Here’s a quick rundown of what I saw from the Jets offense.
Offensive Line — No sacks all day, let me repeat that … NO SACKS ALL DAY. Even with a rookie quarterback, this line has to get a lot of credit for them defending their young QB. No small feat when you consider that they were up against Mario Williams and Amobi Okoye, two of the better young defensive linemen in the league.
Now having said that, the team struggled to get the running game going early up the middle and they will have to do some work to address that, even though there were eight in the box on a lot of plays. Due to the lack of ability to run the ball early, there were a lot of bad down and distance situations for Sanchez early in the game. The team did a better job of opening up lanes against this defense later on once the game settled in.
Wide Receiver / Tight Ends — This is the last time I will say this for a while .. can we put a moratorium on second receiver talk now? Please?!?! Dustin Keller is the team’s second option and he’s a good one at that, and Stuckey showed he can get it done too. In Houston, the Jets did a great job with the Yards After Catch. For as great as Sanchez was on third down, there were plenty of times where the receivers were the ones who kept the drive alive with their feet on short passes and they juked and muscled their way past the sticks. Stuckey, Cotchery, and Dustin Keller all did a great job of making more yards for their QB after the catch.
I don’t know the stats, but based on what I’ve seen from the Jets the past few years, that would have had to be one of the better performances in terms of YAC Average. I have to imagine that what Schottenheimer has been looking for from this offense to have as the norm during his tenure with the Jets. The combination of Sanchez’s “live arm” with a group of tenacious receivers this might prove to be a strength more than people realized. Dustin Keller averaged 23.5 yards a catch .. that’s sick.
Running Backs — There was a moment of concern at the beginning of the day when it was announced that Shonn Greene was inactive, but that turned out alright as the Jets rushed for a total of 190 yards even without him. Faced with a rookie QB, the Texans had a fairly simple (and justified) gameplan: put eight or even nine (by Jones count in the press conference) players in the box to stop the run. Early on, Thomas Jones was having a rough time finding daylight, but Leon was more successful in moving the ball on the edges of the defense and the team did that for much of the first half. Later on that seemed to reverse itself as the Texans moved more to a balanced formation and it was Jones who was busting long plays on a worn down defense mostly between the tackles. Jones hasn’t been know for long runs much during this phase of his career had two long plays, one for 38 and another for 39 yards during the game. As far as intangibles, on a third and long early in the game, Leon Washington played defensive back to break up a sure interception that Sanchez threw and also, the backs did a superb job with their blitz pickups.
Quarterback– For all the laser rocket armed throws that the young QB made during the course of the game, one of Sanchez’s best moments came during the first scoring drive, when after the field goal, a scrum developed (and during which D’Brick was called for an unnecessary roughness) Sanchez ran back onto the field to try break up the players involved. And it wasn’t just that, Sanchez always runs back out on the field after field goals or extra points to cheer his team on. Imagine Favre doing that. For all the off the field stuff, coupled with the third down heroics, the impeccable footwork, the darts downfield, and touch screen passes … he’s made me a believer.
Now let’s not get besides ourselves just yet. Although Houston is pegged as a defense that’s on the rise, he’s yet to do it against a top rated squad. It’s inarguable that was a great first step and he’s proven he can lead this team on a middling defense, now let’s see how he can do against the Patriots (a step up) and then the Titans (yet another step up).
I agree on your assessment of the wide receiver corps. These guys are playmakers and I’m quite comfortable with the style they play and their YAC ability.
Would it be nice to have a home run hitter? Sure. But it’s not an urgent need, particularly if the D keeps playing the way they did yesterday. A control offense that puts up 24 points a game while holding on to the ball for well over half the game works for me.
Oh and Brandon Marshall had 4 catches for 27 yards and no TD’s yesterday. That is the same number of catches that Leon had for only 3 more yards.
Schotty deserves all the credit, he called a great game.
The running game early on was non existent because there were 8 in the box. Once Sanchez gets the respect of the defense it will open up the running game a little more.
We did see too many penalties. Although D’Brick did an ok job on mario williams, he did commit a couple of bad penalties.
But all in all, it was a great game.
Amobi Okoye is not one of the better young anything in the anything. He is awful. The Texans offense is only average, too. All of this building Houston up ex post facto smacks of Rodney Harrison babbling about how ‘nobody thought we could do it’ after pulling off the stunning feat of…beating the Cleveland Browns.
Speaking of the O-Line…I’m liking the idea of Seymour being in Oakland (or just sitting home somewhere) for next week even more. Sanchez should get time back there.
Also, for all the folks who wanted Jay Cutler, did anyone see him play last night? Just awful. He confirmed what I thought…Shanahan’s system helped an undisplined QB (like Jake Plummer) have stats that were superior than his on-field play merited. Anyone happy today that the Jets spent far less to get Sanchez than what the Bears gave up for Cutler? Cutler made more rookie mistakes than Sanchez; he was terrible.
O-line played good but dont get the credit for the no sack game(well on paper,yes) Sanchez was runningn from Mario all game.
Schotty’s game calling again was suspect. he did make better adjustments in the 2nd half. My problem with him is, just because you have good RBs doesnt mean you let the other team know your running the ball. Tell me you guys didnt know when the jets were running it in the 1st half.Thats why we started off slow.
i believe a spanking is coming for NE.
DH stands for designated hitter.
let me say it again.at seasons end Stuckey will be the teams best WR.
For you guys who laugh at me on the raiders going to the playoffs, what do you have on the Raiders Chargers game.
Aten,
You do realize that even with Schaub injured last season, the Texans had the no. 3 offense in the NFL and averaged 382.1 yards? Even Football Outsiders in their “weighted offense” stats ranked the Texans no. 9 and 14 overall. So, it’s not like the Texans, at home, were a push over. With their OL intact for a 2nd full season, a maturing Slaton, a reasonable healthy Schaub and all-world Andre Johnson, most pundits predicted that the Texans had too much offensive fire power for the Jets. But, the Jets D DOMINATED the Texans’ offense. So, let’s not minimize the Jets’ defensive achievement, without Ellis and Pace. The Jets’ D showed, at least for 1 week, that it can completely shutdown a high-powered offense in their own house.
Cutler did look horrible last night…he had one great throw that I saw, the deep ball to Knox where he hit him in stride with 50 yard throw. But other than that, he was forcing throws left and right…often just missing an INT, only to complete that INT a few plays later. His reads were awful. He was just throwing the ball if he saw something, anything, it didnt even need to be his own teammate. I saw him play a lot better in preseason. He’s got the arm and moblity, but does he have the brain?
I too was very impressed with Sanchez running back on to the field to pull his players out of the scrum. There is no way that selfish, turnover machine would have done that. He’d have been too busy staring dumbfounded at the collection words and shapes that he couldn’t recognize in the playbook.
Zartan, What do you mean by “best WR”, meaning best season stats? or talent-wise, the best WR. I vote Cothcery on both of those. Cotchery is a very good WR. before the catch, during the catch, or after the catch, Cotch does it all, and well. I like your optimism though, I hope we can have a solid debate about this at the end of the year (meaning, Cotch’s value doesnt go down, but Stuckey’s has risen a plenty)
the true meaning for DH def fits for our DH.
SD99: we won and we looked great. That’s enough for me without having to puff it up to be more than it was. It’s like your line on Cutler — if you were right and are so confident that you’ll be proved right, why the rush to get the I told you so in before the sample size gets meaningful?
Oh and Zartan…I think the Chargers will rout the raiders tonight.
There can be zero complaints about this game. The running game struggled early as the Texans were stacking the line and daring Sanchez to beat them.
It opened up as they were wearing down and getting beat by Chez on 3rd down.
OL kept Chez clean and he handled the rest with his footwork and arm when it did breakdown.
Game ball to a guy that I have tried to defend and kill at the same time in B-Schott. Less shifting but great production.
“He’d have been too busy staring dumbfounded at the collection words and shapes that he couldn’t recognize in the playbook.”
That’s not a fair criticism of Favre. He never even looked at the playbook.
You guys are killin’ me! For the last 5 mos. all we talked about was the unknown of this season, we went out kicked ass yesterday and some of you still want to suck the air out of the balloon. A win is a win and a big ass confidence boost for next Sun.
Quit nit pickin’ and enjoy the win.
I agree with your first statement Zartan. While the O-line performed well and gave up no sacks on paper, Sanchez did have to do a lot of maneuvering in the pocket more often than not. While he proved to be effective in this style on Sunday, who knows how many games the Jets can get away with that.
Still a great win to start the season though.
LOL did anybody else see what the bears did last night. A fake punt on 4th and long on their own 30 yard line while leading 12-10 in the 4th quarter.
omg, if that would’ve been my time, I would’ve had an ulcer or something.
We got lucky yesterday, as we could have been staring at a 21-3 score going into the half…luckily for us, the Texans defense forgot how to catch the softballs that Sanchez was throwing at them.
Being said, it was an awesome day, and I was really excited to see our defense SWARM the ball. Bart Scott has really got these guys fired up, and David Harris is, well, just playing out of his mind.
I was very happy with the way Sanchez looked once he got comfortable (after the first 1.7 quarters) and Cotch had some clutch YACs. This win is enormous given our next two games (NE and TEN), so I’m going to savor the victory and hope for the best next week.
and dont forget…….RIGHT AFTER we play New England AND Tennessee,we get to play IN NEW ORLEANS.
Aten,
The difference is that I’ve seen Cutler play before and based my opinion on a track record. Cutler, IMO, showed all the problems he has with bonehead INTs and poor throws, plus the fact that he has inferior weapons.
The Jets D, on the other hand, does not have a track record. It has one great game without 2 cornerstone players, Ellis and Pace. I don’t want to say that the defense will definitely up there with the Steelers, Ravens and Giants, but it WAS an impressive performance against a top offense in their house. I think we all know that this week is the real test and I’m glad that, at least, the Jets get Ellis back. If the D shuts down the Pats and Saints, then will you agree that the D is elite?
New moniker for BART SCOTT & DAVID HARRIS –
SHOCK & AWE!
They blitzed more times than The Manjidiot did all last year! Keep in mind this was minus Sean Ellis & Calvin Pace!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I don’t care if this is only one game. Booking the Fountain Bleu in Miami today!!!!
Someone put Rex Ryan on a diet because we need to make sure he has a long life….
Kris Jenkins quoted in the NY Post after a very emotional Sexy Rexy gave the game ball to Woody J saying this is for giving me the opportunity when others didn’t. “A lot of people might laugh that he (Rex) cried. But for us guys who are older and understand the game, we understood. That really shows how much he really cares about this team and how he’s putting his heart and soul into this team. I don’t want another coach, honestly. If I can keep him for the rest of my career, I’m going to do the best that I can to do that”
The only thing close to that emotion is Laverneous Coles’ man crush on Chad Pennington…
BRING ON THE PATSIES!!!!
The one thing I have noticed with draft picks is they don’t always get “IT” right away. But the ones that do get “IT” right away go on to be the great ones. Like Revis and I think Sanchez will be one of those.
Hats off to D-Brick held Mario to no sacks….. He is looking mean also.. I see a pro-bowl in his future
The Jets have found an identity(KICKASS DEFENSE)& the players are beginning to believe they are capable of great things. It’s only 1 game but WOW, these guys have confidence. When they step onto the field against the Pats, they really believe they are going to win. REX has changed the attitude here.
What a great game to watch. We not only won the game, but we made them feel it. Seriously, Our defense was blasting people. It was really violent and I loved it. I don’t think the world know about D Harris like we do. Their gonna find out the hard way. I love this Defense. Gholston continues to look overmatched and out muscled. Love our recievers, but just imagine if we took a receiver instead of Gholston or another shutdown D back oppo Darrelle, dirty!!!!!!!!
I have this one on the DVR and I am not deleting it!! I’ll watch it again (…and twice after a loss). This was the best I have seen the D in quite a long time!! As I said before (after all B Marshall for DH talk)….the only place David Harris is going his year is to the Pro Bowl…along with 3-4 of his other friends on the New Defense!!! Look out Brady…we are coming for your head!!!!!!!!!
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Sanchez’s attempt to tackle the ball carrier after his interception. He flew across the field and looked like a human missle. That showed balls!
Of course he was called for a “below the knees” hit, but the effort was there.
One thing nobody has mentioned yet, except Ronnie, is the offensive play calling.
It reminded me of ’06 with Chad, but even better. Tons of motion, tons of wacky formations keeping defenses off balance.
My personal favorite: the seminole formation, our take on the wild-cat. Leon is absolutely deadly out of it, and I’m expecting in the near future to see a handoff/pitch to Brad Smith who will pass it to… Sanchez!?
Overall great work by Schotty. As much as it bums me out, if he calls plays like he did yesterday for the rest of the season, I see him out the door as a HC for someone.
One thing that bothers me, Brad Smith’s rotting corpse taking reps away from Clowney on offense. He truly is a terrible offensive player (Smith, that is). Keep him for his great special teams play, and a few gadget plays I guess, but let Clowney get some reps.
SuffernJetsFan –
I said the same thing about Rex yesterday — I would be devastated if they finally found a great coach, only to have the guy drop dead on the sidelines.
I mean, the team has all sorts of trainers and dieticians, right? Can someone please make this guy a salad or two, and don’t let him slide a rack of deep-fried butter on top of it?!
Bassett wrote in anti-hyberbole: “Now having said that, the team struggled to get the running game going early up the middle and they will have to do some work to address that, even though there were eight in the box on a lot of plays.”
Bassett, if you saved the game, please rewatch it. In the first half, I counted the number of Texans in the box on every play. You are right. Sometimes there were not 8. A few times if you count the safeties cheating up there were 9. I think, at least in the first half when I was using stop action to count, it was more than just “a lot of plays.”
The question that should be posed to someone with more knowledge than me is this: Is there any possible benefit to running up the gut against a stacked D for an average of less than 1.2 ypc (with some negative yardage plays in there too) with a rookie Qb. I frankly saw no benefit to the play calling other than shortening the game. However, perhaps there was some benefit to forcing Sanchez into lots of second and thirds and long. If so, I would like to know.
Harlan
Bob Vila, I actually wasn’t in love with the play calling. How many times in a row did Schotty call a run on 1st down??? I realize I’m nitpicking, but he needs to mix it up on 1st down
Aside from Sanchez coming in and playing like a 10 year vet minus a few throws and the o-line doing a great job of pass protection, I think Brian Schottenhiemer deserves some props too.
I liked the creativity on the middle screens and bootlegs for Sanchez to try and give him some easy reads. I think for the first time in his tenure as OC, this offense is completely his . It looked alot more like San Diego’s offense under his father than Eric Mangini’s shackled version.
I am now convinced that Schotty took alot of heat for Mangini not having any stones and getting conservative during games. as we saw yesterday after Sanchez’s INT, Rex had no prob letting Schotty dial up a pass on 3rd and 3 and PLAYING TO WIN THE GAME!!!!
>>The question that should be posed to someone with more knowledge than me is this: Is there any possible benefit to running up the gut against a stacked D for an average of less than 1.2 ypc (with some negative yardage plays in there too) with a rookie
Harlan-
Go back and watch Jones’ long touchdown run and you will have your answer. If you stack the box you can obviously create dome tough sledding for the running game. But if the back gets through there’s an awful lot of green in front of him
i agree with sack, houston is a great team and we just out played them in there house
while it is one game, it still feels great to say the jets are 1 and 0, but the true test will be next weekend. i hate the pats, and if the jets want respect, then they have to beat the best offense in the league
but at least the pats d is just ok this year
Great first game of the season! I had as much fun watching it as the Jets seemed to have playing it!
And I’ll be completely sold when Harvlis reveals his secret man-crush for all things Shotty…
:-)
One of my favorite plays was a simple short gain (might have been the 3rd down and 3 to JC that Bassett mentioned in another post). I LOVED that play, because they didn’t go empty backfield and telegraph what they were going to do. They kept the D honest because it could have been a run or a pass; they passed and made the first down. I got so sick of it last year when constantly would let the D know they were going to throw, which worked against our receivers because they need that extra split second to get a little separation.
Hallelujah!
Harlan,
An argument could be made that:
A.) they were keeping the D honest by sticking with the run – if they abandoned it perhaps sanchez would not have had the success he did, because they KEPT stacking 8-9 in the box because we stuck with the run, and
B.) they were wearing down the Texan’s D by sticking with the run, hoping that they would tire and give up big plays later.
I’m not claiming to know that this was the mindset of the cs, just thinking (typing) out loud.
Off topic – a Defense related comment:
Someone asked where Bryan Thomas was during the game like he was invisible.
Bryan Thomas played a great game and almost had a strip/sack but was also manhandling people on the field.
He may not have gotten a lot of credit but he played as well as one could ask.
#99 is just fine.
>>The question that should be posed to someone with more knowledge than me is this: Is there any possible benefit to running up the gut against a stacked D for an average of less than 1.2 ypc (with some negative yardage plays in there too) with a rookie<<
Not saying I have more knowledge, but my humble opinion is that continuing to try to pound the ball on 1st and 2nd downs, even when there seems to be little progress, has its benefits. Like body punches in the early rounds of a fight – it pays off over time. See TJ's late, breakout runs. Rex doesn't want a finesse team – the pejorative he used to describe Houston's O. Establishing the run when the D knows it's coming is a battle of wills at the line of scrimmage, a battle Rex is confident his team can win in the long run. Win the battle of wills, you win the game.
I also think it's good for a rookie QB because it gives him more chances to snap the ball without facing a pass rush. If it's going to come, let it come on 3rd down, a scenario they've gone over thoroughly. And the more chances the D has to probe the protection, the likelier it is they'll eventually get through and force the rookie into a bad mistake.
Obviously, you'd prefer to have the kid in shorter situations on 3rd down, but many teams give up the run too early at their peril. Incompletions on 1st down take the wind out of an O even more than a 1.2 yard gain. O-Lineman prefer to go forward and dropping back to fend off a rush and getting nothing out of it takes its toll, while encouraging the D.
I'm guessing Rex believes he has the personnel to run successfully on anyone and will give the unit every opportunity to improve with experience. I'm sure that when he's confident the run game's up to speed and Sanchez has some more NFL action under his belt, we'll see more variety in the playcalling on those downs. But I wouldn't be looking for any 5 wide formations on 1st down anytime soon.
in my opinion the patriots defense isnt much better than the texans. they might be a slight step up, but we’re going to be able to move it against them. their linebackers, outside of thomas and mayo, are suspect. their corners are garbage. and wilfork is the only great player on that d-line, and a guy that mangold has humiliated time and time again. if we can somewhat limit their offense, which i think we will, we can come out on top. i would love to embarrass the pats. revis will easily shut down moss or welker (whatever the strategy is), but the key will be sheppard. if he can play well enough opposite revis, with some safety help, we will come out on top, because they cant run the ball. we need to pressure brady early and often. this wont be as hard of a game as some think it will be, in fact, this is our best chance to win one of the next 3 games.
Gonna be interesting to see the Pats defense tonight. I agree & think their defense is average. Their offense will be miles better than Houston, though. They will screen us every play if we blitz. I will be psyched to see what Rex has in store for the Pats & all their screens.
Let’s not forget that Mangini, for all that people rip him on, beat NE a couple of times.
They were also embarrassed a couple of times too but if his teams could beat the Pats there is no reason why Rex can’t.
This D looks like it is better than any Mangini put out but there are a few new players so let’s not take all the credit away from him.
Oh and ESPN reports that Shanahan wanted to trade or cut B Marshall:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4469786
how did VG play, if no one is talking about him, then it must have been ok
VG had three, tackles, at least one qb pressure and seemed to hold his own.
Thanks to Subway fare for a cogent response and the Parking Expert (a real skill for a New Yorker BTW) for a reasonable alternative too.
Jack, I felt that game had been decided by the time of Jones run. The rookie had engineered 17 points primarily due to success on third and long. Also, if you look at the tape, the Texans were playing folks in different positions and with a greater urgency than at the beginning of the game making it easier to bust one then.
Again, if there is a coach out there or if one of the Blog makers gets a chance to ask, I think a lot of us could learn about play calling if we better understood how plays that look like they are stupid are not.
harlan
“To me, the other impressive thing was the way the line wore down the Texans in the second half. “They were gassed,” RT Damien Woody told me. The Jets kept pounding, and they eventually broke Houston’s will.” Rich Cimini.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/jets/#ixzz0RBMH9yYQ