Link: Time to Tame theWildcat?
The Jets were clawed by the Wildcat just a few weeks ago, but did Gregg Williams and the Saints Defense, who has a similar defense to the Jets (good against the run, OK against the pass) help the Jets figure out how best to stop this team?
Against the Saints, it gained 30 yards on 13 plays. New Orleans blitzed both corners, taking away the outside running lanes that are the key to generating big plays. This forces Brown or whoever ends up with the ball to try to run it up the middle, where it’s nine defenders against eight blockers.
The Dolphins can only counter by passing, something Brown hasn’t proven he can do, the completion against the Jets notwithstanding. Plus, he is a lefty and thus only a threat to throw rolling to his left. (He’ll never have time to stop and set his feet while rolling to his right.)
The Dolphins could ditch the Wildcat in favor of a more conventional attack. But Chad Henne is coming off a bad game — 11-for-26 with two picks (both returned for scores) in the second half alone. Plus the Wildcat is Sparano’s coaching identity.
The Miami receivers are proving to be no threat. Ted Ginn is reportedly demoted to No. 3 receiver after catching just five passes the past four games. Of course, one of those catches was the huge, long touchdown against New York.
While the Jets pass defense is top shelf. The Dolphins really struggle here. Miami is 31st in sack-adjusted YPA (yards per pass attempt).
So, commit as many resources (even corners) to containing the rush, and play safeties or nickelbacks in single coverage against the pass? Interesting. But, I think that Jenkins’ absence from this game means that the Dolphins will try and play up the middle as much as possible, as you can imagine that Pouha will get put off his blocks “on the reg” which means one more blocker will be getting on the smaller ILBs, which then is one step closer to springing that runner for a long gain.
We need to get eric smith involved more in this game. Hes a solid tackler and a hard hitter, we need him to step up and make big plays in this game coming up on blitzes off edges AND up the middle.
Our D line will need help and i dont know about our corer tackling Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, we could be sending another DB to the injury report.
Strickland and Revis are both exceptionally strong tacklers in the open field. Lowery is pretty strong in his own right, so I think blitzing corners wouldn’t prove to be a bad idea. If nothing else, it’ll slow down the progress Brown/Williams is making and force them to cut back towards the middle of the field (and our defenders)
ITS GOING TO BE A VERY DIFFERENT GAME AT HOME. THE FANS WILL MAKE NOISE AND MIAMI WILL HAVE TO WASTE A COUPLE OF TIMEOUTS. THEY WONT BE ABLE TO AUDIBLE AS WELL. WHICH IS A BIG PART OF TH WILDCAT.
JETS 30-20.
I beleive they can stuff the wildcat but at this point is it really true that the Jets “are good against the run”? It is really more perception than reality.
They are quite mediocre statistically, and most of those stats came WITH Jenkins in the middle.
I still maintain MIA’s success is not so much the scheme, but the execution. They have a very good offensive line and TWO of the best running backs in the game. The Saints seemed to shut it down and it is worth a shot to copy, but now that MIA has seen it they will throw in some wrinkles too.
Pouha’s performance will be the key to the game. It’s a little scary to think that we couldn’t stop Miami’s wildcat with Jenkins, and now we’re trying to stop it without him. Pouha needs to be able to stand his ground and take on blockers an/or make plays.
When they go to the Wildcat we should switch to the 4/3 and send the safeties. Keep our corners to defend the bomb threat.
So…the exact opposite of what the Saints did to shut it down? Why would we do that? And corner coverage doesn’t protect against the bomb unless they’re 15 yards off the line of scrimmage which would take them out of run support.
JUST AS OFFENSIVE PLAY IS KEY SO WILL DEFENSIVE PLAYCALLING. REX WILL MIS IT UP. AND HOPEFULLY HE’LL RUN THE BALL. THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD RUNNING GAME OR OFFENSE. HOPEFULLY SANCHEZ WILL BE EATING HOTDOGS BY THE THIRD QUARTER AGAIN.
What I don’t understand is, how the wildcat made it this far. In the return game of the Patriots/Dolphins last year, the wildcat was stuffed, completely, and everyone stuffed it thereafter, all the way to the playoffs (giving us the one-and-done phins).
So, I find it perplexing that we’re 7 weeks into a new season and it’s been contained just once! Beating the wildcat is about maintaining gap discipline, and, of course, getting a two score lead! You can’t run your way back into contention in the 4th.
“The Jets were clawed by the Wildcat just a few weeks ago, but did Gregg Williams and the Saints Defense, who has a similar defense to the Jets (good against the run, OK against the pass) help the Jets figure out how best to stop this team? ”
The Jets defense is good against the run, OK against the pass? I completely disagree with this statement. The Jets run defense has been vulnerable the past 4 games, especially after the loss of Jenkins. While the pass defense has been very good. I’ve been disapointed with the run D, so i’d say its the opposite of this statement Basset. Am I wrong?
Yeah, I gotta agree with JR on this one. There’s no reason why we don’t have a stout run defense, but up until this point in the year we’re middle-of-the-pack IMO.
Last season we started off the year with the best run D in the league, and even though it wore down a bit toward the end of the season, it was still very good. New Orleans, Miami and Oakland all ran the ball pretty well on us, while I dont believe any team has really thrown the ball aprticularly well against this defense. Just look at the passer ratings of the QB’s we’ve faced. Most are horrible, and none are better than average.
THE DOLPHINS WINS HAVE COME AT HOME. EVEN THE BILLS BEAT THEM AT BUFFALO. THE SAINTS JUST OUTSCORED THEM. THE WILDCAT IS A COMMUNICATION OFFENSE. THE JETS FAN WILL BE THE DIFFERENCE.
GO FIREMEN ED!!!!!
This game comes down to the OL and DLs. The Wildcat is merely a different blocking scheme. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s based on where their top-notch OL pushes our DL. Add in some misdirection in the backfield, and Voila! No rocket science, here. So, counter that blocking scheme and you stop that attack. It’s leather-helmet time, boys. Their OL beat our DL scheme-wise last time, and it was game/set/match. That’s why Rex took the heat for that game. He had no answer for Miami’s scheme, when his didn’t work.
These two teams are actually designed to be fairly similar. Lean on your OL, run, run, run, protect your inexperienced QB, keep the other guy’s D on the field and panting. Only the blocking schemes and now, post-Washington, the inside or outside aspect of the two running attacks are different.
The comparisons end with the secondaries. We have one; they don’t. Plus, they actually have the weak WR corps we were all yowling about our having last off-season, while ours is pretty tasty at the moment if J-Co and Brad heal in time.
Go look at the picture of Winston Hill in Cimini’s article in the DN today. The old one from his playing days. Now, THAT’S how a football player’s supposed to look!
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_winston_hill.html
Just score on Miami, early and often, and force them into passing situations. If we try to match them, with long deliberate drives, it will be a close game. We have more firepower than them. If we mix it up well, we should be able to pull away and force them out of their comfort zone. Make their corners cover our receivers — it isn’t happening.
Bent / Bassett,
We may have something close to an answer to the Wedge/No Wedge skills issue from the other day. It may, in fact, be the Straight-line Speed vs. the Using-Blockers trade-off we talked about, since it’s now a more wide-open field. From Westhoff, via Cimini:
“He thinks newly-signed KR Justin Miller has a chance to be more effective than injured Leon Washington. Said Westhoff: ‘In some ways, his style, because of his speed, is a little bit more adept to running with a two-man (wedge) rather than a three-man (wedge), so I think that might be a little bit of an advantage there. We’ll see.’
Interesting point. According to Westhoff, Washington always approached kickoff returns like a running back on a handoff, seeing the field and picking a hole. As you know, three-man wedges are outlawed, creating more space. A straight-line speed guy like Miller, as opposed to a shifty, quick-cut runner like Washington, might have more success. But like he said, we’ll see.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/jets/2009/10/talking-special-teams-with-mik.html
Bassett, I completely disagree with your assessment of our Defense (“good against the run, OK against the pass”). Football Outsiders agrees with me. They rank us 4th against the pass (which makes sense given Revis’ play, the resurgence of Lito, Lowery and Strickland, and the very surprisingly solid play of back-ups Drew Coleman and Eric Smith). FO only ranks us 18th against the run (which makes sense given how teams have gashed us (even the Raiders averaged 6.3 ypc).
The hated Fish, unfortunately, match up well against us on both offense and defense. When they are on offense, the strength of their running game looks scary against our weakness against the run. When we are on offense, they get the benefit of Sanchez playing in conditions in which he he has so far not proven he can excel.
I think Rex and Mark both earn their big money on Sunday or this season is effectively over. Rex has to figure out a scheme that takes advantage of Revis being able to shut down a WR but stop the Wildcat and other rushes without Jenkins. I don’t know how that happens. If he pulls it off, now that Pace is healthy and hopefully not whiffing on tackles and being pushed off the LOS, he will really be the type of D coach who can take us to a championship.
Mark has to show he can play in the Northeast, because even though Miami has the 12th ranked pass defense, they still have been vulnerable to long passes.
Harlan
I went to Joe Namath and John Dockery’s football camp for about 5 years, and Hill was there every year. Nicest guy you could possibly meet, with enormous hands. It was like shaking hands a guy wearing bananas over his fingers. I never played lineman, but one of my friends that went to the camp with me did, and he said that Hill was great at teaching, and even stayed late on practice fields to instruct the youngsters. Can’t say enough about how great a guy he was for all those years, and never turned a camper down for an autograph!
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Henne didnt have a bad game, did you watch it? his receivers dropped 7 passes. If Henne had a decent wr they win that game. not to mentioned that the reffs blew some calls
The key to stopping the Wildcat is the play of the ILBs. Scott had arguably his worst day as a Jet and Harris was barely better. Both over-committed and got caught up in traffic or flat out missed open tackles. IMO, the ILBs, Pouha and whover else have to get penetration up the middle so Brown doesn’t have time to let holes develop. Brown (or Pat White) does not run immediatley up the middle…he usually stands his ground, does his fakes and then picks and chooses his hole. If Brown has to commit early, the Wildcat begins to break down because Brown is 7 yards behind the OL. Alternatively, if the ILBs stay home, then Brown has to wait too long and his holes close up. So, Rex has to mix up schemes and blitzes in order to make Brown either commit too early or too late (in both instances, ILB play is key) and, it goes without saying, the corners have to be sealed so Ricky can’t go wide. And, Ronnie Brown needs to be pounded…the reason the option has never worked in the NFL is because the QB usually gets rocked…since the QB contact rules don’t apply to Brown, he needs to be hit and hit hard every Wildcat down.
Is this too simple? GET OFF THE BLOCK AND MAKE THE TACKLE!! Four weeks ago (and I watched it 3x) it looked liked we wanted to be in wrestling matches with the OL all game…they cant block for a back 10 yards down field if he is being tackled for a 3 yard loss!!
i completely agree with blitzing the corners. at a minimum, we should be sending the right corner on every play. both pat white and ronnie brown are left handed, and can only effectively throw while rolling to the left. send the right CB and he will not be able to roll left. also sending the right CB will take away the sweep to the left if there is motion towards that direction.
the bottom line is i think we should get rhodes and leonhard cloer to the line of schrimmage. i will take my chances with ronnie brown being able to complete passes, on the road in a hostile environment, with a ton of pressure
I think the Jets will be so focused on stopping the Dolphins running game that Henne may actually have some good opportunities to pick up some good yardage through the air. Rex needs to be prepared for a little more of a passing game this time around, cause you know it’s coming.
The Jets D got caught over-committing often in the last game. And, though it’s virtually impossible to make an argument for the loss of Jenkins being in any way a positive, his well-earned reputation as a space-eater backfired at times against Miami. When he got blocked down it created a mountain of a pile for D linemen or LB’s to try to pursue around/over/through.
I think the D was overconfident in pure aggression, due to Rex’s/Baltimore’s success against Miami last year, and it was effectively used against them. They will have to be much more disciplined this time around. Pace, up to game speed, should be tougher at the edge and everyone should be better prepared for the power and speed of Brown and Williams and be more sound in their tackling.
Also, maybe this is just me, but I think the pass rushers could have knocked down a couple of those Henne, 3rd down, outlet throws simply by getting their hands up on the blitz.
BIG GAME THIS WEEKEND. THERE SEEMS TO BE MANY TEAMS TAHT ARE GOING TO BE 9 AND 7 OR 8 AND 8. WE CANT FALL IN THAT GROUP THIS YEAR. THIS WEEKEND WE CAN!!!!
Call me a heretic, but I think our run D may actually perform a bit better without Jenkins [and by no means do I mean Jenkins isn't a crucial force to our D or that he minimized our D in any way, quite the contrary; however, I do feel his style and purpose may have encouraged a certain type of play-calling that we can now put aside in favor of something that may speed up our game a bit], forcing Ryan to utilize alternate schemes/packages/players, potentially picking up our tempo a bit…
Don’t be surprised id our Run D performs better than expected come Sunday…
Jose the Jet. True wins have come at home for us but get your facts straight! Takes 2 seconds to look at the NFL schedule so you dont look stupid. We haven’t played Buffalo at home yet. Thats on nov. 29th.
I would like this to be a blowout sweep just as the Jets would like a revenge split but most likely and most entertaining would be a drag out bloody battle till the end. Stats are what they are and change game to game but the biggest descepency is between run D. Both teams are ranked high running Jets#1 Miami#2. But run D Jets#22, Miami#4. Have seen comments regarding Crowder and I really dont think you will have a big advantage running if he doesnt play. He is the most noted because of his mouth but we are pretty deep at LB with good players, dont think him not playing will be a huge factor.
I actually think since we played a little more 4-3 last week it could help against the wildcat….
The real way to tame the Wildcat is to score points. They can’t run that time consuming crap if they are down 2 TDs.
Sanchez is going to have to make some throws on Sunday. We are not putting three hundo on the Dolphins run D.
Drew, a Parcells team tends not to panic when behind. We used to be one.
If the Wildcat is moving, just being two TDs down will not scare them unless it is late in the 4th quarter (now if we get them down three scores…)
Similarly, a Parcells team tends to stick with its game plan unless it is F–ked. Unlike the Raiders who ran only 19 times while averaging 6.3 ypc, a Parcells team will run us into the ground if they can and use the pass sparingly as they did last time.
IOW, IMHO, this is the game when we actually have to stop the Fish running game because, absent freak turnovers or the emergence of Super Mark, if we don’t stop the run, we will lose again and our season, at least a far as any unreasonable post season aspirations, will be effectively over.
harlan
Fin Fan,
There’s a reason Reggie Torbor isn’t a starter, it’s because he’s not as good as the guy that starts. Simple premise. Crowder played like a man possessed in the MNF game, so without that effort the defense will be hurting. The Jets O-line has hit it’s stride after switching to a zone blocking scheme early this season. But the biggest discrepancy is with the receivers. Jets have better receivers by a wideeee margin. While the numbers would show the Jets can’t stop the run, they still possess the talent and coaching to shut down a team’s running attack. Let’s see how the phins’ rookie CB’s handle themselves against Braylon Cotchery and the crew.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the wildcat is a high school offense, and the best way to stop it is with a high school defense. If Rex was smart he’d put out a 5-2 front featuring Pouha at nose, Green and Pitoitua at tackle, and Ellis and Gholston on the ends. Play Pace and Harris (sorry Scott you sucked last time against MIA) at the LB spots. Play gap control, man to man – account for EVERYONE on the offense. Do this and watch the wildcat turn into the mildcat!!
STW,
First, I like your thinking. Someone else may have posted a similar intelligent thought process for stopping the WC, but I have not “seen” it. I like your rationale too.
The problem is that the same Fish personnel can also line up in a standard formation with Henne at QB. I don’t like the matchups as well when Henne drops back to pass. Scott may have s-cked last time but who do you want covering the TE. It would seem to me personnel adept, at least hopefully adept at gap control might not get much pressure on the passer.
Maybe you have an idea how the same personnel group you propose could be harnessed when the Fish use a traditional set or drop into one.
h
You could play Scott at LB and PAce at DE, subtract Gholston who for the life of me I do not understand why anyone wants on the field against any offense. he should be inactive until his cap situation allows him to be cut.
Harlan -
If Henne comes in at QB and the defense reads a non-wildcat play is coming then we call a defensive audible: we shift Gholston to OLB and drop into a 4-3!