Link: Offensive Mixologist
According to some folks in the know, the Jets offense needs to mix it up a little bit more than they have been, according to the Star-Ledger’s Dave Hutchinson.
[Phil] Simms, who has worked nearly a half-dozen Jets games this season, including the Titans and 49ers games, says opponents have indeed figured out the Jets’ short passing game — featuring screens to the running backs and wide receivers and quick passes to tight end Dustin Keller — and it’s now up to offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to make a counter move.
“I think teams have decided to just play the Jets a little more aggressive and see what happens,” Simms told The Star-Ledger. “And when teams do that, you have to show them that you’re capable of doing something else.
“That’s why I find these last three weeks of the season so intriguing. I want to see how the Jets handle it, how they react to these past two losses. What do they do schematically to get themselves back on track?
“I’m not saying they have to reinvent themselves, but they have to change. Do they throw the football down the field more? Will the wide receivers be the first read and give them more chances to make plays?”
Former Giants coach and current Westwood One radio analyst Jim Fassel agreed.
“With the numbers they were putting up, it’s pretty hard to keep that up,” he said. “Everybody in this league has tendencies and teams work on trying to take them away.”
The Jets probably do need to mix it up, but in the passing game, the receivers need to get themselves some seperation as well.
19 Responses to Link: Offensive Mixologist
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TheRealRK says:
Anyone worried about Vernon Gholston should turn on WFAN. LT is on and he’s talking about how no one should be concerned about Gholstons first year, its not a surprise he’s been terrible. He brought up how bad DeMarcus Ware was in his first year with Parcells. LT worked with him and he was awful. He’s pretty confident Gholston is going to be great. Remains to be seen, but that’s a damn good recommendation
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TOON2388 says:
Najy – agree 100% and that starts with not bringing in Leon and going shotgun if 1st down produces 3 yards or less. Nothing wrong with 6-7 yards on 1st & 2nd to set-up 3rd & 3 or 4. That is why we converted over 51% of 3rd downs during 5 game winning streak
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Najy says:
I also would like to see us start converting on 3rd and short… gotta be able to fight for those tough yards.
I am not sure why, but everytime its 3rd and short, we end up in shot-gun… Its kind of disappointing.. We definitley need to start running more on 3rd and short and start taking some deep, plactoin passes on 3rd down…
I hate schotty, but we need to ride him this year till the end… I hate his package personnel, and i hate how predictable he makes our O at times… Mix it up, with screens, deep balls, keller seems, runs… throw the god dam kitchen sink at them…
BUT THE JETS ARENT A “BIG PLAY” TEAM… we dont have big, fast, receivers…
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TOON2388,
I really hate schotty… He really is terrible sometimes.
He loves going into shot gun on 2nd and manageable; its good to go in shot gun at times but you need to keep the other team off balance and run/or playaction at times also.
I think successfull offenses are verstatile in the sense that you can run, pass, or playaction from the same formatoin and same personnel.
I forget what game it was…. but a coaches of the opposing team had big signs on the sidlines each time the jets brought in a different personnel group….
The litterally held up big white signs that said.. RUN, PASS.. etc.There is no need to spell out what we are doing…
I would be embarressed if I were shotty.
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subwayfare says:
This doesn’t surprise me. I think the Jets young coaching staff overreacted to Favre’s spate of INT’s and tidal wave of media coverage it garnered. Everyone talked about taking the ball out of Favre’s hands and focusing on running the football, which they should have done. To a degree. But I think they threw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
They essentially took the WR’s out of the game plan, but for a couple of stretch the field, sideline bombs. Unfortunately, these aren’t the kind of WRs that are going to streak behind a secondary or out-leap close, downfield coverage. They need plays designed to get them open in space and the chance to develop some rhythm in the passing game. They were beginning to build it at Arizona but Favre got a little greedy and the passing game was all but shut down. Now defenses have adjusted by taking away the little bubble screens, underneath throws and used a lot of press coverage.
With receivers that aren’t burners or great at getting separation, I don’t know why they don’t use more bunch formations for the natural picks and rubs they generate. Though they haven’t been scoring, Losman has actually carved the Jets up in the past so we may really need the offense to take it up a notch this week.
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D$ says:
If we do get into 3rd and short or in a goal line situation, how about using a draw play ONE TIME PLEASE! For coaches that love to outsmart everyone, they never use a draw even though it seems like we’re in shotgun 50% of the time. It doesn’t even have to be a draw, but go four-wide, spread out the defense and jam it down the middle.
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At the risk of pointing out the obvious, I think getting “more separation” and mixing it up are interrelated. e.g. Going down the field means the db’s can’t be single-minded and squeeze the short routes. Mixing it up means forcing the db to think twice, and that in itself creates space.
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Lastly, I think subwayfare is right about using more bunch formations, which, once again, gives the db another thing to think about and protect against: getting picked or brushed off his coverage.
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Joe B. says:
Jets the last two weeks:
4-for-25 on 3rd & 4th down.
This can’t continue. TJ early, TJ often. No more getting cute against teams we’re better than. Remember that game-clinching drive in Buffalo, where everyone knew we were running it, and we still did it successfully? Hope Schotty remembers it too.
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KevT says:
Ha…I feel so vindicated now that Simms had reiterated what I said in this week’s Audibles post. There’s a need to mix things up to keep the defense guessing and there’s not enough of that in the playcalling. When I hear terms like “the offensive coordinator needs to get into a rhythm with his playcalling” it means that he needs to progress to the point where the defense is adjusting to his move, but he has though two or three moves ahead and adjusted accordingly.
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“The Jets probably do need to mix it up, but in the passing game, the receivers need to get themselves some separation as well.”
I think this is one of the keys – our WR’s simply haven’t been very good. Yes, Schott’s pass calls have been too dink-and-dunk, but a lot of that is because our receivers aren’t getting separation past 10 yards. Cotchery is a good route runner, but he’s not explosive. Coles has looked old. Neither is in the top 25 in Football Outsiders’ WR rankings. And B Smith – who showed a lot of promise last year – has played like crap as a receiver.
We’ve really missed Stuckey and Clowney, who are the only two guys on the roster who can get downfield separation. Hopefully this gets better next year when they’re both in the mix, but I’d love to add an explosive receiver through the draft or FA as well.
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jim says:
clowney should be given an opportunity to go long a few times against the bills….in a game we should win handily…and see if he can become a dep threat for us when we’ll need it the last week against the fins – also i agree..more TJ, more LW…get the ball to the playmakers, convert third downs…and defense…wtf? get your act together NOW
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Harvlis says:
Playcalling and Predictability. Those are our problems. Every offensive play should have some sort of movement, misdirection, or trickery. When we line up and run up the middle with no fakes — who are we fooling? Every time we show movement or misdirection — our plays succeeds. Most of the time that we don’t – we fail. Seems pretty obvious.
Coles and Cotchery are not having problems — Schottenheimer is having problems. If used properly, Coles and Cotchery are a great tandem. Wide Receivers get deep, without Safeties picking them up, based on formations, play calls, and play fakes. If Schott was doing his job, Coles and Cotch would be eating up the competition. Schottenheimers’ simplistic Offensive scheme is not fooling anyone. Don’t blame the WR’s, blame the system.
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NickyLibs says:
Harvlis,
You are completely right, and have sumed up how I, and most Jet fans, have felt about Schott all season.
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Eddie DiGio says:
Harvlis my man,
I gotta tell you that you really break down the ineptitude of Schott pretty well, you arent afraid to say what’s on your mind no matter how “the Mangini/Schott worshipers” (barf) try to hate on you with there contradictory statements, keep up the good work my friend -
JustAGreenGuy says:
Good players get open on their own. We can’t blame the coaches for everything. Favre throwing a good on target deep ball would help too.
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NY Titan says:
I don’t think we need to use misdirection on every play. And I don’t mean to nit-pick, Harvlis, but clearly we do not always succeed when we use trickery. It would be nice to have a balance of the Schotty Offense from 2 years ago (Tons of shifts, misdirection, you name it) with the simplified Offense we’ve seen this year. I think most of that is Favre-related…
Agreed on the fact that we’ve become predictable, but after we complete a few for 20+ yards, then, like that- we can do whatever we want to Defenses.
PS- Everyone- I’m pretty sure LC and Cotch are pretty banged up. They’ve been listed on the shady injury report on and off all year, and we can all see, they are not playing as well as we know they can.
Playaction would be a start….
I dont think the Jets need to do too much but if I were another team, I would look at the Jets statistically and realize that the jets dont have “Big Play” ability on offense.
I think that we have tough, physical receivers that can fight for the ball and are good at what they do. We dont stretch the field enough during the game, and we dont always utilize Keller in mismatches.
We arent going to become a deep ball throwing team but we need to adjust to make it interesting. Run the ball, use playaction to open things up, and hit em up the seem with keller.
Cotch and Coles can run deep post, so can keller… Start using that to our advantage. One more thing… I never want to see TJ get 10 carries again when it is a close game.
He should be getting a minimum of 20 carries… Playaction.. Hit up the seem with keller, and start running the post much more…