Postseason BGA: Patriots at Jets
Disclaimer: All analysis was taken from the TV coverage, so at times it may have been hard to identify players or what was happening, because I was limited by their footage. However, I have tried to be as accurate as possible and apologize for any inaccuracies or omissions (which I am happy to correct).
Here comes this week’s in-depth analysis of the win over the Patriots. If you have anything else you’d like me to comment upon, please leave your requests in the comments and I’ll do a follow-up post tomorrow.
After the jump, catch my analysis of Sunday’s game, including – but not limited to – comments on Shaun Ellis, Wayne Hunter and Tom Brady.
Strategy
All week, nobody gave the Jets much of a chance. In order to have any chance to win, they’d have to play the perfect game. Right? Well, here’s how I summed it up in the comments…
How do you overturn a 42 point blowout?
One yard at a time.
The Jets had just 13 yards more than they did in week 13 and held the Pats to just 29 yards less.
Every yard counts.
In terms of overall dominance, the two games weren’t anywhere near as different as you might think. The Jets just executed better when it counted most in this one. The scary news for the Steelers – there is still plenty of room for improvement from the Jets.
Much has been made of the Jets defensive gameplan this week, but not many people have spoken about the offensive gameplan, so let’s break a tendency and start there. Maybe this has been overlooked because it was really nothing new. Sanchez threw all but five of his passes within ten yards of the line of scrimmage and was efficient in doing so. The fact that the Jets threw a lot of quick drop passes, also contributed to them being able to minimize the pressure from the Patriots’ defensive front. That was enough to keep the Patriots off-balance and meant that the running game was successful enough to keep the chains moving. Toss in the fact that there were few penalties and good execution in the redzone and you end up with 28 points in a gameplan not all that dissimilar to the one which netted just three points in week thirteen.
Ultimately, we must credit the offensive skill players for their safety-dragging, body-hurdling, pile-moving, bullseye-slinging and toe-tappingly excellent execution and the offensive line for their similarly stout, but less poetically descriptive play upfront, with extra thanks to Bill Belichick for exposing all the team’s weaknesses on one handy film of what not to do against the Patriots.
That’s not to say that there was nothing new. Tomlinson in the Wildfrog formation was something obviously brought about by Brad Smith’s unavailability that they were probably wise to ditch after one play was aborted and the other was muffed. The personnel package had me fooled though, although the fact both tailbacks were in the huddle did get my spider senses tingling. What else was new? Well, as predicted last week, they didn’t use a fullback very often (Richardson had 14 snaps, the third lowest all season), going instead with two tight end formations over 35% of the time. Oh, and I LOVED Robert Turner lining up as a wide receiver and running a go-route!
Let’s then move on to discuss the defensive gameplan, which Bassett already gave us some of his own thoughts on. In rewatching the game, the key seemed to be taking away Tom Brady’s first option and limiting the amount of yardage after the catch. I tracked plays where Brady dropped back and threw a pass to what appeared to be his primary option within three seconds. On these, he was 17-for-20, for 170 yards and a touchdown, with two of the incompletions being drops. However, when his first option wasn’t open and he held the ball and scanned the field, he was just 12-for-25 for 129 yards, plus he was sacked five times.
Taking away his primary option, where it happened, was of course attributable to good initial coverage, but what’s even more impressive was that they were able to sustain that coverage and prevent any big plays when he had lots of time. There weren’t many plays where he had lots of time though – he was two-for-five in such situations, with the only two completions being his late touchdown to Deion Branch and a ten yard completion against a two man rush two plays before that. Credit for that must go to the relentless effort of the pass rushers. Although Brady usually got rid of the ball before pressure arrived, it was clear that they were affecting his internal clock with the threat of pressure.
So, how did they cause Brady to get rid of the ball unsuccessfully on so many occasions? By mixing up their coverages underneath and relying on Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie to protect the outside – with Revis often covering Branch in one key strategic adjustment – they may have confused Brady and/or the receivers. It was also clear that Brady was rattled. All five sacks saw him look for a primary option and when that wasn’t there, the pressure was on him immediately. Although the Jets only had one other QB hit and five pressures, that’s a by-product of Brady knowing he had to get rid of the ball early or he’d end up getting hit.
A lot of the pressure didn’t come from heavy blitzing. Only Calvin Pace’s sack was on a five man rush. Drew Coleman got his as part of a four man rush and the other three saw the Jets doing a great individual job of getting off blocks. In total, the Jets only rushed an average of 3.8 guys per dropback. It was 4.3 in the first meeting (where they were blitz heavy in the first half, but dropped more guys into coverage in the second half) and 4.5 in week 13. This week, when Brady was under pressure, he was just two-for-four for eight yards, with the five sacks. When the Jets blitzed more than four, he was seven-of-nine for 76 yards, with just one sack, which illustrates how the Jets did a good job of creating pressure without actually blitzing.
This week, how they went about sending pressure was much more creative. In week thirteen, they telegraphed a bunch of safety blitzes and then when they did fake one, the Pats ran a pick play and ended up with a touchdown on fourth and three anyway. This time, they showed blitz a lot more, but then dropped those extra DBs into coverage. They also appeared to have some blitz/cover options, where the defensive player would show blitz, but then his reaction would be dictated by whether the back or tight end stayed in or ran a route. They also borrowed from their gameplan in the meaningless Bills game at the end of the year, again employing Mike DeVito as a nose tackle at times, to enable Trevor Pryce to rush from defensive end and also lining up their ends wider than they had for much of the season, thereby enabling them to chip a tight end, or slot receiver before rushing and also giving them a better angle to pressure from the outside and keep Brady contained. Furthermore, when they did send conventional pressure from the line, there seemed to be more linemen stunts and a concerted effort to disrupt passing lanes by getting a hand up.
If you recall, Brady was an incredible 17-for-17 for 244 yards and four touchdowns on passes within ten yards of the line of scrimmage in the week 13 blowout. This time, he was a much more pedestrian 23-for-31 for 182 yards with a touchdown and an interception, a rating of just 85.7. On passes more than ten yards downfield, he was just six-for-13 for 117 yards and a touchdown. Credit must therefore go to the safeties for discouraging him from throwing downfield and for limiting the damage when he did.
Just by looking at the numbers, you can tell the Jets must have limited the yards per pass on short passes. Sure enough, there was 186 yards after the catch on 29 catches, compared with 210 yards after the catch on just 21 catches in week thirteen.
So, you’d think the tackling was much more efficient, right? Actually, the Jets had 10 missed tackles in week thirteen, but on Sunday they missed even more (12). Five of these were on carries by BenJarvus Green-Ellis though and one was on special teams. After the Jets missed just one tackle against the Colts, I cautioned that it would be a different proposition out in the cold, but credit the Jets gang-tackling mentality for mitigating any big plays where tackles were missed. That’s certainly an area where they could still improve though.
On the whole, although his modest assertion after the game was that his team deserved all the credit, Rex Ryan deserves acclaim for his gameplan. The defensive execution was not perfect throughout but, even so, he found a way to give his team a chance to get off the field and make some plays. Maybe he did outcoach Bill Belichick after all.
Quarterback
This was certainly a fine game by Mark Sanchez. He had two bad overthrows on the first three drives, but settled down much earlier this week. Once again, he wasn’t looking to throw downfield much. His only pass more than 20 yards downfiled was the 37-yarder to Braylon Edwards and his only other completion on a throw more than ten yards downfield was his touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes.
Two things that didn’t happen this week were screen passes – the Jets ran one on the first series and it went for a big loss – and Sanchez tucking and running – he instead was patient and made better decisions than he did in similar situations earlier in the year. There are two things, along with the return of the Seminole, which could add a dimension to their offensive gameplan next week.
Sanchez had great numbers this week and made only a handful of poor throws. However, not for the first time this season, it was his intangibles which impressed me most and give me confidence going forward. All week, he stayed out of the trash talking, enabling him to enter the huddle with a focused, business-like approach. As he approached each offensive player on the sideline late in the game to galvanize them before the Jets tried to ice the game, it was further evidence of his growing maturity.
Offensive Line
It was a great effort by the Jets offensive line to at least neutralize the Patriots’ front with Vince Wilfork in such a dominant mood. Nick Mangold had his hands full all afternoon, but more or less played him to a tie. It was actually Mangold’s first negative grade since week eight, but only just, and he handled Wilfork one on one most of the time. Mangold gave up two of just six pressures on the day and did have the best run blocking grade on the line.
The best overall grade belonged to Brandon Moore, who was the only lineman not to allow a pressure. D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Matt Slauson gave up one each, but still graded positively overall – the first time in over a month for Slauson.
Wayne Hunter did not fare quite so well. He gave up two pressures, one of which led to the only hit on Sanchez all day. His run blocking was also poor, as the Jets gained just 25 yards on 12 carries over the right side of the line. There was one great block by Hunter though, pulling to the left and nailing the right defensive end to create a big hole up the middle for LaDainian Tomlinson to gain 16 on the play after the botched fake punt. It was a twist on the “blast” play where the Jets pull the left guard in similar fashion. Moore – at the point of attack – and Ferguson and Mangold – at the second level – all also blocked well on that play. We’ve heard good things about Hunter’s athleticism throughout the season, so hopefully, they can incorporate more plays that capitalize on that and make up for any drop-off from Damien Woody in terms of drive blocking.
Robert Turner was in for ten plays as an extra tight end and only had one block that he failed to sustain.
Running Backs
Tomlinson and Shonn Greene combined for 119 yards on 27 carries, which is excellent production. They only broke one tackle between them, but Greene’s 2.7 yards per carry after contact were vital, because it was tough sledding. Other than a 16-yard run where he wasn’t touched until he was 15-yards downfield, Tomlinson did only average three yards per carry. Greene broke a 20-yarder and a late 15-yard TD and other than that he averaged just under three yards a carry too. Greene has only broken a 20-yard run one other time this year, which makes his 4.1 yards per carry average all the more impressive. He also had 17 carries to Tomlinson’s 10.
The pair also combined for 11 yards on three catches, but Tomlinson’s second quarter score was a big confidence booster.
Joe McKnight’s one play saw him make two yards out of what looked like a big loss. With John Conner inactive, Tony Richardson didn’t play much, but his block on Greene’s touchdown run was good. Interestingly, they passed on four of the first five plays with him in, but then ran on the last nine. These included Greene’s two big runs, although the other eight runs with him in netted just 16 yards.
Tight Ends and Receivers
The Jets largely avoided throwing to the Patriots starting corners, targeting them just seven times and everyone else 17 times. Jerricho Cotchery was the big beneficiary, finding gaps in the zone to rack up 96 yards on five catches. He was only on the field for 17 pass plays and targeted just six times, but made it count with 71 yards after the catch, many of which came on his spectacular 58-yarder down the sideline after the Pats looked to have captured the momentum.
Also making it count was Braylon Edwards, who continues to be extremely efficient. He was only thrown to twice, but set up a score with a tough downfield catch and then dragged two defenders into the endzone after a clutch third and five grab.
Speaking of clutch, Santonio Holmes made up for yet another drop, albeit a tough one, with a sensational diving effort. After the game, I commented that it might have been overturned by replay because the ball moved as his back hit the ground, but on closer inspection, he appears to have maintained control. Still wondering?
Dustin Keller only had three catches for 15 yards, which means he and Santonio combined for just 35. However, he found other ways to contribute. Keller also played special teams this week, filling in for John Conner on the kick return wedge and throwing a great block on the opening kickoff to add to his excellent downfield blocking on Cotchery’s catch.
Finally, Ben Hartsock saw plenty of action and blocked well, but couldn’t hold onto the only pass thrown his way.
Defensive Line
It was a great performance by the defensive line. Shaun Ellis was relentless, gathering two sacks and two pressures as well as making some good plays against the run. Like Cotchery, it is rewarding to see the long-time Jet raise his game in the postseason. Sione Pouha added a sack (thanks in large part to Ellis) and a pressure, posting his first positive pass rushing grade since week six. Mike DeVito did his damage in the running game, with excellent penetration on several occasions. He did miss two tackles, but one of these still slowed the runner down and led to a stop. DeVito even collapsed the pocket from nose tackle once, although he still only has one pressure since week three.
Off the bench, Trevor Pryce was in the game for a season high 33 snaps. He struggled, though, with no pressures, a missed tackle and only one tackle on 11 running plays.
Against Pittsburgh in week 15, five defensive linemen were active, so we might see Vernon Gholston, Marcus Dixon or Jarron Gilbert activated next week.
Linebackers
As I noted earlier, there is still some room for improvement in this performance and the linebacker play is perhaps the biggest area where that holds true. Other than Bart Scott, all of the linebackers graded out poorly. Next week’s game will be very interesting, because in the first meeting with the Steelers, the defensive line underperformed against a struggling Steelers offensive line, but the linebackers picked up the slack.
Scott was his usual solid self against the run, but David Harris too often found himself blocked out of the action. Part of the blame for that can be attributed to the defensive linemen, who could perhaps have done a better job of slowing down the likes of Matt Light and Logan Mankins from getting to the second level although this was perhaps a by-product of the spread-out defensive line and the fact that they often chipped the tight end to the outside rather than the linemen ahead of them. Harris ultimately had a tougher job than usual and was often overmatched when faced with a lineman at the second level, but he did come up with a few timely stops as well, to contribute to the winning effort. He added a hit on Brady, but his missed tackle on the first series and facemask penalty on 2nd and 16 also contributed to what was a season-low grade.
Once again, Calvin Pace, Jason Taylor and Bryan Thomas didn’t generate much of a pass rush statistically. Taylor and Thomas had a pressure each and Pace’s sack – on a legitimate one-on-one move – was his only pressure. It’s often difficult for them to generate pressure as part of a three man rush, but they also combined for just four tackles and three missed tackles and gave up a couple of catches between them.
For the second straight game, Jamaal Westerman saw some action off the bench.
Defensive Backs
Every defensive back on the team was activated and they all played on defense apart from Emanuel Cook. Isaiah Trufant just played one snap and Kyle Wilson’s six snaps and six of James Ihedigbo’s seven were all in the fourth quarter, but it was very much a team effort.
Spearheading that effort was the outstanding Darrelle Revis, who gave up just 41 yards on eight targets. He broke up two passes, and only one of his five catches given up went for more than ten yards. In fact, two went for less than five.
Antonio Cromartie was not quite as strong, giving up four catches for 50 yards on six passes, but he did break up a pass and made one good open field tackle and came up big on special teams, with some good kick returns, including one on a key onside kick recovery.
Also coming up big on special teams was Eric Smith, who had three tackles and a key onside kick recovery of his own. On defense, he was solid once again, with some impact hits, although he did miss two tackles, including one that allowed Deion Branch to convert a key third down. The other safety – Brodney Pool – had a good day overall, despite being out of position on Branch’s touchdown.
Drew Coleman gave up six catches on seven targets, but did a good job of limiting the damage to 39 yards. He added a big sack and was in the game almost three-quarters of the time. Dwight Lowery was in just under half of the time and although he gave up the biggest play of the day – a 37-yard catch by Rob Gronkowski – the other four passes thrown his way were all incomplete, including one which he broke up and one where Alge Crumpler beat him for a touchdown but then dropped it.
The likes of Wilson, Ihedigbo, Trufant and Marquice Cole had minimal impact in their 35 combined snaps, although Ihedigbo was beaten for Crumpler’s touchdown.
Special Teams
It was poor day for the kickers. Steve Weatherford now has six touchbacks in two postseason games, after only having four all season and Nick Folk’s miss was his first since the previous New England game and his first from inside 40 yards since week ten. Kick coverage was also inconsistent, giving up a 41 yard punt return and 150 kick return yards overall.
PFF Analysis
This week, I did not contribute to the game recap article for ProFootballFocus.com (which also gives you a sneak preview of some of their player ratings), but here’s a sample quote anyway:
Whatever gets written about the Jets’ victory in New England, you just sometimes have to love the drama that football provides … Not given a chance by many who remembered the beatdown the Patriots put on them earlier in the year, Rex Ryan sent out his defense with a plan that limited the Patriots’ ability get the yards after the catch that made their offense seemingly unstoppable in 2010 … Throw in an offense that, while not spectacular, made some big plays and avoided anything close to a mistake (bar one snap from a Wildcat formation) and it turns out that was the recipe to derailing Tom Brady and his merry men … A lot will be made of the Jets’ performance, but it was far from perfect, and they’ll need to improve in certain areas against a Pittsburgh team that is likely to present all sorts of different problems.
Conclusions
As exciting as the win on Sunday was, I was struck by how easy it seemed. The Patriots looked dangerous at first, but once the Jets made a few plays – something which never happened when they were blown out in December – their confidence grew exponentially. When the Jets beat the Steelers two weeks after that fateful day, they derived confidence from Brad Smith’s opening kickoff return. As long as someone can make something happen early in this one, the Jets are going to be hard to beat and I’m sure the coaches will put their players in a position to do just that. I seem to remember the Jets heading to the AFC Title Game last year with everyone disregarding their previous win over their opponent due to the fact that there were certain starters out. The Jets still gave the Colts all they could handle, until a few injuries of their own exposed the frailties of the backups on the team. If the Jets can approach this game with the same level of preparedness, they have already shown that they are better equipped to overcome such losses this year. Could it be? We can but hope.
As mentioned above, if you have anything you’d like me to comment upon in more detail, please let me know in the comments.
65 Responses to Postseason BGA: Patriots at Jets
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I hate to bring this up because I don’t really want to start a whole fire Schottenheimer parade going. But sending out the Seminole with LT taking the snap right at the end of the quarter was such a terrible call it cannot be ignored. Poor preparation and poor clock management from our offensive coaching, again. The offense has been better this year, and has improved in the second half of this year as well. But I just don’t see how we can keep Schottenheimer when the season is over. The games we lost this season were all lost because of lack of offense. Obviously we have a young QB, but somebody has to take the brunt for simply being unprepared in certain situations. All the clock management miscues have been completely pathetic and should NEVER happen. Sorry for the negative post here but it could not be helped. We can’t overlook the negatives just because we won. The offense is going to be a much bigger issue against the Steelers because the Steelers actually have a good defense. The Patriots were 25th in the league in defense, the Steelers are top 5. We can’t have any miscues against the Steelers, they won’t be so easily forgiven. Just to lighten the mood of this post though… was anyone else afraid the Coleman nearly missed that sack by flying OVER Brady? I almost bit my tongue on that play.
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I can not stand shotty but he really turns it on in the playoffs. I’m beginning to think he has been holding back in the reg season and puts out all his new material in the playoffs he seems like he just might be that cocky to expect to get to the playoffs with his B playbook.
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Clock management = Rex. No offensive coordinator in the NFL gets the “he sucks at clock management” criticism, except Schotty. It’s silly at this point.
And when Schotty was in SD they ran the wildcat with LT (he wasn’t the O-Coordinator though). It was poorly executed, but from what I saw there was a crease that could have given the Jets 5-10 yards if LT didn’t muff the snap. Maybe it ruined the rhythm, but they did get 2 (or 3, can’t remember) first downs after that play, so I’m not buying that the offense can’t recover form a single Wildcat play.
“But I just don’t see how we can keep Schottenheimer when the season is over.”
Really? After you saw Sanchez throwing passes into the dome ceiling in Indy? That’s Schotty’s fault, right?
They lost to the Pats because their defense couldn’t stop a nose bleed.
They lost to Green Bay because the QB and WRs alternating taking steaming dumps on the field instead of catching/throwing good balls.
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The clock management of the offense is the offenses responsibility. Calling plays is the offenses responsibility. If the game on Sunday were poker, Schottenheimer would’ve been the guy showing everyone his hand and asking if he had good cards. Nobody knew if we would still be running the Seminole or not with Smith out. Schottenheimer completely ruined the element of surprise, which doesn’t surprise me because the element of surprise is something Schottenheimer is incapable of wrapping his mind around. The fact that it was a bad call had nothing to do with the play being muffed and everything to do with the horrible timing of the call. Is Schottenheimer incapable of looking at the clock and seeing they wouldn’t be able to get the play off in time? Apparently he is. But this isn’t a new issue. The offense has been unprepared in certain situations all season long. You can say that it’s Rex’s fault, but it’s not, no matter how many times you say it… the offense is still Schottenheimer’s responsibility. Clock management is an aspect of the offense, it is the offenses responsibility. Therefore the offensive coaches are the ones who go over it and teach it. The head coach doesn’t waste his time preaching clock management because he has more important things to do.
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No. Sorry. Clock Management = Head Coach.
Always has, always will. Marty Mornhinweg doesn’t get killed in Philly for mismanaging the clock, Andy Reid does. It’s not a team-by-team thing, either. If there was a generic “job description” for head coach, clock management would be filed under “responsibilities”.
“Schottenheimer would’ve been the guy showing everyone his hand and asking if he had good cards.”
….seriously?
“Nobody knew if we would still be running the Seminole or not with Smith out. Schottenheimer completely ruined the element of surprise, which doesn’t surprise me because the element of surprise is something Schottenheimer is incapable of wrapping his mind around. ”
Oh, you mean the part where Bent said “The personnel package had me fooled though, although the fact both tailbacks were in the huddle did get my spider senses tingling.”? The personnel fooled a guy who spends hours staring at Jets offensive formations, but the personnel change wasn’t obvious to him. That element of surprise?
“Is Schottenheimer incapable of looking at the clock and seeing they wouldn’t be able to get the play off in time?”
He doesn’t call in a play 10 seconds before the play clock expires. They have play calling sheets, and scripts, so the offense knew that play was coming sooner rather than later. By the time the play clock is running down it’s not in his hands anymore, that’s on Sanchez.
“The head coach doesn’t waste his time preaching clock management because he has more important things to do.”
I guess you’re an NFL Head Coach, or at least in the locker rooms?
Clock management is 1000000% a head coach’s responsibility. He can delegate gameplanning, but if it’s a bad game plan the responsibility in terms of clock management falls on him. That’s HIS job. It’s not to sit there and decide to go for it on 4th down twice a game. It’s on him to manage the game, as a whole.
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You are seizing on one thing and completely ignoring others. Yes, he seriously was the moron at the poker table showing his hand. How could you even fathom to deny that? The Seminole was an enigma before the game started and Schottenheimer showed his hand without even running the play. Phil Simms pointed out how stupid that was right when it happened, and guess what, it’s still as stupid now as it was when it happened. Part of the offensive coordinator’s job is to keep an eye on the clock and the play clock so his QB doesn’t always have to (they have those little head sets so Schottenheimer can say to Sanchez, “uh, hey, there’s 10 seconds left on the clock could you hurry up a little?”). If you are seriously telling me that all the plays are scripted and not made on a play-by-play basis than I have absolutely nothing to argue with you about, because there’s no arguing with that. The offensive players do not know what play is coming until they are standing in the huddle and Sanchez calls out the play. Some games start with the first few plays scripted, but after that each play is called on a play-by-play basis determined in part by what the defense did on the play before. And please, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE explain to me how you are so positive that clock management is a head coaches responsibility when as you pointed out to me, I’m not in an NFL locker room. Guess what? Neither are you. And logic and common sense dictate that clock management is NOT the head coaches job. Clock management is such a basic aspect of the game that anyone above the Pop Warner level should know what they’re doing. Therefore, the likelihood of a head coach taking valuable time out of team meetings to discuss clock management, especially since it doesn’t really even apply to the defensive players, is very unlikely.
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(they have those little head sets so Schottenheimer can say to Sanchez, “uh, hey, there’s 10 seconds left on the clock could you hurry up a little?”)
You use comments like this to prove your point, but how do you know that didn’t happen? Did you see Schotty lay into Sanchez in the first quarter on the sideline? Because I did.
Every O-coordinator scripts plays, I don’t know how that is the statement that has you up in arms. Mangini had Schotty script entire first quarters, for crying out loud.
“Therefore, the likelihood of a head coach taking valuable time out of team meetings to discuss clock management, especially since it doesn’t really even apply to the defensive players, is very unlikely.”
So, just so we’re clear, the coach that you have complained needs to be “more involved” with the offense, should concentrate on the defense and ignore time management when the offense is playing?
Why is a clock management a head coach’s job?
Because it always has been. My father is actually an old high school friend of an ex-NFL coach (not head coach) and he says it every time. So, no, I’m not in an NFL locker room, but I do know quite a few people who have been, and it’s the head coach’s job starting in high school (or pop warner) all the way up to the pro’s. Is it an assistant coach’s job in the NBA to call timeouts for the Head Coach in the twilight of a game?
Clock/time management is a head coach’s responsibility. And Rex doesn’t even have to worry about offensive playcalling, so when they’re on the field what excuse could he possibly have for not having a grasp on the current time situation of the game?
And if it’s so easy (I agree there’s no excuse to mess it up, btw) why does it continue to be a league-wide issue? Because coaches don’t delegate someone to do nothing but manage the clock, or they lose track of it themselves. It’s a head coach’s job, plain and simple.
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Yes, and I’m the King of England.
What does Schottenheimer yelling at Sanchez after the first quarter have to do with anything? LT was running that last play, not Sanchez. Mangini was a horrible coach, that’s why he just got fired from his second stint as a head coach. The fact that he scripted out entire quarters just proves his idiocy.
Rex is NOT the guy talking into Sanchez’s helmet, that is Schottenheimer. There aren’t multiple guys talking to Sanchez, only one, and that’s Schottenheimer. Anything going to Sanchez from the sideline comes from Schottenheimer, not Rex.-
Honestly, man, just give it a f’ing rest already.
You’re not as bad as some of the whiners, but the fact is that you got an idea stuck in your head & you’re totally unreasonable when presented with evidence to dispute it.
Forget everything, and ask yourself this- has the offense played well enough to get in the playoffs?
Has it played well enough to get to the AFC championship?
Did it do this in consecutive years, with a rookie/sophomore QB who was never going to be the next Joe Montana anyway?
If the answer to all those questions is yes, what could possibly be the point of the endless griping?
Or put another way: surely you think if Schotty stuck around next year, he would benefit from Sanchez’s maturation and the offense would improve, right?
Well they were the 11th best O in the league this year- give them another two years and see where they are.
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Yeah I’m a pretty stubborn person. But the offense’s ceiling is only so high because of Schottenheimer. I feel that in the future, when Sanchez has fully matured, Schottenheimer may be holding us back. Maybe by then he’ll have a job somewhere else though, after Sanchez has finished the maturation process. One can hope anyway.
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But you just made a hypothetical situation where Schotty “may” hold Sanchez back. We don’t know how well they can do together, because Schotty has never had a QB that is so young and talented and ready to be molded. Sanchez might get held back by Schotty, or Schotty might turn him into the next Drew Brees. We don’t know what can happen.
And I’m done, I promise.
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The head coach doesn’t manage the clock at the end of the first quarter when the offense has the ball. Having the offense line up to run a trick play and not get the play off before the end of the quarter is 100% Schottenheimer. It’s an amateurish mistake that should NEVER happen. That said, apart from that blunder and a weird reluctance to run on second and 5 with a 2 score lead in the second half Schotty called a very good game.
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Teams have the clock run out on them all the time. Manning had it happen in the playoff game. He’s an amateur too, right?
You people will say anything.
The Jets are in the AFC Championship game, and regardless of how unhappy it makes you, they couldn’t have done it without Schotty.
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Not denying that it ever happens. Not denying that the team is in the AFC championship. Simply saying that the offense being prepared is the offensive coordinators job. There’s a difference between Manning making a mistake once and the Jets making multiple errors of the same kind in the course of one season. Who knows, without Schottenheimer maybe this team would’ve been the #1 seed.
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Or maybe it would’ve been 6-10. Sanchez is the #1 reason this offense is limited. It’s not Schotty’s fault that receivers drop passes, guys miss blocks, and Sanchez plays like hot stinky garbage randomly during a game.
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Actually, IT IS. The players being unprepared for a game and making mistakes in a game are 100% on the shoulders of their coach. And I guarantee you that any coach will tell you the same thing. Just this season I was watching one of the pre-games with Ditka on it, and when he was asked if players making mistakes are their faults or the coaches he went completely off the wall yelling about how it was entirely the coaches’ fault for not having his players prepared.
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I figure I am “Schotty” neutral, I have to admit that I would prefer a different OC to Schotty who I don’t think calls a very good game. But regardless of how things go on Sunday (or even hope beyond hope in the Superbowl), there is zero chance that there will be a management change on the Jets unless some team picks Schotty for their team.
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I’d have to agree with you. Changing the offensive coordinator when we’ve got our young QB going into his 3rd year is not what the team wants to do. Sanchez and Schotteheimer have built a relationship and they won’t want to do anything that might shake Sanchez’s confidence. It’s unfortunate, but you’re right. I also don’t think Schottenheimer is the worst offensive coordinator in the NFL. Just that we’re the New York Jets, and we deserve the very best, which Schottenheimer is not.
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The Chicago loss was most certainly on the defense, not the offense. That being said, I do think the play calling during the regular season (other than the 2 Bills games) was ridiculous. The identity of this team is as a ground and pound team and there were way too many pass happy games during the regular season for my liking. Glad to see us more balanced in the playoffs and making a concerted effort to run the ball.
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Even though you play to win every game, during regular season you have to try some things that might or might not work. You make a call and see how your personnel handles that. So play calling during regular season can be a bit mysterious cause we don’t see a clear intent.
I don’t care about any single play on offense or defense, it is overall approach over the whole season that should be analysed. Schotty might be under more scrutiny next year. This year – it is a free pass, as long as Sanchez is developing. And who can tell me that this is not a fact?
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Chicago was played on a skating rink where they could have been holding the NHL Winter Classic! Both defenses kept slip sliding away, and could barely stop anything…throw that game away in terms of anything meaningful being gleaned from it.
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First of all, Bent, hell of a job. Great, through, detailed analysis. I agree with 99%, which makes me feel that i am not crazy after-all. As a matter of fact i disagree with some cause-effect statements. Which maybe due to me still having some traces of craziness and not that you are saying something wrong.
I know you do a great job, but that is my favorite BGA yet (maybe something to do with who Jets just beat in playoffs)
I remember after the loss to Dolphins when all were jumping off the wagon (including the other guy whose name starts with B [though he did have a hard week then]) there came a NE troll and plastered some witty poem on one of the threads related to 45-3 trashing Jets got. Too bad he is not around now. On the other hand all i could tell him be in the same civil form John Stewart did: “Go s@ck on something that is comforting to you, like….”
I am surprised, Bent, that you bunched Cole with Wilson and stated he had minimal effect. He was on number of “blitz threats” and actually did rush few times which contributed to sack and pressure.
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Bent,
Were there any half-time adjustments made by NE in their offense or defense?
I know your numbers above give a holistic picture but, did we make any adjustments or counter-adjustments? I was under the impression that Rex will come with a different gameplan in 2nd half as compared to the first, just like Mangini’s browns did to NEP.It seems like NEP defense was clogging the middle to stuff inside runs a whole lot. Would usage of McKnight have helped? This can be important for the Pitt game.
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bent
good work as usual…that being said…
god i hope we beat the steelers and go SB bound…and win it all…
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Do you know why McKnight was used so early on offense and then never again? At first I thought there was going to be a new wrinkle in the running game, but after he never made it back in, I wondered if LT or Green had both lost their helmets for a play.
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McKnight was one of multiple players who took the place of Brad Smith. It was a team effort to replcae him, with Cromartie and Keller on Specials, Tomlinson attempting to run the Seminole, and McKnight on his one reverse per game role.
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Did not see if you posted, but Welker should’ve been less concerned with foot comments and more concerned with steamrolling blasts from Eric Smith. Welker’s Cheatriots decal pops off his helmet
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d81dbab4d/Decal-pitated
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A lot was made last week about the Jets players’ cumulative playoff experience vs. the Pats players’ (it was 196-108 games, or something). Do you have any idea how the Jets stack up to Pittsburgh this week? I’m not one to believe that the Jets won the game purely because of experience, but I do think that it helped, so I’d like to know how we measure up this week. Thanks!
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Brendan, you wanna pick up the argument we had in the other thread or you think we are more or less on the same page?
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They shut it down on us, so I posted on another thread hoping you would see it there. No idea where though.
I stand by my statements earlier today, the team did not play more aggressively on defense, which was your point.
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To be precise, my point was, they played with same aggressiveness as the second game however the way they presented it was different.
Everyone including you relates aggressiveness to the number of blitzes, however it is more of an intent to me.
When you show blitz, but adjust based on some variables – you are aggressive. When you design play that will make you rushers more effective – you are aggressive.
In the second game, there were number of times when we couldn’t get to Brady even with 6 man rush due to poor play selection and luck of adjustments. One can’t say we are less aggressive when we blitz less but generate more pressure, as oppose to blitzing more without success.
At the same time we were less physical and didn’t play hard enough to disrupt short passes and decided to simplify the game plan due to injuries, taking away a lot of adjustments.
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I don’t necessarily relate aggressiveness to the number of blitzes.
But in the MNF game, the team blitzed all game and got torched. They were aggressive, but sloppy.
On Sunday they were controlled, and were less attacking in style, IMO. This applies less to the D-line/LBers, because their first read is always run. The DBs (whether it was 4, 5, 6, 7 or even 8 players) were less aggressive IMO. They still were sent on the blitz, but in the first two Pats games they were blitzing every play.
I don’t necessarily agree the scheme allowed the D-line to be more aggressive, that’s always their job.
The pressure generated doesn’t prove you to be more or less aggressive. If I send one guy every time, but he gets a sack, and the next game I send 5 guys and get no sacks, that’s not less aggressive.
I just don’t think aggressiveness is measured by the resulting stats.
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I think we entered a battle over semantics.
I think lining up as if you will blitz is aggressive even if DBs go back to cover. You state that if at the end of the play DBs drop back – they are more controlled.
I believe that spreading the line and creating favorable rush lanes/angles and personnel match-ups is aggressive, you think if there are only 4 rushers no matter what they do, where they come from, or why they are the ones who ended up rushing, since it is their responsibility, it should not be quantified in terms of aggressiveness.
I believe that in 3-4 hybrid that the Jets run, without a NT who can on occasions overpower a double team, sending 3/4 rushers straight up is a recipe for disaster and is being very passive. You think that no matter what is the scheme, if 4 rushers can’t pressure they are just not doing their job.
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“I think we entered a battle over semantics. ”
That’s becoming quite obvious to me, as well.
I’ll just take a win, I don’t care if they have to put a dress on Mangold and trot him out on defense to distract Big Ben Rapelisberger, just win.
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I just want Bart (like Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story) to put on his “Mr. Angry Eyes” again and go lay Ben out like we saw in that clip posted last week!
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one thing I will add:
we know that Beiber was 29/45 299 2TD 1 int 89 rating. however, it is worth mentioning that on the last drive of the game for the pats (essentially garbage time) Beiber was 5-7 for 59 yards and a TD.
our D played much better than the numbers indicate
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Does Hartsock’s blocking justify his playing time considering what a terrible receiver he appears to be? If the sole responsibility of that role is to block, isn’t Norton superior to Hartsock?
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Bent, thanks for your analysis. Could you tell us what happened on the Sanchez pass where both Holmes and Edwards ran 7 routes and Edwards knocked the pass down? That has to be on Braylon, right?
Also, can you talk about the battle of field position? It seemed like Weatherford’s poor punts gave the Pats a break a few times.
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I think its time to increase the amount of snaps rob turner plays as the extra lineman. love those formations!
They did it against the steelers often too- with rob turner taking on woodley in running situations. one play woodley got frustrated and started pushing him after the whistle- we need more of that.
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Since as Tish pointed out above, it isn’t like Hartsock can catch the damn ball anyway.
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Bent – as to all the compliments, I’ll take a Dennis Miller like tact, as I reply when asked by the waiter how I liked the food at a restaurant after having cleaned my plate, I’ll say “that sucked and I’m not paying!” So, having digested another awesome BGA was wondering about…
1. TPryce v. Ghost. Respecting his historically significant sack #’s have to wonder whether Pryce has really been more of a force/disruptive than if Gholston would have had opportunity, i.e., wasn’t the Ghost generally commanding double teams?
2. Coleman’s poor cover skills. Is Coleman still doing a better job as nickle that perhaps Wilson (for few snaps he gets as a DB), recall he looked really good vs the Jr. Varsity (i.e., Buffalo)
3. Receivers no dropsies (despite your charging Holmes with one). Was that the best game of the year by the Jet Fly boys? I’m hard pressed to call the pass that hit Tone’s hands while diving a drop but perhaps could give Dustin a nit on the low pass he couldn’t handle. And, man o man, JCo is BACK.
4. No, no, Folk on 4th and short…PLEASE. Any clue as to what caused Folk to miss; can you glean anything from snaps, holds, or his mechanics, or is he a head case? I also thought game winner at Indy was too close for comfort, right?
As always, kudo’s to you for all your insights!
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Folk just completely screwed up the kick. All his kicks tend to go to the right side of the uprights, whether he makes them or misses. But this kick he missed to the left. He just flat out kicked the ball wrong.
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Bent: I won’t say it, don’t want to get fined.
Kyle Wilson: I didn’t see him that much, how’d he play?
How did the Jets control Welker without Revis on him?
How’d Cromartie hold up in coverage?
Thanks!
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Juunit is still waiting for the perfect game—unfortunately it is not going to happen in our life times. We are 13-5, just beat the hated NE Patriots handily and are heading into the AFC Championship game. I’ll sign up for that every year without any complaints. Yes mistakes were made (that is football) but damn we made a lot fewer than the other team. Go Jets.
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Praising all the good stuff in games gets old very quick. We come to this website for discussion, no? So why not discuss the negative aspects of games and ways they could be improved? I don’t need to read someone else saying, “that was a great catch.” I know it was a great catch, I watch the games too.
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Yeah you’re right—just say something positive once in a while. Give us a “nice game plan by Schotty”.
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When Revis went down and was hurt or acting hurt the next play was a 4rth and long. Do we know if Revis was actually hurt and if not why not take a timeout?
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He said in a post game interview that he just had a cramp that needed to loosen up.
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Hey Bent, sick job as always. Do us a favor and break down the play where Rob Turner was streaking please.
Thanks.
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I’d like to know why David Harris couldn’t make it into the endzone. He gets caught by a 350 lb 40 yr old Algie Crumpler? Harris is a young guy. Is he hurt? Out of Shape? With Bent grading him out poorly, I wonder if he was dinged up for this game.
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Bent—
You seemed to be saying that we didn’t blitz very much at all, and when we got to Brady, it was because his first option (and maybe his second or third option) was covered. In other words, weren’t the bulk of those sacks COVERAGE sacks?
And, yes, I’ll risk a fine, and say: Great job, Bent!
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I think you trying to bring it after hearing analyst on CBS saying that all but one sack was cover sacks. None of them have benefit of extensive slow-mo.
In pure terms cover sack is due to QB not being able to find a receiver. So one needs to define how long before QB is sacked, if we take an average slant, short pass takes around 2-3 sec to develop and hence we should assume anything at or over 4 sec will be a cover. This way one can debate that none of the sacks were cover.
However, some could argue that any sack with 4 man rash is cover. Then issue becomes how we define blitz, cause first and third sacks were on 3+1DB blitz, hence both shouldn’t be cover. Fourth was on 5 man rush so shouldn’t be considered cover.
Hence, from none to two were cover. Let’s see what Bent says.
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Buyaha—
Actually, my comment came out of a debate some of us have been having on this site since before the 2009 season. Way back when during the 2009 preseason, I argued that Lito couldn’t cover, and that this was the biggest hole in our D. Others countered that the biggest hole was a solid pass rusher. This argument went on unabated until it came out well before the 2010 draft that Rex saw picking up solid cover DBs as a higher priority than a solid pass rusher. Which seemed to validate my point. And then the Jets signed Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, and my case seemed even stronger (in that Rex saw it the same way I did).
But the debate continued on anyway, so that now it’s become more than a bit redundant to argue it anymore, especially after going at it for the past year and a half or so.
Also I think last time this came up, one of the guys I’ve debated this with endlessly reached something of a compromise with me, in that we both agreed that we’d like to see the Jets pick up a solid pass rusher and a solid cover safety in the coming offseason
As for what constitutes a coverage sack, I’d say if you’re rushing four or less, and the QB moves off his first or second target, then the resulting sack is a coverage sack.
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Bent, it must have been fun watching the film this time as apposed to last time they played NE?
Last time we played the Stealers we were not able to produce much pressure. Do you think we could be more productive now that we performed so well and now that Pit’s OL is nicked up?
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I really like our first offensive possession. Was a little disappointed with 3rd down play call and the execution. I think our O was trying to show our D how to run a successful defense.
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Guess I can’t say “great job, bent”, ’cause money is tight.
Shotty seems to be calling great games in the postseason, just as he did last year. Both years, the O really seemed to improve once the scheme was simplified. Any idea why it took so long for that simplification to come this year? Also, there has been a lot of back and forth on this blog regarding the O’s troubles earlier in the season and whether it was Shotty’s fault or not. I can accept the notion that the game plan was good but the players’ execution wasn’t during the bad games, but isn’t it the coaches job to put the players in situations in which they are comfortable enough to execute well? It’s one thing if your 2nd year QB under-executes, but when Cotchery starts dropping a bunch of catches he usually makes and LT repeatedly (over the course of the season) isn’t even looking for the ball when he is the checkdown option, it makes me wonder if the gameplan was too complicated (though potentially successful), which leads me back to Shotty. There are always ups and downs, but it seems like we could’ve been planning, executing and playing the way we’ve been these last few weeks all year.
The taunting flag after Greene’s TD – was that on Shonn? Didn’t seem like what he dd was so bad to me. With all the celebrating where I was watching, I never got a handle on what really happened there.
The way our D shut down Brady and their O, will this serve as a blueprint on how to stop them in the future (assuming that they don’t add a killer deep threat)? I know our starting corners are awesome, but with Branch getting older and being their main threat, I’d think most team’s top corner could go one on one with him much of the time and seeing as many teams have a DLine that usually generates more pressure than we do (though we did a great job there the other night), other teams would have success that way as well. Obviously, belicheat will try to plan for that. I guess i’m wondering if you think that we’re one of the few teams that could pull that off (mainly because of Revis) or if we’ve discovered the way to stop Brady, the way the colts exposed a good way to thwart our D last year (target anyone but our starting corners, especially with TEs and 3rd WRs).
When talking about the LBs, you didn’t mention DH’s INT. It looked to me like just before crumpler ran him down, DH cut the wrong way, going back into the lane crumpler was taking instead of left towards the end zone pylon. Did you notice this? I couldn’t believe we got no points out of that, it was hard to think at the time that this wouldn’t come back to haunt us.
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Bent,
The jets did a great job of containing welker and limiting his yac. Was this due to the Jets jamming him at the line of scrimmage, flooding the middle with extra dbs, a great game by coleman or something else? -
Two comments:
1) I was screaming at Tone to get off the field because we couldn’t see a replay at Gillette if it was a catch or not and he was doing a backflip in teh endzone
2) On the Pats 1st onside kick they were called for offsides. Cro returns the ball to the 25 yet we get the ball on teh 20. After watching it on DVR I was shocked they didn’t reference this on the broadcast, as it would have negated a Pats recovery.
Two fumbles. How did we not recover either one?
On the drive that made it 14-11, the Jets D seemed out of whack and without the correct personnel. What was NE doing that made the Jets so vulnerable?
What sort of formations were we in the 4th quarter? The Pats seemed to run an awful lot for a team down by 2 scores.