Not ranking in individual years but combined. Like the most yards since 04 or 05, I forget starting when. Isn't being healthy a big part of being a "featured" back? What's the point of being great if you are not on the field? Not saying that you meant this but I don't think TJ should not have to apologize for being healthy; he puts a lot of effort off season for that specific reason. Curtis Martin is going into the HOF because he above all things stayed on the field.
TJ doesn't have to appoligize for anything. He is also not a great back. Durable yes, great no. We won last year when we got good QB play and lost last year when we didn't. They same has been true this year. TJ is the best we have at the moment who we can give the ball to 15 plus times a game. As long as Sanchez continues to play well we will be fine. The minute we have to depend on TJ to carry this team we will be lossing games to second tier teams.
In Jones first two years with the Jets he made a habit out of getting 3 yards on carries where there was no real hole and contact was made at LOS. For whatever reason that is not happening this year. When there is no hole to run through he is getting nothing. The Jets cannot continue to win games without an inside running game. I have no doubt that this has caught the coaching staffs attention and is being addressed in some way. I would love to see Shonne Green active and in the game even if it is just to see what he can do with the same blocking that Jones is getting.
Right and could you imagine what his ypg would be if he didn't bust off those 2 or 3 long runs? it would be horrendous. yeah...no problems there!
Man, some people's egos are so closely knitted to their team affiliations that putting players who are dependable and likable under the microscope equates to treason. Some of us have the amazing superhero abilities to enjoy the Jets success and observe and point out weaknesses AT THE SAME TIME. I for one don't do this out of hate, but on the contrary: I'm in fantasy land, pretending I'm the coach, wanting the best for my team. You don't get the best results by hiding under a pile of coats in the closet and hoping your problems disappear. It's perfectly understandable to want to take a patient approach in evaluating a guy who rushed for a billion yards last year, but every once in a while a feature back needs to make a fucking play. Make a move, break a tackle, show a little vision, see a hole or a cutback somewhere. Something. TJ looks awfully slow and sluggish right now, even for him, and fixing the run blocking isn't going to make him any quicker. Hopefully this doesn't hurt us too much down the road.
He'll have 120+ next week and over 1,000 by the time we play in Canada. And people will still be obsessed with his age (the most deceiving stat about him) and his apparent lack of production. The guy is one of the biggest gym rats and workhorses in the team's history and one of the quietest key contributors - 'quiet' being a mystery, considering his stats. Two years ago with one of the worst 0-lines ever, he was still top 10 for the league. Last year, he led the conference despite a having the hobbled Favre deep threat for the last 3rd of the season. This year, he's playing for his next contract - one of the biggest motivational factors for any athlete. He's bound to break out.
The thing most of us keep forgetting. I'm just not sure that it's realistic to expect us to be a dominant run team with NFL teams selling out so vigorously against the run when they play us. Having said that, however, I still think our O-line isn't playing up to their potential and needs to step it up if we want to be the kind of team that we can be.
"Objectively" speaking, TJ is a 5'10" 212 lb running back who style of running has been the same every year. He's patient a the LOS and waits for the plays to develop. When there are holes, he will look great. When there aren't, he will look like he's dancing. This style seem to have done him and the teams he's played for pretty well the last few years. I don't see why it's an issue now. I wished my pillow laced with hallucinogens. Yes I say I have no problem with our running game when our primary runningback has 14 carries for 20 yards because looking at it "objectively" I can see: 1. It was against one of the best rushing defenses in the league. A defense which allowed 36 and 63 yards rushing respectfully in their first 2 games. 2. We have a rookie QB 3. We do not have or better yet are not playing any WRs that can stretch the field and keep the defense honest. 4. TJ gets the majority of his carries on running downs. 5. Defenses are putting 8-9 men in the box to stop the run 6. It's only been 3 games Like I said I'm not afraid to admit that I may be an idiot and could be completely wrong. Time will tell though. Lastly, the tone in your threads doesn't seem as if you are relaxed. Then again I may not be reading them "objectively".
Join the club. I was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in 1968 and did a combat tour in the Mekong Delta in 1969 as an infantry advisor with the ARVNs. Received the bronze star & CIB. I have a story published in "Chicken Soup For The Veteran's Soul" about my experience there. Not really looking to give you a psychological review man... not my bag. But I'll tell you this, Phear...none of us are the same afterwards, me included. That's just the way it is. Your wife sounds like my wife at the time too. She divorced me in 1986 but I got custody of my kids, so I've been through enough battles domestic and foreign. After 15 years of heavy drinking, drugs, (some of that at Jets games even), I'm happily married to a wonderful woman who comes from a military family and knows the score. She's very understanding and loves our Jets and going to Jets games, which makes her okay in my book. Not meaning to get personal, but there really is life after the military even if you had a tough time of it over there. "Welcome home" from this dirty old Vietnam paratrooper.
I might be willing to go along with that but by Rex Ryan making comments about it (last week and this week), I'm inclined to believe there probably is something wrong. I'm not a big proponent of fixing things that aren't broken but by the same token we can't expect Sanchez to pull off 3rd and longs all season long. Even Faneca said that we need to make more out of the 1st and 2nd downs, so even he knows we have to do something. I think the answer is going to be to inject Greene into the mix whenever we have to go up the middle and see what happens. If he comes up with the same 2 YPC then we know it's all the other factors and not TJ. But I also think the injection of Greene into the game iwll raise TJ's performance too. They would probably both feed off of that, both wanting to get the job done and show their worth still.
He doesn't 'look like' he's dancing. He is dancing. Doing a neat little jig to avoid having to put a shoulder into a defender so that he can cash in to Seattle or some other team once the Jets cut him after this season. Leon is smaller than he is and he fought through more tackles than 'big guns gym rat TJ' did yesterday. You can call it 'patience' if you want, but Curtis Martin never danced a jig behind the O-line waiting for something to develop. Curtis had a similar running style to TJ, the difference being that he had the balls to hit a defender and try to drive for another yard or two. I know TJ has those balls. I saw it last season. He's just not using them. He has them on a shelf in his locker with a label reading 'Do Not Open Until Xmas'. I'll come back to you on Thursday after I break down the running game and we'll see what happened, but so far he isn't performing as far as I can tell.
I tend to agree with this. It's almost like I'm seeing a little "hop" at the LOS right before he disappears into the pile for 1-2 yards. I'd really like to see Richardson or Greene share equal carries with TJ just for the hell of it.
Thomas Jones like most rb's lacks vision. i.e. he seems to have tunnel vision. From what I've been able to see he pretty much runs the play that is called and if the play breaks down he doesn't try to play make. I can understand his mentality. Play it safe and don't fumble for a 2 yard gain, and he really doesn't fumble. As for the hop. I think he's trying to let the play develop but his timing just seems to be off. A franchise running back sees the broken down play and adjusts to it. He looks and usually finds another opening. Barry Sanders never had a great oline to work with, yet he consitently found holes in the defense. Another example of this was with Chris Johnson on Sunday. There was one play (3rd quarter IIRC) where he ran right into a mountain of jets on the left side and he was stuffed. If he had just looked a little to his right - up the middle there was a hole so big you could drive a bus through it. I guess they don't call him Mr. Outside for nothing. But it became evident that the jets started to cheat him on the outsides.
This is the concern. Right now we've been able to beat teams we're not supposed to be beating. Some of this has been a whole hell of a lot of luck and a lot of it has been great defense and STs. But if we should happen to make the playoffs, we aren't going deep into them with all the 3rd and longs on every drive. It's too much to ask of Sanchez or any QB, for that matter. That's the main reason why we allowed 17 unanswered points yesterday... our drives stalled like hell until ST bailed us out of the funk. So yeah, this has to get fixed or we have to find a way to force teams to stop stacking or both. Either way, teams down the road will be tuned into this and soon it will become a blueprint for beating us, just like the Giants' blueprint for what we did to Brady last week... rush him, get in his face and make him commit errors. If we don't want to see this happen to Sanchez, we've got to start running the ball.
The problem I see this year vs. last year is that last year the offensive line wasn't creating lanes for Jones... this year they ARE opening holes for him, and he's just running straight into the pile. The defense knows he's going to touch the ball most of the time when he's in, and they crowd up on the LOS and come flying in the second he touches the ball because he's not that fast. Unlike last year, the Jets really haven't show anything to keep defenses honest and keep them backed off of the LOS. Jones is going to become a severe liability if he doesn't start hitting the hole with more authority and vision.
I think you're right. Remember the Patriots game, 2nd half? Sanchez comes out and torches them on the first play. He torched them a couple of more times too and then they got the hint. And we passed our way into somewhat of a run game that way, at least we got them off the LOS with so many guys. We can continue doing that but it won't take the place of having a legit hole pounder. I still say I'd love to have a Brandon Jacobs-like guy but maybe Shonn Greene is that guy and we just don't know it yet. Put him in and let's see what we've got. It's the obvious thing to do and it's not like we don't have that option. Maybe the solution is right there in Greene.
I think Greene is the solution... it's just a matter of when they finally start using him. I'm willing to still be patient because we obviously have no idea if Greene is still hurt or not... but the mere fact that he wasn't on the injury report AND was activated for this past game makes me believe he's ready to go. I think it's time to see what the kid can do. If Jones continues to rush the way he did against the Titans it's going to ultimately cost us a game at some point.
Let's not fail to add to the equation that Jones has been disgruntled as of late. For some reason, he thinks he's got a lot of years left and should still get a contract from somebody. I think Abyzmul is onto something and the only way to find out is put in Greene (if he's ready) or even Richardson for a few. You know Tony isn't going to screw around... that guy is a player.
If you recall, prior to the half, I believe our second to last possession, TJ started gashing them for 7-10 yards chunks at a time before the possesion stalled and we were forced to kick a FG. Our only scoring drive in the half. For whatever reason, we did not go back to that power running game in the second half. Leon got the bulk of the carries from that point on. Are you related to Greene? Every post ends with some reference to playing Greene. Not to be mean but I think we got it; you want the Jets to play Greene more.
