As mentioned earlier in the thread, the Patriots have two wins within the division. Those teams know your schemes and had months to prepare, once they saw the schedule. It's not a full perspective until you've been outside the division several times.
Geno Smith looks considerably better than I expected. Certainly more of an upside than Sanchez at this point. He's moving around calmly at just the right pace and scanning the field with eyes in the secondary. Lots of nice adjustments tonight when he squared his shoulders on the run, much better than his tendencies at West Virginia. Variety of pace and loft with a catchable ball. Well, catchable other than the guys on the other end. He was victimized by his teammates tonight beyond anything that Tannehill experienced last season.
The Jets look like an NFL team. Shocking development. It's generally a bad beat when you outrush the home team 32 attempts to 24 with nearly double the yardage. Nice push up front on many runs, including at Wilfork.
Smith and Manuel have already hinted that they can play a long time in this league. Should make for an interesting division.
Agree with a lot of this Awsi. With the lack of talent at receiver, Smith threw a lot of 50:50 balls and it was inevitable at some point one would get snagged. The first INT was one of those. The second was flat-out an awful decision by Smith. His one real glaring error of the night. The third was on the receiver imo.
Geno has the touch, but has he got the clutch? That was my question coming out of WVU (where he was great at beating up the minnows, but not so hot when the pressure was on). I expect him to be a very effective piece in a well-conceived offense in the future, but I have my doubts about leadership potential. He throws a heart-achingly beautiful ball, I'll give him that.
The Jets O-line looked like a mess for a lot of that game, the one exception the drive after halftime when they probably got a rocket put up their asses by Ryan. The playcalling was dreadful too I thought. Neither the o-line nor Marty helped Geno at all. I won't even mention Hill, Gates et al.
To me the Jets looked like a team of pretty decent players whose abilities were undermined by bad coaching/leadership.
As for the Pats, they were the opposite. They looked like a well-oiled machine being operated by chimps. Why the Jets didn't shut down Edelman is a mystery, he was the only bright spot in a terrible offensive display. The conditions were really bad though, so I'm not muttering prayers of benediction over the corpse of Pat the Patriot yet.
Still, that is not a talented Patriot team, in terms of the level they're used to being at. Bring Gronk, Vereen and Amendola back in though and at a minimum it's an above average league offense. The defense didn't impress at all.
