Gamethread: Jets at Bills 9/30/2007
Note: We are trying to put together a place in Midtown Manhattan to watch the Giants game next Sunday. Stay tuned and we will have details on Monday …
Who: Jets at Bills
When: 1:00PM EDT
Where: Orchard Park, NY
TV – Radio: CBS – ESPN 1050, WABC 770
Weather: Mostly Sunny 69° F
Links: TJB Chat | ESPN Intel Report | *NFL Gamecenter*
With the Jets looking to square their record and continue their winning ways, the Jets need to get some more wins now into the middle of their season before facing some tougher opponents after the bye week. The Bills are ravaged by injuries this year, and will be without QB JP Losman and rookie LB Paul Posluzny after last week’s loss to the Patriots.
Having faced some tough competition at the outset of the season, the Jets are now into teams that they should be beating if they are going to try and make a serious push at the playoffs.
Things to consider in the game
Jets’ Offense:
Ground: Similarly to last week, the Jets are up against a team that has been unsuccessful in stopping the run, so look for the Jets to try and continue to work Thomas Jones and Leon Washington as much as they can in the game. Buffalo’s smaller and quicker defensive front seven is suited to burrowing into the backfield and stopping the ballcarrier from getting to the line of scrimmage, but it’s not working for the Bills thus far. The Jets will likely use a steady dose of Thomas Jones who might be a better counter to the smaller lineman. If Jones carries the ball more than 20 times again, it will be because the Jets are winning.
Air: The Bills have a tough time defending against the run, but they have also struggled mightily in defending the pass. . Should the Jets not be able to establish an effective running game, the burden will fall on Chad to move the ball through the air. Chad hasn’t piled in the yards so far, but he has the second highest QB Rating in three weeks (only behind Tom Brady) and with a depleted secondary and linebacking corps, the Jets should be able to have nice progressions and find the open man at will all day. The Jets offensive line has allowed 10 sacks in three games, and is ranked 29th according to Football Outsiders in terms of allowing sacks in 10% of their passing plays. Look for the line who has struggled in line assignments the first two weeks, to continue to tighten up against the Bills, but pay close attention to D’Brick and how he fares against Aaron Schobel, who victimized him late in the season last year, while the rookie’s weight was down and he was gassed from a long season.
Jets Defense:
Stop the Run - Although rookie QB Trent Edwards looked poised in his first series against the Patriots, the Jets will likely need to focus on taking another rookie #12 pick Marshawn Lynch RB out of the equation for the Jets. The Jets’ D-line has been pushed around against the offensive lines they have faced thus far, and the Bills worked to improve their line in the offseason. The Bills line doesn’t have a single player under 310 pounds, and their left and right tackles are 344 and 360 respectively. If the Bills are smart, they will try and wear down the defensive lineman and do their best to get Marshawn Lynch to have a big day against the Jets.
Mangini has stressed that the Jets are doing the right things, but the results haven’t come. This would be a good time to see the results, but against such a big line, don’t hold your breath. The Linebackers will need to stay disciplined and keep the runner ahead of them, not giving up big gains on one play.
Turnovers & Pressure – Just like last week, the Patriots did not respect the running game much, and brought pressure in the blitz off corners a few times. Expect to see Kerry Rhodes rather than the Patriots corners up around the line of scrimmage looking to sack the rookie QB.
Injuries
JETS: OUT: LB Cody Spencer (illness). QUESTIONABLE: WR Jerricho Cotchery (shoulder), CB Andre Dyson (foot), G Brandon Moore (shoulder), QB Chad Pennington (ankle), DT Dewayne Robertson (knee), S Eric Smith (thigh). PROBABLE: RB Darian Barnes (shoulder), CB David Barrett (thigh), LB David Bowens (hand), RB Thomas Jones (calf), TE Joe Kowalewski (shoulder), DT Sione Pouha (foot).
BILLS: OUT: DE Ryan Denney (foot), LB Keith Ellison (ankle), QB J.P. Losman (knee), LB Paul Posluszny (forearm), G Jason Whittle (hamstring), LB Coy Wire (knee). PROBABLE: WR Sam Aiken (groin), CB Terrence McGee (ribs).
Filed under: Audible, Main Page
Interesting stat on Jets site.
Jets 6-1 over Bills in Buffalo in September.
terrible 1st half… Barret needs to be shot. We better win this game.
As long as we are shooting people… let’s shoot Vilma, Chad, and the left side of that O-line!
This team is really bad. Buffalo’s defense has been decimated by injuries and they started a rookie QB, and still the Jets find a way to lose. Wow! That is hard to do.
terrible… #1 draft pick. Just tank the season please.
looks like i am first since the game ended. Nice D, nothing like making a rookie QB look like montana by letting him sit back there. AND of course…the offense is a nightmare. chads “14 straight completions” were quite high-school like. he cant be the QB unless he can throw past 10 yards. the few times they did it actually produced points!!! so something is up…..such a pop-gun, high school, wus offense…against the 32nd (thats last) ranked defense in the league. Didnt get thomas jones in rhythem at all….schott goes from wide open to high school pretty fast. chad 31 of 26 for 279….ARENT U SUPPOSED TO WIN??? edwards 22-28….way to let a rookie feel comfy!!!! get rid of the 3-4 for the love of g-d. only times they got pressure they used rhodes….hey??!! ur best defensive player!!!! such losers…this game was beyond nauseating to watch…….thanks alot guys way to end the season.
I can’t blame Pennington , Vilma or the O line. I blame Mangini. He has no imagination. He got rid of Kendall, who must be laughing. We are not the worst team, that goes to Miami and thats why we squeeked a win against them. Either Mangina goes or we make changes quick. It is a shame to watch them. We are a @#$%ing joke!!!!
sorry chad 31 of 36…….mangini press conf sounds very familiar….
So long guys. I’m out. Been a Jet fan since ‘65, and once again I’ve had it. Good luck the rest of the way. Too much time wasted on pathetic team. Nice day, I could have been out doing something. So, now I will. See you for draft previews next March or so.
Same Old Jets.
They must have cheated!
The Jets couldn’t realy be that bad, could they ? :)
Gr8 day in NY, huh?
Losers!
“Sad, but True”
It is not easy to say it, but Chad is the problem.
Ignore the stats and judge the performance on the field. This one is on Chad. I love the guy – he’s smart and plays with tremendous heart. But Chad is Chad – he’s a dink-and-dunk QB. We killed Paul Hackett when he was in town for his unimaginative, conservative style, but this offense is still krappy dink-and-dunk under a completely new staff. The problem is NOT the coaches. The problem is the QB can’t make the throws that open up the rest of the offense. The coaches know what they have and must work with it. The bottom line is the Jet have had a dink-and-dunk offense for many years, and if you see dink-and-dunk on the field then the QB is a dink-and-dunk QB!
Is Clemens better than Pennington? No. The kid hasn’t had enough 1st team reps.
Is it time to start developing the kid? Yes! Chad is not the answer and the Jets need to start developing the kid for 2008.
Will Mangini have the balls to make the move? No. He won’t make the move until the Jets lose a few more games.
The coaches are the problem because they: a) still stick with Pennington and b) run the 3-4 defense. We will win maybe 2 more, and then we will pick in top 5 of the draft next year with this coaching staff and QB. And we will draft a DB even though we need line help and a QB.
You might want to move that curfew up to 8pm next year. And check out LaNova for your wings, they won’t burn a hole in your wallet like the Anchor Bar. Your lips may vary.
Ugh. I agree about Chad. I never bought in to the weak arm stuff until today. His inability to fire the ball in cost us the game (among other things). Even on the drives at the end of the half and the end of the game, they were mostly dump offs. He’s still the leader of the team, but if we don’t turn it around by week 8, let’s see what Clemens can do.
Mangini’s decision to punt on 4th and 1 on the first drive was very disappointing. Once thing I loved about him last year was his aggressiveness. It’s been totally gone this year.
The defense still sucks. Buffalo is a terrible offensive team with a rookie QB making his first start and he threw all over us. they only scored 17 points, but we looked much worse than that.
Just when we thought Nugent turned it around he hit the upright on a short one. That was a killer.
I didn’t see the game thanks to the fact that I live in New England (and thankfully because apparently it sucked), but I can honestly say that it is now time to let Clemens learn the system, trial by fire. Who are we kidding, if we can’t beat Buffalo with all the injuries they have and a rookie QB to boot, then we aren’t winning more than 4-6 games this season, tops. I’m not going anywhere as a Jets fan, but I really can’t see the playoffs now. To quote Jim Mora, “Playoffs?!?!? What do you mean playoffs? I’m just trying to win a game.”
Ah, hell. It’s too soon to suck again. I’m done with this team until the Yankees season ends. Hopefully, KC will be under center by then.
If they’re running this offense by necessity then Chad has to go (didn’t even have enough juice to throw that last pass away!). If they’re running it by choice then Schott has to go. Can they get any more predictable? Maybe Charlie Weiss will be available after the season?
Silliness. Great silliness. It’s the same team as last year (and we should remember that the Bills beat us last year). Same strengths, same weaknesses. They are what they are- a work in progress. It’s silly to blame Chad, who was very effective with his short game and not effective downfield- a.k.a. the same as he was when we went 10-6. It’s silly to call for the 3-4 to be scrapped because that ship sailed when Abraham got traded. They don’t have the personnel to be very effective in the 3-4, but they really don’t have the personnel to be effective in a 4-3. In any event, they play multiple fronts and show four linemen quite frequently. They’ve got some good pieces, they’re missing some pieces, and whenever they play a non-elite team, they’ll play a close game and win their share. They’re the same team as last year. Their record will be worse, their performance will be slightly better, and they’ll be a better team heading into next season as they keep on adding parts.
It is what it is.
The only offense that is more predictable is the University of Florida’s. If any one has watched them this year, you know what i mean.
I don’t get to watch any of the games anymore (Mississippi region sucks) but to me, it seems that Mangini has no clue what is going on.
We shouldn’t been down 17-7 today. Nor win 31-28 last week. Or have to drive twice in 4 minutes against the Ravens.
If we can play so well in 5 minute spans, we should be 4-0 right now. Hopefully the Yankees can get me to November in one piece.
But until then, here’s to hoping for a 6-10 season. We can do it, we just have to find some gusto, and a new coaching style.
Sean I agree with your optimism. I firmly believe that this is what it is, but it doesn’t mean we have to like it you know ;)
Good points Sean. Shame on all the people that are blaming Chad. Is not his fault that our defense sucks. We let the rookies come away with the game. Our defensive front is useless and our DB were picked apart today. Also we missed that field goal at the end of the half and it wasnt until Robertson left a 20ft hole that Marshawn Lynch walked through for the score when it got out of hand. Also if you notice how we played last year, Schott really had a more better offensive scheme then this year. It seems that with Thomas Jones we grew complacent and lost all of our creativity. All those games we won last year where because of Chad. He sets us up into good position every game. Notice how this year we dont have a pass rush??? Maybe that is why everyone has such a good time agaisnt us. Ellis is the only one in the front seven that is doing his job. We need the talent to run the scheme so that it can work right. Now we see that w/o the right players in the scheme we will suffer. Hopefully next year we can grab a NT in the draft hopefully Okam from Texa because Robertson is a bust at that position. Remember NT is pivotal to the scheme and if he is faltering then the sheme collapses.
I told you Bent it seems that the rookies always pull out their firsts against us
i am so done with this team. all the weak spots are areas that all of us were worried about all off-season. the front office really didn’t care to address either line, and in fact made the o-line worse by shipping off kendall. they knew that they don’t have a decent 3-4 line and don’t seem to care. why should we care if the management doesn’t?
How can you blame the offense when the Defense could not even get off of the field. The score is tied 7-7, 3 and out, and get the offense back on the field, but no, 10 points later we were scrambling.
Besides the only guy I blame on the offense is the Coordinator, very predictable, no plan, bad use of personel. Overated because of his last name.
this team hasnt seen a 3 and out on defense since the ice age
Pardon my impatience, but this team hasn’t sniffed the Super Bowl in 38 freakin’ years. We’re in a perpetual five-year rebuilding plan that invariably gets scuttled after 3. Meanwhile, many teams seem to turn things around and become contenders in one or two years. This ain’t the 70’s where you spend five years building through the draft. We are not a better team with a worse record. We are a worse team with a worse record. I’m not blaming Chad for everything, but it’s clear he’s no longer able to make his teammates better. He may not be a liability, but he is a limitation.
the credit given the coaching staff and management for last year’s surprise success was well deserved but they now have to take the blame for the poor start – and perhaps early end – to this new season.
it’s management’s job to keep players that contributed to past success and bring in new ones that will expand on it. though revis and harris may well turn out to be impact players in the long run, the areas in which the team needed the most immediate help – the offensive and defensive lines – were not successfully addressed.
it’s the coaching staff’s job to use the players available to maximum benefit (whether that be the 3-4, 4-3, 46, one lineman and ten linebackers, 11 cheerleaders, whatever), motivate them and design effective game plans. the failure to beat the bills, a winless team, decimated on defense and starting a rookie qb, is a shining example of the staff’s failure in all three areas.
I watched the game today (Hooray for Sunday Ticket…I think). I am a huge Pennington fan, but I just don’t think he’s the answer anymore. In fact, I know this so much that when the Jets were making their last ditch drive with few seconds left, I said “Where’s the interception?” and the next play, there it was.
Plus he was throwing the ball to McCairens. Enough said.
The near entirety of the team is rot. The only person I was impressed with was Hobson. Revis showed some semblance of what he could be when he broke up that 3rd down Buffalo play, but for the most part he got schooled. D’Brick is horrid. Vilma was nothing more than adequate. I could go on and on, there’s so many problems with this team.
Here’s the thing. Kellen Clemens isn’t the quarterback of the future for this team. When he gets in (and notice I say ‘when’ and not ‘if’), you’ll see. The 4-3 isn’t going to help this team either.
I’m with Paulie. Rebuilding is such a B.S. term. The Jets have been in a rebuilding year since 1970.
I’m no coach, but I would keep at this point:
Revis
Mangold
Hobson
Coles
Cotchery
Nugent
L. Washington
Jones
Baker
And I’d build the team around them and dump the rest any way I could. Maybe it starts by trading Chad to the Bears…dare I say that Grossman would be better here? (I know, don’t kill me). Oh by the way, Askew had a great game today. Nice trade there.
I will pile on. We can blame the defense all anyone wants, but the defense did the job. It’s a “bend don’t break” defense that only gave up 1 TD on an actual drive. Blame D-Rob? What? For the TD run where he was double-teamed and the cutback went to the weak-side hole? Where’s the ILB help? The Bills only had 86 yards rushing on 28 carries for a 3.1 avg. That’s good, maybe great run D. The D created turnovers, sacked the QB and made a crucial late stop on 3rd down to get the ball back for the offense. Don’t pin this on the D. Edwards racked up yardage, but a lot was the same “dink and dunk” stuff that Chad is being killed for.
This loss gets pinned on Nugent, who missed a huge FG, and Chad. This offense is stuck in 2nd gear with Chad. Chad moves the team, manages the game well and played well enough to win. But, his inability to stretch the D is ruining the running game. Teams simply put their whole defenses up close because there is no fear about getting beaten deep. Has Chad even attempted a deep ball? The Jets don’t play action because the defenses don’t care if the Jets run and play action only works if you pass downfield to challenge the safeties. And, CB’s are jumping Chad’s patterns because of this lack of fear. That first INT was the turning point and the last was the dagger. Two picks squarely on Chad’s shoulders. I don’t know if Clemens is the answer, but it’s time to find out because this team is good enough to get around 7-9 wins with Chad. Bad enough not to make the playoffs, but good enough to be dangerous. Since we’re not likely to make the playoffs with Chad, let’s see what Clemens can do. He can’t be any worse and he needs to learn. There’s also the chance that he can catch fire and lead the Jets to the playoffs. Either way, it’s a change that has to be made. Denver made the same move with Cutler, the Titans with Young, the Giants with Eli. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chad, but I just don’t view him as a legitimate NFL starter anymore.
Last point, I didn’t like Mangini not going for it early, again. But, the Jets should’ve won this ball
Sad, but true. Great post, SD99.
I’m a chad fan, but it is very frustrating watching the offense this year. They mostly throw dump off passes to backs, and receivers..and I have to wonder why? If the coaches wanted him to throw the ball down the field, they would make it a priority. I’m guessing they tell chad to take a downfield shot when its wide open, and otherwise just take the short gain.
in an interview recently mangini said they took a penalty recently on 3rd and 12 to make it 3rd and 17 because the percentages say that its just as likely you complete 3rd and 12, as 3rd and 17..makes me think they are pushing for the high percentage short pass plays over throwing the ball down the field as a game plan.