I was going through my team on Yahoo! and noticed that this was Leon's note after our game. It's pretty damn accurate.
Yahoo made mention of it too and linked to this: Jets can end West Coast blues vs. Seattle Gang Green needs to use Washington more -- a lot more By Michael Salfino / SNY.tv Buzz up! print this pageprint email this pageemail Leon Washington had only two touches from scrimmage vs. Buffalo in the Jets' narrow win Sunday. (AP) • Stat Power Index - Through Week 15 I was all prepared to say the Jets are the second worst team in the AFC East and they'll somehow still likely win it, but that's unfair. And not because the worst team in the division, the Bills, should have beaten them Sunday. My own stat power rankings has them 17th overall, slightly ahead of Miami and New England. Thus, the Jets are more fairly described as a leading mediocrity among mediocrities. The Dolphins are darlings now, but they've squeaked by most weeks. The Patriots have a terrible pass defense (24th in yards per pass attempt allowed). Plus they're just 21st in yards allowed per rush. Last week was some sort of miracle. That's a game the Jets have spent their existence losing. They're the team that, after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, engenders the question, "What on earth were they thinking?" Last week, they benefited from it in a battle of coaching acumen that could best be described as a race to the bottom. Abe Elam saved the day with his blitz of J.P. Losman. Fortunately, Shaun Ellis found the handle after the ball was stripped and barreled into the end zone because the Jets were not going to score a winning touchdown no matter where they recovered the ball. Consider they didn't have a single first down in the fourth quarter of the game, yet scored 10 points in the period to win it. Incredible. We're going to get to Jets-Seahawks in the prediction below. But first, I must again say what I'm sick of saying because it's so obvious: Leon Washington needs to be used more. Why are the Jets so stubbornly clueless about deploying their greatest weapon? If Dr. Oppenheimer's Manhattan Project handed Eric Mangini and Brian Schottenheimer the atomic bomb during World War II, we'd all be speaking German now. Maybe Japanese. I dare anyone, even Mangini and Schottenheimer, to declare that Washington is not the team's most explosive offensive force. You know who leads the NFL with nine plays of 40 yards or more? Leon Washington! OK, we're counting kick returns, which isn't fair, but he does have four of those long plays from scrimmage. That's hard to do when you get two (TWO!) touches a game like Washington did against Buffalo. I'm running out of ways to say this. Let's try it this way. The object of every defense in the NFL is to figure out a way to neutralize the opposing team's greatest offensive weapon. To defuse him, if you will. That's what defensive coordinators spend weeknights in their offices obsessing about between short naps on their cots while their wives and kids are left at home to fend for themselves. But the Jets coaching staff does this for them. The Jets coaching staff voluntarily takes the ball out of the hands of their best offensive player. I long have held the Strat-O-Matic principle when it comes to assessing coaching decisions. There's a belief that coaches will do anything to win. That's not true. Winning is very important to them. But more important to them (because it's more likely to quickly cost them their jobs) is avoiding losing unconventionally. So while a Strat-O-Matic coach will go for it on fourth-and-1 from midfield with a narrow lead in the final minutes, the real NFL coach won't 99 percent of the time. Going for it, of course, does maximize your chance of winning the game, which is what both coaches should most want. But going for it also maximizes your chance for losing in a way that's unconventional (in the NFL) and thus having to answer questions more defensively in a postgame media barrage that Strat coaches need not endure. Here's how this comes into play with Washington: Thomas Jones is a conventional back. He's fifth in the league in rushing and has 14 touchdowns. He does the things that conventional football people (i.e., most of the NFL media) think is most important: run the ball well between the tackles. If you give Washington a bigger role, Jones will gripe and the media will take his side. Then, you better win or else. No one is barking at Mangini for essentially benching Washington, a superior player, even though many of these same people will say that Washington is again the Jets most valuable player. So, it's much more conservative (i.e., safe) to stick with the status quo (Jones doing those conventional things). Washington thus gets mere crumbs and the Jets coaches hope he can still manage to bake a soufflé. Watching the game again Tuesday on tape, I was struck that on a key fourth-quarter sequence that could have salted a win that was absolutely critical to their season, Washington was on the bench. And not just on first and second down when the run was in play. But on third-and-two from the shotgun (passing) on the Buffalo 12 up 21-20 in the fourth quarter. Washington is not even the third-down back now? That actually is not only merely stupid but unconventional enough raise the ire of even shallow football thinkers. Prediction time: This is Mike Holmgren's final home game, though I doubt anyone in Seattle cares, including the Seahawks. No Matt Hasselbeck (even though he's been terrible even when healthy enough to play); Seneca Wallace is the quarterback again this week. Seattle's defense has shown some signs of at least mediocrity of late. But the Jets offense can make any defense look good right now when Favre is off. The Seahawks are also without stalwart left tackle Walter Jones. This is not a bad matchup for a Jets defense that really can't cover because the Seahawks have trouble protecting the passer (24th in sack percentage) throwing downfield (29th in offensive YPA). The Jets are limping towards the finish line. I can't see how anyone can feel very good about them winning any game right now, but Seattle is just awful. Vegas has the Jets as a 4.5-point favorite. My index says it should be exactly that on the merits. (No surprise since I'm certain that the bookmakers use the same stats.) Plus the Jets need the game and the Seahawks are thinking about next year with a new coaching staff. Discount the silly travel factor. Playing on the West Coast isn't a big deal because it requires no body clock adjustment. The Jets are playing Sunday at 4:05 ET, which they sometimes do on the East Coast. Jets 24, Seahawks 20.
While I agree in principle, it is hard to accept anything a media outlet/journalist writes when they use incorrect grammar (it is THEIR job to use correct grammar). They should take a lesson in the differences between THERE, THEIR, and THEY'RE. "Recommendation: Washington made 14 yards on his three carries...but that's there problem, not ours."
I agree in general no doubt. But I think in those conditions and for that game, Thomas Jones should have gotten the ball until he passed out. Then we should have started dumping passes off to him.
it seems like the entire world is screaming for leon to be more involved and mangini won't do it because it will make it seem like he is taking advice from fans and press....i think he over thinks everything way too much. When asked a few weeks ago he said leon not getting touches means Thomas Jones in and that is just as good...so explain why they had 20 combined touches on Sunday asshole!
against Seattle it was wise b/c he was ineffective in the slippery conditions. The rest of the season it's been mind boggling.
Like I said in another thread. We have a two headed running monster in Thomas Jones & Leon Washington. I see a problem when you can't use the other monster to destroy the other teams defense.
Leon had 3 crries for 14 yards.. He isnt just a speed guy, he can take the hits as well and would of been fine with more carries.
Did you see him try to run in those slipepry conditions? He can take a hit but his game is based on quick cuts which wasn't possible Sunday. He didn't even have a good return on STs and he always does. There's no question Leon needs more tocuhes in most weeks but last week I had no problem w/ not using him as much.
In the Seattle game, I would like to have seen more Jones and Richardson, because of the conditions. But the Buffalo game... Leon should have been all over that game. I have really begun to hate Brian Schottenheimer.
Did you see anyone try to run in those conditions? Why do you think they wear cleats? How can anyone cover anyone or a WR run a route if it's impossible to make a cut? Just because Leon is slowed down a bit doesn't mean he still isn't faster than everyone else who also got slowed down. Whatever, it doesn't matter now. Maybe the Jets will get a coach next year that will actually use their best player.
One of, if not the most important attribute Leon has is his ability to cut/juke and quickly change directions. The slippery conditions pretty much eliminate that ability and make him much less effective than normal.
Have you ever seen Leon run? His success in the ground game is predicated upon fast feet, razor-cuts and quick bursts of speed to get to the open field. During his returns, it was all he could do to keep his legs under him. Running the ball more would have been smart, but I don't think Leon would have been the difference.
a guy like that SHOULD have the advantage. if he does not he needs to learn how to run in those conditions. wes welker didnt have much trouble being a quick cut guy in new england on sunday, conditions were pretty similar other than the ice on the field in new england. as an offensive player you know where you are going and the defense must react putting them in a predictament. leon should be out manuevering everyone in those situations. i do not remember his runs, but if you guys say he was not performing well in the conditions i have to believe you at this point. but in that case he needs to learn how to keep his feet below himself and cut without going out of control.
Hm...Leon's got more touches than at any point in his career...he's got more TD's than any point in his career...he's got more receptions...more carries than last year despite the fact that he's running behind one of the leading backs in the NFL this year...they got rid of a Pro Bowl KR to get this guys touches in the return game... I'll say that...people will ignore it or bash it...and that'll be that. The vicious TGG cycle. Keep hope dead.
He's got 107 toughes from scrimmage in 15 games this year. That's a shade over 7 touches a game. That's disgraceful and it has nothing to do with the weather either. He had 3 touches in the loss to SD in September. He had 5 touches in the loss to Denver. He had 2 touches in the win in Buffalo that nearly wasn't. Face it, the Jets have badly underutilized their most explosive asset on offense all year long, it's one of the reasons they're in trouble now. If you made an accurate list of all the mistakes Mangini's coaching staff have made this year it would astound you, however the underutilization of Leon Washington alone would probably be enough to sink the Jets. BTW, he had 6 touches in the loss to the Raiders. Morons.
You simply cannot change directions as quickly as Leon usually does in those conditions. It's not possible.
Your problem is you keep using mediocrity as the baseline. "Well, he had more touches than last year, or any other point in his 3 year career..." Well he should. It's year 3; he's supposed to get more as he gets better, which he has. But more doesn't equal enough. Is 7 touches per game enough? "Well, it's more than 4, which is what he averaged the past two years, but let's just ignore that..." Again, mediocrity as the baseline. Unbelievable. You are a typical Jets fan who is satisfied with mediocrity.
