Around the AFC East: Week 9
Posted on November 9th, 2009 by Bassett
Patriots (6-2)
- The Wildcat still gives the Patriots fits, but the Pats still prevailed.
- Randy Moss has tied career TD receptions with Terrell Owens.
- Former Dolphins TE Jim Mandich (and announcer) says Moss was “damn near unstoppable.”
- Who were the key players in their win?
Dolphins (3-5)
- Salguero drops his game grades.
- For all the talking he did, Joey Porter disappeared on the field.
- The lack of pressure was killer for the Dolphins.
- It looks like the refrain we’ve heard so long in New York, has moved south.
Bills (3-5)
- Could Buffalo be the longer term home for Mike Vick? Tony Dungy thinks so.
- The defensive secondary has been a big part of the increase in sacks this year in Buffalo.
- Chris Kelsay explains how the defense improvises at the line.
This Sunday’s game against the Jaguars believe it or not is our SEASON!!! This will be a very TOUGH PHYSICAL game. Remember the last time we played them in 2006. We were blown off in every phase of the game. Jack Del Rio will have his team ready for us. Will Rex have his team ready?
The 2009 Jags are not a good team. Yes, they’re 4-4 but they are in the bottom 1/3 in the league in team offense & team defense. Our O-line should manhandle them and we should run wild on their porous rush defense (120 yds/game). This game should be the same kind of game as the Raiders game, in the sense that we should dominate the line of scrimmage, eat up clock on long scoring drives, and have our defense shut their offense down. The Jags have no real receiving threats (Sims-Walker is pretty good, but we all know Revis will shut that down) and as long as they don’t let MJD break big runs, they should be able to stop the Jags’ offense. The only way we lose this game is if we beat ourselves (a.k.a. the bills/phins games).
Brendan,
Gerrard and Maurice Jones Drew will make life difficult for Rex’s scheme because the defense thrives on mismatches and lacks the physicality it had earlier on in the season. Without Jenkins we rely more on Scott (especially to take on jones drew). Harris might be on his island covering the tight end Mercedes Lewis all day giving Calvin different looks at outside linebacker. Scott is going to have a tough time against Jones Drew who is “slippery” and has very powerful legs to drive defenders back. Our offensive line will not be that productive because the word is out that Sanchez wants to hold onto the ball as long as possible. If the jets have less than 50 yards on the ground by halftime watch them cave again during the fourth quarter. The jets haven’t really established the running game this season. Everyone has bought into the two week explosion against the Bills and Raiders as running game finally coming together. If the running game together Sanchez would be talking to his offensive linemen more during the week. Where have you heard that? Schotty already had to cut up the playbook a little bit for Sanchez after the Bills game but he is ineffective when Thomas Jones runs the ball 27 times a game. For the first time all year he used a physical strength of one of his players to use against the defense. This was Dustin Keller last week scoring late in the second half and a crucial first down jumpball in which he also drew pass interference. How do you think Peyton Manning runs his offense. He talks to his offensive line. They are always on the same page as he is and guess what Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and Anthony Gonzalez he uses them effectively in certain packages to get FIRST DOWNS. NOT TOUCHDOWNS or long passes. In the last few years Manning has been able to work on his game enough to perfect it but he never tried to push the envelope early on his career like sanchez is doing.
Brenden,
On defense Justin Durant, Clint Ingram, Rob Meier, Reggie Nelson, Derrick Harvey, and Rashean Mathis will be watching with eyes the size of soup bowls Sanchez and this phase of the game can come down to if Sanchez is intimidated. He might well be coming to the second half. I don’t expect the Jaguars to fall over they have the same record that we have and they played indianapolis tough in the season opener. It depends on what jacksonville we have on Sunday to play against.
Fonzie,
Where to start…
Gerrard is not a good QB. Going back to last season, he is in the bottom 1/2 in the league in QB rating. MJD is the only threat that can beat this defense. I don’t know why you seem to think the defense lacks physicality now that Jenks is gone, but they physically manhandled a Dolphins offense that did the same to them on MNF. What I saw in their last game was a defense that was punishing the Phins’ offense.
In regards to our ILB’s, you have their roles reversed. Scott is more likely to be covering the TE (but as has been the case earlier in the year, Eric Smith probably will be used in this role as well), with Harris assigned to MJD. I can’t argue that MJD is a powerful man with tree trunks for legs and is always churning for extra yards. The only hope here is that the Jets continue to swarm to the ball and do a better job of wrapping up the ballcarrier.
O-line not that productive? Yes, we did have two games where we ran wild that inflate our stats somewhat, but we also ran for a combined 265 yards against the Phins (who are 6th against the run). Our O-line is plowing through defenses and is hitting its stride after a few early games of adjustment time (switching to the zone blocking scheme).
Sanchez needs to talk more to his O-line? What, if any, evidence do you have of him not talking to his O-line? And he’s ineffective when Jones rushes the ball 27 times? What!? I’m assuming you’re alluding to the last game they played, where Jones had 27 carries, and all Sanchez did was throw for 265 with 2 td’s and a rushing td (100 QB rating). Yeah, really ineffective.
How do I think Peyton Manning runs his offense? Better than anyone has ever run an offense, probably because it’s been his offense for 10 years. Push the envelope? Have you ever seen Manning’s rookie stats? 28 INT’s. How is that not pushing the envelope? I just don’t know where you come up with some of this stuff.