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!!!