Jets Team report

GreenMachine · Nov 26, 2008

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...8-nfl-nyj&prov=sportsxchange&type=team_report

Jets Team Report

Yahoo! Sports 6 hours, 13 minutes ago

When the Jets play visiting Denver on Sunday, the game will be at 4:15 p.m. It will be the Jets? first game with that starting time since Oct. 19 at Oakland.

That game was quite memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

In a subdued locker room that day, several players talked about ?self-inflicted wounds? as they wondered how they could have lost to the Raiders, a dysfunctional, penalty-prone squad.

But maybe if it hadn?t been for that 16-13 overtime loss, the Jets might not have won all five games since.

The Oakland loss ?might have woke us up a little bit,? left guard Alan Faneca admitted Sunday in the afterglow of a 34-13 victory over Tennessee. ?We didn?t play our best. ? And when you know you didn?t play your best, that hits home.?

On a Monday conference call featuring several Jets, cornerback Darrelle Revis also reflected on the Jets? most recent loss.

?(In) the Oakland game,? he said, ?I think as a team we didn?t put pressure on them. We let them off the hook. They took advantage of it. They made plays that we didn?t make. They outplayed us that day.?

When asked what adjustments the Jets made after that game, Revis replied, ?The only adjustment that we made was on us. We pointed the finger at everybody on the team. It all falls on us. We have to go out there and complete a whole game. We can?t go out there and have mental errors and mistakes. We have to have a complete game and be consistent in our play on the field.?

The Jets didn?t quite do that the very next week, but fortunately for them, they were playing Kansas City. Brett Favre atoned for throwing an interception that put the Jets behind by driving them for the winning score.

That momentum carried into November, which has included road victories over Buffalo, New England and Tennessee, all of which have winning records. In fact, each team was leading its division at the time the Jets faced it.

?We just have to take every week seriously,? nose tackle Kris Jenkins said after the Tennessee game. ?It never eases up. It never gets easy.?

On Sunday, the Jets (8-3) will host yet another team atop its division. Of course, Denver (6-5) is fortunate that it plays in the AFC West, where the Broncos are the only team above .500. In fact, Denver is coming off a shocking loss to?you guessed it ?Oakland, and the Broncos likely are doing plenty of soul-searching this week, much like the Jets did five weeks ago.

?Every week there?s plenty of examples of one team that?s highly favored over another team, and the other team wins,? coach Eric Mangini said. ?Every team that we play is talented. It doesn?t take very many mistakes to dramatically change advantages that you may have or emphasize strengths that they have. I?ve been part of those, too, where you may go into the game feeling very good about your matchups and come out of the game shaking your head.?

Fullback Tony Richardson said, ?I think the biggest thing is that we?re making improvements, but we still have a long way to go. I think a lot of guys are in (Monday and) I know I was in (Monday) to watch film. There are so many things that we can get better at. That?s encouraging, the fact that we can go into a hostile environment the last two weeks and be able to pull out a victory. We still have a lot more room to improve.?

Notes, Quotes

? SS Eric Smith hasn?t played or practiced since Oct. 26, when he left the game against Kansas City because of lingering effects from two concussions within a month. On Monday, coach Eric Mangini was asked if Smith played too soon after his first concussion. Smith suffered one on his much-discussed helmet-to-helmet hit on Arizona?s Anquan Boldin on Sept. 28, and the second one against Oakland on Oct. 19, his next game.

?With all injuries, we follow the same process,? Mangini said. ?We always put the player?s safety first. That?s not going to change. Eric continues to make progress. Whether it?s his injury or anybody else?s, we?re not going to push the players back in before we think they?re absolutely healthy. It?s the same with (kicker) Mike (Nugent), (linebacker) David Harris, (tight end) Bubba Franks and all those guys. I?m very confident in our medical staff and the things that they do. We?ve worked hard in the process of constantly improving that department and being as sound as we can be and trying to be the best in the NFL, ideally in all of sports.?

Mangini added that with Smith, ?We?ve gone through all the steps that we had in place, and we continue to work through those steps. Eric?s making progress. We?re hoping to see more of him here this week and maybe into the weekend.?

? When NFL teams are ahead by a comfortable margin in the fourth quarter, they usually turn to a bruising running back to grind the clock. And while Thomas Jones had 37 of his 96 rushing yards in the final quarter, it was 5-foot-8 teammate Leon Washington who had two touchdown runs in that period, from 61 and 4 yards.

?We kind of wore them down,? Washington said, giving credit to his offensive line, including on the long run. ?I think (right tackle Damien) Woody and (right guard) Brandon Moore did a really good job sealing the backside off and I hit the hole one-on-one with the safety and that?s what I?m paid to do, make big plays like that. The hole was wide open and I tried to run as fast as I could.?

? Tennessee CB Cortland Finnegan took a shot at QB Brett Favre when he jammed him when Favre lined up at wideout in the Jets? ?Wildcat? formation, but Favre took it in stride.

?I knew he was going to try to do that,? a smiling Favre said later. ?I didn?t get hurt. I?ve been hit a lot harder, no offense to him.?

?I wanted to take him out, but he said I didn?t hit very hard,? said Finnegan with a smile, adding, ?no free passes. This is a ruthless game out there.?

But he said he wasn?t trying to hurt the legendary QB.

?He?s somebody I grew up watching and loving,? he said. ?If I was a quarterback, I would definitely be Brett Favre.?

Strategy And Personnel

PLAYER NOTES

? CB Dwight Lowery was replaced in the starting lineup by Ty Law at Tennessee, yet Lowery got plenty of playing time, too.

? TE Bubba Franks was inactive at Tennessee despite having practiced full for three days leading up to the game.

? FB Tony Richardson had two carries for 15 yards, double the amount of rushing attempts he had entering the game. One of Richardson? carries went for 14 yards and helped set up a field goal.

? TE Dustin Keller had six receptions for 42 yards and now has 20 catches in the last three games. The speedy yet often bruising tight end is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.

? RB-KR Leon Washington had eight carries for 82 yards and two touchdowns, including a 61-yard score. He had an unusually quiet day on kick returns, however, with two punt returns for 8 yards and two kickoff returns for 39 yards.

REPORT CARD VS. TITANS

Passing Offense: A-minus?Brett Favre made only one mistake, an underthrown pass that was picked off by Cortland Finnegan. Other than that, he kept the Titans off balance with a mixture of screens and slants, while WRs Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery and TE Dustin Keller all kept finding soft spots in the Tennessee coverage. Favre threw two TD passes, including a brilliant 2-yard collaboration between him and Coles.

Rushing Offense: A-minus?Thomas Jones ran for 96 yards and Leon Washington contributed two fourth-quarter TD runs, including a 61-yarder. Even FB Tony Richardson got into the act with a 14-yard ramble down the right sideline for a first down in the second quarter. RG Brandon Moore and RT Damien Woody had excellent blocks on Washington?s long touchdown.

Pass Defense: B?The Jets were helped by numerous drops from the Tennessee receivers, including a potential long gainer mishandled by TE Bo Scaife, who had beaten David Barrett. CB Darrelle Revis helped limit dangerous WR Justin Gage to only one reception for 37 yards after he had two TDs the week before. LB Calvin Pace recorded the lone sack of Kerry Collins.

Rush Defense: A?The Titans were limited to 45 yards on the ground, 87 yards below their average. Chris Johnson had 46, but that included 24 on one run that led to nothing, and 11 yards on a run that led to a Jets touchdown after Johnson lost a fumble at the end of it. NT Kris Jenkins and DE Mike DeVito teamed up to stop LenDale White for a 1-yard loss on a third-and-1 when the game was still in doubt.

Special Teams: B-minus?Leon Washington had a rare pedestrian game on returns, but the Jets did a good job on coverage, limiting Lavelle Hawkins to an 18.6-yard average on seven kickoff returns. Jay Feely went 2-for-2 on FG attempts, hitting from 20 and 30 yards, and now has made 10 straight. Reggie Hodges had to punt only once, but it went for a 50-yard net.

Coaching: A?Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer?s game plan was brilliant, as he used slants and screens in the passing game. That meant a lot of three-step drops for Favre, thus neutralizing Tennessee?s often-withering pass rush. Favre was sacked only twice. Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton threw some different looks at Tennessee QB Kerry Collins, and when Tennessee did have open receivers, the Titans had trouble catching the ball. Eric Mangini?s steady hand has the Jets believing in themselves no matter the circumstance.
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Angry Teste · Nov 26, 2008

I think we owe bid thanks to Mike (Nickname To Be Determined) Jones.

uberchink · Nov 26, 2008

One thing I like about the coaching is that we're gameplan specific. I know a lot of people have complained about that, that we don't have an identity. But games like the Tenn. game prove that you have to change your style based on who you're playing.

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