BGA: Cowboys at Jets

624 · Sep 13, 2011

BGA: Cowboys at Jets via thejetsblog.com

At last the regular season is here! This year, we’re going to aim to bring you BGA on the day after each Jets game. Don’t forget, there will also be BGA Extra later in the week, where I will respond to your questions or requests from the comments section.

Coming up, your detailed analysis of last night’s win over the Cowboys, including a breakdown of Wayne Hunter’s woes, a look at Bart Scott’s impact and details of how the defensive backs coped in coverage.

Last night’s performance was disappointly error-strewn, however it’s always encouraging when you play badly but still find a way to win. The playmaking ability on both sides of the ball and on special teams was on display as the Jets battled their way back from 14 down in the fourth quarter and got the win on a late field goal.

If ever there were any doubt that the Jets carried out a vanilla gameplan in preseason, the multitude of different personnel groupings and formations they used last night put an end to that. Unfortunately, it still didn’t translate to much early offensive success, but once they started attacking the Cowboys’ obvious weaknesses on the drive just before halftime, the Jets were able to persevere with this and move the ball pretty well throughout the second half. Since I’ve been doing BGA, the Jets have routinely have a more complex gameplan than their opponent on both sides of the ball. However, yesterday, the Cowboys threw the kitchen sink at them with even more personnel changes than the Jets and several gimmicks and traps. Watching the two teams react to and attempt to counter one another’s gameplan was fascinating to watch.

Let’s recap how each unit performed:

Quarterback

Mark Sanchez’ first half was a microcosm for his career so far. Inconsistency was the theme, as he opened up by completing his first five passes, then misfiring on six in a row, before bouncing back to hit on six of his next seven. His consistency was overall better in the second half, but he also turned the ball over twice, so although he can add another 300-yard game and a fourth quarter comeback to his resume, there’s still plenty he’ll need to work at this week if he wants to play better against the Jags.

While it would seem to be smart for the Jets to give Sanchez some short passes to get him into a rhythm and then gradually ramp up the degree of difficulty as the game goes on, this was ineffective yesterday. That’s a pattern they’ve adopted in the past, so perhaps it was something the Cowboys were ready for. Of course, if he wanted to throw downfield, he wasn’t helped much by the fact he was constantly under pressure.

Other than the comeback itself, there were some positive signs from Sanchez that he is going to improve in those areas we’ve identified as most important for his development this year. His completion percentage was 59% which is an improvement on last year. This was no doubt helped by the fact that he finally executed some screen passes well – something he’s struggled with since entering the league. It was also encouraging to see him finish off a long drive with some good execution in the red zone and his other touchdown pass was on a back shoulder throw, something many of us have been calling for him to do more often.

Fumbling twice is a major concern, although when he was a rookie he was having issues with ball security and he managed to overcome them, so hopefully this can be sorted out without too much drama. His interception was a bad read and a few other passes seemed to fail because he misread the coverage, although it is interesting to see that they have widened his pre-snap responsibilities to the point where he can change the play again.

Running Backs

The running game was a big disappointment, although the Cowboys talented defensive line was manhandling the Jets offensive line at times and there wasn’t much in the way of running room. The fact that the Cowboys could prevent the Jets from gaining any significant yardage is impressive enough, but even moreso when you consider that they hardly ever have either safety in the box.

Still, it was tough to blame the running backs themselves for the lack of rushing yards, as they generally fell forwards and fought for what yards they could after contact.

In fact, we can find something extremely positive to say about each of the three Jets running backs. LaDainian Tomlinson led the Jets in receiving with six catches for 73 yards, broke a few tackles and was the prime beneficiary of Sanchez’ screen passes, which were well blocked, even though none of his rushing attempts were. Shonn Greene may not have gained many yards, but he did impress in pass protection, staying in to block a career high ten times and managing to avoid giving up any pressure, despite the fact the Cowboys ran some exotic blitz packages which tested him to the limit. Finally, Joe McKnight may not have got on the field offensively, but he came up with perhaps the biggest play of the day on special teams.

I’ve seen it suggested that the Jets’ running game was hurt by the fact that John Conner was clearly limited and unable to contribute much in the way of run blocking. I haven’t heard an update on Conner’s condition, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s actually fine. I didn’t expect the fullback to be a big part of the running game anyway, since the Jets typically don’t use one very often against the bigger 3-4 teams, and don’t generally have much success when they do. For example, Tony Richardson only had 23 snaps in his last two games against the Patriots and 32 in his last two games against the Steelers. Conner was in for six snaps and the Jets ran three times last night.

Offensive Line

Clearly the offensive line was a big factor in the Jets’ inability to run the football. However, the problems the Jets suffered in pass protection were even more concerning.

Wayne Hunter was the biggest disappointment, as the TV crew highlighted how badly beaten he was by DeMarcus Ware on a couple of occasions. What typically happens when they run a montage of clips of a guy getting beaten several times is that when you go back and watch the film, you realize that they showed all the times he got beaten and on the rest of the snaps he looked at least competent. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with Hunter’s performance last night. By my unofficial count, he gave up one sack, one hit and five pressures. He was also saved by Brandon Moore on at least one occasion where he got beaten and there were two sacks and two QB hits where it was impossible to apportion blame, so he may have been partially responsible for some of those.

After an extremely shaky start, Hunter did kind of settle down in the second half, although that may have been because they started giving him more help. It’s fair to say that DeMarcus Ware is one of the elite defensive players in the whole NFL, so there isn’t necessarily any shame in giving up that much pressure when you’re facing him. Ware had at least five QB disruptions in EVERY game of the second half of last season. However, Ware wasn’t responsible for all of the pressures Hunter surrendered. Both Kenyon Coleman and Anthony Spencer got by him too – more than once in Spencer’s case.

One possible silver lining is that Hunter has had a performance like this before and bounced back from it. Against Mario Williams last year, he gave up a sack, a hit and eight pressures, then against Cameron Wake he gave up three sacks, two hits and two pressures. Then in the last six games – against the likes of Woodley, Peppers and Freeney, he gave up no sacks, three hits and five pressures in total – more than acceptable numbers. So, he has been able to respond to Bill Callahan’s coaching in the past and iron out his pass protection woes – or at least the Jets gameplan has been tweaked to mask his deficiencies.

In the running game – where I fear he could be more of a downgrade than he will be in pass protection in the long run – Hunter actually threw a couple of decent blocks. However, he was beaten by Ware on a play that was stuffed for a loss and also didn’t sustain his block long enough on another play that his man stuffed, so it was a mixed bag.

The other tackle, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, also had his struggles against the Dallas pass rushers. He gave up a hit and two pressures, and also saw his man get credited with a sack when Sanchez stepped up to avoid pressure. Ferguson didn’t really manage to get anything going in the running game either.

Nick Mangold was also a disappointment. Although he did a great job with most of the Cowboys blitz packages, there were a couple of uncharacterstic lapses, leading to a sack and a QB hit. He did make some surging run blocks, but unfortunately none of these created any room for the runners, because the line as a whole just isn’t in synch yet.

The two guards both did well on at least one occasion each to save the quarterback after the tackle next to them was beaten by a blitzer. However, neither made much impact in the running game and both were beaten at least once to create pressure.
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http://www.thejetsblog.com/2011/09/12/bga-cowboys-at-jets/

624 · Sep 13, 2011

Receivers

After a slow start, each of the receivers got involved in the offense. It does seem like Sanchez and Santonio Holmes have developed some chemistry now. Sanchez hit him in stride a few times, leading to plenty of yardage after the catch. Also, with the Jets down by 14, Holmes made a big first down catch and run, but DIDN’T do his patented first down ball drop. Could this be a sign of a new, more mature and team-oriented Holmes?

Plaxico Burress didn’t catch a pass until the third quarter, but ended up with some big plays, including a nice touchdown catch over by the pylon. He also had the block of the night, although he showed some rust – or perhaps laziness/tiredness – when he waited for a ball to come to him rather than aggressively snatching it out of the air, enabling a defensive back to knock it away. One of his completions was a great example of the sort of cat and mouse game I referred to earlier. The Cowboys lined Ware up wide, opposite Hunter, but he backed off instead of rushing the QB. This drew Hunter too far across to be able to prevent a big blitz up the middle and one man came free. However, the Jets had left three extra guys in to block – something they hardly ever do – and this bought Sanchez enough time to get the ball to Burress over the middle and get the Jets out from under the shadow of their own goalpost.

Derrick Mason had a difficult game, as he seemed to have issues with his footing. It cost him at least one first down, after he caught the ball just short of the marker and may have cost him a touchdown as well, with his feet getting tangled up in the endzone as Sanchez’ well-thrown ball approached him. He also seemed to slip on the throw that was almost intercepted, with the defensive back able to break back towards the ball much quicker. With any luck, Mason will be more effective next week, as long as he gets a better set of cleats. He did record one first down catch.

The way the Jets used their tight ends was fascinating to watch, too. They ran 12 three-TE formations, with several different variations. Obviously on some of these formations, one or more of the tight ends were out wide or in the slot. Having Jeff Cumberland available seems to give this option an added dimension compared with when they used to run three TE sets with Ben Hartsock or someone like Rob Turner. Just because the defense sees three tight ends in the huddle, that doesn’t mean the Jets won’t go into a spread formation or something. Cumberland exploited this by lining up out wide and running a cross field route for a big gain. Dustin Keller had several big first downs and a touchdown, showing apparently improved hands and some good open field moves. While Matthew Mulligan didn’t make much of an impact on the stat sheet, he did smartly recover Sanchez’ fumble for the first Jets’ first down of the night.

Jeremy Kerley saw just one snap on offense and also looked a little shaky fielding punts. In fact, he saw the same number of snaps at wide receiver as Antonio Cromartie did. Yes, Cromartie lined up out wide for one play in the second quarter and ran a fake end around as the hand-off went up the middle. Look out for the payoff to that in the weeks to follow.

Defensive Line

While the linebackers deserve much of the credit, the defensive line definitely held up their end of the bargain in terms of stopping the run. Dallas gained just 48 yards on 22 carries by their running backs, which is particularly encouraging given the struggles the Jets had against the run in the last meaningful game they played, the AFC Title Game.

Towards the end of last year, Sione Pouha was struggling with a back injury and seemed to be getting driven back at the point of attack a lot more than usual. Based on last night, he seems to have recovered fully. He held up much better at the point of attack and was only really manhandled off the line once. He even made some impact plays, with a key fumble recovery and a QB pressure which led to a sack.

Alongside Pouha, Mike DeVito played his part in that fumble recovery, stripping the ball away from Romo at the five yard line. He was actually credited with a rare sack on the play, but it was more of a run stopping-type play, of which he had at least three others.

The other starter, Muhammed Wilkerson, did not make much of an impact, but at least looks like he belongs. He didn’t create any pressure and was well blocked on more than one occasion, but he made one good stop against the run and wasn’t responsible for any costly mistakes.

Wilkerson basically split reps with Ropati Pitoitua, ending up with 33 snaps to Potty’s 25. In those 25 snaps, Pitoitua made more of an impact, but still occasionally gets caught out with his pad level too high. This only happened once or twice though and was more than made up for when he stuffed a run in the hole, created a pressure by beating his man, flushed the QB out of the pocket and had crucial penetration on a late third and one stop.

Marcus Dixon saw 29 snaps himself, many of them as a nose tackle in pass rush situations. He got some good penetration on one play and adds further depth and versatily to the unit, at least until inactive rookie Kenrick Ellis is ready to contribute.

Linebackers

Each of the starting linebackers had both positive and negative moments, but on the whole, this unit had a big day, led by Bart Scott.

Scott came up huge in the fourth quarter with consecutive short yardage stops. That was after he had already made a big impact with a sack, a pressure, a big tackle for a loss and several plays where his run blitzing re-directed or closed a hole for the runner. He did have one really bad missed tackle in the flat, though.

David Harris also had a bad missed tackle, on the very next play, and allowed himself to be blocked out of the action on at least three occasions. However, he made or assisted on four tackles at or close to the line of scrimmage and did record one pressure.

Calvin Pace, much like Pouha, looks like a different player to the one that ended last season constantly looking gassed or frustrated. He had one sack and created another by beating his man for a pressure and made one great play against the run. He did give up a couple of first down catches, but Harris and Scott also gave up one each, so he wasn’t alone in that.

Bryan Thomas also gave up a first down catch, as Dez Bryant burned him for 42 yards from the slot. However, other than that, he had a very solid performance, particularly in terms of setting the edge, which he did two or three times to stop runs from getting to the outside. Thomas also had one pressure, unofficially.

Off the bench, Jamaal Westerman had a low-impact game, but still recorded two pressures and a fumble recovery in just 18 snaps. Not a bad start for the new “designated pass rusher”.
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http://www.thejetsblog.com/2011/09/12/bga-cowboys-at-jets/

624 · Sep 13, 2011

Defensive Backs

After the game, Antonio Cromartie came in for a lot of criticism, after having been beaten for two touchdowns. He was completed overmatched physically against Dez Bryant, as the touchdown throw clearly showed and therefore it was a smart move by the Jets to switch Revis onto him. However, that catch was the only catch Cromartie gave up to Bryant all day. He did give up three catches to Miles Austin, but one of these was late in the game, as he was playing off him to keep the play in front of him. On the other two, he almost had an interception, but Austin was able to wrench the ball from his grasp. (For the record, I felt the touchdown call was correct on re-watching, by the way). Considering he was targeted seven times and was in good position to force an incompletion on the other three, I felt the four catches Cromartie gave up didn’t necessarily represent as poor of a performance as some have stated. At least he didn’t let anyone get behind him and he even made one good play against the run!

Darrelle Revis was also targeted seven times, giving up three first down catches – although one was possibly a mix-up in zone coverage, which the Jets used sporadically throughout the game. He broke up the penultimate throw his way and, of course, intercepted the last one to set up the game winning field goal. Revis also tackled well against the run and even blitzed once, after blitzing only one time all of last year!

At safety, Eric Smith was another scapegoat for some of the Jets struggles. He was badly beaten by Jason Witten after failing to get a good jam on him at the line and then compounded the mistake by missing a tackle on him to lead to a huge gain. However, the criticism of Smith is pretty harsh considering it was the only catch he gave up all day (unless you want to credit him with a dump off pass which he and Kyle Wilson stopped for a short gain on third down in the first quarter). On the only other time he was thrown at, Smith was in good position on Witten and Romo more or less had to throw it away. He also stuffed a run and was credited with a sack, so it seems to me like some of the venom directed towards him is misplaced. As I’ve noted before, Smith grades out as a pretty decent player whenever he starts, but as a third safety he has always performed much, much worse, so the calls to have him benched do not sit well with me.

In any case, Brodney Pool saw plenty of playing time, as he was in for 45% of the snaps. He didn’t make much of an impact but did come up from the safety position to blow up one runnning play.

The other starter, Jim Leonhard, also had a bad missed tackle and gave up a first down catch, but his touchdown saving tackle on Witten would prove to be critical.

Wilson had an eventful afternoon, with his 27 snaps including emergency fill-in duty for both Revis and Cromartie, as they suffered from cramp. The only catch he gave up was on third and long where he kept the play in front of him and made the tackle well short of the first down. On another play, he had good coverage and forced Romo to throw the ball out of bounds. He also pressured Romo into throwing out of bounds after he fumbled the snap on the penultimate play of the game. I was particularly impressed with how well Wilson appeared to be communicating with his teammates. That seems to have translated to him looking like a reliable backup for the time being.

I like Donald Strickland for some reason. He didn’t seem to do anything outstanding, but it just feels right to have him back out there. He and Marquice Cole each hit the quarterback once.

Special Teams

Earlier today, there was a post up about who should get the gameball. Unbelievably, nobody suggested Coach Westhoff! Not only did he dial up the punt block that led to Isaiah Trufant’s improbable game tying TD, but he also gets part of the credit for sticking with and building up the confidence of Nick Folk, who not only nailed the game winning 50-yard field goal, but also had some booming kickoffs.

The return game was a bit of a mess, but the coverage units did their job. TJ Conley also had a good game, putting several of his punts inside the 20.

Recently cut Mardy Gilyard might soon find himself back with the Rams, after Danny Amendola suffered a shoulder injury.

Conclusions

This was an ugly win, with plenty of causes for concern. However, the value of winning games that instill in you the belief that you are never truly beaten until the final gun cannot be underestimated. Even after a horrendous first half display in Pittsburgh last January, the Jets had that belief due to some of their uglier wins from earlier in the year and almost rode it to the Superbowl. Beating the Cowboys is not as important as beating adversity and that’s what the Jets did.

Despite the win, I’m still sensing a lot of negativity in the Jets fanbase. “We don’t look like a Superbowl team!” However, you don’t win anything for looking like a Superbowl team in September. Why peak now and give creative coaches like Rob Ryan and Jason Garrett the maximum amount of time to figure out how to beat you? It’s a marathon, not a sprint – and on the offensive side of the ball at least, the Jets are already setting a much healthier pace than they were this time last year.
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http://www.thejetsblog.com/2011/09/12/bga-cowboys-at-jets/

ukilledkenny · Sep 13, 2011

Awesome write up WSW!

Miamipuck · Sep 13, 2011

ukilledkenny said: ↑

awesome write up wsw!
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lol.................

Lynkx · Sep 13, 2011

ukilledkenny said: ↑

Awesome copy and paste WSW!
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Problem, Officer?

Big Blocker · Sep 14, 2011

I always appreciate these write ups. Thanks to those concerned.

Some of what I missed in my own earlier comments:

Dixon. This guy is a key bench player, and plays solidly. More than the questions about Wilkerson, which I agree while he did not look great he looked like he did belong out there, and to some extent addressed those questions, questions about overall bench strength on the DL were addressed, at least for one game - Dixon is a big help.

Cromartie and Smith. I was disappointed in both, but the write up points out the game had some positives as well for both. That glaring reception and missed tackle Smith gave up to Witten was, after all, to one of the best TE's in the league. And that was Smith's only real mistake. Cro didn't let anyone get by him - yeah, that is big. A more balanced appreciation for both is in fact in order, despite the big plays given up.

A point of concern I have had was alluded to by the write up, and that is poor pass coverage by the linebackers. THis seems to be a problem with no easy answer. At least Pace looked much better in the pass rush.

PJ4Ever · Sep 15, 2011

Big Blocker said: ↑

I always appreciate these write ups. Thanks to those concerned.

Some of what I missed in my own earlier comments:

Dixon. This guy is a key bench player, and plays solidly. More than the questions about Wilkerson, which I agree while he did not look great he looked like he did belong out there, and to some extent addressed those questions, questions about overall bench strength on the DL were addressed, at least for one game - Dixon is a big help.

Cromartie and Smith. I was disappointed in both, but the write up points out the game had some positives as well for both. That glaring reception and missed tackle Smith gave up to Witten was, after all, to one of the best TE's in the league. And that was Smith's only real mistake. Cro didn't let anyone get by him - yeah, that is big. A more balanced appreciation for both is in fact in order, despite the big plays given up.

A point of concern I have had was alluded to by the write up, and that is poor pass coverage by the linebackers. THis seems to be a problem with no easy answer. At least Pace looked much better in the pass rush.
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I agree with everything you said. Except Cro did get burned by Miles Austin...his speed allowed him to catch up, but if Romo had led Austin more, Cro never would've had a chance.

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