Category Archives: Opinion
That this headline was even necessary is truly disappointing. Gary Myers is trolling Jets fans with a Peyton Manning-to-the-Jets argument, like bloggers masquerading as NFL scouts do in the offseason, and we’re taking the bait.
Peyton Manning to the Jets is an awful idea, and no convoluted logic can convince otherwise. It’s an asinine suggestion bred from the same womb of insanity where Manning as a 2011 MVP candidate flourished. It’s lazy, irresponsible, and unrealistic. We detest this opinion.
The bottom line is that, even if the Jets find a miracle on Sunday and back their way into the playoffs, they are not winning the Super Bowl this season as Ryan has so often guaranteed.
They need to shake things up offensively, and bringing in Manning for a season or two would do much more toward getting them to a Super Bowl than firing offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer would.
Here is where Jets fans are supposed to believe that Peyton Manning, a renowned postseason choke artist, holds the other half to Rex Ryan’s Super Bowl heart pendant. (More on Schottenheimer later.)
Ted and I preview the Jets game this weekend versus the Washington Redskins.
Had the Jets ended up with the ball down by 4 points on their own 20 with 58 seconds left last season, I would’ve breathed a sigh of relief. Last year, the Jets offense showed great flair in being able to pull together in the waning minutes of a game and execute a drive that could puts the Jets on top. They did it against the Texans, the Broncos, the Lions, and the Browns. This year, they’ve done it against nobody.
I’m not sure whether it’s the loss of Braylon Edwards as a deep threat (though Holmes was instrumental in a lot of those 2010 drives), Schottenheimer’s playcalling, or Sanchez’s loss of confidence, but when these Jets are behind late in a game, they tend to stay that way.
The drive against Denver was painful to watch. It’s as though the Jets had no idea what to do with little time to spare. After completing a pass to Keller, who wisely ran out of bounds, Sanchez was unable to find an open receiver, getting knocked down, forcing the Jets to waste a timeout on a loss of yards. On the next play, the Jets were able to convert on 4th and 19, albeit over the middle to Patrick Turner, spending yet another time out. Joe McKnight made a reception that looked helpful on the following play, but was unable to get out of bounds, leaving the Jets with one shot at the end zone after Sanchez spiked it with seven seconds to go.
This team has only won two games this year in which they were trailing heading into the 4th quarter–against the Lions and against the Chargers. And in both of those games, the points the Jets needed to win came off of interceptions leading to excellent field position or from special teams play (e.g. Joe McKnight’s blocked punt and Isaiah Trufant’s touchdown recovery).
If the Jets are going to succeed in the coming months, this phase of the game must improve very very quickly.
Tagged Offense |If my last post was full of tempered optimism, the unbridled pessimism of this one should balance it out. Thursday night’s game was awful to watch and even harder to write about. On the positive side, the defense played rather well, despite giving up that game-winning touchdown drive. Remember, before that drive, the defense had only allowed the Broncos to score 3 points over 54:06 of play.
Even with that drive, the Jets defense only gave up 229 total yards and 11 first down, limiting the Broncos to 3/13 on 3rd down conversions. Which is why the play that I’m about to talk about, the one that to me was the hardest to watch, is so darned galling.
First of all, I’m not talking about Eric Smith’s poor decision on Tim Tebow’s touchdown run. Had he tackled Tebow (which one could argue was beyond his ability), the Broncos still would’ve scored a field goal, most likely setting up overtime.
If you recall, on the first play of Denver’s final drive, Tebow flipped a screen pass to Eddie Royal that he ran out of the end zone to the Broncos’ 13-yard line, gaining eight yards. Immediately after Royal caught the ball, Jim Leonhard threw himself at his feet, narrowly missing tackling him in the end zone. Granted, Leonhard on Royal was a matchup nightmare, but had he made that tackle, the Jets would have had a safety, the ball back and would very likely have won the game.
Which made seeing that replay after the game all the more impossible to watch.
I’m not even going to talk about the offense.
What about you? What one play kept you up at night as you replayed it over and over in your mind, wishing you could will an alternate outcome into being?
Tagged Broncos, jets, Jim Leonhard |I know. Things look bad right now. Well, not just bad. Horrible. The Jets are on yet another skid and it seems like the season is all but lost.
All I can say is this: don’t panic.
This isn’t the first time we’ve been in this situation. Remember in 2009, in late December, when Rex Ryan was convinced the Jets were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, and then they went out and beat the Colts and the Bengals in the last two weeks of the season?
Or remember last year, later in the season than we are now, when the Patriots whupped us 45-3 but we still managed to knock them out of the playoffs before facing Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game?
In fact, I’m pretty sure the Jets didn’t even win to make it in last year. I recall watching the Jets fail to top the Bears in Week 16, then flipping over to the Jaguars-Redskins game to watch Washington win on a field goal, sending the Jets to the postseason.
It’s never fun watching your team lose, but let’s not count the Jets out until they’re actually out. And let’s be honest about who Rex Ryan’s Jets are. This is not a team that rips through the NFL, sending opposing teams running scared. This is a team that sneaks into the playoffs, then makes a whole lot of noise once they’re there. And right now, this is a team that has 10 days to regroup before playing games against 6 teams whom it is well within their ability to defeat.
Earlier this week, Bassett gave Joe McKnight the moniker of the “McKnight Rider” in a post singing the running back’s praises. I might just be a humble weekend editor, but after having been named AFC special teams player of the month, I think Joe deserves a far more superlative nickname. He’s not just a football player. He’s a Jedi McKnight.
The Evidence
Maybe he used the Jedi mind trick to baffle the Ravens’ kicking team. Or maybe the force told him exactly when to hit the right holes the way it helped Luke destroy the Death Star. Whatever the case, we’re dealing with a football player more powerful than we can possibly imagine.
What’s your preference? Try not to let this video sway you.
A little over a week ago, George Bretherton of The Fifth Down wrote this defense of Mark Sanchez’s performance. His central thesis: the New York media can’t recognize a good quarterback when it sees one. Under the scrutiny of the Big Apple, even stars like Phil Simms or Joe Namath become goats when a game has been lost. That and the fact that Mark Sanchez has been quietly putting on excellent performances right under their noses.
At the time Bretherton wrote the article, the Jets were a measly 3-3, but Mark Sanchez had thrown for 1,372 yards, with 9 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Bretherton calculated that he was on pace for the following stat line at the end of the season: (more…)
The Green Bay Packers are arguably one of the best franchises in the history of football, and Business Week points out that this may be partly due to their unorthodox ownership structure:
When you talk to Packer management, you start to realize that success is a tribute to the careful, constant maintenance of two things: the product on the field and the community’s warm feelings about that product. “It starts with football,” says Murphy. “We structure the organization in a way that we can be successful on the field. But a big part of it is also remembering that this team has a special place in this community. We’re owned by this community. We can’t be perceived as gouging the fans.”
The Packers must constantly walk that fine line between profitability and community. Every other NFL franchise is controlled or entirely owned by one majority shareholder, and NFL rules prohibit otherwise. (The Packers’ ownership structure predates current NFL rules.) Ticket prices, concessions, parking, stadium naming rights—all of that is dictated at most NFL stadiums by whatever the owner feels the market will bear, and every additional dollar is profit into the owner’s pockets.
The Packers don’t operate like that. Take ticket prices: Even after a 9 percent bump this Super Bowl championship year, the highest-priced ticket is $83, lower than all but two other franchises. In contrast to other NFL venues and their garish, wraparound ad signage, Lambeau is as austere as a high school football stadium. The only ads you see are on the scoreboard; the rest of the stadium has intentionally been maintained so that the vista a fan experiences today is similar to what he would have seen in the ’60s.
Matt Yglesias offers his thoughts:
Why shouldn’t more communities be able to purchase NFL franchises and operate them for the broadly conceived good of a fanbase? It actually seems to me that something along these broad ownership lines is the most logical capital structure for most pro sports teams. You could imagine something like a team being owned by a group of several thousand season ticket holders who’d elect a board amongst themselves and hire a professional manager. As fans, their priority would be to put a winning team on the field. Business considerations would of course be an important element of that—you need revenue to hire players and coaches—but the structure of the “business” would resemble the basic relationship involved in being a season ticket holder. You’re putting money on the line because you can afford it and because you love to root for the team.
Sports fandom is a strange thing. We invest an incredible amount of psychic energy and time into rooting for our team, but have no real influence on the internal operations beyond our ability to purchase or not purchase tickets and comment on blogs and radio shows.
Let’s change that! Not that I have any problem with the Jets current ownership (Schottenheimer issues aside), but let’s buy the Jets! Why not?
Tagged green bay packers, humor, New York Jets, sports ownership |So what exactly happened within the team to send Derrick Mason packing? If you buy the Jets’ official line, and what Mike Tannenbaum has said, then it’s merely a question of performance and money. Tannenbaum’s quote soon after the deal was made was that Mason “just didn’t play the level that he had hoped and we had hoped.” And so Derrick Mason was demoted against the Patriots in favor of rookie Jeremy Kerley and traded away two days later.
That explanation doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. For instance, Plaxico Burress, who said this on Wednesday:
Tagged Brian Schottenheimer, derrick mason, Mike Tannenbaum, Rex Ryan |“My production hasn’t been all that great either,” Burress said yesterday. “Santonio’s production hasn’t been all that great either. So you can’t just point at one guy. You can’t just say it was his production.” (more…)
Let’s face it: the Patriots are tough team to beat. But right now, the Jets need to win. This is a “statement” game if there ever was one. Faced with the possibility of a 3-game losing streak, winning this game win bring the Jets to 3-2 and quiet the growing murmurs of doubt about them around the league. How can they do that against the #1 overall offense in the league? Here are a couple of ways:
An Offensive Resurgence
I imagine this an obvious point by now but it’s still one worth making. The Jets offensive line has been downright horrible in the past two weeks and the offense has suffered tremendously. Now, with the return of Mangold, it’s time to get back on track. The Jets will need to work fast, rushing often against the Patriots and exploiting their woeful pass defense. Considering how many points the Patriots can score, if the Jets can’t get a lot of points onto the scoreboard quickly, this will be a major disaster.
Shying Away from the Blitz
In last year’s AFC Divisional win, the Jets only blitzed 30% of the time, blanketing the Patriots receivers in coverage. It’s likely they’ll do something similar today. According to SNY Why Guys, if the Jets blitz 40% of the time or more, they will lose. By a large margin.
Pro Football Focus shares a similar sentiment. According to their analysis, Tom Brady has an unbelievable 128.2 quarterback rating when blitzed. The Patriots will likely be expecting to see a similar gameplan to what they saw in January. It’ll be up to Rex Ryan and Mike Pettine to further complicate their looks, ramping up the confusion that Tom Brady experienced in that game. Putting Darrelle Revis on Wes Welker, Brady’s favorite target, certainly won’t hurt.
What do you think? What do the Jets need to do to win this game and stop their skid?
Tagged Mark Sanchez, Rex Ryan, Tom Brady |Going into this game, the Patriots have to be wondering .. are the Jets still doing their ‘little tricks’?
Do the Patriots still consider the Divisional game last postseason a ‘little trick’? It’s hard to say, but I get the feeling they do. Either way, Sunday will go a long way in proving which team has the lighter fluid up their sleeve.
Antonio Cromartie surely must be hiding some butane under his tan blazer. While Cro might be a more recent arrival to the Jets than many of his teammates, but after one year, he’s feeling the rivalry more intensely than most – at least based on what he’s telling the press.
In this video link, Maurice-Jones Drew and London Fletcher talk to the NFL Network about faking injuries, focusing specifically on the injuries faked by the Giants last week. If you haven’t seen them, here’s a video:
Late in the 1st quarter, with the Rams driving into their red zone, Deion Grant and Jacquian Williams of the Giants quickly fell to the ground, stopping play. I think this incident wouldn’t have cause as much uproar around the league had it not been so poorly executed: after he noticed Grant was also down, Williams almost leaped back to his feet.
That having been said, I don’t think I can come out against faking injuries. To me, it’s part of the game. Football is about tempo, and when an offense is rolling, keeping the defense too tired too pick up plays quickly, it’s up to the defense to do anything it can to shift the momentum. In the case of the Giants, the fake injuries worked, arguably. The Rams were unable to score and were held to a field goal. The only real mistake the Giants made was getting caught.
What do you think? Are fake injuries part of the game, or should they be penalized?
Tagged fake injuries | ← Older posts
