I made this point many times in the offseason and this season and it looks like one of the talking-heads also decided to write about it. Seems like a good topic of discussion away from the Chad discussion, which has been beaten to death http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...=cr-steelersdefense101107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns . Granted, the Jets pre-Mangini weren't nearly as good as the Steelers were pre-Tomlin, but there are some striking parallels. Last year's defense stunk too- anytime your defense is described as "bend, don't break" it's not a good thing. It's NO different this year.
Mangini kept Sutton, but brought in Shottenheimer. Yes the Jets changed to a 3-4, but it not like they were a top defense when they were running a 4-3. 3-4 isn't meant to be a bend, but don't break, unfortunately, that what the Jets look like now.
The 4-3 may not have been a top defense...but it was also very young and every single one of the top playmakers were MADE to play in a 4-3 1 gap type scheme.
At least when the Jets played in the 4-3, they had the ability to get big plays out of the front 7. Now, the front 7 are basically blocking dummies for opposing offensive lines. The changing of coordinators isn't the important part of that bolded part, its the forcing of the 3-4 on a team that wasn't even remotely ready for it. It required a lot of humility by Tomlin to not assume "his" system was the best.
Our defense at that time was weak. Tomlin was taking over the reminance of a top 3 defense, it is like comparing apples to oranges.
2004 was 3 years ago and we just got rid of our best pass rusher at the time and that was when we were still having problems with a pass rush, in 2005 our run D was so bad that it made our pass D look good and that year we were killed with injuries on the offensive side not the defense.
The D gave up one td today -- and the offense was awful. Its not all chads fault -- but hes a huge problem. Change now.
In 2004 we had a good defensive coordinator in Donnie Henderson and a NT in Jason Ferguson. Bob Sutton stinks and we don't have a true space eater, this is why the run defense is in inconsistent
my point exactly. bring back donnie henderson. get rid of sutton. he hasn't shown anything remotely resembling a top tier defense in this league. henderson at least had our secondary playing on all cylanders, sutton can't fire up anybody off with his head
We were 1 year removed from being a top 5 defense and had most of the same players from that top 5 D.
All of them now 3 years older, and they weren't that good to begin with. The 2004 defense was a high-risk unit. It was top 5 but could just as easily have been bottom 5. It wasn't a foundation for consistant success.
Just as easily could have been bottom 5? how so? that D almost carried us to a Championship Game and heading into year 1 w/ Mangini they were all 1 year removed fom that season and our best players thrived in a 4-3. I like Mangini and still think he'll turn out to be a big time coach but that was his biggest blunder.
The announcers yesterday were making a big deal of the fact that Mangini laughs when he sees people write about the fact that we run a 3-4. We don't. We run a modified 4-3 and there are 4 people on the line far more often then 3. If that is the case then there is no excuse at all why this team's defense sucks as bad as it does other then lousy coaching.
It was a high-risk, blitz-happy defense, like last year's. When things go your way these defences are magic, but when they don't you're toast. Fortunately in 04 and 06 things worked out, but the next years (05 and 07) the DCs reigned in the blitzing and saw a reduction in performance. It was less risky, but lower reward. 05 and 07 defenses also suffer(ed) from too much time on the field, which the 04 and 06 defences were largely spared.
Right because it must be the coaching, it couldn't be that the players just stink. Just how many pro-bowlers does this defense have?
By 1 year removed, I assume that you are talking about the 2004 team, right? Here was the defense: DE: Ellis / Abraham / Trevor Johnson / Bryan Thomas DT: Furgeson / Robertson / Reed / Josh Evans LB: Barton / Hobson / Vilma / Cowart / McClover CBs: Abraham / Barrett / Buckley / Strait / Celestin S: Coleman / Tongue / McGraw In the next two(?) seasons, the Jets would trade Abraham and McGraw (both injury-prone players, lose Ferguson (overpaid by Dallas) and Reed in FA, and jettison Johnson, Evans, Cowart, Buckley, Strait, Celestin and Tongue. And, Thomas was a bust at DE. Any way you look at it, the Jets had to start over on defense. In 2005 TC, you had a DE that could play in the 4-3 or 3-4 (Ellis), a DT (Robertson) that had one good season in the 4-3 (2004), one decent CB and Vilma. Essentially, when Mangini came in you had your 2nd best player (Vilma) suited to the 4-3 and that was about it. I don't think any coach would say, let's build a defense around Robertson and Vilma. Yes, Vilma was an all-pro alternate, but no one was lauding Robertson after the 2005 season. As a 4-3 D-line, you had a pro bowler and serviceable pentrating DT, no RE (as Abraham was on his way out) and Pouha and Lance Legree had done nothing. Barton and Hobson were nothing special at LB. The only CB (Ty Law had a one-year deal and was leaving) worth keeping, Barrett could play one-on-one and is a good tackler. The S were nothing to right home about (Coleman had an above average rookie year and has done nothing since.)
(I am only bumping this because I would like to hear other people's opinions on the 4-3, 3-4 switch based on personnel that the Jets had at the time.)
When was our defense magic last year? we got torched against decent teams and played well against bad ones. Our D was brutal the first half of the year but as the sched got easier and we faced worse O's we got better. The only difference in talent at the start of last year from the 2004 playoffs was no Ferg at DT and no Tongue and Abraham in the secondary but Rhodes was obvuiously a big upgrade to Tongue and dyson and Abe were equal.
