Here's how I see Schotty's play-calling and game-planning at this point: 1. He spends a lot of effort trying to be unpredictable. Schotty will call a completely bone-headed play if he has to to keep the defense on their toes and to prevent them from knowing what's coming next. The double reverse pass from Braylon Edwards is a perfect example of this - nobody in the building could have had an inkling that was coming. It was so unpredictable that even in retrospect it's hard to believe that he made that call. I think that when you're still buzzing about a call a day later the odds are that it fits more in the whacky category than in the unpredictable category but that's just my opinion. He does something like this in every game. Sooner or later the Jets do something very entertaining, not particularly effective and highly unpredictable. There are drives where he does weird stuff like reverses, seminole, etc several times on the drive. It's like the Jets suddenly go into the Twilight Zone and then re-emerge on the other side, not to do anything strange again for the rest of the game. You can argue that unpredictability has it's merits. To back that up we should see better results out of the offense as a whole than we have seen under Schotty over the last 4 years. His offenses are not only not feared, they frequently shut themselves down. I think the desire for unpredictability is a big part of that phenomenon. 2. He has no real confidence in the Jet's running game and he goes away from it almost instantly at crunch time. The Jets running game, while it looks very good on paper, obviously is not really that good. If it was, the offensive coordinator would have drives where he did almost nothing but run the ball. He'd have drives where the Jets just completely grabbed the game flow and dictated to the other team, chewing up the clock and protecting the rookie in the process. The fact that Schotty never does this tells me that he thinks the Jets rushing attack is defective somehow and not up to par. It is possible however that he is just too enamored of the passing game and uses it inappropriately as a resource. This would explain why 4 consecutive QB's under his tutelage and in his system have had their crappiest possible seasons while he was running the show. 3. Unlike most offensive coordinators he really does not like the long drive and a ball control offense. The way you can tell this is true is by the number of high risk go for broke type plays that he calls. He really wants a 10% chance at a 50 yard TD more than a 33% chance at a 10 play 50 yard TD drive that also ends in a FG a fair amount of the time when it fails to go the distance. The conjunction of his desire for unpredictability and his predilection for gambling is that the Jet offense is very streaky and turnover prone. This has been true for every season that he has been the offensive coordinator. I think there is a strong argument that Schotty would do well if paired with a QB like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Having a great QB would remove the freaky plays from consideration, because who is going to take the ball out of Peyton Manning's hands in order to let Braylon Edwards throw it? I mean, really? Having a great QB would up the value of the one shots down the field considerably and make them much more valuable to the overall offense. I think there's also a strong argument that Schotty is the last person you want around a young developing group of QB's. Everything that he does is based on the flawed premise that disguising your intentions and taking calculated (poorly sometimes) risks is more important to an NFL offense than just going out there and doing very competent things until you break down the opposing defense. You cannot fool a good defense for very long and even if you hit a trick play on them, well that's just one score and you still have to get back to nuts and bolts to beat them. The Jets badly need to show competence and the ability to score just off of that quality. This is what they did offensively against the Raiders. it should be the gameplan against everybody.
^ reason number three is what infuriates me the most. the HC preaches that philosophy and we've seen it in spurts but as always never consistent.
IMO, there's a right and wrong way to be unpredictable. It's evident that Schotty's belief in unpredictability is based upon calling asinine plays at the wrong times. Most recently, Edwards' reverse/option pass. In the past, the Seminole; the end of the second Dolphins game; the fade routes on 3rd & Goal, and so on -- these are just mind-numbingly dumb calls that seem to always come at crucial moments. Another qualm I have is the predictability of the actual plays: all too often it's blatant where the RBs are running; too often are the WR's routes smothered by the opposing DB's. I've mentioned this several times and can't quite figure it out---how can a team have Braylon Edwards, Cotchery, Keller, and Leon (pre-injury), along with pass protection, and the QB still can't find an open target? It makes no sense whatsoever. Although it's difficult to actually get a view of the WRs' routes, I've been able to see some replays where the WRs are constantly running the same patterns: comebacks, button-hooks, outs, and they're not getting open. These routes are very basic and they're not varied enough, which is why we continue to see Sanchez hold the ball - when he has time - as there's no one open. It's almost pathetic, especially when you watch other teams with less WR talent get so open. Perfect example of an intelligently unpredictable - yet not outlandish - playcall was the Colt's winning TD against NE last Sunday night. Manning dropped back and quickly looked/faked like he was gonna throw a fade route to Wayne (a somewhat common call that many DBs are probably expecting/considering on 1st or 2nd & Goal). Wayne took a couple of steps toward the corner - selling the fade - then quickly slanted back in so that the defender was on the outside and thus out of position. Manning delivered the ball and it was an easy score. A play like the one just described is unpredictable, but safe AND effective; both a fade route and a slant route will never result in a sack because the ball is thrown too quickly. That play was the perfect call to win the game. It wasn't a WR option pass, and it wasn't a playaction bomb in which a right-handed QB has to roll and throw to his left. And it doesn't matter that that was Peyton throwing the ball; that play itself - the design - would work well for just about anyone because it's nearly impossible for a DB to defend. In fact, I'm very surprised it's not used more often by all teams. As we know, Schotty abandons the run, outhinks himself, and tries to be too unpredictable by calling complex, risky plays, when there are so many better ways to beat a D. And I think if, by now, he hasn't shown a consistency to beat Defenses in a sound way, then why will he ever be capable of doing so?
this post in the "Schotty should stay" thread sums the quote up nicely. http://forums.theganggreen.com/showpost.php?p=1471516&postcount=61 "sums" may not be the word.
Yes, you always take the big plays out to show what TJ's stats really should look like. Laughable logic....:rofl:
