Bent’s Thoughts from Across the Pond – Week 8
The halfway stage of the season is upon us and although the Jets have exceeded preseason expectations, the overwhelming feeling heading into the bye week is one of disappointment. At least October is finally over.
Let’s get going…
* I was convinced the Jets would lose this week, so it would have been really sweet to pull it out at the end there. When you consider the combined factors of the Browns coming off a week of turmoil, the Jets subconsciously taking their foot off the pedal with the bye week upcoming and simply the fact that when you look at it from their point of view, the Browns were facing a 4-3 team at home that was yet to beat anyone good, it was all too much to overcome on Sunday.
* Obviously, we were robbed at the end there, but once the call on the field was incomplete, there was no comeback. (Yes, they probably should change the rules). Clearly, Baker was going to land with both feet in bounds, but in real time I can see how that would have been tough to see. Maybe we will get a make-up call in next week’s game. Who are we playing again? Ah, crap…
* As bad as that call was, there was a similar – but worse – one in the USC-Oregon State game (although this was not for a touchdown and had no impact on the final result). Dwayne Jarrett leapt up to make a catch on the numbers and was running-powerslammed British Bulldog style over the sideline. The call on the field was incomplete, which was obviously a farce because it was clearly a force-out. However, there was a chance to remedy this with the review to determine if he came down in bounds (remember: only one foot must touch in NCAA). The review was upheld because his foot came down out of bounds – despite the fact that his elbow came down inbounds first. Good grief. My advice: throw down the middle – it’s easier.
* Overall though, I am more disappointed with the performance than the officiating (although one wonders how many pass interference calls Manning or Brady – or any of the league’s more demonstrative wideouts – would have garnered). Great throw by Pennington and a great catch by Baker at the end, it’s just a shame we couldn’t have seen that sooner.
* After I wrote how Leon Washington had been protecting the ball better than he did at the college level, he went and lost a key fumble. Perhaps I should just shut up. Whilst I was screaming for the Jets to “bounce one to the outside”, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
* Yes, Pennington was dreadful and under a lot of pressure all game. I believe this is the first time the Jets had faced a three man front, was it not? (The Pats played exclusively 4-3). What this does, is enable the linebackers to either rush the passer or spread across the field and take away a lot of the short routes. This makes it tougher for your QB to get into a rhythm, hence the lack of fluidity throwing down the field. If we had a decent line, we would be able to do the same thing.
* Looking at the big picture, whoever would have predicted 4-4 at this stage of the season? Oh yes…Me! Perhaps I was a bit off on some of the details, but you can’t have it all.
* Elsewhere around the league, the Jags impressively shut down the Eagles. So, how do you explain their 20 point loss to the Texans and conceding 36 points to the Redskins? Clearly they are playing down to the level of their competition. When they played us, they won 41-0 so we must be awesome, right?
* Coming up during the week: Reckless barrelling into the defense and rarely putting the ball on the floor. No, not the return of Curtis Martin, the NBA season! And you thought the NFL was poorly officiated! (PS: Thank you, Red).
* And for the Jets? A week off, then the Pats (who with any luck will be coming off a win over the Colts and due for a let down game, whereas the Jets will hopefully be prepared and rested, not rusty). Following that, it’s the Bears and the TJB roadtrip, which let’s hope is a little bit less of a disaster for the Jets than Bassett’s previous visits to the Meadowlands!
* Rookie Watch: Reggie Bush will probably never have a game this bad again, losing a fumble, throwing one interception and having another bounce off his head for six points. He’s still a threat every time he touches the ball, though, which is a big part of the Saints success so far. Maroney and Jackson were excellent for the impressive (and fantasy team killing) Pats, while there were big days in a losing effort for Marques Colston, Wali Lundi and Owen Daniels. Congratulations to Eric Smith for his first NFL pick.
* TMQ Watch: I didn’t even read TMQ this week. Do I feel any less educated? Nope.
* Jinx Watch: Aside from my inadvertent jinxing of Leon, as mentioned above, it was nice to see Joe Jurevicius shut out (and he even committed a penalty to negate a TD, although the Browns scored anyway on the next play). Not enough this week, though.
That’s it from me for now and it’s just as well next week is a bye week because I am unavailable anyway, instead heading to hospital for a cortisone shot. (Just call me Pedro). Until next time…
Any questions?
Filed under: Main Page, Opinion/Bent
Smith’s pick was awesome … falling backwards extending to make that grab and pull it back to himself, very nice.
yeah that was a nice interception, we really could of used that win…now its really gonna be a fight for our lives everyweek…the PATS looked good on monday night so it will be tough when we play them after the bye week…
by the way..i never hear shaun ellis’s name ncalled in almost any game…whats he been doing to contribute on defense?
I’d rather read your analysis than TMQ — at least you analyze FOOTBALL (and mostly Jets football, to boot). He seems to have forgotten to include football at all lately. Typical ESPN sell-out.
In a side note — I saw Randy Lange confirmed something buzzing in the back of my mind: The Jets have lost 8 straight when wearing those ugly road uniforms, the white jerseys with the green pants.
I love the classic all-whites — but I wouldn’t be opposed to some other uniform change, maybe something incorporating a little black?
To be fair, he was the same while writing the column for NFL.com too.
Well, part of the DL’s job is to occupy blockers and enable the LBs to make plays (as we don’t have a classic 3-4 space eater, I believe all 3 linemen have to do this to some extent) and as our best pass rushing threat on the line, Ellis has probably been neutralised by double teams, which can be positive if it enables the other playmakers to make stops. The fact that we have not stopped the run though would indicate that either our LBs are not good enough, or Ellis has been stopped from being productive AND been unable to keep the LBs clean.
In short, other than the 2 sack game he had, not a whole lot, but he has had slow starts in the past and come on strong so hopefully this will be another example of that.
Kimo has been even more invisible and Robertson has actually emerged as the best player on the line. His tackle numbers the last few games are up a bit too.
There is no force out rule in college football. You either get one foot down inbounds or you don’t.
OK, thanks…that’s not what the announcers were saying. It doesn’t change the fact that his elbow landed inbounds anyway.
Does that mean if a guy makes a leaping catch over the middle, you can just catch him and then run over to the sidelines and dump him out of bounds, because if so, it would make a good ploy!
Bent,
How come that 3-4 thing doesn’t work for US? You know–the LB’s rushing the passers from all angles, or else taking away the short routes? And how slow must Schleigel be not even to make the active roster, given the mediocrity of the rest of this bunch? That third round will be looked at as a huge opportunity lost as the years go by.
But I digress….Look, the team’s fate, like any team in the NFL, is bound to its QB–and this QB is too inconsistent for the team to be much more than average, at best. Chad is no longer a top NFL qb–he has the kind of games–really, really horrible ones–that the great qb’s just don’t have. And when he does, the rest of team just isn’t good enough to compensate. The defense can’t suffocate even the Browns, perhaps the worst offense in the NFL. The field goal kicker can’t kick one just a bit past 50, despite a spate of such kicks in the league this year, including one of 62. The runners can only average 3.5 yards per carry, not even up to the league average of 4.0, let alone something special in the
high 4s. Only Jason Miller really picked the team up with another ko runback–he’s obviously a terrific talent in that area (the jury’s still out, to be charitable, as a cb).
But this was one of those games like the ones Chad was having in preseason–less than 4 yards per throw, multiple interceptions, missing receivers all the day. Like in Jacksonville, he sucked. Indeed, it made you wonder whether the Jets made the right move taking D’Brick, and also wondering how good how soon Clemens will be.