I hope Lowery has enough brains to join Darrell in his off season workouts. If Lowery takes that initiative and trains like Darrell, no one will be able to throw on us...
I talked about how I felt Lowery was going to be a very good NFL CB last year. He'll never approach Revis-like levels, but he's going to be an above-average CB. With the game's best, plus an above-average, we are going to be very happy with Rex Ryan's pass defense for a long time. Personally, I'd let Lito walk, simply to acquire the ability to sign a free agent in his place. I'd keep him otherwise. He's been good (not great, but very good) when healthy.
Not that it was new, but could u picture Mangini using E. Smith as a LB? Or letting him roam near the LB's? I don't think it ever crossed his mind. Ryan couldn't do much with Gholston, but he's made a handful of players (whom the majority here wanted to see gone [myself included] at the beginning of the season) become very productive in this system. Eric Smith, Lowery, Pouha, DeVito, and Ihedigbo.
Lowery and Lito are both average - those numbers are a result of a good pass rush. Our corners other than Revis are one of the major reasons I am worried about the match-up with the Chargers.
I compared Lowery to Asante Samuels when he was drafted, and I still think he has that upside. Like Samuels, Lowery is playing well and flashing in his first postseason. He needs a big game Sunday. We need our big 5 DBs to have a big game Sunday, because the Chargers are loaded with pass catchers and Rivers is a top 3 QB this year...arguably top 2. The front 7 will really have to f with Rivers though, and that's not easy to do even if we do beat their OL.
That is the long and short of it right there. And have no doubt, as good as Revis is, if we don't have a solid pass rush this season, Revis is most likely not in the conversation for DPOTY.
The very first thing we should do is punch Rivers in the mouth the very first play. Set the tone and see if he gets happy feet. If he does pass rush like crazy. If not the game plan is to have multiple DBs load up, cover and disrupt their WRs and letting them try to run on us. We have enought to pass rush and stop the run with less. For some odd reason I think Lowery (home coming) and James Ihedigbo will come up huge. Take away their strenghts.
people here just like to complain about our corners (lito and lowery) because they look bad next to Revis. If every corner was as good as Revis every team would run the ball as much as we do.
I think we all recognize that the Jets with Revis do very well against teams that rely on one wideout to carry a large percentage of the load. Against a team like NE who has two excellent wideouts? Not so much. Lucky for the Jets that there aren't too many teams as deep at receiver as NE is. I know Welker is a tough match up, but I remember him in that second game. With Revis on Moss, the rest of the secondary could not stop Welker. SD concerns me since they are deep at receiver (with Gates). NO, Colts, Green Bay, AZ are other teams that are deep at receiver. But SD is definitely one of those teams. Hopefully the Jet secondary shows itself to be strong enough to cover, otherwise it will be a long game.
I liked Lowery last season and am glad Mangini didn't get too far in the kid's head. He wants to be a great corner and I'm sure he's taking advantage of working with Revis to improve his game. I'm very happy to have him on the Jets. He has the ability to make plays for us, sometimes even game changing plays. Between him, Lito, Revis and Strickland, we have the potential to strand a lot of receivers in a sea of green. I'm confident our secondary gets the job done this weekend and any weekend.
As a Chargers fan, the aspect I like about the Revis-Jackson match-up is that with one guy, we can neutralize the Jets best player. The Chargers do not need V.Jackson. In week 11, Jackson was held to 56 yards and no touchdowns. The Chargers racked up a total of 32 yards rushing, yet they still piled up 32 points. In week 12, Jackson was held to 1 catch for 10 yards, and the Chargers scored 31. Think of how you'd stop a typical Chargers play. Sproles, one of the best screen catchers in the NFL leaks out to beyond the line. Gates gets into the area behind the linebackers. Sure-handed, 6'5", 225lb M.Floyd goes deep, and the Jets can not use Revis because he's been erased by V.Jackson. So with Sproles, Floyd, and Gates in the pattern, and no Revis to help, the Jets have to defend that short handed because they like to blitz so much. Rivers has thrown more touchdowns while being blitzed than any QB in the league. With the Chargers, it is not about our best guy being better than your best guy. The Chargers are so deep, it is about how well your 3rd best, and 4th best guy can play.
I'm obviously making this simple enough (even tho I know it won't be) but on situations like that, we'll probably use a lot of Eric Smith (3rd safety). He's a good tackler and pretty quick to line up along the LB's. He'll be covering Sproles in case he leaks out. Rhodes can line up against Gates with maybe some Bart Scott help in a soft zone and you give Lito/Lowery some safety help over the top when Floyd goes deep. That still frees up Harris and Bryan Thomas to rush 5 (6 if Sproles decides to stay in to block). A 3WR set with Sproles lined up behind Rivers would probably cause more problems IMO. I expect Lowery to line up nickle for the most of the time since this is Strickland's first game back in a while, but Lowery does not have the speed to stay with a quick slot receiver that runs sharp routes. If we're going to help out Lowery, we need to send a lot of pressure. Otherwise we may have to play soft zone coverages which will give Rivers time to pick apart sections of our secondary. Also, I'm sure Rivers knows Drew "Toast" Coleman very well (he did last year), so where ever he's lined up on the field, I'm sure Rivers will throw in that direction.
Lowery and Sheppard have been much better than a lot of people(myself included) have credited them. I cannot remember who said it but someone on this board mentioned the fact that Revis' "amount thrown at", "defelctions", and "INT" stats would not be as high if it was not for the rest of the guys in the secondary forcing plays over to Revis' side. I'm very happy with Lowery this season and Sheppard, when healthy, has played like a solid second corner. If we get Strickland back for Sunday, the Chargers are going to have a much more difficult time passing on us than most people think, regardless of their size advantage. San Diego delenda est.
Thats true but not many people in this league can cover Welker he is really a bad match up for every team.
Nah. We've used Eric Smith (Safety) at times to play up against the LOS. He has decent man coverage skills and plays the run extremely well. We'll just take out a LB out of our regular formation. Of course, this is all depends on how you run screens or check downs with Sproles. Bart Scott could be a good option but he whiffs at times on tackles. A more sure-tackler would be Harris, but he's playing with a less than 100% ankle and he isn't very fast to begin with. So that's probably the way to go.
The scenario I posted only has 2 WR (V.Jackson & M.Floyd), 1 TE (Gates), and 1 RB (Sproles). That is very typical for the Chargers. They'll have V.Jackson, M.Floyd, A.Gates, and Sproles or Tomlinson in practically every down.
Lowery has made my previous criticism of him unwarranted. Still not sure if he can start on the outside though.... I'd like us to bring back Sheppard.
