Watching the game again, Clemens impressions

Ok, after a couple of days reflection I decided to watch the game again to see what I missed the first time. I was mainly watching Clemens and the Jets line to see what was happening in the change from the first half to the last quarter and a half.

First off, Clemens holds onto the ball with the best of them. He was blindsided 3 times in under 2 seconds and he kept the ball all 3 times. That includes two defensive backs trying to strip him unsuccessfully. He rolls away from both of those hits and covers up.

He's much better in the shotgun than under center mainly because he gets an extra half second before the pressure begins to collapse the pocket. There was no point during the game where the Jet's offensive line held up for back to back passes but he did get four seconds about a half dozen times during the game. he made an extra 2 seconds on the first half play where Ivy whiffed on him but then almost threw an Int with it.

The Ravens blitz was very effective all day. They got to Clemens consistently and applied pressure. They took him down twice as he was releasing the ball and it could easily have been a 6 sack outing.

Now on to individual plays:

1st quarter - 2nd possession - 1st and 10

Clemens under center. Samari Rolle is juking up close to the line and looking as though he's going to bump and run on Coles. Clemens looks over that way and Rolle suddenly drops back 5 yards into a slant coverage, cheating slightly inside. As Clemens looks away Rolle rushes back up tight on Coles as he sniffs out the quick out. Clemens takes the snap turns to throw and sees Rolle right there. He pulls it down and cuts up for a yard. Rolle punches the air in disgust and then kicks it for emphasis. he had a pick and 7 and he knew it and the ball never came his way. Great read by Clemens on that one.

1st quarter - 2nd possession - 3rd and 7

Clemens in the shotgun. McCareins running a fly pattern down the right sideline inexplicably stops and stuttersteps as he jukes to get past McAlister. Clemens overthrows him by three yards. The announcers said that McCareins had not been going fullout on the pattern but it was the stutterstep that caused the problem. This is strike 1 on McCareins as a competent route runner takes that ball over his shoulder and goes 78 yards for a TD.

1st quarter - 3rd possession - 3rd and 8

The play before Jones gets caught 4 yards deep in the back field turning a 2nd and 4 into 3rd and 8. Clemens rushes the Jets up to the line of scrimmage and catches the Ravens with 12 men on the field. 3rd and 3 now, much more manageable. That could have been Schotty yelling "go-go-go" in his ear. Clemens then throws a short middle to Coles for 7 yards and the first 1st down of the game for the Jets.

1st quarter - 3rd possession - 3rd and 4

Clemens in the shotgun. The Ravens blitz a DB up the middle and Suggs from the Jet's right side and Clemens gets forced up into the pocket on the run. He's looking like he's scrambling but Jones is open to his left and he passes to him just before he hits the line of scrimmage and Jones rumbles for 22. Very heady play and under a lot of pressure from Suggs. The announcers said the Jets linemen had it handled but 2 mississippi and on the run is not handled in my book.

2nd quarter - no plays of note, the Ravens monopolize the ball on two long drives and Clemens is sacked on both the Jets drives effectively cutting them off. For the record Clemens had 5 mississipi between the two sacks, that's just not enough to do anything other than dump off the ball and it's hard to dump against the Ravens because their linebackers are so quick.

3rd quarter - The Ravens are blitzing DB's and LB's every other down. Clemens has the least time to throw that he gets all day. I count to two missisippi on only a few plays before Clemens is flushed or down. He does begin to hook up with Jerrico Cotchery though finding him a couple of times amid the mayhem.

4th quarter - Down 20-3 the Jets have obviously decided they cannot throw against the Raven today because they're not getting enough time in the pocket. The first two plays of the 4th quarter are Jones up the middle for a total of 3 yards. Down by 17 points... Bollinger Redux...

Now to the plays:

4th quarter - 1st possession - 3rd and 7

Clemens under center. Drops back and throws a bullet to Cotchery for 8 and a 1st down. Who handled Terrell Suggs blitz, pushing him outside and giving Clemens two seconds to deliver the ball? Chris Baker. That's where the 1st down came from. Baker handled Suggs while D'Brick stayed on Ngata.

Clemens and Coles do not have chemistry yet. Coles fell down on a couple of routes and generally seemed out of sync most of the game. He did draw a key pass interference call from Rolle on the first scoring drive (field goal) of the 4th quarter.

4th quarter - 2nd possession - 3rd and 11

On first down Leon Washington bobbled a well-delivered screen which almost turned into 6 for Terrell Suggs. On 2nd down Jones goes into the line for -1. So it's do or die on the Jet's 18 on 3rd down and so far Clemens doesn't have a lot to show for the day other than bumps and bruises courtesy of the Jet's inept pass protection and the Ravens very quick pass rush.

Clemens in the shot gun. Drops back and throws a bullet to the right sideline to McCareins, who inexplicably catches the ball for a 1st down at the marker. I keep looking at that play and trying to figure out how McCareins looked so much like a real NFL receiver for a play.

Next play: Clemens from the shotgun. Gets protection steps up and throws a 21 yard strike to Cotchery who tacks on 23 yards after the fact. The ball gets there so fast that Cotchery and the safety on him (Ivy) have just turned. Cotchery makes the catch and splits, leaving Ivy chasing him down. Somebody goes flying by Cotchery a split-second after the catch and misses the tackle completely. Ed Reed. How many throws make Ed Reed look like a fool?

Then Clemens to Coles on the sideline for 8, another laser. The next play he gets flushed out of the pocket by a bull rush straight up the middle and running right throws a catchable ball to McCareins but it would take a good catch to scoop it and McCareins comes up short.

4th quarter - 2nd possession - 3rd and 1 from the Bal 18

Clemens under center. Ray Lewis is standing right over Mangold's head and Ed Reed is moving up for a safety blitz right next to him. Clemens tries to audible the Jets out of the play and then signals for a timeout but the 40 second clock is down to zero and the Jets take a delay of game penalty. It's the first real mistake he's made since the near interception on the rollout in the 1st quarter but it's an understandable one. No way the Jets contain Lewis, Gregg and Reed all coming up that gap. Not the way this line is playing.

Ok, 3rd and 6 now. The Ravens double up a blitz again over the right tackle with 2 linebackers coming from that side and Clemens throws incomplete to the left sideline and it's clearly a throwaway although there's a receiver in the vicinity.

4th quarter - 2nd possession - 4th and 6 on Bal 23

Clemens in the shotgun. Ravens blitz 3 and drop 2 linemen in a short zone. they overload the left side with Nagata, Suggs and Jarrett Johnson. It's gonna be a sack, no, Chris Baker picks up Johnson and pushes him outside. Clemens rifles a ball at Cotchery 9 yards down field and he's wide freaking open as Ivy is too slow covering, velocity is next to godliness in the redzone and Cotch takes the ball to the 2.

4th quarter - 2nd possession - 3rd and goal on the 3

1st down was a sneak that got a yard. 2nd down was Moore's disappearing act that lost 2 as Jones ran into 3 purple jerseys in the backfield. Now it's time to score.

Clemens in the shotgun. Nobody blocks Mike Ivy on a safety blitz from the left and he comes free on a dead run at Clemens, who turns and lofts the ball to the opposite sideline to Chris Baker. Touchdown. No time to set at all, just throw it, and you have to have an arm to make that throw.

BTW, Clemens was great on Sunday. He outperformed our expectations with a lousy offensive line performance and a resulting spotty run game. He had very little time to throw the ball on the majority of his plays and he repeatedly had people coming free on him and he held onto the ball. The guy I'd tag as the MVP though was not him and it was not Cotchery. It was Chris Baker who blocked the guys they asked him too and then caught the ball that was thrown in desperation because he was not there to block yet another guy coming free from that side.

Ok, we all know what happened next. Justin McCareins completed one of the worst days a Jet's receiver has ever had by dropping two TD passes that would have tied the game. This after lousy route running cost the Jets a potential TD on their 2nd possession. It's pretty clear that if McCareins had had his best day instead of one of his worst the Jets would have upset the Ravens in Baltimore. Clemens would be the QB right now.

It's probably a wash though because Clemens will be back on the field again soon and I think we're going to be shocked by how good a QB he really is.

 

Watch the game again. McAlister did not go down and did not touch McCareins at all on the play. He just stopped when McCareins did and then started again when McCareins did and the ball went over both of their heads.

I just reconfirmed this.

A professional player on a fly NEVER stops his momentum because he's on a 4 second timer to get to his spot and any stop is going to cause an overthrow, which is what happened.

If McCareins thought he needed to juke then he had to use his hips and keep going. Stutterstepping is for amateurs because all it does is slow you down. It's a playground move and a particularly bad one on a deep pattern.

 

That quickout has no secondary reads that I've seen. Chad threw the lateral into double coverage against New England in the playoffs because that's where the ball is supposed to go.

Think of it this way: it's a pitchout to a wide receiver. If the pitch isn't there the QB tucks the ball down and runs, or should do that.

 

One of the reasons it has no secondary reads is that the QB only takes a one step drop before throwing the ball. That gives no opportunity for anything else to develop.

I agree with you that it's a poorly designed play for this offense, however that's mainly because it works much better if the offense is effectively pounding the ball inside and forcing the linebackers and a safety into the box on running downs.

This play has not worked particularly well for the Jets since Curtis and the Jets offensive line declined at the same time. It used to be worth 5 or 6 yards and maybe 15 if Coles got by the first tackler. Now it's kind of routinely covered and worth 3 or 4 yards. And it has very high disaster potential as the lateral showed us.

 

The announcers initially drew attention to the fact that McCareins had not been going all out on the play. On further examination there's no turn at all in the stutterstep. On a stop and go you're trying to get the defensive back to bite on a possible curl and then go around him. In this case McCareins just stuttersteps 3 times and then goes outside of McAlister.

If he was running a stop and go he did that terribly also, however it looks like a fly and it was thrown like a fly.