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!!!!
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