Grass is always greener territory here. Next time Geno has a bad game, and he'll have some more this season, the people wanting to see Simms will start piping up again. It's too bad that David Garrard couldn't make the start line. The backups the Jets have right now other than Quinn all have their adherents in the fan base and maybe in the organization as well. That makes the situation full of friction unless Geno just plays lights out. Ideally the Jets would just have Geno, Quinn and a 3rd body maybe on the practice squad. Then there'd be nobody screaming for the backup after a rookie game from Geno. However the Jets still have intentions on 2013 that they won't let go of until they are eliminated, so Sanchez was IR'd designated to return. Phil Simms is a well-respected guy in the NY sports community and his son has just enough potential not to get kicked to the curb. If we're lucky Geno uses both of the facts above to our advantage and buries both of them on the depth chart and then probably both are gone after the season and the Jets revert to a more normal less controversial backup situation. BTW, both Rex and Idzik want heavy competition to bring out the best in everybody. You see Rex not praising Geno much and with two names still on the depth chart behind him to put pressure. Maybe that's exactly what the organization wants. It'd be the epitome of competition to have the starter heavily challenged by people not likely to get on the field.
The kid definetly showed some sack in that game wininng drive, was as calm as a 10 year pro, and pulled big mouth Rex's ass out of the fire, as his vaunted defense once again disappeared in crunch time. Here's hoping Smith can keep it up.
last nite we saw the geno the jets thought they were getting. high completion % big plays and no turn overs just like last years college stats. granted that wasnt the 85 bears he faced but its a huge step in the right direction. if he can string together a few games like that the arrow for this team will be pointing up with no ceiling to stop it. qb issue settled and a plethora of draft picks and some cap room to move. this team becomes a major contender in 1 year. cautiously optomistic but leaning more toward optimistic than cautious right now
He played some ok games in normal fall weather. WVU doesn't play a lot of games in severe weather for whatever reason. I think he's going to be ok in November rain and wind and December/January snow but we'll just have to wait for those events to see how he does. The blizzard bowl is way over-spun at this point. Nassib went 11/23 while Syracuse rushed the ball 65 times, which was the appropriate posture to take in that game. WVU had Geno take 33 dropbacks against 30 runs, which was not. So Geno gets killed for a bad performance but the simple facts were that the Air Raid is not designed to be run in a driving snowstorm.
He essentially played a game similar to how Russell Wilson did much of last year. He wasnt asked to carry the team. He was efficient, and didnt turn the ball over. Thats all this team needs. If we can limit the turnovers, we have a chance to be in every game. He showed great accuracy and was in total control of the offense. I really liked how Marty is involving Cumberland more. He's a clear mismatch. Everyone around the league is raving about Jordan Cameron and Julius Thomas as emerging stars, but IMO Cumberland has a similar talent level. If he can consistently catch the ball, he can be a serious threat. He is deceptively very fast, and once he hits stride, there isnt a linebacker that is sticking with him. I would like to see him mix in more play action, but I suppose thats more difficult/less effective when we are in shotgun. Overall great job by the offense. Loved pretty much everything about Geno's game tonight. Man, if we get some real weapons around him, this offense could be pretty damn good.
Yes I was one of the few who cared less about Gino's performance last week when he had all those turnovers. And then he proves me right by turning around and playing a gem of a game. Is he going to have more horrible turnover Laden games? Of course he will. But gentleman, we have a genuine diamond in the rough on our hands. Good times!
I don't see how they could bench him based on what we've seen. He's shown improvement every game, even if it hasn't shown up in the stat sheet. Those ints vs the titans were different than the ones he threw earlier in the year, which were mostly misreads. If you throw out the New England game (where Brady completed only 48% of his passes) Smith is completing 66% of his passes. Even if he royally screws the pooch, I don't see how this coaching staff could sit him.
Generally, Geno has been pretty good in cold weather games. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/5/5/4302992/2013-nfl-draft-geno-smith-pinstripe-bowl-syracuse
Geno had a good game, not going to crown him the next big thing at this point. I won't ride him too hard for errors in his rookie year, but unless he really lights it up over the rest of the season I'm not going to crown him the franchise either. A few points of perspective; some good, some bad. first a disclaimer. I consider all fumbles equal, whether they were lost or not. why? Fumble recovery is pretty much a 50/50 proposition. Advancednflstats.com compiled a list of every fumble from 2000 through week 10 of 2009 (the stats were compiled during the 2009 season). The findings? Roughly 50% of fumbles were lost on a whole, with a slight edge to the defense recovering the ball, about 51-52%. In other words who recovers the ball is basically a coin toss, so any ball put on the ground is basically flipping a coin on if it's a turnover or not. through his first 5 games played Geno has 8 interceptions, 8 TD's (1 rushing), and 3 fumbles (3 lost). He's completed 60.3% of his passes. (63.2%, 42.9%, 55.2%, 67.6%,80.0%). he's thrown for 1,289 yards with 1 game of 199 yards, 1 game 214 yards, 2 games between 250-300 yards, 1 game 311 yards. Now Geno has been disparaged, rightfully, for his picks and fumbles to date. Much of the most harsh has come from Sanchez fans, so I thought I'd look at Sanchez's first 5 games. Sanchez in his first 5 games had 5 interceptions, 6 TD's (one rushing), 5 fumbles (2 lost) Through 5 Games Geno has 8 Interceptions and 3 fumbles and 8 TD's. Through 5 Games Sanchez had 5 interceptions and 5 fumbles and 6TD's Through 5 games Geno has a completion percentage of 60.3% Through 5 games Sanchez had 55.9% (58.1%, 63.6%, 56.7%, 51.9%, 50.0%) Sanchez had 1 game over 200 yards in the air and had attempted only 134 passes (144 if you include drop backs that resulted in Sacks). Geno has attempted 156 passes (174 if you include Sacks) so he's dropped back on average 6 more times per game than Sanchez. (interesting side note, roughly 80% of QB fumbles occur in sacks so it's interesting to note that sanchez fumbled more often in fewer drop backs and fewer sacks). What does all of this tell us about Geno, or for that matter Sanchez at that stage of his career? Absolutely nothing, It just put's Geno's performance to date in to some sort of context. Time has told us that Sanchez never outgrew the fumbles or the turnovers or improved his completion rate, but at this early stage of his career he'd shown some good, and some bad. Much the same way that Geno has, to date, shown some good and some bad. It's also kind of worth noting that in Sanchez's 6th game he had a real stinker where he completed 35% of his passes, threw 5 picks and had a fumble. It will be interesting to see what Geno does next week. But again, it really doesn't mean much in terms of comparisons. you can argue that Geno has a better OC, but then on the other hand you have to admit that sanchez had a vastly superior Offensive line and vastly better, or at least more established, receivers. running game for both has been about equal overall and both have been supported by a very stout defensive performance, though I question some aspects of the defense, and I'll address that in a moment. But again, the comparison's mean nothing at this point in time, they are(were) both rookies who were(are) raw. We know about Sanchez, we wont know about Geno for some time (unless he really sucks for the remainder of the season). Interesting note brought up on MNF, only 2 rookie QB's had as many or more turnovers as Geno going in to their 5th games, Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning...I don't think Geno will be Leaf, I don't think he'll be Manning either, he'll be somewhere in the middle of the two...the question is which end of the spectrum he'll be closer to at the end of the season and through his first 3 seasons..assuming he doesn't wind up close to Leaf. Now, regarding the Jets as a whole. This team is 3-2 right now. But it is exactly 2 blown plays from being 1-4, the Stupid penalty in the Tampa Bay Game that gave the Jets the winning FG and the Foolish decision last night at the end of the first half that the Falcon's didn't take the FG to close the half. If the Falcon's coach doesn't go against football wisdom and takes the points going in to the half the Falcon's almost certainly win this game (jets won by fewer than 3 points). Which goes to show, one play in a game is often the difference between winning and losing, in these two cases it was poor decisions or plays by the other team that cost the games for them. Don't get me wrong, a win's a win and I'll take it. But I'm not going to fly high on a 3-2 record when the team could very easily be 1-4 save for 2 plays that really stand out. I love the front 7 of the Jets defense. But I do have concerns about the secondary, so far only the Falcon's have been a team that has a top end air game this season. (the Patriots should qualify here but the game the jets played against them was in horrible passing conditions and if your honest the secondary was beat a lot but receivers were dropping balls right in their hands left and right, so the stats look good against the pass in that game but the reality is the defense was beat frequently in that game and the Patriots almost beat themselves with dropped balls). of the other 3 games, one QB they faced not only lost his starting job but was cut from the team (Freeman), the other two teams (buffalo and Tennesee) both rank 25th and 27th in passing. It's probably also worth noting that the Falcon's were pretty banged up when we beat them yesterday, but that's only a minor knock since they still had Gonzalez and Jones. So while I'm sold on the pass rush and the run defense, I'm not sold on the pass defense at this point. But still, the Jets are 3-2 and I'm going to relish that since I was expecting 2-3 or 1-4 at this point...I really don't mind being wrong. And I'm probably not going to respond to anything in this post, I'm way too busy at my regular job, doctor's appointment's and doing a business start up. Besides, nothing really to defend here since there is nothing conclusive being stated, just observations put in to some sort of limited context.
Jets leading receivers by week: Bucs - Kellen Winslow Jr Pats - Stephen Hill Bills - Santonio Holmes Titans - Kellen Winslow Jr Falcons - Jeremy Kerley When you see that kind of spread it generally means the QB is the guy driving the offense. TD Passes Kellen Winslow - 2 Jeff Cumberland - 2 Santonio Holmes - 1 Stephen Hill - 1 Jeremy Kerley - 1 1st Downs Jeremy Kerley - 11 Santonio Holmes - 10 Kellen Winslow - 9 Stephen Hill - 8 Bilal Powell - 5 Jeff Cumberland - 4 Can't read defenses? Not likely.
Right now Geno's is higher than RGIII's from last yr. RG3 had 8.1 YPA while Geno has 8.3 YPA currently.
I think the record is out of site though, didn't look that far back but Ben Roethlisberger averaged 8.89 YPA in 2004. However Geno will likely pass him in attempts by the bye week. Steelers had Big Ben wrapped up in a rookie cocoon his first two years. Only 295 pass attempts in 14 games in 2004. Only 268 in 12 games in his second year.
Great point about Geno's YPA for the season. It's up there right now with guys like Peyton and Rodgers. To me, that shows how effective he has been at getting chunk yardage and big plays down the field. You seldom see that in a rookie QB and certainly not a rookie QB that is throwing the ball 30 times per game. Geno is a really good pure passer, I think that really stands out so far. Keep the turnovers down and I don't see how he doesn't become a very good NFL QB. He's just a good passer with a lot of arm talent and good mobility.
