JMattera’s Gridiron Grudges – Week 4
1) Thomas Jones vs. Arizona Cardinals Front Seven – Getting away from offensive balance and the running game cost the Jets greatly against the Chargers. In the game the Jets won against the Dolphins, Jones ran for 101 yards and a touchdown. In the two games the Jets lost, Jones rushed for 70 yards (NE) and 37 yards (SD). As I stated in previous weeks, the Jets must game plan their offense around Favre, BUT at the same time not abandon the running game. Teams win in the NFL by successfully running the football. The Giants feature Manning and Burress, but never do abandon Jacobs. Jacobs actually gets that offense going by opening up the passing game. The Jets have to try to come up with a similar plan by featuring Jones to open up options for Favre. The Cardinals have been doing a decent job this year going up against some good backs. Frank Gore (96 yards, TD), Ronnie Brown (25 yards), and Clinton Portis (68 yards, TD) have all been held under 100 yards. Will the Jets look to get Thomas Jones more involved against the Cardinals?
2) Kurt Warner vs. NYJ Pass Rush – Where did all the pressure go? In weeks 1 and 2, the NYJ were flying into the backfield throughout the games. The NYJ defense knocked down Chad Pennington and Matt Cassel on plenty of occasions. I left the Jets/Chargers game the other night with a dirtier outfit than Philip Rivers did. Rivers did not get knocked down once and I left with a few honey mustard stains on my shorts. You can never win a game in the NFL without making the opposing quarterback uncomfortable. In come the Cardinals with a Super Bowl winning quarterback in Kurt Warner. If Warner stays upright and untouched, he can make it a very long day for the Jets defense. Warner is the type of quarterback that once he is hit, he tends to get a little out of sync. Calvin Pace, Bryan Thomas, Shawn Ellis, and Vernon Gholston have to put be able to keep putting pressure on Warner throughout the whole game.
3) Darrelle Revis/Dwight Lowery vs. Larry Fitzgerald/Anquan Boldin – Another week comes another tough task for our secondary. Randy Moss/Wes Welker, Chris Chambers /Vincent Jackson, and now this week possibly the best WR duo in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin come into town. In three games so far this season, this combination has combined for 550 yards and 6 touchdowns. Clearly the passing game is the key to the Cardinals’ offense. Revis and Lowery have been doing a great job so far this season, except Lowery had a second half hiccup Monday night. Our cornerbacks are very young and this will be a good test for them. If the Jets can hold these two receivers in check, they will have a good shot at walking away with a victory in Week 4.
4) NYJ Offense vs. Turnovers – Turnovers are very crucial to winning and losing games in the NFL. The Jets offense had one fumble in Week 1 and one interception in Week 2. However against the Chargers, three turnovers in the first half were clearly unacceptable. A Thomas Jones’ fumble and two Brett Favre interceptions doomed the Jets in the desert. A team cannot expect to win football games if they are taking care of the ball in a manner the Jets did last week.
5) NYJ vs. Pressure – Here we are in Week 4, calling for a win or the season might just very well be in the rear view window. I know this may be a little harsh, but heading into the bye week at 1-3 does not look too good. I am not saying this is a must win but it is very close to that scenario. With road games against Buffalo and NE, plus another handful of West Coast trips – a game against the Cardinals at home is a need. If we can head into the bye week at 2-2, the Jets have a home game against the Bengals, at the Raiders, and home against the Chiefs to look forward too. The coaching staff must get their heads out of the fog and get this team back on track or we will be looking at a very steep climb. How will the Jets handle early season pressure in Week 4?
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This team vs. my sanity
Our sanity Dsmizzle, our sanity
Hopefully Calvin Pace goes wild! im sure he knows a trick or two against the o-lineman of the cards and can spread the knowlege out to our other pass rushers. I really believe VG will get his first sack in this game this could be his breakout game he looked much improved last game over any of the previous games.
We need a good pash rush, a good run game and we need to get lil leon the ball more! Lets Go JETS
This has been hell week for me. Try living with a wife who is a Charger fan. I am already insane so even a W will not get the sanity back. I cannot fathom a loss and then a bye week.
intrasquad scrimmage: 8 QB’s and kickers v. 8 CB’s
point 1 should be o-line v. cards front seven. i’d love to see another goal line situation to see if d’brick can finally avoid getting pushed 3 yards backwards in obvious short yardage running downs.
I completely disagree with this entire analysis (except for the stuff about mustard stains).
1) Most teams can run when they are successful passing. If and when Favre and our WR scare teams (as they did against Miami), the running game will be more successful. Not the other way around. Runs (and passes) are better on second and short.
And, TJ should be the runner of choice against teams we can physically manhandle and Leon should play against teams we need to outrun. IOW, we must use talent according to our opponents’ weaknesses. If AZ is a fast to the ball team then TJ might have success. If they are behemoths like NE, then Leon should be game planned to reap any success Favre and the WR can generate. But trying to establish the run is stupid. It will be there if Favre scores some points and moves us down the field.
2) It is easier to pass rush when the best players play (Eric and Sutton have been too prone to play subs and bozos at critical junctures) and the other team cannot run the ball. If Jenkins and the D create third and longs, it should be easier to apply pressure. If teams can run on us or pass short on us (negating pass rushes), we won’t be able to create pressure with a pass rush anyway.
3) I would man up on the two WR with Revis and Lowery. One safety to help out one. I would expect two or three bad TDs because their WR are that good and will be beat our best. That means that the D is not going to win this game. IOW, as with the Chargers, we will once again bemoan the inept play calling and use of personnel (Coles and Smith should get no PT) or we score more points than AZ do.
4) Favre will turn the ball over. So what? The issue is that pussies like Coles and TJ need to not have the ball wrested from them. Mangini cannot turn the ball over to our opponents after a score already in FG range. We cannot afford penalties killing the good plays Favre makes. So, TO are not important. The stupid, needless ones are.
5) The pressure is irrelevant. Either Eric and Shott are better coaches than I think and things will turn around and we will finish in front of NE and Buffalo or they are not. If they are better coaches, there is no pressure because things will get better in spite of the evidence. If they are as inept as I think, then pressure is irrelevant because things will get ugly regardless of pressure and effort. There will be more soft D giving up needless points, more bungles by players who should not be playing, poor use of personnel who could perform better with better opportunities, and an offensive game plan that lacks any rhyme or reason and fails to score the points we need to win.
Harlan
Ian-
we’re going small and inept-whole new NFL concept.
The run game numbers are irrelevant without taking the whole game into consideration. We fell behind against NE and even more so at SD and it was pass or die. The good news is that the passing game got its best practice of the year (unfortunately it came in a live game) and there should be more confidence in it all around.
More important than “establishing the run” (the most overused phrase in football) is running the plays that you run well, that the other team defends less well, particularly at the time they don’t think you’re going to run them. How one does that is what clever game planning is all about. I think part of the problem with the offensive game planning so far is that, with Favre arriving so late, it wasn’t exactly clear what the O did or didn’t do well. That should be a little more clear after SD. It should also be a little more clear to AZ after watching the film, so a smart game plan would involve lining up like you’re going to do the things that worked against SD and doing something unexpected. Bad Bill B’s HOF career is based entirely on this approach.
On D there has to be a better balance between trying to generate pass rush and stopping slot receivers, TE’s and RB’s on short passes. Especially on 3rd down where we’ve been getting killed. I don’t care if the QB’s uniform still smells like Bounce fabric softener after the game as long as he doesn’t have a field day with the underneath stuff. What I don’t want to see is the pass rush almost getting there while he dumps it off for endless third down conversions.
I believe this is a scheme and technique issue since the talent on the field – second safety and nickel weaknesses notwithstanding – should be adequate. NE has succeeded at this with guys they found in the parking lot before the game.
Establishing the run and the line of scrimmage are one of the oldest and most successful startegies that have been proven to win games.
Everyone seems to forget that game planning is great and utilizing personnel is terrific but it comes down to execution. Establishing the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball is the most essential part of football… IMO.
Skill receivers are great and Cbs are even better but look no further than the Giants. There Db’s are terrible and have 1 good WR but they were and still are unstoppable. Why?? Because they can establish the line of scrimmage.. Both offensively and Defensively.
If your big guys up front are getting beaten up then 9 out of 10 times, you will lose the game. I jsut think that our game plan should always be surronding TJ and Leon Washington. We have two good RB and a Qb who is a “gun slinger” aka. throws ints.
Run the ball, play to Brett Favre’s strength, which is short slants and quick outs. Hit em up deep when necessary.
Manginis a sell out man…. I agree completely with Najy and that is how the coaches were calling the plays in the first 2 games. Then the media complains that we are too conservative so Mangini decides to send farve out like hes running last years patriots offense? OF COURSE HES GOING TO TURN IT OVER! to Harian Lachman who says “Farve will turn the ball over. So what?” yeah i hate to break it to you but that is a big deal. His 2 picks turned into 14 points for the chargers last week and it should have been more. Farve cant carry us it has to be the running game and once that opens up Farve can be a weapon. The only game we won is the one where Farve didnt throw a costly interception.
ffdajkh,
I totatly agree. I think there was a ton of pressure on Mangini this past week to “open up the play book” and “air it out” and “let Favre be Favre”. Also, i think he listend to eveyrone saying that he was being too conservative.
Hence, 40+ passing attempts by Brett Favre. An onside kick. Shotgun fomration from the 6 inch line. It was rediculous. There is a fine line between being aggresive and just being STUPID!!
Mangini needs to find his identitiy on offense. I think he has done a good job with the D but I attribute our no identity offense to Mangini and his lack of Knowledge of offensive rhythem and gameplanning. He simply has no exprience with offense.
Favre must be more careful with the football. Even though Coles should have broken up that one pick BF could have easily had 5 picks in that game. No way we can win like that. With the bum ankle he should dump it off to little Leon and watch him take it to the house!
We knew what we were getting when we got Favre. Hes going to throw costly interceptions. He has his whole career and will continue to do so as a Jet. I think everyone forgets that besides last year Favre has been an average QB the few years before that. Yes, his strong arm gives us a better chance of winning but we can’t rely solely on him and if you want him to make the big plays you cant complain about the picks he is giong to throw.
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Well, I’m glad everyone is showing their customary restraint. Anyone heard from Chicken Little?
Yay I’m not the only one to say that on a blog.
The sky is falling btw
to ffdajkh: His two picks were not entirely his fault. At least the first was caused by inept play by his WR who had position on the defender and the ball was not over his head.
There is question about the second pick. The receiver takes the blame for not running the route and the QB takes the blame too. What this indicates is that it was not a Penny like throw it in the wrong place pick but a misread.
IOW, one and maybe none of the picks in the charger game were Favre’s fault. And one pick is not going to lose us a lot of games if we play NFL caliber D and specials and our Offense performs and is given a real game plan. Hence the so what.
h
Mattera:
I started reading your comments but gave up at the time yuo said “WE MUST PLAN ARROUND BRETT FARVE” WHAT A MISTAKE ITS BEEN !! Got to enforce our own game plan , taylored to our team’s strength, Period. Now ADD to that Farves strength, Now you have something. YOU DONT CHAGE THE WAR TO WIN A BATTLE !!!
Actually, and I hate to break it to you, but the running game doesn’t win games. Passing does. Winning teams pass early and run late with the lead. Now, they do mix in the run for obvious reasons, but it’s passing that creates scoring and running late runs the clock.