JMattera’s Gridiron Grudges: Week 1
It’s about that time again, football season is upon us! Gridiron Grudges will be a weekly segment highlighting the upcoming game’s key match ups. As we all know our 1st week opponent will be against our division rival, The Miami Dolphins. Cam Cameron is gone and Tony Sparano is in as the head coach for the fish. Bill Parcells is the man in charge of the operation, and our old friend Chad Pennington will be lining up as the starting quarterback. Here’s a look at the 5 key grudges for Week 1.
1) Chad Pennington versus Eric Mangini & Staff– How many of us can say we have quoted Chad Pennington as being one of the most brilliant quarterbacks around during his tenure with the Jets? I have said it on more than a few occasions. CP knows the system inside and out. He will be able to help their defensive coaches with supplying some language, calls, and checks that the Jets may have implemented in their offensive system. CP knows our defense extremely well from facing them in practice many times throughout the years. On the other side, Mangini and his staff must disguise what they are doing offensively on the field. Defensively for the Jets, I feel this can be an advantage. Mangini can now dust off all of those old game plans from his Patriot days where they made CP look very average. Also he knows CP’s weaknesses from coaching him the past two seasons. Who will win the chess match, CP or Mangini?
2) Brett Favre versus The Jets Playbook – The Favre love fest has been amazing throughout the preseason at the Meadowlands and in the media. In the two preseason games he started, he was only allocated roughly 35-40 plays in the playbook. How prepared will he be to lead this team on opening day? Is this all a smokescreen to lead people to believe he only has limited packages in the playbook? I am sure he will have enough of a feel for the playbook to be able to give us a great chance to open up this season on the right foot. No matter what play is called into the huddle; Favre still gives us that game changing ability on every single down.
3) Ted Ginn Jr. versus Jets Special Teams Units – Miami Dolphins Special Teams’ Coordinator John Bonamego has the privilege of having dangerous return man Ted Ginn Jr. on his kick and punt return units. He is an extremely talented and speedy player who has returned some kicks/punts already this preseason. It will be the job of the Jets coverage units to keep Ginn at bay and not let him break any long returns. Even if he does not return kicks all the way to the house, the Jets do not want him changing favorable field position throughout the game. Mike Westhoff and Kevin O’Dea will have to prepare the units to hold Ginn to minimal yardage. Ben Graham and Mike Nugent will also be instrumental in grounding Ginn.
4) Jake Long versus Jets Right Side Rushers – #1 overall pick Jake Long will be lining up as the Dolphins’ starting left tackle on opening day. Long will be accountable for controlling the pass rush from Chad Pennington’s blindside. Kenyon Coleman (RDE) and Calvin Pace (ROLB) will be the two main guys rushing off of the right edge. Jake Long’s success goes a long way in giving Pennington time to make his reads for the offense. Can Coleman and Pace continually get pressure on Pennington from the right side? Only time will tell if the rookie can uphold the challenge in his 1st NFL game.
5) Laveranues Coles/Jerricho Cotchery versus Will Allen/Andre Goodman – In my opinion this is a big advantage for the Jets. Our starting wide receivers are much more talented their starting cornerbacks. I think these are match ups in the passing game that we definitely have to utilize and exploit during our offensive game planning. Being able to get our receivers open in space will go a long way in walking out of the pond with a W on opening day. Will their corners along with tips from CP be enough to hold our receivers in check for Week 1?
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I think the play of Pennington will be determined in part by how many points the Jets offense can put on the scoreboard. Pennington is smart enough to know his limitations as a qb, he will not be throwing the ball anywhere near Revis or Rhodes. He’ll be picking on the other safety and Lowery. So I expect Chad to have a very quiet day, unless the Jets score a bunch of points. In that case Chad will try to win the game by himself, which we know will end up badly for him and his team.
Re Chad’s intelligence — It’s the equivelant of Brian Schottenheimer being our starting quarterback — I’m sure Schottenheimer could also hand off nicely to the running back, throw very short passes effectively and throw non-very short passes badly — Brains or no, Chad is simply not a legitimate starting NFL quarterback — Jets 34 Fish 13
Didn’t Chad throw double digit INTS in training camp? I think our D knows him a lot better than he knows our D.
TFP
No Chad did not throw double digit INTs in training camp. He was very efficient, if unspectacular.
Chad will go the way of his wide receivers. It is axiomatic, in football, that no QB, not Favre or Brady, can win without three talented pass options. Last year, Coles and Cotchery were seldom on the field at the same time and Chris Baker, while professional, is not Antonio Gates. Chad, who can’t make mediocre replacements look like ProBowlers, struggled.
While the incredibly stupid draft pick of Ted Ginn in the first round gives the Phish a good return man, he is an unproven WR with one year’s experience (34/420). I doubt the average Phish fan can tell you who will start opposite Ginn. Their starting TE has 269 yards receiving in two years. Add to this their questionable O-line, our improved pass rush, our shutdown corner and All-Pro safety, and Chad’s arm which gives him little margin for error because of the arc on his ball, particularly on passes over twenty yards, and you don’t exactly have a formula for an offensive explosion.
Our challenge is going to be Ricky Williams. If we stop the run, this game is a joke despite Favre’s tendencies to play poorly week one and his inexperience in this offense.
Andrew Weiss:
Great, post !! It it’s satisfying, actually a pleasure to read objective, informative and factual information INSTEAD OF BLOWHARD, BIASED, RELENTLESS PENNINGTON HATERS.
Ah, I was thinking of Clemens.
Jake Long is in for a very long and disappointing day (no pun intended).
If Favre knows 40 plays well, that will be enough. Hopefully those 40 are pass plays, the run plays should be no brainers.
LC and JC against their CB’s is bad enough for them, then throw in our 3 and 4 receiver sets, with B. Smith and D. Keller and their heads will be spinning.
35-10!
i just wanted to say that was a great insight to this weeks game and i agree with all of it. i dont think the jets are going to have a problem with Chad this week and you can expect Farve to throw the ball wherever he wants all day
I’m with Andrew. If the Jets stop the run early and often, it will be a long, hard day for CP. Jake Long will really have his hands full if Kris Jenkins gets some push in the middle and he has to worry about both sides. Tuck on the inside is what really made the Giants rush tick.
Chad’s knowledge of the Jets O won’t help Miami that much because Favre barely knows it and will be doing a lot of improvising. Mangini’s knowledge of Chad’s tendencies and limitations will have a much bigger impact.
Contain the run, the Jets blow them out or, If Ricky Williams has early success, it could be close.
On the notion of Favre knowing the playbook, one thing to watch for will be how many audibles he calls and how well they are executed. If he’s farther along in the playbook then the preseason suggests, then Favre should be calling audibles correctly and able to adjust from a bad play to a good play, and vice versa. If not, then he still has a ways to go.
Andrew Weiss — You misspelled “over five yards” –
Heavy rain sunday = no passing game! They should relocate this game due to the hurricanes.
guys i really dont want to see chad get hurt but he will count on it parcells is puting chad in bad spot come sundays one linemen with no exp and the other with 3 years exp protecting his blind side with jenkins, coleman and pace rushing that side its not going to fun to watch when chad was here he gave everything for us heart and soul i just dont want to be the team that hurts him into retirement.i know we all want to blow this team off the face of thee earth but this is not the same old jets anymore fire and hell come sunday and chad is going to get hurt painfully speaking for chad not the dolpins
This is an excellent column by someone who is very knowledgeable about the NY Jets. Keep up the good work GO JETS
Pennington’s play will be key. The jets know his weaknesses and will keep 8 men in the box until he can prove he can beat them on the long ball and keep the pressure on. The matchup I can’t wait to see is the retooled offensive line against the front four of the Fish. I hope to see Faneca, Mangold and Co open up some holes so we can finally see T Jones at his best, pounding the ball up the middle. Breet Favre’s arm should finally keep other teams from playing the run and help toopen up the offense. Go Gang Green
Favre will be fine for week one against the “mighty” Dolphins. Its when they play the Pats and the rest of the AFC, we’re gona see the Favre “question marks”… Coles and Cotchery are better then most def. secondaries. I consider them the only playmakers the Jets have and now they have the ultimate playmaker in Favre. Expect big things from that threesome…
Looking forward to seeing cotchery eat up goodman my mannnnnn.
It’s silly to consider it Chad vs. Mangini. Chad is one player, Mangini coaches the whole team. Chad is a good QB who can not carry a team alone – very few QBs can. If Chad is on a good team, he can win, but he won’t make a bad team good. This is true for alot of QBs but it is more evident in Chad’s case because of his lack of arm strength. The fish aren’t a good enough team to help him much and he can’t do it alone. The Jets should focus on Williams and dare Chad to beat them. He might make a few plays but he won’t be able to win with that team unless Williams rushes for over 200 and they get big returns from Ginn. Those should be what the Jets focus on in week 1.
Watch out for one Mr. Ted Ginn Jr.
The NYC Parking Expert — Chad also keeps good teams from being great –
Revenge for Chad? How about revenge for the Jets defense? After being put in tough spots for many years by a limited offense led by #10 I think the defense may wish to exact some revenge on Pennington instead of the other way around. Chad Pennington was an inspirational leader who gave it his all for the Jets and provided some great moments but those days are over and it is time to move on. Unless there are an abundance of turnovers favoring Miami the only way the Dolphins can win this game is if they dominate with the running game. Even then Favre may pull it out but if the Dolphins do not dominate on the ground then I don’t think they have a chance.