Interview with Matt McChesney
A new blog, The Jet Launch started very recently, and did an interesting interview with Jet Defensive Lineman Matt McChesney. For those unfamiliar with “the Chez,” McChesney came to the team in December by way of Saint Louis as a free agent rookie last year. McChesney is listed on ourlads behind Robertson and Pouha at the Defensive Tackle and had some interesting things to say, specifically about the Jets' defensive schemes.
Contrary to what a lot of Jets websites and chat forums are saying, McChesney offered this in reply, “I think that both fronts are productive. In certain situations I'm pretty sure that we will run both. I don't see us sticking exclusively with either. We plan on keeping them (other teams) on their toes. Whatever the team and the defensive coordinator says to do that week, we're going to do.”
Very interesting, I think I wrote something recenly about how the Jets might actually do what they say when it comes to defense. Either Mangini is trying to trick his own players about what fronts he will use during the year, or they are actually going to use different fronts during the season. This then leads me to think that the Jets will keep a more even number of linebackers and lineman on the roster when cuts come … maybe shading a tad towards linebackers.
That being said, I think Bent's point about not being authoritative in the style of play clearly shows the weakness of the defense, but that's beside the point… I get to say “I was right” (for once in my life).
3 Responses to Interview with Matt McChesney
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96debacle says:
I'm still having a hard time swallowing having an adaptive defensive scheme is a weakness. I understand the 'Jack of all trades. Master of none.' philosophy. If you have a play book with multiple sets (3-4, 4-3, 4-6, cover 2) but still the same amount of plays as a true 3-4 play book, wouldn't that make the defense more effective. In short, stronger thru diversification?
The fact that Mangini wants a team of players that are intellegent would indicate that he wants to run a defensive scheme that is not traditional. He has put together (on the way anyway) the personnel to pull it off.
I.E. Playing to his teams strengths and the other teams weaknesses.
JMO -
Despite all the feel good hype about Mangini playing grasshopper to Bellichek's Kung Fu master, when Mangini got his chance, he flopped. He was hired for the same reason that Michael Brown was hired as the new Director of FEMA… his best friend in the world made the decision. Here's what Boston Sports Media had to say about Mangini's 'genius' after the Kansas City loss on November 24th last year.
http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/archives/gameday/midweek_thoughts.php
And then there was the defense. This is the worst Patriots defense, so far, I have ever seen. I feel comfortable saying that. Worse than the 1-15 defense in 1990. Worse than the 2-14 defense in 1992. Worse than the 2-14 defense in 1981. Its horrendous. Right now, the secondary is not even NFL level. It is not competitive. Up front, the linebackers and linemen slept walked thru the entire first half, making few plays, getting blown off the ball and just embarassing themselves out there. The front seven did improve in the second half, even playing well at times and providing the first dose of consistent pressure seen since perhaps the Super Bowl last year. In particular, I thought Richard Seymour, Roosevelt Colvin, Monty Beisel and Ty Warren played well in the second half. For Warren, it represented his first appearance of the season as he spent the first 10 and a half games being present physically only.
Despite the improved second half play from the front seven, the Mickey Mouse secondary gave up enough awful, ridiculous gaffes in coverage to make any hopes of a comeback impossible. Nobody played well back there. Nobody. As we have seen week after week for some time now, the opposing QB seemed to toy with the Patriots defensive backs most of the time. Rarely having to look off to a second read, the first read is usually wide open by a few yards beyond the first down marker on every critical third down. If it even gets that far. Its maddening.
It got a bit annoying at the game hearing Patriot fan after Patriot fan make excuses to inquisitive Kansas City fans regarding what was wrong by focusing on injuries (I even heard one Patriots fan claim at the game to a KC fan “we have 18 of 22 starters out” at which point I got into a brief discussion with him that was incorrect. Not convinced, the debate continued with him until I pointed out about 13 or 14 starters who were, in fact, playing for the Patriots such that he had to concede the point). So, I got to thinking, who exactly was out for the defense Sunday?
Obviously there was Rodney Harrison. That's a major loss. Huge. No debate there. But who else? I think Assante Samuel would have been a starter regardless of what other corners were healthy. He was for the vast majority of last year and they won the Super Bowl with him starting. At the other corner, who really would have been that big an upgrade over Ellis Hobbs? Ty Poole? Surely the 2003 Ty Poole, but that guy hasn't been seen in two seasons now and wasn't needed last year to win a Super Bowl. Randall Gay? Please. Yes Gay did a good job last year, is a nice player and prospect, but the revisionist history amongst rose colored glasses Pats fans regarding his value is amusing. At this point, there isn't a significant difference between Gay and Hobbs and both are at similar points in their career. Gay is not a shutdown corner, nor would he make a significant different were he healthy and playing. Yes he would help. A little. But I venture to say almost every team in the league (save Indianapolis who never seems to get any injuries) are missing numerous Randall Gays. Just check the IR lists for each team.
Up front, who was out against Kansas City? No one. Not a single significant player. They were all there. And don't give me Ted Johnson. Again, lets be realistic. Johnson was a good, solid player and much admired. But missing him is not the answer to what is wrong with the Patriots defense. If anything, its allowed Roosevelt Colvin to get on the field more and Colvin has been one of the few defensive players who has been mostly good this year. The answer isn't Johnson.
So is it Harrison? Surely in part. But its not the difference between a Super Bowl defense and the worst Patriots defense in their history, at least since I have been watching (30 years or so). It just can't be. Its impossible. And there were signs things were wrong before Harrison went out. Think of the first drive of the year versus Oakland. Think of the long pass to Moss. Think of the long pass to Proehl against Carolina. Think of the eighty something yarder versus Pittsburgh before Harrison got hurt. Just those three passes alone would be out of character for an entire season of the past few Patriots defenses. Yet those three alone happened in the nine quarters Harrison WAS on the field early in the year. Something was wrong even then.
So what is it? To some degree, its everything. Its Harrison. It is Gay and Johnson and other injuries a little bit (but only to a limited extent as discussed above). Its the strong opponents. Its the lack of confidence. Its the injuries and non-production on offense. Probably a hundred other things as well.
But for all those things, its also the coaching. Eric Mangini simply has not done a good job this year. There is no other way to spin it. I doubt he feels he has. He can't. The results are simply not there where anyone could be satisfied. Yes he has somewhat been a victim of the injuries and every other thing that has gone wrong this year, but he hasn't found a way to figure it out or even to show much improvement or stability as the season has gone on.
One problem is, I believe, Mangini has been exceedingly conservative with his defense this year. I find it hard to criticize this because I have totally bought into the philosophy the Patriots have had in the past of conservative defense, stopping the run, not selling out to rush the passer and patience while waiting for the opponents mistakes. They've also picked and choosed exceedingly well in past years their times to be aggressive, and I believe there is a time for that.
But this year, they have taken conservative defense to a new level, at least lately over the last few months. Early in the season I criticized Mangini in this blog that he was blitzing too much and at the wrong times. Now my complaints have shifted to the polar opposite. They do nothing and haven't in weeks. They rarely blitz. They rarely challenge receivers. They rarely seem to give different looks. They do nothing. They come out and give one look and play it the entire game no matter how bad things start going. The few times they have blitzed in recent weeks the results have seemed better than the vast majority of time when they weren't.
Perhaps Mangini is just frustrated. He is thinking, geez, early in the season I was blitzing a lot and trying different things and we were giving up long play after long play so I'm not gonna do it. To some degree, I can sympathize with that thinking, especially when they did get hit with a few injuries as the season went along. And although I think some of the problem was WHEN Mangini chose to blitz early on, nevertheless, I can see why he may be a bit gun shy.
But the problem I have with that is at some point in some of these games you got to try to do something. You can't just sit there all day long and let Peyton Manning and Trent Green pick you apart and still be gun shy. They both score on the first drive. They go up 10-0 or 13-3 or 16-3 or 19-3 or by the time it gets to 26-3 you have to be thinking, hmmmm, maybe I won't be able to just sit there in a soft base zone all day and get away with it. Or at least you'd think so. But the change up to something, anything, has seemed to come too slow in a lot of these games.
At some point you'd think Mangini would see them convert third down after third down in game after game and say, okay, scrap that idea, lets do something. But it never comes until the fourth quarter with six minutes left in the game down two scores like against Kansas City. And its too late by then. If they don't start getting a little more bold on defense and taking the fight a bit more to the opponents, I don't care if its Peyton Manning or not, its going to be too late for this entire season as well, if its not already. You can't play the entire season scared. Its not working anyways.
Now I'm waiting for an article entitled “Mangini cuts the Chez”.