side by side until Keller made a quick hitch move to the outside this gave just enough indecision by Cox and Bailey on who covers who and by the time they made their choices, Edwards was by Bailey. Sanchez threw a perfect pass that landed right into Edwards chest.
That play capped off a very nice 13 play 77 yard drive that got the offense in rhythm. At this point I thought the Jets were settled in and ready to dominate.
Then the defense gave the lead right back.
Denver responded with a 8 play 80 yard drive finishing with a TD run by Tim Tebow. He scored on a wildcat play that was poorly defended by the Jets. It was a simple fake handoff QB keeper run. Safety James Ihedigbo was supposed to have outside containment but he rushed too far inside and got blocked completely out of the play. The rest of the interior of the "D" bought the fake giving Tebow a clear lane towards the edge of the endzone and snuck in.
Jets 7 - Broncos 7
OK. They scored. No big deal. We'll just answer the score when we get the ball on the kickoff right?
Not so fast....The Broncos caught the Jets sleeping and executed a perfect onside kick that was recovered at the Denver 45 yard line. This was very surprising to me considering how well the Jets play on special teams but this was a ballsy call by McDaniels and it paid off. Everything went right for Denver on this play. The kick was perfect, high enough and long enough to go past 10 yards and best of all, there wasn't a Jet player withing 10 yards of the ball when it was kicked straight up in the air.
So now the defense has to go back on the field right after giving up an 80 yard TD drive. No problem because they manned up and forced a Denver punt. This was a statement stop by the defense. It's becoming more and more obvious that this defense is not the same unit as last year's group. As dominant as they were last year, had this been last year's group, they might not have allowed a TD but they might have gotten into FG range and maybe given up 3 points. You'll take that every time but this bunch was committed to giving up 0 points and they were able to do that. That speak volumes for this team knowing that if a mistake is made, you can trust in your defense to pick up the pieces and do their best to get the ball back for the "O".
After several exchanges of possesion by both teams, the Jets got the ball at their own 33 yard line with 4:06 left in the 1st half. They got on a decent run moving the ball into Denver territory, then it happened.
On 3rd down at the Denver 28 yard line, Sanchez threw his 2nd interception of the day. The ball was returned to the Denver 35. Broncos ball with :39 seconds left. From the naked eye it looked like Sanchez made another bad decision, throwing the ball into coverage but looking back at the play, Sanchez isn't totally to blame for this one.
Sanchez was in shotgun and was looking for Keller in the seam. That was his mistake. He was looking at Keller and ONLY Keller. The Broncos were in a man/zone coverage. CB Syd'Quan Thompson was covering Cotchery and Keller was running on his own. Right when Keller was making his cut towards the middle, Thompson changed his coverage from man to zone and dropped off his man and follwed Keller. Sanchez seeing Keller open threw the ball his way but Thompson ran right in front of the pass and picked it off. This was a very exotic coverage that was well executed. Sanchez had no chance for success on that play mostly because he stared down his primary target on the play. The defense saw that and just keyed on Sanchez's eyes. The kid still has to work on working through his progressions down the field. He has gotten a lot better at it but every once in a while during a drive he will abandon his looks and just eye ball one guy. That happened here and that's how you get INT #2.
This led to a 59 yard FG by the Broncos taking the locker room at halftime with the lead.
Jets 7 - Broncos 10
We move to the 3rd quarter. Denver gets the ball first and all they did was take 5:22 off the clock. The Jets on the othr hand out their possession of the ball to better use. The drive would stall after Sanchez gets sacked forcing King Rex to make a decision. Punt or attempt a 56 yard FG. Ryan went with the FG try. This was a ballsy move since Folk's career long was from 53. Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf wouldn't shut up about how deep the kickers were putting the ball through during the warmups. Apparently there was a nice enough breeze and with the high altitude the ball travels better. Just ask Rockies pitchers about that. So Folk lines up and I'm thinking he's not making this. I still have no confidence in Folk's ability. I still felt that he's the bum that Wade Phillips gave up on in Dallas and if Wade Phillips gives up on you, you must suck because Wade Phillips is an idiot.
Well as it turns out, Wade Phillips is an idiot and so am I because Folk drills this kick right down the middle with plenty of leg to spare. Nick Folk has been awesome this year. Aside from a 30 yarder he missed in Buffalo I can't think of any other kick that has been nothing short of perfect. He looks like the Nick Folk of 2 years ago before his injury that turned him into Old Folk in Big D. By the way, the 56 yard boot is the longest FG made in Jets history so not only does he tie the game, he puts himself in Jets lore. Way to go Nick.
Jets 10 - Broncos 10
The Broncos would once again respond with a drive of their own. With 2:39 left in the 3rd quarter, Denver drove the ball to another TD highlighted by WR Demerius Thomas beating Revis down the left sideline. The replays showed that Thomas didn't have both feet in bounds while maintaining possession of the ball. The play should have been challenged but Ryan was gun shy of throwing the red flag because of what happened 2 plays earlier. Denver had the ball on their own 39 yard line, it's 3rd down and 5. Orton fires a bomb down the sideline for Brandon Lloyd. Lloyd leaps and snags the ball. Jim Leonhard comes flying and and crushes Lloyd out of bounds. A yellow flag comes flying in.
Personal foul....Uneccessary roughness.
Once again, the replays showed that Leonhard didn't lead with his helmet, he hit Lloyd with his shoulder. It was a clean hit but the side judge missed it. They also missed the fact that Lloyd didn't have total possession of the ball throughout the entire play. Ryan challenged that and the play was upheld. Because of the failed challenge and the fact that the Jets only had 1 timeout left, Ryan chose not to challenge the TD play which he would have won. These 2 plays were just a small example of how HORRENDOUS the officiating was all game long. This crew made up their own mind when it came to the interperetation of pass interference and complete and incomplete passes. To be fair, they screwed both sides but who cares about Denver's feelings. All of this didn't change the fact that the Jets were now behind again.
Jets 10 - Broncos 17
After the kickoff, the Jets were putting together a pretty impressive drive. The 1st play was a 41 yard catch and run by Dustin Keller. Sanchez threw a pretty pass right into Keller's bread basket who was being covered rather tightly by LB Clark Haggans. The next play had some razzle dazzle. Schotenheimer called an end around for Santonio Holmes. He takes the hand off and the Broncos bit on the bootleg action. There was a ton of room for Holmes to run. Then for some inexplicable reason he runs right into the back of Braylon Edwards whose blocking down field. The ball pops loose and Denver recovers.
There goes that one. This was the Jets 3rd turnover of the game and it was at this point I felt that this one was not in the cards. All the talk of the short week and playing on the road in Denver started to take shape here. The Jets were sloppy and incoherent on offense and plays like that one spelled it out perfectly. Holmes has space to make a play and he runs right into his own teammate causing a fumble.
Crushing play but....The defense would come up big again and force the Broncos to punt.
We now go to the 4th quarter where the game got a little nuts. With 10:43 left to play the Jets got the ball. Their previous possession in the quarter was a very inept 3 and out so the confidence level for me wasn't high that anything positive was going to be taking place here. After a 22 yard pass to Santonio Holmes, the Jets would go to ground and pound and it got them 6. Jets on the Denver 20 yard line ran a simple stretch run to the left and LT found a crease and took off for the game tying score. This play was cleared out by a crushing block by John Conner creating the lane that sprung Tominson to the end zone.
Jets 17 - Broncos 17
Denver still fought back and kicked a field goal to give them a 3 point lead with 3:55 left to play. This set up the drive that sealed the game for both teams.
Jets 17 - Broncos 20
The kick goes into the end zone. Brad Smith takes a knee so the Jets have to go 80 yards for the win. The Jets managed to get the ball to the Denver 48 yard line when the play of the game took place. After 2 straight incomplete passes it's 4th down and 6. The game rests on this play. Sanchez in shotgun drops back to throw, he scans the field, looking, looking, looking, scrambling, he can't find anyone open when he hevaes the ball down the left sideline for Santonio Holmes. As the ball is coming down you can see some wrestling going on. Holmes and Safety Renaldo Hill drop to the ground just as the ball does. Holmes gets his hands on it but it falls to the turf incomplete.
Game Over until....A beautiful yellow flag comes flying out of the side judge's pocket and lands right in front of Holmes who was screaming for a call.
Pass interference on Hill gave the Jets the ball at the Denver 2 yard line. This play came under some fire but this time there isn't any complaint on the Denver side. As Holmes is adjusting his body to make a play on the ball, Hill is tugging on his jersey and the move that draws the flag was the blatant grabbing and yanking of Holmes' facemask. The replays clearly show Holmes' helmet almost being turned sideways. It was an obvious foul that gave the Jets a 1st down and goal. LT punches the ball in and you got yourself a 4 point lead.
Jets 24 - Broncos 20
The game was not over though. Denver got the ball with 1:13 left on the clock with all 3 of their timeouts. The defense had played pretty tough all game. If there was ever a time for them to come up with a stop it was now.
The 1st 2 plays didn't inspire any confidence though.
1) 12 yard pass to Gaffney to the Denver 32 yard line
2) 20 yard pass to Lloyd to the Jets 48 yard line
2 plays later Orton in shotgun lost the snap. The ball rolled away from him and it was recovered by Dwight Lowery.
Game Over.
The initial reaction was that the snap was a bad one. After looking at the play, the snap was to Orton's left but not so far out of his reach that he couldn't have adjusted and caught the ball. Instead he made a weak attempt to one hand the ball and it kicked away off his fingers. What made the recovery easy for Lowery was the fact that he was blitzing off the corner. The ball rolled right to where he was rushing. All he had to do was fall on it and secure the victory. This was another gutsy call by Ryan. He wasn't playing safe on "D". He came with a blitz and it was a corner blitz at that. He caught a huge break that the snap went bad and the ball went right to the perfect spot. That's the nature of Ryan's defense. He lives and dies with the blitz and this time it secured him a hard fought, resilient and very ugly win on the road heading into their bye.
That's all for the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) Road Warriors....With this latest win. The Jets are undefeated on the road 3-0. Now we know that Buffalo doesn't count since they are a high school team but the other 2 are in Miami and Denver. 2 places that are hard to play at let alone come out with a win.
2) Role Reversal....Coming into this game the Jets sported the league's best running attack (164 yards per game). Meanwhile the Broncos are ranked 25th at defending the run. (127.7 yards per game) The law of averages would dictate that the Jets would dominate on the ground. They did run for 129 yards on the ground but they were our run by Denver. 145 yards. This is pretty alarming considering that the Broncos are the worst running team in the NFL (67.3 yards per game).
On the other side of the offense, The Broncos were ranked 3rd in the league passing (311 yards per game). The Jets ranked 22nd against the pass (229 yards per game). The Jets defense put the clamps on Denver's passing game allowing only 201 net yards through the air.
Just another weird aspect to a very weird game.
3) Revis isn't right but the threat of Revis is....This is no shock to anyone. Darrelle Revis is not taking any receivers to the island anytime soon. Not until his hammy gets right but it hasn't changed the fact that the opposition is still thinking twice before throwing his way. Yes he looked awful against the Vikings and he got beat on that TD play in Denver but I ask you this. Has Revis been destroyed by any receiver he's covered this year? I don't think so. His reputation has served him well because offenses have been reluctant to go his way. They are starting to pick on him a little more now knowing that he's not 100% but just like Rex said...."90% of Revis is better than 100% of anyone else in the league".
4) Sanchez needs to be more "complete" in the passing game....Sanchez has had a very good start to his sophomore season. His turnovers are drastically down despite some close calls in past games. He's making better decisions with the ball and showing a lot more poise in the pocket. His completion percentage is still not where it should be. His completion rate is 55.4%, up from last season's 53.8%, but it should be at least 60%, especially when you consider he's throwing more often to his check down receivers.
5) Where's Vernon....After being a regular in the D Line rotation early on, Vernon Gholston has once again become Vernon "Ghost"on. This kid saw only a few snaps in Denver and barely touched the grass against the Vikes. I don't know if he pissed someone off or what but he's once again regaining the bust tag if ever lost it to begin with. My guess is no. I wasn't a fan of the pick from the start and his disappearance is just another indication that he's not worth the effort to fix.
This is a bit of a problem because the Jets don't have a conventional pass rush so they have to resort to the blitz. That's OK but the jig is up when the Jets are concerned. Teams have watched the film and studied their blitz packages and it's being neutralized. It's time for Rex to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new bag of tricks to get to the QB until they can get a beast to rush the QB on the line. How bout calling Terrell Suggs from B-More and see if he would be interested in wearing green and white. He would look great in those colors.
That's it for Quick Hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This week I have a double whammy for you. The 1st one is from his post game press conference.
"This is a great win for us to be 5-1. We never had our best game, we turned the ball over a bunch, they ran the ball more effectively than we would have liked. At the end of the day, it's a Jet victory and we'll take it, 5-1 going into the bye week."
This one is from his post game locker room speech.
"Great team effort. We don't care how we get 'em, just as long as we get 'em. That was a hell of a job though guys. Great effort. At the end there we threw one up, playmakers make plays, great freaking job. All I know is it's good to be 5-1 going into our bye. That was our mission, we delivered it. You don't have to apologize for shit!"
Bottom line, the Jets escaped Denver with a win that they shouldn't have had. Sanchez said it best when asked about that. He said they "stole" a win. More importantly, he said that last year's team would not have won this game and he's right. This is what I meant by the game being a DEFINING one for this team. The Jets did everything in their power to lose this one but somehow took advantage of 1 more Denver mistake and took it away. Good teams do that. Let's hope this doesn't become a habit.
We now move on to the bye week. Next up is a Halloween date with Aaron Rodgers and the hospital unit Packers. They are suffering from several key injuries and they don't possess a strong running game. Their offensive line is pretty weak too so maybe the Jets can have more success getting to the QB. We'll see.
That's all I got....T-Rich....Break us down....1-2-3 And The Home of The JETS!!!
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 17/30 - 198 yds 1 TD 2 INT - 60.1 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 16 car 55 yds 3.4 ypc 2 TD
S. Greene - 9 car 43 yds 4.8 ypc 1 TD
Receiving
NYJ : D. Keller - 3 rec 75 yds
S. Holmes - 4 rec 47 yds
B. Edwards - 4 rec 46 yds 1TD
J. Cotchery - 4 rec 18 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 17
DEN- 21
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-13
DEN - 7-18
Turnovers
NYJ - 3
DEN - 2
Penalties
NYJ - 6-74
DEN - 5-81
Time of Possession
NYJ - 29:37
DEN - 30:23
There are several words that can describe this game overall. Here's my Letterman-esque top 10 words that I think best fit what this game was like to watch and what the end result meant.
1) Sloppy
2) Undisciplined
3) Sluggish
4) Anemic
5) Careless
6) Frustrating
7) Resilient
8) Gutsy
9) Lucky
10) Unapologetic
I have one more to add and this one probably trumps all 10 up there.
DEFINING!!!!
Coming off the high spirited victory last Monday against Text Favre and the Vikings, the Jets had to go on the road to Mile High. A very tough place to play even with the normal amount of preparation. You throw in the altitude for good measure and you have a recipe for a potential stinker. There were some analysts and "experts" who predicted a Jets loss citing that the factors I just mentioned being the main hurdles that the Jets wouldn't be able to overcome. I had one word to respond to that line of thinking.
BULLSHIT!!!!
My line of thinking was that in spite of the short week, the Jets were on a roll. The team was starting to get healthy and click on Offense, Defense and Special Teams. Plus, they were playing the Broncos, a team that got punched in the face against the Ravens the week before and they ran away from the fight like little bitches. This was telling me that if you out physical this team you got em. Aside from the Steelers and Ravens, the Jets are one of the toughest teams in the NFL on both offense and defense. I thought for sure that intimidation factor would be enough to compensate for the lack of rest and time to gameplan.
Clearly I don't know anything. That's why I'm a fan who blogs and not a coach.
The Jets couldn't start this game any worse than the way they did short of turning the ball over on their 1st posession.
Which they almost did....On back to back plays.
It was obvious from the 1st play that the Broncos were fired up. They were called out by Josh McDaniels for being soft against the Ravens. Ray Rice ran all over their defense and with the NFL's best running game up next it looked like more of the same.
That wasn't the case.
The Jets came out in what was clearly a run formation. They went with a jumbo package with Braylon Edwards up top. The Broncos crowd the line and stuff the run for a 1 yard loss. This was the 1st of MANY questionable calls that Schottenheimer made in this game. The entire world knows that the Jets run the ball better than anyone else in the league. The world also knows that the Broncos have the league's worst run defense so logic would dictate you go with your teams strength against their weakness right?
WRONG!!!
That's what a predictable person would do. I would have kept the formation but run a play action pass and took a shot down the field. As long as the pass isn't intercepted, the play call serves 2 purposes.
1) You stretch the Denver defense right at the gate by taking advantage of the 1 on 1 coverage that's being played.
2) You force Denver to honor and respect the threat of the pass a lot sooner than they would have expected.
The Jets didn't do that and they ended up in a hole right away on 2nd down. The Jets passed the next play, Sanchez couldn't find anyone open so he tried to force a throw on the run to Edwards, Champ Bailey jumped the throw and almost picked it off. OK.
Disaster avoided.
It's now 3rd down and 11. Sanchez goes back to throw and looks for Edwards down the left sideline. Sanchez's throw almost gets picked off by CB Parrish Cox. 4th down. Jets punt. The 3rd down play was an odd one so looking back at the game I noticed that there was a miscommunication. Sanchez threw a timing pass toward the sideline and Edwards ran his route a couple of yards longer than Sanchez expected. The ball came up short and Cox dropped the sure pick. That possession was just dreadful but the defense was able to force a Denver fumble so in just under 2 minutes game time, the Jets had a chance to set their offense straight.
Nope....3 and out.
The "D" would once again get the ball back but Sanchez gave it right back with his 1st of 2 interceptions on the day. It was a 2nd down pass. The play was covered well by Denver, Sanchez rolled a bit to his left and threw it to Cotchery crossing the field. The problem was he never saw LB Jason Hunter playing zone in the flat. Sanchez threw the ball right to Hunter who returned the ball to the NYJ 18 yard line. This was a terrible read by Sanchez. Hunter was right in his eye line and he still threw the pass. This INT ended a streak of 184 straight pass attempts without an pick.
You knew the good fortune wasn't going to last all year but you have to make a better decision with the ball than that. After his 1st 2 passes in the game you just knew he was going to throw one. The fact that CBS mentioned his near misses this season and the 184 attempts streak right before he threw the real pick didn't help either. If you believe in that sort of announcer jinx. I personally don't but that kind of thing always seems to happen. A player is due to do something good or bad, the announcer brings it up and right after the last word comes out the player does the exact thing he was setting up.
Weird.
Once again the defense bailed out the sluggish offense and forced a Denver FG attempt.
OOPS....Bad snap, the ball starts rolling away, it's fallen on by K Matt Prater and the Jets get the ball on the NYJ 23 yard line via the turnover.
At this point I'm thinking that maybe the football gods were in the Jets favor. They couldn't have been more awful on offense and twice the defense holds down the fort or forces a turnover. This was good fortune that good teams take advantage of.
Finally, the offense did. On 3rd and 10, Sanchez found a streaking Braylon Edwards running down the seam for a 32 yard TD pass.
Jets 7 - Broncos 0
This was a well designed and executed play. Edwards and Keller were lined up together up top. Keller went into motion and stood right next to Edwards creating a stack formation. This created confusion with Denver's man to man coverage. Parrish Cox was on Keller but when the stack formation happened before the snap, both Champ Bailey and Cox lost their assignments. That was mostly due to the routes that were run by Keller and Edwards. At the snap they ran side by side until Keller made a quick hitch move to the outside this gave just enough indecision by Cox and Bailey on who covers who and by the time they made their choices, Edwards was by Bailey. Sanchez threw a perfect pass that landed right into Edwards chest.
That play capped off a very nice 13 play 77 yard drive that got the offense in rhythm. At this point I thought the Jets were settled in and ready to dominate.
Then the defense gave the lead right back.
Denver responded with a 8 play 80 yard drive finishing with a TD run by Tim Tebow. He scored on a wildcat play that was poorly defended by the Jets. It was a simple fake handoff QB keeper run. Safety James Ihedigbo was supposed to have outside containment but he rushed too far inside and got blocked completely out of the play. The rest of the interior of the "D" bought the fake giving Tebow a clear lane towards the edge of the endzone and snuck in.
Jets 7 - Broncos 7
OK. They scored. No big deal. We'll just answer the score when we get the ball on the kickoff right?
Not so fast....The Broncos caught the Jets sleeping and executed a perfect onside kick that was recovered at the Denver 45 yard line. This was very surprising to me considering how well the Jets play on special teams but this was a ballsy call by McDaniels and it paid off. Everything went right for Denver on this play. The kick was perfect, high enough and long enough to go past 10 yards and best of all, there wasn't a Jet player withing 10 yards of the ball when it was kicked straight up in the air.
So now the defense has to go back on the field right after giving up an 80 yard TD drive. No problem because they manned up and forced a Denver punt. This was a statement stop by the defense. It's becoming more and more obvious that this defense is not the same unit as last year's group. As dominant as they were last year, had this been last year's group, they might not have allowed a TD but they might have gotten into FG range and maybe given up 3 points. You'll take that every time but this bunch was committed to giving up 0 points and they were able to do that. That speak volumes for this team knowing that if a mistake is made, you can trust in your defense to pick up the pieces and do their best to get the ball back for the "O".
After several exchanges of possesion by both teams, the Jets got the ball at their own 33 yard line with 4:06 left in the 1st half. They got on a decent run moving the ball into Denver territory, then it happened.
On 3rd down at the Denver 28 yard line, Sanchez threw his 2nd interception of the day. The ball was returned to the Denver 35. Broncos ball with :39 seconds left. From the naked eye it looked like Sanchez made another bad decision, throwing the ball into coverage but looking back at the play, Sanchez isn't totally to blame for this one.
Sanchez was in shotgun and was looking for Keller in the seam. That was his mistake. He was looking at Keller and ONLY Keller. The Broncos were in a man/zone coverage. CB Syd'Quan Thompson was covering Cotchery and Keller was running on his own. Right when Keller was making his cut towards the middle, Thompson changed his coverage from man to zone and dropped off his man and follwed Keller. Sanchez seeing Keller open threw the ball his way but Thompson ran right in front of the pass and picked it off. This was a very exotic coverage that was well executed. Sanchez had no chance for success on that play mostly because he stared down his primary target on the play. The defense saw that and just keyed on Sanchez's eyes. The kid still has to work on working through his progressions down the field. He has gotten a lot better at it but every once in a while during a drive he will abandon his looks and just eye ball one guy. That happened here and that's how you get INT #2.
This led to a 59 yard FG by the Broncos taking the locker room at halftime with the lead.
Jets 7 - Broncos 10
We move to the 3rd quarter. Denver gets the ball first and all they did was take 5:22 off the clock. The Jets on the othr hand out their possession of the ball to better use. The drive would stall after Sanchez gets sacked forcing King Rex to make a decision. Punt or attempt a 56 yard FG. Ryan went with the FG try. This was a ballsy move since Folk's career long was from 53. Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf wouldn't shut up about how deep the kickers were putting the ball through during the warmups. Apparently there was a nice enough breeze and with the high altitude the ball travels better. Just ask Rockies pitchers about that. So Folk lines up and I'm thinking he's not making this. I still have no confidence in Folk's ability. I still felt that he's the bum that Wade Phillips gave up on in Dallas and if Wade Phillips gives up on you, you must suck because Wade Phillips is an idiot.
Well as it turns out, Wade Phillips is an idiot and so am I because Folk drills this kick right down the middle with plenty of leg to spare. Nick Folk has been awesome this year. Aside from a 30 yarder he missed in Buffalo I can't think of any other kick that has been nothing short of perfect. He looks like the Nick Folk of 2 years ago before his injury that turned him into Old Folk in Big D. By the way, the 56 yard boot is the longest FG made in Jets history so not only does he tie the game, he puts himself in Jets lore. Way to go Nick.
Jets 10 - Broncos 10
The Broncos would once again respond with a drive of their own. With 2:39 left in the 3rd quarter, Denver drove the ball to another TD highlighted by WR Demerius Thomas beating Revis down the left sideline. The replays showed that Thomas didn't have both feet in bounds while maintaining possession of the ball. The play should have been challenged but Ryan was gun shy of throwing the red flag because of what happened 2 plays earlier. Denver had the ball on their own 39 yard line, it's 3rd down and 5. Orton fires a bomb down the sideline for Brandon Lloyd. Lloyd leaps and snags the ball. Jim Leonhard comes flying and and crushes Lloyd out of bounds. A yellow flag comes flying in.
Personal foul....Uneccessary roughness.
Once again, the replays showed that Leonhard didn't lead with his helmet, he hit Lloyd with his shoulder. It was a clean hit but the side judge missed it. They also missed the fact that Lloyd didn't have total possession of the ball throughout the entire play. Ryan challenged that and the play was upheld. Because of the failed challenge and the fact that the Jets only had 1 timeout left, Ryan chose not to challenge the TD play which he would have won. These 2 plays were just a small example of how HORRENDOUS the officiating was all game long. This crew made up their own mind when it came to the interperetation of pass interference and complete and incomplete passes. To be fair, they screwed both sides but who cares about Denver's feelings. All of this didn't change the fact that the Jets were now behind again.
Jets 10 - Broncos 17
After the kickoff, the Jets were putting together a pretty impressive drive. The 1st play was a 41 yard catch and run by Dustin Keller. Sanchez threw a pretty pass right into Keller's bread basket who was being covered rather tightly by LB Clark Haggans. The next play had some razzle dazzle. Schotenheimer called an end around for Santonio Holmes. He takes the hand off and the Broncos bit on the bootleg action. There was a ton of room for Holmes to run. Then for some inexplicable reason he runs right into the back of Braylon Edwards whose blocking down field. The ball pops loose and Denver recovers.
There goes that one. This was the Jets 3rd turnover of the game and it was at this point I felt that this one was not in the cards. All the talk of the short week and playing on the road in Denver started to take shape here. The Jets were sloppy and incoherent on offense and plays like that one spelled it out perfectly. Holmes has space to make a play and he runs right into his own teammate causing a fumble.
Crushing play but....The defense would come up big again and force the Broncos to punt.
We now go to the 4th quarter where the game got a little nuts. With 10:43 left to play the Jets got the ball. Their previous possession in the quarter was a very inept 3 and out so the confidence level for me wasn't high that anything positive was going to be taking place here. After a 22 yard pass to Santonio Holmes, the Jets would go to ground and pound and it got them 6. Jets on the Denver 20 yard line ran a simple stretch run to the left and LT found a crease and took off for the game tying score. This play was cleared out by a crushing block by John Conner creating the lane that sprung Tominson to the end zone.
Jets 17 - Broncos 17
Denver still fought back and kicked a field goal to give them a 3 point lead with 3:55 left to play. This set up the drive that sealed the game for both teams.
Jets 17 - Broncos 20
The kick goes into the end zone. Brad Smith takes a knee so the Jets have to go 80 yards for the win. The Jets managed to get the ball to the Denver 48 yard line when the play of the game took place. After 2 straight incomplete passes it's 4th down and 6. The game rests on this play. Sanchez in shotgun drops back to throw, he scans the field, looking, looking, looking, scrambling, he can't find anyone open when he hevaes the ball down the left sideline for Santonio Holmes. As the ball is coming down you can see some wrestling going on. Holmes and Safety Renaldo Hill drop to the ground just as the ball does. Holmes gets his hands on it but it falls to the turf incomplete.
Game Over until....A beautiful yellow flag comes flying out of the side judge's pocket and lands right in front of Holmes who was screaming for a call.
Pass interference on Hill gave the Jets the ball at the Denver 2 yard line. This play came under some fire but this time there isn't any complaint on the Denver side. As Holmes is adjusting his body to make a play on the ball, Hill is tugging on his jersey and the move that draws the flag was the blatant grabbing and yanking of Holmes' facemask. The replays clearly show Holmes' helmet almost being turned sideways. It was an obvious foul that gave the Jets a 1st down and goal. LT punches the ball in and you got yourself a 4 point lead.
Jets 24 - Broncos 20
The game was not over though. Denver got the ball with 1:13 left on the clock with all 3 of their timeouts. The defense had played pretty tough all game. If there was ever a time for them to come up with a stop it was now.
The 1st 2 plays didn't inspire any confidence though.
1) 12 yard pass to Gaffney to the Denver 32 yard line
2) 20 yard pass to Lloyd to the Jets 48 yard line
2 plays later Orton in shotgun lost the snap. The ball rolled away from him and it was recovered by Dwight Lowery.
Game Over.
The initial reaction was that the snap was a bad one. After looking at the play, the snap was to Orton's left but not so far out of his reach that he couldn't have adjusted and caught the ball. Instead he made a weak attempt to one hand the ball and it kicked away off his fingers. What made the recovery easy for Lowery was the fact that he was blitzing off the corner. The ball rolled right to where he was rushing. All he had to do was fall on it and secure the victory. This was another gutsy call by Ryan. He wasn't playing safe on "D". He came with a blitz and it was a corner blitz at that. He caught a huge break that the snap went bad and the ball went right to the perfect spot. That's the nature of Ryan's defense. He lives and dies with the blitz and this time it secured him a hard fought, resilient and very ugly win on the road heading into their bye.
That's all for the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) Road Warriors....With this latest win. The Jets are undefeated on the road 3-0. Now we know that Buffalo doesn't count since they are a high school team but the other 2 are in Miami and Denver. 2 places that are hard to play at let alone come out with a win.
2) Role Reversal....Coming into this game the Jets sported the league's best running attack (164 yards per game). Meanwhile the Broncos are ranked 25th at defending the run. (127.7 yards per game) The law of averages would dictate that the Jets would dominate on the ground. They did run for 129 yards on the ground but they were our run by Denver. 145 yards. This is pretty alarming considering that the Broncos are the worst running team in the NFL (67.3 yards per game).
On the other side of the offense, The Broncos were ranked 3rd in the league passing (311 yards per game). The Jets ranked 22nd against the pass (229 yards per game). The Jets defense put the clamps on Denver's passing game allowing only 201 net yards through the air.
Just another weird aspect to a very weird game.
3) Revis isn't right but the threat of Revis is....This is no shock to anyone. Darrelle Revis is not taking any receivers to the island anytime soon. Not until his hammy gets right but it hasn't changed the fact that the opposition is still thinking twice before throwing his way. Yes he looked awful against the Vikings and he got beat on that TD play in Denver but I ask you this. Has Revis been destroyed by any receiver he's covered this year? I don't think so. His reputation has served him well because offenses have been reluctant to go his way. They are starting to pick on him a little more now knowing that he's not 100% but just like Rex said...."90% of Revis is better than 100% of anyone else in the league".
4) Sanchez needs to be more "complete" in the passing game....Sanchez has had a very good start to his sophomore season. His turnovers are drastically down despite some close calls in past games. He's making better decisions with the ball and showing a lot more poise in the pocket. His completion percentage is still not where it should be. His completion rate is 55.4%, up from last season's 53.8%, but it should be at least 60%, especially when you consider he's throwing more often to his check down receivers.
5) Where's Vernon....After being a regular in the D Line rotation early on, Vernon Gholston has once again become Vernon "Ghost"on. This kid saw only a few snaps in Denver and barely touched the grass against the Vikes. I don't know if he pissed someone off or what but he's once again regaining the bust tag if ever lost it to begin with. My guess is no. I wasn't a fan of the pick from the start and his disappearance is just another indication that he's not worth the effort to fix.
This is a bit of a problem because the Jets don't have a conventional pass rush so they have to resort to the blitz. That's OK but the jig is up when the Jets are concerned. Teams have watched the film and studied their blitz packages and it's being neutralized. It's time for Rex to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new bag of tricks to get to the QB until they can get a beast to rush the QB on the line. How bout calling Terrell Suggs from B-More and see if he would be interested in wearing green and white. He would look great in those colors.
That's it for Quick Hits. Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
This week I have a double whammy for you. The 1st one is from his post game press conference.
"This is a great win for us to be 5-1. We never had our best game, we turned the ball over a bunch, they ran the ball more effectively than we would have liked. At the end of the day, it's a Jet victory and we'll take it, 5-1 going into the bye week."
This one is from his post game locker room speech.
"Great team effort. We don't care how we get 'em, just as long as we get 'em. That was a hell of a job though guys. Great effort. At the end there we threw one up, playmakers make plays, great freaking job. All I know is it's good to be 5-1 going into our bye. That was our mission, we delivered it. You don't have to apologize for shit!"
Bottom line, the Jets escaped Denver with a win that they shouldn't have had. Sanchez said it best when asked about that. He said they "stole" a win. More importantly, he said that last year's team would not have won this game and he's right. This is what I meant by the game being a DEFINING one for this team. The Jets did everything in their power to lose this one but somehow took advantage of 1 more Denver mistake and took it away. Good teams do that. Let's hope this doesn't become a habit.
We now move on to the bye week. Next up is a Halloween date with Aaron Rodgers and the hospital unit Packers. They are suffering from several key injuries and they don't possess a strong running game. Their offensive line is pretty weak too so maybe the Jets can have more success getting to the QB. We'll see.
That's all I got....T-Rich....Break us down....1-2-3 And The Home of The JETS!!!
Week 5 Recap : Minnesota Vikings vs New York Jets
Final Score: Jets 29 - Vikings 20
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 21/44 - 191 yds - 59.9 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 20 car 94 yds 4.7 ypc
S. Greene - 10 car 57 yds 5.7 ypc 1 TD
Receiving
NYJ : B. Edwards - 5 rec 70 yds
J. Cotchery - 5 rec 46 yds
S. Holmes - 3 rec 41 yds
D. Keller - 2 rec 14 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 20
MIN- 16
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-17
MIN - 7-15
Turnovers
NYJ - 0
MIN - 3
Penalties
NYJ - 6-55
MIN - 8-51
Time of Possession
NYJ - 33:55
MIN - 26:05
OK everyone. Clearly this victory can be described as "Escape From New York". Without Kurt Russell of course. After dominating close to 3 quarters of play, the Jets got a little sloppy on both sides of the ball and almost let a very gut wrenching loss take place at the hands of one my most hated athletes.
Brett Favre.
Thankfully that didn't happen and that was mostly due to the physicality the Jets imposed on the Vikes early on in this game. From the start, a message was sent that if you were going to come into this house you better be prepared to fight your way out. The defense established the line of scrimmage from the 1st snap. They never let Peterson get out in space and when contact was made he was hit. Of course we all know what followed on 3rd down. The Jets came with the blitz and it was highly effective. Drew Coleman came on a weak side corner blitz set up beautifully by Calvin Pace's decoy wide rush opening the lane to Favre and the sack.
All of this allowed the offense to get more chances to put points on the board which they did. The problem was they were scoring the wrong kind of points. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that FG's are a waste of a possession. They're not unless you have to settle for them instead of punching the ball into the end zone. This was the case for most of the night. The "O" would move the ball with some flow and efficiency only to have the drive stall. A lot of that can be attributed to the Vikings defense who came to play. However, a bigger factor was responsible for the lack of TD's in the red zone. That was the suspect play calling of Brian Schottenheimer. He fell into one of his historical moods where he gets too cute with the playbook and tries to out think the opponent.
You're not playing chess Schotty. Just line up and play ball.
This was the 1st half in a nutshell. The defense was impressive while the offense at times sputtered down the field toward 3 FG which included an impressive 53 yarder from Folk who is very quietly becoming clutch while shedding the bad taste he left behind in Dallas.
9 - 0 Jets.
The second half is where this one got very interesting.
After playing in a monsoon towards the end of the 2nd quarter you just knew that the rest of the night was going to be plagued with lousy conditions. The Jets would go 3 and out to start the 3rd quarter. Not a good start to the half but the drive was going to be tough to navigate after Sanchez got sacked following the 1st play. The play called was a good one. Schottenheimer went with a play action bootleg right. Everyone on the Viking defense bit on the play except the one guy who needed to be faked out the most. Left DE Ray Edwards read the play perfectly and drills Sanchez into the ground for a 10 yard loss. So now the Vikings get the ball and I'm thinking this can't be good. All night the Jets have kept Favre, Peterson, Harvin and Moss in check. Sooner or later they were going to put a drive together and get right back into this game.
It just didn't happen on this possession because after the kick. Favre fumbles the ball trying to hand it off to Peterson. The ball gets kicked around until Revis picks it up and scampers 10 yards to the Minnesota 46 yard line.
It's here I'm thinking that if the Jets can get this one into the end zone it would break the Vikes and jump start the offense. The Jets went to the ground and it was working. The drive got to the Viking 16 yard line. Until 3rd and 3 when Sanchez drops back to throw, finds Keller for a sure 1st down but he drops the pass. Enter Folk for another FG that he makes.
12 - 0 Jets.
The Jets and Vikes would trade the next 2 possessions.
Then it happened.
The one thing I was afraid of all night when the Jets kept settling for 3's. Minnesota got on a sustained drive and on a 3rd and 17 play from the Jets 37 yard line, Favre threw a rainbow pass toward the end zone that fell right into Randy Moss' hands. BANG! The Vikings got right back into the game.
12 - 7 Jets
A lot was being made about this play because it was Favre's 500th TD pass but I couldn't give a flying fuck about that. I went back and broke down the play and saw 2 things that helped the Vikes get on the board.
1) Obviously I have to start with Cromartie's coverage. The so called "experts" after the game went a bit overboard saying that Cromartie got beat and was in poor position. This is simply NOT TRUE! Cromartie was covering Moss perfectly. He had the inside position so he could use the sideline as an extra defender. For the most part he was running step for step with Moss. If anything, Randy had a little bit of a lead but in no way, shape or form was he toasting "Cro". Finally, the pass was perfect. It was thrown at Moss's back shoulder which is impossible for a CB to defend if he has the inside position. You couldn't drop a ball into a receiver's hands from 1 foot away better than the way this pass fell into Moss' hands. As much as I hate to do this but I have to give credit where it's due and Favre threw an amazing pass in the face of a blitz. This leads me to point #2.
2) The Jets were in their dime package and came with a double safety blitz from the left side. This meant that they were in man to man coverage the rest of the play. The Vikings were in shotgun with a 3 receiver formation. 2 up top and Moss singled up at the bottom. Revis was on Berrian up top, Wilson was on Harvin in the slot and Cromartie was on Moss. SS Jim Leonhard was faking a double coverage look on Harvin while FS Brodney Pool appeared to be helping Cromartie double Moss. Right before the snap, Pool starts to creep toward the line of scrimmage indicating he's blitzing. When Favre snaps the ball he sees Moss 1 on 1 with Cromartie and throws the ball up. Leonhard was supposed to give Cromartie help over the top but because he was so far over on the other side of the field selling the double coverage on Harvin, there was no way he could get over in time to help Cromartie. Leonhard needed to be a little closer toward Moss' side of the field. If he was, he might have been able to be a better help on the play. The other thing that was key on this play was Pool's poor timing on the blitz. He needed to be away from the line to sell the coverage fake but he went toward the line of scrimmage way too late. The result was Favre having enough time to get set and throw the bomb. This is a result of Pool not being in sync with the rest of the secondary since he's only been on the field for 2 weeks after suffering an ankle injury in the preseason.
After the hoopla surrounding Favre's milestone, the Jets kept the pressure on and it began with the kickoff. Brad Smith takes the kick 5 yards deep in the end zone and runs 86 yards to the Viking 19 yard line. The Jets were back in business but once again they couldn't get into the endzone. Folk kicked his 5th and final FG of the night to give the Jets a little more breathing room.
15 - 7 Jets
Too bad it didn't last very long.
We move on to the 4th quarter. After a 30 yard Peterson run, the Vikings went to the air again and this time they picked on Revis. Normally this would be a very stupid move. If you were throwing at a healthy Darrelle Revis which we found out on this play that he wasn't. On 3rd and 19 from the Jets 34 yard line. Favre floated a pass to Percy Harvin crossing the field. He caught it and flew past every other defender in the area for the score. The Vikings inexplicably went for 2. Cromartie picks off the pass. 2 point try fails. This would come back to bite the Vikes later on.
15 - 13 Jets
I went back and looked at the Harvin TD and saw what went wrong. Revis was playing off Harvin at the line. Percy ran a simple circle drag route across the field and Revis couldn't stay with him. He wasn't running at top speed and Harvin lost him in the traffic. The Jets were playing man to man on the outside with a rover zone coverage over the middle. That rover was Kyle Wilson. Harvin ran right behind Wilson who was eye balling Favre the entire time and never had a chance to make a play on the ball. This play falls more on Revis' inability to cover Harvin from the beginning but Wilson needed to recognize where the ball was going. He was spying Favre the whole time so common sense would dictate that if you are keying on the QB, he will tell you where the ball is going. On this play He looked Harvin's way almost from the snap to the throw.
This play exposed more than just a miscommunication in the coverage. It sent a message to the rest of the league that Revis is still banged up and that he can be thrown on. He should have never been on the field but because of his competitive nature and Ryan's feeling that he needed Revis, it may have compromised the rest of the year. This injury by most indications was going to take 4 weeks at minimum to heal. Revis played after a little over 2 and a half weeks. The Jets should have sat him out for this one. With 1 more game before the bye, it should have been enough rest and time for him to come back at full strength. Now we are forced to deal with the wait and see process and you can't have that when the team's best player is concerned.
Returning to the recap.
Both teams would trade possessions without scoring until the 7:06 mark of the 4th. The Jets had the ball and engineered a great drive that ended with a 23 yard TD run by Shonn Greene. This play was run masterfully. It was a zone blocking cutback run. The key to the play was a great block by John Conner. The Terminator plastered E.J. Henderson trying to make the tackle. This block created the seal that sprung Greene to the end zone. A well executed run by the NFL's best running team.
22 - 13 Jets
That score gave me a very comfortable feeling. I didn't think the Vikings had any fight left in them after the back and forth scoring. I was wrong. Favre was hot and he chewed up big chunks of yards in very little time. The final play was an 11 yard TD pass to Harvin in the back of the end zone. This was another pretty pass that ended up in either his guy's hands or it was out of bounds. Harvin caught the pass leaping in the air. Leonhard covering tried to push him out of bounds before both feet got in but Harvin did a great job dropping both feet in. The coverage was a mismatch from the beginning and Favre knew it. Harvin stands at 5' 11" and Leonhard tips the ruler at 5' 8". Advantage Harvin. Especially since Leonhard isn't 5' 8" that's complete bullshit. At best he's 5' 6" maybe 5' 7". The guy plays hrd and has the heart of a lion but it's just too much for him to ask to cover bigger receivers when ALL of them are bigger than him.
22 - 20 Jets
We now move to the most gut wrenching moments of the game. The last 3:09.
The Jets had the ball and you just prayed for a couple of 1st downs which would have iced the game. The possession started off that way. A 2 yard run by Tomlinson followed by an 11 yard pass to Holmes. The Vikings burned their last 2 timeouts on those 2 plays so all the Jets had to do was play some smart clock football and we're going home smiling.
OOPS!
After the Vikings last timeout there was 2:47 left on the clock they ran the exact same 2 plays on the drive. A run by LT for -1 yard then they threw it. This is where Schottenheimer getting too cute almost cost them the game. The pass was another slant to Holmes.
3 things went wrong on the play.
1) Sanchez snapped the ball with 7 seconds left on the play clock.
2) The pass was incomplete stopping the clock before the 2 min warning.
3) THE PLAY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN CALLED!!!!!!
Because you tried to out think the other sideline you ended up out smarting yourself. I realize that Schottenheimer never counted on Sanchez snapping the ball early but that wouldn't have been and issue IF THE PLAY WAS A RUN!!!! Running the ball on 2nd down guarantees the clock goes to the 2 min warning if not past it depending on the result of the play. Instead you pass and the clock stops. Now you have to pass on 3rd and 11 to end the game. What does Minnesota do? They blitzed, flushing Sanchez out of the pocket and forcing him to throw a desperation pass to Edwards down the left sideline.
Incomplete. 2 minute warning.
This was some of the worst late game clock management I have seen in a while. This took me back to the dare I say it Herm Edwards era where he would use all of his 2nd half timeouts on 1 drive. Then he would wonder why he doesn't have any when he needs them later. This was surprising to see considering that Rex and co. have been pretty good at time management. Everyone has their off days but you can't be off in the last 2 minutes of a tight game.
Now Favre gets the ball back with 1:48 needing just a FG to escape the New Meadowlands with a crazy comeback win. I was ready to turn the TV off and go to bed. After all the missed opportunities to score TD's and the defense's inability to stop Favre down the stretch, I just knew this game was over. But then I remembered something very important.
Brett Favre is the master of closing a game out....FOR THE OTHER TEAM!
After the kick off. Favre tries the home run ball to Moss but Cromartie would have none of that.
Incomplete. 2nd and 10. Next was the play of the game.
The Jets came with a blitz and Favre beat the pressure and found a WIDE OPEN Percy Harvin. He completes this pass and he's gone to the house for 6. Favre over throws Harvin badly missing him by a mile. Jets dodged a HUGE bullet here.
Incomplete. 3rd and 10.
We now come to what was for me sweet justice. Favre drops back to throw and is blitzed again. He sidesteps the pressure and throws a poor pass right into the hands of Dwight Lowery who high steps his way 26 yards into the end zone for the game ending pick 6. What a way to end the game. Once again the great, magnificent, invincible, do no wrong Brett Favre threw ANOTHER game ending interception.
29 - 20 Jets
I couldn't watch that play enough.
It should come as no secret to anyone that I HATE BRETT FAVRE with every fiber of my being. I can't stand how he continues to dodge criticism when he makes ridiculous plays. If any other QB made the bonehead plays he makes they would be run out of town faster than you can say "HIKE". As Jets fans we saw his bullshit 1st hand in 2008 so you don't need any more proof from me. So watching him once again make a stupid play that cost his team a potential win was just music to my eyes.
Having said that I do have to give the man his due. He leads the world in practically every statistical category for a QB. We all know the TD's and Yards but here are some that you might not be aware of.
1) Interceptions - 324 NFL record
2) Interceptions returned for Touchdowns - 31 Currently the active leader.
3) Fumbles - 163 NFL record
I like those stats better.
Did you really think I was going to give him props for any positive stats?
Fuck you and your tendinitis filled elbow Brett! Nothing would please me more than to see you spend the rest of the season rotting away in mediocrity!!!!
That's a wrap on the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) So much for the Williams Wall....The Jets ran over, around and through the Vikings vaunted rushing defense for a grand total of 155 yards. That is the most rushing yards the Vikes have given up to a team in 51 regular season games. Ground and Pound baby!
2) The "D" keeps putting up goose eggs....For the 5th straight game, the defense has not allowed a 1st quarter point. Say what you want about this unit but it's pretty hard to get in a game if you haven't scored in the 1st 15 minutes.
3) Take care of the ball and it will take care of you....The Jets have played turnover free ball for the 4th straight game. They lead the NFL in turnover ratio at +11. The only turnover the Jets committed was Shonn Greene's fumble in Week 1.
4) Welcome back Calvin....Calvin Pace's 1st game back from foot surgery was pretty good. 3 tackles, 3 QB hits and 1.5 sacks. Not a bad day at the office. His return to the "D" is a much needed boost to the pass rush and the run defense which is pretty stout enough.
5) How do you spell versatile? B-R-A-D S-M-I-T-H....Very quietly or maybe not so quietly now, Brad Smith has become an invaluable member to this team overall. His expertise in the wildcat offense is getting more and more impressive and his special teams play is severely underrated. This guy is a jack of all trades that provides stability to so many areas of the team.
6) The Vikings have one of the games best pass rushers in Jared Allen. How did they stop him? They put a "Brick" wall in front of him....The offensive line had another monster game. Highlighted collectively by the dominating rushing stats put up but the individual highlight has to go to D'Brickashaw Ferguson. He had his best game of the season against a ferocious DE. Jared Allen is in the Mario Williams, Julius Peppers and Dwight Freeney class of D-ends if not better and Brick stoned him all night long. Sanchez's blind side was protected like there was a force field behind him. That's all #60. He keeps this up he'll be playing in Hawaii as a starter and not an injury alternate.
7) Hey Randy, Welcome to Cromartie Island....With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Revis vs Moss II. It ended up being Antonio Cromartie's night to shine. He absolutely shut down Moss again. And I don't want to hear that Moss wasn't familiar with the offense and didn't know the playbook. You don't need to know the playbook when all you're doing is running in a straight line as fast as you can. All Favre did was throw go routes to him and Cromartie locked that down. He is getting better in this system every week. If he keeps this up it will be hard to let him walk at the end of the year.
8) Keep your faith in your Defense and your faith will be rewarded....After a complete ass whuppin in the 1st half. The Jets "D" began to weaken. Some of their blitzes were being picked up leaving Favre too much time to find an open man going up against 1 on 1 coverage. But when it came down to crunch time, King Rex stayed with the blitz and it paid off big time. On the pick 6 play, Ryan called another double safety blitz. Leonhard came from the left and Marquice Cole came from the right. Cole's pressure forced Favre to throw off balance and off his back foot allowing Lowery to jump the route and pick off the pass. King Rex showed faith in his defense's ability to make a play when they had to and it won them a football game.
9) Sanchez continues to show why we drafted him #5 overall....It's pretty clear that this wasn't his best game. He was off for most of the night. His passes were inaccurate and very high. He very luckily avoided at least 3 picks by my count. However, he did make plays when he had to and showed a ton of poise in the pocket. He needs to do a better job in the red zone but he's keeping the ball away from the other colored jersey and that's always a good thing. He was also victimized by his receivers dropping balls. There were at least 5 dropped passes that all would have resulted in 1st downs.
10) Why were the Jets playing "Where's Waldo" with Keller....For some insane reason, the Jets forgot to feed Keller the ball. The Vikings run a base cover 2 defense. The best weapon against that scheme is a TE running along the seam. Keller only caught 2 passes and was targeted only 5 times. That's not enough. He needs to be a more sought after option in the passing game. I think a lot of this had to do with Santonio Holmes' return. Sanchez was making a constant effort to get him involved so he looked and threw a lot his way but you can't do that at the expense of someone else who's open. On several of the deep balls that Sanchez threw to Holmes, Keller was running alone. Keller's involvement in the passing game will only help get Santonio more passes his way. Don't forget #81 just because you have a new toy to play with.
11) It's time for Revis to respect Randy....The newly formed rivalry between Moss and Revis is fun to watch but there is a very big difference to how each man handles their victories or defeats against each other. Revis talks a ton of trash, some of it warranted and some of it just straight up shit talk. Revis has called Moss a slouch and that he quits when he's not getting the ball. That is true but it doesn't change the fact that Moss is a playmaker and has been his entire career. On the other side, Moss has given nothing but props to Revis. Including after this game. He commended Revis for coming back and playing hard coming off his hamstring injury. That he's one of the games best corners and has earned the praise he's been getting. That's pretty classy stuff from a diva WR.
Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
Question:
"What happened on the crossing route to Harvin? Was Darrelle supposed to hand him off to someone?
King Rex's Response:
The actual answer is not the quote of the game. The quote came after his answer about the TD
"I just thought this was a typical Jet win. Resilient, team effort all the way against an excellent football team and I'm just proud of the way our guys competed all the way to the end. Made a great play on defense....D-Lo did (Lowery) and shoot we'll take the victory. We're not apologizing for anything."
That pretty much summed up the game. It wasn't pretty but we'll take it. There are no style points in the NFL and when you can come away with a win like this when your offense isn't clicking and your defense suffers a hiccup late you can feel good that this team does not panic under the hot lights. The Jets are showing that they'll kick your ass when everything is on the up and up and now they've shown the ability to fight for every inch until they come out with the higher score at the end.
Up next is a date with the Broncos in Mile High. Revis is uncertain he will play. Just do everyone a favor and just sit him out. Get him 2 more weeks of rest and treatment before they play the Packers on Halloween. If the Jets pull this one out on the road it will be a huge win heading into the bye week. Especially with the Ravens taking on the Patriots the same day. I never thought I would say this but I'm a Ravens fan this coming Sunday.
5-1 here we come? We'll see.
That's all I got....Now Let's Go Eat A God Damn Snack!
By the numbers:
Passing
Sanchez : 21/44 - 191 yds - 59.9 Passer Rating
Rushing
NYJ : L. Tomlinson - 20 car 94 yds 4.7 ypc
S. Greene - 10 car 57 yds 5.7 ypc 1 TD
Receiving
NYJ : B. Edwards - 5 rec 70 yds
J. Cotchery - 5 rec 46 yds
S. Holmes - 3 rec 41 yds
D. Keller - 2 rec 14 yds
First Downs
NYJ - 20
MIN- 16
3rd Down Efficiency
NYJ - 5-17
MIN - 7-15
Turnovers
NYJ - 0
MIN - 3
Penalties
NYJ - 6-55
MIN - 8-51
Time of Possession
NYJ - 33:55
MIN - 26:05
OK everyone. Clearly this victory can be described as "Escape From New York". Without Kurt Russell of course. After dominating close to 3 quarters of play, the Jets got a little sloppy on both sides of the ball and almost let a very gut wrenching loss take place at the hands of one my most hated athletes.
Brett Favre.
Thankfully that didn't happen and that was mostly due to the physicality the Jets imposed on the Vikes early on in this game. From the start, a message was sent that if you were going to come into this house you better be prepared to fight your way out. The defense established the line of scrimmage from the 1st snap. They never let Peterson get out in space and when contact was made he was hit. Of course we all know what followed on 3rd down. The Jets came with the blitz and it was highly effective. Drew Coleman came on a weak side corner blitz set up beautifully by Calvin Pace's decoy wide rush opening the lane to Favre and the sack.
All of this allowed the offense to get more chances to put points on the board which they did. The problem was they were scoring the wrong kind of points. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that FG's are a waste of a possession. They're not unless you have to settle for them instead of punching the ball into the end zone. This was the case for most of the night. The "O" would move the ball with some flow and efficiency only to have the drive stall. A lot of that can be attributed to the Vikings defense who came to play. However, a bigger factor was responsible for the lack of TD's in the red zone. That was the suspect play calling of Brian Schottenheimer. He fell into one of his historical moods where he gets too cute with the playbook and tries to out think the opponent.
You're not playing chess Schotty. Just line up and play ball.
This was the 1st half in a nutshell. The defense was impressive while the offense at times sputtered down the field toward 3 FG which included an impressive 53 yarder from Folk who is very quietly becoming clutch while shedding the bad taste he left behind in Dallas.
9 - 0 Jets.
The second half is where this one got very interesting.
After playing in a monsoon towards the end of the 2nd quarter you just knew that the rest of the night was going to be plagued with lousy conditions. The Jets would go 3 and out to start the 3rd quarter. Not a good start to the half but the drive was going to be tough to navigate after Sanchez got sacked following the 1st play. The play called was a good one. Schottenheimer went with a play action bootleg right. Everyone on the Viking defense bit on the play except the one guy who needed to be faked out the most. Left DE Ray Edwards read the play perfectly and drills Sanchez into the ground for a 10 yard loss. So now the Vikings get the ball and I'm thinking this can't be good. All night the Jets have kept Favre, Peterson, Harvin and Moss in check. Sooner or later they were going to put a drive together and get right back into this game.
It just didn't happen on this possession because after the kick. Favre fumbles the ball trying to hand it off to Peterson. The ball gets kicked around until Revis picks it up and scampers 10 yards to the Minnesota 46 yard line.
It's here I'm thinking that if the Jets can get this one into the end zone it would break the Vikes and jump start the offense. The Jets went to the ground and it was working. The drive got to the Viking 16 yard line. Until 3rd and 3 when Sanchez drops back to throw, finds Keller for a sure 1st down but he drops the pass. Enter Folk for another FG that he makes.
12 - 0 Jets.
The Jets and Vikes would trade the next 2 possessions.
Then it happened.
The one thing I was afraid of all night when the Jets kept settling for 3's. Minnesota got on a sustained drive and on a 3rd and 17 play from the Jets 37 yard line, Favre threw a rainbow pass toward the end zone that fell right into Randy Moss' hands. BANG! The Vikings got right back into the game.
12 - 7 Jets
A lot was being made about this play because it was Favre's 500th TD pass but I couldn't give a flying fuck about that. I went back and broke down the play and saw 2 things that helped the Vikes get on the board.
1) Obviously I have to start with Cromartie's coverage. The so called "experts" after the game went a bit overboard saying that Cromartie got beat and was in poor position. This is simply NOT TRUE! Cromartie was covering Moss perfectly. He had the inside position so he could use the sideline as an extra defender. For the most part he was running step for step with Moss. If anything, Randy had a little bit of a lead but in no way, shape or form was he toasting "Cro". Finally, the pass was perfect. It was thrown at Moss's back shoulder which is impossible for a CB to defend if he has the inside position. You couldn't drop a ball into a receiver's hands from 1 foot away better than the way this pass fell into Moss' hands. As much as I hate to do this but I have to give credit where it's due and Favre threw an amazing pass in the face of a blitz. This leads me to point #2.
2) The Jets were in their dime package and came with a double safety blitz from the left side. This meant that they were in man to man coverage the rest of the play. The Vikings were in shotgun with a 3 receiver formation. 2 up top and Moss singled up at the bottom. Revis was on Berrian up top, Wilson was on Harvin in the slot and Cromartie was on Moss. SS Jim Leonhard was faking a double coverage look on Harvin while FS Brodney Pool appeared to be helping Cromartie double Moss. Right before the snap, Pool starts to creep toward the line of scrimmage indicating he's blitzing. When Favre snaps the ball he sees Moss 1 on 1 with Cromartie and throws the ball up. Leonhard was supposed to give Cromartie help over the top but because he was so far over on the other side of the field selling the double coverage on Harvin, there was no way he could get over in time to help Cromartie. Leonhard needed to be a little closer toward Moss' side of the field. If he was, he might have been able to be a better help on the play. The other thing that was key on this play was Pool's poor timing on the blitz. He needed to be away from the line to sell the coverage fake but he went toward the line of scrimmage way too late. The result was Favre having enough time to get set and throw the bomb. This is a result of Pool not being in sync with the rest of the secondary since he's only been on the field for 2 weeks after suffering an ankle injury in the preseason.
After the hoopla surrounding Favre's milestone, the Jets kept the pressure on and it began with the kickoff. Brad Smith takes the kick 5 yards deep in the end zone and runs 86 yards to the Viking 19 yard line. The Jets were back in business but once again they couldn't get into the endzone. Folk kicked his 5th and final FG of the night to give the Jets a little more breathing room.
15 - 7 Jets
Too bad it didn't last very long.
We move on to the 4th quarter. After a 30 yard Peterson run, the Vikings went to the air again and this time they picked on Revis. Normally this would be a very stupid move. If you were throwing at a healthy Darrelle Revis which we found out on this play that he wasn't. On 3rd and 19 from the Jets 34 yard line. Favre floated a pass to Percy Harvin crossing the field. He caught it and flew past every other defender in the area for the score. The Vikings inexplicably went for 2. Cromartie picks off the pass. 2 point try fails. This would come back to bite the Vikes later on.
15 - 13 Jets
I went back and looked at the Harvin TD and saw what went wrong. Revis was playing off Harvin at the line. Percy ran a simple circle drag route across the field and Revis couldn't stay with him. He wasn't running at top speed and Harvin lost him in the traffic. The Jets were playing man to man on the outside with a rover zone coverage over the middle. That rover was Kyle Wilson. Harvin ran right behind Wilson who was eye balling Favre the entire time and never had a chance to make a play on the ball. This play falls more on Revis' inability to cover Harvin from the beginning but Wilson needed to recognize where the ball was going. He was spying Favre the whole time so common sense would dictate that if you are keying on the QB, he will tell you where the ball is going. On this play He looked Harvin's way almost from the snap to the throw.
This play exposed more than just a miscommunication in the coverage. It sent a message to the rest of the league that Revis is still banged up and that he can be thrown on. He should have never been on the field but because of his competitive nature and Ryan's feeling that he needed Revis, it may have compromised the rest of the year. This injury by most indications was going to take 4 weeks at minimum to heal. Revis played after a little over 2 and a half weeks. The Jets should have sat him out for this one. With 1 more game before the bye, it should have been enough rest and time for him to come back at full strength. Now we are forced to deal with the wait and see process and you can't have that when the team's best player is concerned.
Returning to the recap.
Both teams would trade possessions without scoring until the 7:06 mark of the 4th. The Jets had the ball and engineered a great drive that ended with a 23 yard TD run by Shonn Greene. This play was run masterfully. It was a zone blocking cutback run. The key to the play was a great block by John Conner. The Terminator plastered E.J. Henderson trying to make the tackle. This block created the seal that sprung Greene to the end zone. A well executed run by the NFL's best running team.
22 - 13 Jets
That score gave me a very comfortable feeling. I didn't think the Vikings had any fight left in them after the back and forth scoring. I was wrong. Favre was hot and he chewed up big chunks of yards in very little time. The final play was an 11 yard TD pass to Harvin in the back of the end zone. This was another pretty pass that ended up in either his guy's hands or it was out of bounds. Harvin caught the pass leaping in the air. Leonhard covering tried to push him out of bounds before both feet got in but Harvin did a great job dropping both feet in. The coverage was a mismatch from the beginning and Favre knew it. Harvin stands at 5' 11" and Leonhard tips the ruler at 5' 8". Advantage Harvin. Especially since Leonhard isn't 5' 8" that's complete bullshit. At best he's 5' 6" maybe 5' 7". The guy plays hrd and has the heart of a lion but it's just too much for him to ask to cover bigger receivers when ALL of them are bigger than him.
22 - 20 Jets
We now move to the most gut wrenching moments of the game. The last 3:09.
The Jets had the ball and you just prayed for a couple of 1st downs which would have iced the game. The possession started off that way. A 2 yard run by Tomlinson followed by an 11 yard pass to Holmes. The Vikings burned their last 2 timeouts on those 2 plays so all the Jets had to do was play some smart clock football and we're going home smiling.
OOPS!
After the Vikings last timeout there was 2:47 left on the clock they ran the exact same 2 plays on the drive. A run by LT for -1 yard then they threw it. This is where Schottenheimer getting too cute almost cost them the game. The pass was another slant to Holmes.
3 things went wrong on the play.
1) Sanchez snapped the ball with 7 seconds left on the play clock.
2) The pass was incomplete stopping the clock before the 2 min warning.
3) THE PLAY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN CALLED!!!!!!
Because you tried to out think the other sideline you ended up out smarting yourself. I realize that Schottenheimer never counted on Sanchez snapping the ball early but that wouldn't have been and issue IF THE PLAY WAS A RUN!!!! Running the ball on 2nd down guarantees the clock goes to the 2 min warning if not past it depending on the result of the play. Instead you pass and the clock stops. Now you have to pass on 3rd and 11 to end the game. What does Minnesota do? They blitzed, flushing Sanchez out of the pocket and forcing him to throw a desperation pass to Edwards down the left sideline.
Incomplete. 2 minute warning.
This was some of the worst late game clock management I have seen in a while. This took me back to the dare I say it Herm Edwards era where he would use all of his 2nd half timeouts on 1 drive. Then he would wonder why he doesn't have any when he needs them later. This was surprising to see considering that Rex and co. have been pretty good at time management. Everyone has their off days but you can't be off in the last 2 minutes of a tight game.
Now Favre gets the ball back with 1:48 needing just a FG to escape the New Meadowlands with a crazy comeback win. I was ready to turn the TV off and go to bed. After all the missed opportunities to score TD's and the defense's inability to stop Favre down the stretch, I just knew this game was over. But then I remembered something very important.
Brett Favre is the master of closing a game out....FOR THE OTHER TEAM!
After the kick off. Favre tries the home run ball to Moss but Cromartie would have none of that.
Incomplete. 2nd and 10. Next was the play of the game.
The Jets came with a blitz and Favre beat the pressure and found a WIDE OPEN Percy Harvin. He completes this pass and he's gone to the house for 6. Favre over throws Harvin badly missing him by a mile. Jets dodged a HUGE bullet here.
Incomplete. 3rd and 10.
We now come to what was for me sweet justice. Favre drops back to throw and is blitzed again. He sidesteps the pressure and throws a poor pass right into the hands of Dwight Lowery who high steps his way 26 yards into the end zone for the game ending pick 6. What a way to end the game. Once again the great, magnificent, invincible, do no wrong Brett Favre threw ANOTHER game ending interception.
29 - 20 Jets
I couldn't watch that play enough.
It should come as no secret to anyone that I HATE BRETT FAVRE with every fiber of my being. I can't stand how he continues to dodge criticism when he makes ridiculous plays. If any other QB made the bonehead plays he makes they would be run out of town faster than you can say "HIKE". As Jets fans we saw his bullshit 1st hand in 2008 so you don't need any more proof from me. So watching him once again make a stupid play that cost his team a potential win was just music to my eyes.
Having said that I do have to give the man his due. He leads the world in practically every statistical category for a QB. We all know the TD's and Yards but here are some that you might not be aware of.
1) Interceptions - 324 NFL record
2) Interceptions returned for Touchdowns - 31 Currently the active leader.
3) Fumbles - 163 NFL record
I like those stats better.
Did you really think I was going to give him props for any positive stats?
Fuck you and your tendinitis filled elbow Brett! Nothing would please me more than to see you spend the rest of the season rotting away in mediocrity!!!!
That's a wrap on the recap. Now it's time for some Quick Hits.
1) So much for the Williams Wall....The Jets ran over, around and through the Vikings vaunted rushing defense for a grand total of 155 yards. That is the most rushing yards the Vikes have given up to a team in 51 regular season games. Ground and Pound baby!
2) The "D" keeps putting up goose eggs....For the 5th straight game, the defense has not allowed a 1st quarter point. Say what you want about this unit but it's pretty hard to get in a game if you haven't scored in the 1st 15 minutes.
3) Take care of the ball and it will take care of you....The Jets have played turnover free ball for the 4th straight game. They lead the NFL in turnover ratio at +11. The only turnover the Jets committed was Shonn Greene's fumble in Week 1.
4) Welcome back Calvin....Calvin Pace's 1st game back from foot surgery was pretty good. 3 tackles, 3 QB hits and 1.5 sacks. Not a bad day at the office. His return to the "D" is a much needed boost to the pass rush and the run defense which is pretty stout enough.
5) How do you spell versatile? B-R-A-D S-M-I-T-H....Very quietly or maybe not so quietly now, Brad Smith has become an invaluable member to this team overall. His expertise in the wildcat offense is getting more and more impressive and his special teams play is severely underrated. This guy is a jack of all trades that provides stability to so many areas of the team.
6) The Vikings have one of the games best pass rushers in Jared Allen. How did they stop him? They put a "Brick" wall in front of him....The offensive line had another monster game. Highlighted collectively by the dominating rushing stats put up but the individual highlight has to go to D'Brickashaw Ferguson. He had his best game of the season against a ferocious DE. Jared Allen is in the Mario Williams, Julius Peppers and Dwight Freeney class of D-ends if not better and Brick stoned him all night long. Sanchez's blind side was protected like there was a force field behind him. That's all #60. He keeps this up he'll be playing in Hawaii as a starter and not an injury alternate.
7) Hey Randy, Welcome to Cromartie Island....With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Revis vs Moss II. It ended up being Antonio Cromartie's night to shine. He absolutely shut down Moss again. And I don't want to hear that Moss wasn't familiar with the offense and didn't know the playbook. You don't need to know the playbook when all you're doing is running in a straight line as fast as you can. All Favre did was throw go routes to him and Cromartie locked that down. He is getting better in this system every week. If he keeps this up it will be hard to let him walk at the end of the year.
8) Keep your faith in your Defense and your faith will be rewarded....After a complete ass whuppin in the 1st half. The Jets "D" began to weaken. Some of their blitzes were being picked up leaving Favre too much time to find an open man going up against 1 on 1 coverage. But when it came down to crunch time, King Rex stayed with the blitz and it paid off big time. On the pick 6 play, Ryan called another double safety blitz. Leonhard came from the left and Marquice Cole came from the right. Cole's pressure forced Favre to throw off balance and off his back foot allowing Lowery to jump the route and pick off the pass. King Rex showed faith in his defense's ability to make a play when they had to and it won them a football game.
9) Sanchez continues to show why we drafted him #5 overall....It's pretty clear that this wasn't his best game. He was off for most of the night. His passes were inaccurate and very high. He very luckily avoided at least 3 picks by my count. However, he did make plays when he had to and showed a ton of poise in the pocket. He needs to do a better job in the red zone but he's keeping the ball away from the other colored jersey and that's always a good thing. He was also victimized by his receivers dropping balls. There were at least 5 dropped passes that all would have resulted in 1st downs.
10) Why were the Jets playing "Where's Waldo" with Keller....For some insane reason, the Jets forgot to feed Keller the ball. The Vikings run a base cover 2 defense. The best weapon against that scheme is a TE running along the seam. Keller only caught 2 passes and was targeted only 5 times. That's not enough. He needs to be a more sought after option in the passing game. I think a lot of this had to do with Santonio Holmes' return. Sanchez was making a constant effort to get him involved so he looked and threw a lot his way but you can't do that at the expense of someone else who's open. On several of the deep balls that Sanchez threw to Holmes, Keller was running alone. Keller's involvement in the passing game will only help get Santonio more passes his way. Don't forget #81 just because you have a new toy to play with.
11) It's time for Revis to respect Randy....The newly formed rivalry between Moss and Revis is fun to watch but there is a very big difference to how each man handles their victories or defeats against each other. Revis talks a ton of trash, some of it warranted and some of it just straight up shit talk. Revis has called Moss a slouch and that he quits when he's not getting the ball. That is true but it doesn't change the fact that Moss is a playmaker and has been his entire career. On the other side, Moss has given nothing but props to Revis. Including after this game. He commended Revis for coming back and playing hard coming off his hamstring injury. That he's one of the games best corners and has earned the praise he's been getting. That's pretty classy stuff from a diva WR.
Now it's time for King Rex's quote of the game.
Question:
"What happened on the crossing route to Harvin? Was Darrelle supposed to hand him off to someone?
King Rex's Response:
The actual answer is not the quote of the game. The quote came after his answer about the TD
"I just thought this was a typical Jet win. Resilient, team effort all the way against an excellent football team and I'm just proud of the way our guys competed all the way to the end. Made a great play on defense....D-Lo did (Lowery) and shoot we'll take the victory. We're not apologizing for anything."
That pretty much summed up the game. It wasn't pretty but we'll take it. There are no style points in the NFL and when you can come away with a win like this when your offense isn't clicking and your defense suffers a hiccup late you can feel good that this team does not panic under the hot lights. The Jets are showing that they'll kick your ass when everything is on the up and up and now they've shown the ability to fight for every inch until they come out with the higher score at the end.
Up next is a date with the Broncos in Mile High. Revis is uncertain he will play. Just do everyone a favor and just sit him out. Get him 2 more weeks of rest and treatment before they play the Packers on Halloween. If the Jets pull this one out on the road it will be a huge win heading into the bye week. Especially with the Ravens taking on the Patriots the same day. I never thought I would say this but I'm a Ravens fan this coming Sunday.
5-1 here we come? We'll see.
That's all I got....Now Let's Go Eat A God Damn Snack!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)