Archives
October 2007
10/31/07
10/31/07
10/31/07
10/30/07
10/30/07
10/29/07
Bills 13 Jets 3: Nightmare Season Hits a New Low
10/27/07
10/25/07
10/24/07
10/24/07
10/23/07
10/23/07
10/22/07
10/19/07
10/18/07
10/18/07
10/18/07
10/16/07
10/12/07
10/11/07
10/11/07
10/10/07
10/10/07
10/9/07
10/9/07
10/9/07
10/9/07
10/7/07
10/4/07
10/4/07
10/3/07
10/3/07
10/2/07
10/2/07
10/1/07
Monday, October 29, 2007
12:16:00 PM EDT
The Jets are now 1-7 after a brutal 13-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the Meadowlands. Gang Green can now win the rest of its games and still will not finish with as many wins as it had in 2006. This is unfathomable. Even those who called the 2006 Jets a product of their schedule could not have thought the team would fall so far so quickly.
Chad Pennington finally did enough poorly for Eric Mangini to pull him. Pennington was 13 for 20 throwing the ball with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He only threw for 106 yards, barely 5 yards per attempt. That is atrocious. The most disturbing part about this performance was not that Chad struggled to move the ball with any regularity against a bad defense. It is not the fact that he put up only 3 points. These certainly were bad, but the most troubling thing was the fear Chad displayed. He had absolutely no confidence. He looked scared to throw an interception. He hardly attempted any passes that carried even a small risk with them. His throws were consistently short dumpoffs, even on plays when the Jets needed huge chunks of yardage. He was afraid to make a mistake on the field. A team cannot move the ball when its quarterback throws only to his check down receivers. When the quarterback is so worried about making errors that his throws do not even challenge a secondary, it is time to try somebody else at the position. This might have been the end of the Pennington Era. A tenure that started out with such promise appears destined to finish with a whimper. Eric Mangini stuck with him as long as he could. He gave enough rope for Chad to hang himself.
Kellen Clemens entered the game in almost impossible conditions, attempting to overcome a 13-3 hole in the final 5:00 while coming off the bench cold. He struggled, throwing a pair of interceptions. This performance means nothing. Tom Brady probably could not have overcome that deficit under the same conditions. The final eight games will be Kellen's chance to assert himself as the leader of this football team. He will not need to play great, but he will need to show consistent improvement along with signs that he can be the franchise quarterback. It is important to set the bar low. This team's problems go well beyond quarterback play. Expecting Kellen to come in and completely turn around things would be utterly unfair. If he completely bombs this audition, though, the Jets might have to at least entertain the notion of picking Matt Ryan, Brain Brohm, or Andre Woodson in the 2008 NFL Draft. The fanbase is already turning on this regime. Things could get ugly if its handpicked guy of the future proves to be incapable of handling this test.
Thomas Jones had a quality game, running for 70 yards on 16 carries. His problem was that the passing game was so weak that the Jets could not sustain drives and allow Jones to make a big impact on the game. By the time Clemens entered the game, the team was in such dire straights that it had to exclusively throw the ball. If Clemens can energize the passing game, Jones will become much more effective in a diverse offense.
The defense was a major bright spot. It might have been up against a lousy Buffalo offense, but this was easily the unit's most impressive effort of the season. The run defense was clearly affected by the addition of David Harris to the starting lineup. Harris, one of the few players suited to play 3-4 on the roster, made 10 tackles and assisted on 7 others as the Jets held Buffalo to 3.1 yards per rush. Harris was all over the place and even recorded a sack. If there is a silver lining in Jonathan Vilma's knee injury it is that the coaching staff was finally forced to get Harris onto the field, where he made a big impact. Part of Vilma's struggles in the 3-4 have been due to his being a focal point of opposing blocking schemes. If the Jets can get a real nose tackle in front of Jonathan, and he plays next to the disruptive Harris in 2008, Vilma might finally have room to operate and make plays in this defense.
Darrelle Revis also had a big game. He was a constant thorn in Buffalo's side, disrupting plays on numerous blitzes and playing great in coverage. The rookie recorded his first career interception in this contest against Trent Edwards. It was the first of what should be many. Although still raw, he has clearly distinguished himself as the best cover man on the team and one of the defense's biggest playmakers.
This was the best defensive gameplan of the season. The Jets finally changed things up defensively. On multiple occasions, they disguised blitzes as men shifted around before the snap. Down linemen did not get into their stances immediately, and others stood up after originally getting into stances. The Jets actually applied pressure to opposing quarterbacks. The team used Revis to blitz off the corner more than it had all year long. The Jets do not have enough pass rushers on this defense to generate anything consistently without the use of deception. It worked well in that legendary game in Foxborough last November. It had been missing up to this point this season. The maligned defensive coaching staff deserves kudos for this and for sticking Dewayne Robertson at end, where he played well. A lot of fans have had major issues with Bob Sutton. He can only work with what he is given. His schemes have been much less vanilla than they were a year ago, and he is actually making adjustments between games. He is not a great coordinator by any means. His in-game adjustments have been lacking, but there actually might be less of a case to fire him than there was a year ago (This is not to say he should keep his job, only that he is at least getting better).
Things really could not get much worse for this team. This might be the worst year in the history of the franchise. The team could at least blame an inordinate number of injuries in 2005. The Kotite years were awful, but he was one of the worst coaches in NFL history. There is no excuse for this team to be this bad. The men on the sidelines are capable. The players are solid. This is not a Super Bowl team, but it should not be a 1-7 club either. Chad Pennington has been bad, but now he is probably done. If this team does not at least show some sign of life before the end of the year, it is going to be difficult to figure out how to turn this thing around. Things should not be this bad.
Written by georgecoztanza Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
12:16:00 PM EDT
Bills 13 Jets 3: Nightmare Season Hits a New Low
Chad Pennington finally did enough poorly for Eric Mangini to pull him. Pennington was 13 for 20 throwing the ball with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He only threw for 106 yards, barely 5 yards per attempt. That is atrocious. The most disturbing part about this performance was not that Chad struggled to move the ball with any regularity against a bad defense. It is not the fact that he put up only 3 points. These certainly were bad, but the most troubling thing was the fear Chad displayed. He had absolutely no confidence. He looked scared to throw an interception. He hardly attempted any passes that carried even a small risk with them. His throws were consistently short dumpoffs, even on plays when the Jets needed huge chunks of yardage. He was afraid to make a mistake on the field. A team cannot move the ball when its quarterback throws only to his check down receivers. When the quarterback is so worried about making errors that his throws do not even challenge a secondary, it is time to try somebody else at the position. This might have been the end of the Pennington Era. A tenure that started out with such promise appears destined to finish with a whimper. Eric Mangini stuck with him as long as he could. He gave enough rope for Chad to hang himself.
Kellen Clemens entered the game in almost impossible conditions, attempting to overcome a 13-3 hole in the final 5:00 while coming off the bench cold. He struggled, throwing a pair of interceptions. This performance means nothing. Tom Brady probably could not have overcome that deficit under the same conditions. The final eight games will be Kellen's chance to assert himself as the leader of this football team. He will not need to play great, but he will need to show consistent improvement along with signs that he can be the franchise quarterback. It is important to set the bar low. This team's problems go well beyond quarterback play. Expecting Kellen to come in and completely turn around things would be utterly unfair. If he completely bombs this audition, though, the Jets might have to at least entertain the notion of picking Matt Ryan, Brain Brohm, or Andre Woodson in the 2008 NFL Draft. The fanbase is already turning on this regime. Things could get ugly if its handpicked guy of the future proves to be incapable of handling this test.
Thomas Jones had a quality game, running for 70 yards on 16 carries. His problem was that the passing game was so weak that the Jets could not sustain drives and allow Jones to make a big impact on the game. By the time Clemens entered the game, the team was in such dire straights that it had to exclusively throw the ball. If Clemens can energize the passing game, Jones will become much more effective in a diverse offense.
The defense was a major bright spot. It might have been up against a lousy Buffalo offense, but this was easily the unit's most impressive effort of the season. The run defense was clearly affected by the addition of David Harris to the starting lineup. Harris, one of the few players suited to play 3-4 on the roster, made 10 tackles and assisted on 7 others as the Jets held Buffalo to 3.1 yards per rush. Harris was all over the place and even recorded a sack. If there is a silver lining in Jonathan Vilma's knee injury it is that the coaching staff was finally forced to get Harris onto the field, where he made a big impact. Part of Vilma's struggles in the 3-4 have been due to his being a focal point of opposing blocking schemes. If the Jets can get a real nose tackle in front of Jonathan, and he plays next to the disruptive Harris in 2008, Vilma might finally have room to operate and make plays in this defense.
Darrelle Revis also had a big game. He was a constant thorn in Buffalo's side, disrupting plays on numerous blitzes and playing great in coverage. The rookie recorded his first career interception in this contest against Trent Edwards. It was the first of what should be many. Although still raw, he has clearly distinguished himself as the best cover man on the team and one of the defense's biggest playmakers.
This was the best defensive gameplan of the season. The Jets finally changed things up defensively. On multiple occasions, they disguised blitzes as men shifted around before the snap. Down linemen did not get into their stances immediately, and others stood up after originally getting into stances. The Jets actually applied pressure to opposing quarterbacks. The team used Revis to blitz off the corner more than it had all year long. The Jets do not have enough pass rushers on this defense to generate anything consistently without the use of deception. It worked well in that legendary game in Foxborough last November. It had been missing up to this point this season. The maligned defensive coaching staff deserves kudos for this and for sticking Dewayne Robertson at end, where he played well. A lot of fans have had major issues with Bob Sutton. He can only work with what he is given. His schemes have been much less vanilla than they were a year ago, and he is actually making adjustments between games. He is not a great coordinator by any means. His in-game adjustments have been lacking, but there actually might be less of a case to fire him than there was a year ago (This is not to say he should keep his job, only that he is at least getting better).
Things really could not get much worse for this team. This might be the worst year in the history of the franchise. The team could at least blame an inordinate number of injuries in 2005. The Kotite years were awful, but he was one of the worst coaches in NFL history. There is no excuse for this team to be this bad. The men on the sidelines are capable. The players are solid. This is not a Super Bowl team, but it should not be a 1-7 club either. Chad Pennington has been bad, but now he is probably done. If this team does not at least show some sign of life before the end of the year, it is going to be difficult to figure out how to turn this thing around. Things should not be this bad.
Written by georgecoztanza Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
