Everybody is still pumped about our victory, and we have this week and next to celebrate. I watched the game like most live last night, and then today I re-watched the game. I saw a lot of things from both teams. Let's start with our beloved rivals.
Rex Ryan does have an exotic blitz scheme, but after watching the Jets against us and last week against the Saints, he doesn't have the players to make his defense elite. They have good players, and some very good players, but Rey Lewis, Terrelle Suggs, Ed Reed, Chris McCallister (When healthy), and Samari Rolle (when healthy) helped make Bart Scott and Jim Leonard better than they are. Both are good players, but they don't have a bunch of elite players around them to help. While Kris Jenkins may be a better NT than Haloti Ngata, he can't do as much on the field as Haloti can. The depth in Baltimore also played a huge part in why the defense was so good. Not saying the Jets D is bad, but until they can get the pass rushers at OLB and ILB, as well as some athletic big guys on the DL, they are not gonna be anywhere near the Baltimore Ravens of the decade.
As for the Jets offense, Sanchez didn't look bad, but he didn't look great either. His best play was the throw to David Clowney. He doesn't look like a rookie which is a huge plus, but he isn't the second coming (atleast not yet).
Braylon looked good, but he didn't really dominate us like you'd think. One 3 yard TD, and one nice catch on 3 and 22. Otherwise, he was a solid WR.
Their OL did a good job against us when they put Leon Washington in the backfield. Thomas Jones had some decent runs in the second half, but Leon was the only one that got consistently good runs.
Where was Dustin Keller? After watching Gonzo,Gates, and Clark kill us why didn't the Jets involve Keller at all? You would think you would get the LBs and safeties playing more in coverage, but not really.
Before I go to Miami, I must say that the ESPN Analysts all look awful now. They spent all pre-game telling the world how the Jets would destroy us and the Wildcat would be contained. I know they have a northeast biased, but when you dub yourself "The Worldwide Leaders in Sports" actually show that you know what you're talking about.
Let's start with penalties. There were a couple calls that I felt were bad, and some that were there. I Didn't think Jake Grove was holding Bart Scott at the end of the second quarter (he didn't have a hold of him), but I get that call. Yeremiah Bell did interfere in the first, even if the pass was too high Bell ran into the WR way before the ball got there. The 2 calls I really hated were Gibril's personal foul (didn't lead with the helmet IMO), and Will Allen's illegal contact (wasn't beyond 5 yards). The PI call on Allen turned out to be a poor call, but at game speed I thought it was a good call. We can't complain about the refs too much.
Speaking as a guy who watched Henne for 4 years at Michigan, it's evident how big of an impact Pennington had on him. Henne was reading the field very well last night, and looked comfortable in the pocket (something he didn't have at Michigan, even with Jake Long at LT). Aside from overthrowing Fasano in the 2nd half, I don't think Henne really made a bad decision.
When the WRs were called upon they made plays. That's all you can ask from this group. Nice to see Teddy get a long TD against a top notch CB. Whether Henne's arm will make Teddy a bigger weapon or not, no idea. It was however, great to see him show he's more than capable of a big play. My hope is that he MAY develop ala Devery Henderson; start out with a couple big plays a season, and then become more consistent each year.
Bess IMO is still our best WR because he is shifty after the catch. Camarillo made some big catches, but Bess is the only guy we have that gets YAC. Also good to see Cam get those big catches.
I think Fasano is going to turn his season around after last night. After his 2 fumbles week 1, we haven't really tried getting him involved in the offense. He's been a great blocker, but we need Fasano involved with the offense. Let's not forget, he had 7 TDs last year which I believe was 3rd among all TEs last year. Joey Haynos also had a nice catch and made some pretty good blocks.
I'm not going to go too much into Ricky and Ronnie. What can I say that everybody else hasn't? One thing I did notice is Ricky does not have the vision Ronnie has when taking the Wildcat snaps, but other than that... didn't notice much.
It sucks to lose Patrick Cobbs for the year, but I don't think that fall in the 4th quarter is what tore his ACL. After watching him last year, and see the games this year he was noticeably slower to me this year. I think something was already wrong with him. Still sucks to see.
Aside from 2 penalties, the OL looked great. Jake Grove handled Jenkins really well, and the one time Jenkins got by, Grove was just supposed to bump him and keep moving (still a great play by Jenkins). Jake Long and Donald Thomas looked really good last night. Jake especially stood out and you could tell he was taking the Jets love fest to heart pancaking Jets DEs left and right. Smiley looked great pulling, and Vernon Carey had his most complete game this season. Overall, there is little you can complain about here.
I will question Dan Hennig a bit. His playcalling in the last 2 minutes of the first half has been dreadful all year, last night was no exception. He's too quick to get conservative at times. I also wish they would've taken the training wheels off Henne in the first half. I understand being careful with a young QB, but I don't think he attempted a pass over 5 yards until the second half (not including the screen to Ricky).
I understand we don't have the go to WR, but I think our offense could be good in the way that New England's offense in their Super Bowl runs were good without a top WR (relying on Troy Brown, David Givens, David Patten, and Deion BRanch, with Daniel Graham/Christian Fauria at TE) or RB (one year with Corey Dillon aside, they won with Kevin Faulk and Antwain Smith). The key is being creative with your playcalling and don't get conservative.
I don't think Gibril Wilson did that bad last night. I think the worst safety on the field was Yeremiah Bell last night. He had a bad PI call in the first half, and was guarding David Clowney on his 50+ yard grab. Safety play in coverage has been killing us, but both are decent at stopping the run.
Both Vontae and Smith looked good for the most part, but it's evident both have a lot of work to do. On Braylon's catch on 3 and 22, Vontae panicked when he lost sight of the ball and just jumped wildly. Had he stayed on his feet, I don't think the ball would've been caught. Smith had good coverage most of the night, but his big mistake came on a missed tackle. He's got to get better there. Overall, they're doing just what I thought; pretty good, but will give up a big play every now and then.
Will Allen struggled a bit, but was solid for the most part. Also, I think our team leads the league in Almost INTs
Channing Crowder made some plays tonight and showed up for the most part. He's got to show that fire on a consistent basis. While it may not show in the stat book, he was doing a great job shedding blocks. Akin looked ok, but not great.
Joey and JT didn't get a lot of pressure tonight. There were a couple of almost sacks, but a lot of those came from the DL. Cam Wake got some good pressure when he played, but the 3 of them really didn't do much.
The DL did alright, but I think this week was probably their worst week. They didn't play bad by any stretch, but they weren't consistently winning battles in the trenches like they have. This will happen every now and then.
My biggest complaint about our scheme is the lack of aggressiveness, I'm not saying blitz like Rex RYan does, but on 3rd and 22 I don't want to see just 3 people rushing the QB. Our D can be very good and get pressure, but this year we've been very vanilla with what we're doing on defense. Plus, playing aggressive defense will take pressure off our young secondary.
Overall, I think there's a lot to be excited about from our team. I wish our coaching staff wouldn't go into shells every so often and just keep the foot to the pedal, but I think we can turn the season around. The Saints will be a tough opponent, but not impossible.
Rex Ryan does have an exotic blitz scheme, but after watching the Jets against us and last week against the Saints, he doesn't have the players to make his defense elite. They have good players, and some very good players, but Rey Lewis, Terrelle Suggs, Ed Reed, Chris McCallister (When healthy), and Samari Rolle (when healthy) helped make Bart Scott and Jim Leonard better than they are. Both are good players, but they don't have a bunch of elite players around them to help. While Kris Jenkins may be a better NT than Haloti Ngata, he can't do as much on the field as Haloti can. The depth in Baltimore also played a huge part in why the defense was so good. Not saying the Jets D is bad, but until they can get the pass rushers at OLB and ILB, as well as some athletic big guys on the DL, they are not gonna be anywhere near the Baltimore Ravens of the decade.
As for the Jets offense, Sanchez didn't look bad, but he didn't look great either. His best play was the throw to David Clowney. He doesn't look like a rookie which is a huge plus, but he isn't the second coming (atleast not yet).
Braylon looked good, but he didn't really dominate us like you'd think. One 3 yard TD, and one nice catch on 3 and 22. Otherwise, he was a solid WR.
Their OL did a good job against us when they put Leon Washington in the backfield. Thomas Jones had some decent runs in the second half, but Leon was the only one that got consistently good runs.
Where was Dustin Keller? After watching Gonzo,Gates, and Clark kill us why didn't the Jets involve Keller at all? You would think you would get the LBs and safeties playing more in coverage, but not really.
Before I go to Miami, I must say that the ESPN Analysts all look awful now. They spent all pre-game telling the world how the Jets would destroy us and the Wildcat would be contained. I know they have a northeast biased, but when you dub yourself "The Worldwide Leaders in Sports" actually show that you know what you're talking about.
Let's start with penalties. There were a couple calls that I felt were bad, and some that were there. I Didn't think Jake Grove was holding Bart Scott at the end of the second quarter (he didn't have a hold of him), but I get that call. Yeremiah Bell did interfere in the first, even if the pass was too high Bell ran into the WR way before the ball got there. The 2 calls I really hated were Gibril's personal foul (didn't lead with the helmet IMO), and Will Allen's illegal contact (wasn't beyond 5 yards). The PI call on Allen turned out to be a poor call, but at game speed I thought it was a good call. We can't complain about the refs too much.
Speaking as a guy who watched Henne for 4 years at Michigan, it's evident how big of an impact Pennington had on him. Henne was reading the field very well last night, and looked comfortable in the pocket (something he didn't have at Michigan, even with Jake Long at LT). Aside from overthrowing Fasano in the 2nd half, I don't think Henne really made a bad decision.
When the WRs were called upon they made plays. That's all you can ask from this group. Nice to see Teddy get a long TD against a top notch CB. Whether Henne's arm will make Teddy a bigger weapon or not, no idea. It was however, great to see him show he's more than capable of a big play. My hope is that he MAY develop ala Devery Henderson; start out with a couple big plays a season, and then become more consistent each year.
Bess IMO is still our best WR because he is shifty after the catch. Camarillo made some big catches, but Bess is the only guy we have that gets YAC. Also good to see Cam get those big catches.
I think Fasano is going to turn his season around after last night. After his 2 fumbles week 1, we haven't really tried getting him involved in the offense. He's been a great blocker, but we need Fasano involved with the offense. Let's not forget, he had 7 TDs last year which I believe was 3rd among all TEs last year. Joey Haynos also had a nice catch and made some pretty good blocks.
I'm not going to go too much into Ricky and Ronnie. What can I say that everybody else hasn't? One thing I did notice is Ricky does not have the vision Ronnie has when taking the Wildcat snaps, but other than that... didn't notice much.
It sucks to lose Patrick Cobbs for the year, but I don't think that fall in the 4th quarter is what tore his ACL. After watching him last year, and see the games this year he was noticeably slower to me this year. I think something was already wrong with him. Still sucks to see.
Aside from 2 penalties, the OL looked great. Jake Grove handled Jenkins really well, and the one time Jenkins got by, Grove was just supposed to bump him and keep moving (still a great play by Jenkins). Jake Long and Donald Thomas looked really good last night. Jake especially stood out and you could tell he was taking the Jets love fest to heart pancaking Jets DEs left and right. Smiley looked great pulling, and Vernon Carey had his most complete game this season. Overall, there is little you can complain about here.
I will question Dan Hennig a bit. His playcalling in the last 2 minutes of the first half has been dreadful all year, last night was no exception. He's too quick to get conservative at times. I also wish they would've taken the training wheels off Henne in the first half. I understand being careful with a young QB, but I don't think he attempted a pass over 5 yards until the second half (not including the screen to Ricky).
I understand we don't have the go to WR, but I think our offense could be good in the way that New England's offense in their Super Bowl runs were good without a top WR (relying on Troy Brown, David Givens, David Patten, and Deion BRanch, with Daniel Graham/Christian Fauria at TE) or RB (one year with Corey Dillon aside, they won with Kevin Faulk and Antwain Smith). The key is being creative with your playcalling and don't get conservative.
I don't think Gibril Wilson did that bad last night. I think the worst safety on the field was Yeremiah Bell last night. He had a bad PI call in the first half, and was guarding David Clowney on his 50+ yard grab. Safety play in coverage has been killing us, but both are decent at stopping the run.
Both Vontae and Smith looked good for the most part, but it's evident both have a lot of work to do. On Braylon's catch on 3 and 22, Vontae panicked when he lost sight of the ball and just jumped wildly. Had he stayed on his feet, I don't think the ball would've been caught. Smith had good coverage most of the night, but his big mistake came on a missed tackle. He's got to get better there. Overall, they're doing just what I thought; pretty good, but will give up a big play every now and then.
Will Allen struggled a bit, but was solid for the most part. Also, I think our team leads the league in Almost INTs
Channing Crowder made some plays tonight and showed up for the most part. He's got to show that fire on a consistent basis. While it may not show in the stat book, he was doing a great job shedding blocks. Akin looked ok, but not great.
Joey and JT didn't get a lot of pressure tonight. There were a couple of almost sacks, but a lot of those came from the DL. Cam Wake got some good pressure when he played, but the 3 of them really didn't do much.
The DL did alright, but I think this week was probably their worst week. They didn't play bad by any stretch, but they weren't consistently winning battles in the trenches like they have. This will happen every now and then.
My biggest complaint about our scheme is the lack of aggressiveness, I'm not saying blitz like Rex RYan does, but on 3rd and 22 I don't want to see just 3 people rushing the QB. Our D can be very good and get pressure, but this year we've been very vanilla with what we're doing on defense. Plus, playing aggressive defense will take pressure off our young secondary.
Overall, I think there's a lot to be excited about from our team. I wish our coaching staff wouldn't go into shells every so often and just keep the foot to the pedal, but I think we can turn the season around. The Saints will be a tough opponent, but not impossible.
