- Rex Ryan is using Eric Smith as a LB/S hybrid, kind of the way Buddy envisioned the role for Doug Plank - Schotty's early playcalls are reminiscent of his playcalls on 2006 - sort of bland and predictable at first until they get a good look at the opponent, kind of how a boxer will throw jabs for a round and a half to feel out the opposition. Not much motioning or trickery. - The Texans killed themselves by giving zero respect to Sanchez. It was pretty obvious, they only defending the run unless it was an obvious passing down right up until the beginning of the 4th quarter. And when they started respecting the pass, TJ blew open a couple of nice runs. - Keller is still kind of hot and cold in his blocking assignments. I saw him improve in the second half, but early on he blew a couple of assignments that rendered some nicely schemed running plays ineffective - on one he actually knocked TRich out of his blocking lane and got TJ blown up for a loss. - On the near-INT that Leon broke up, it looked like a blown play. The Jets were lined up in what looked like a 3-wide set, but they had Wayne Hunter lined up in the slot as a blocker. It was a play-action and Brick immediately pulled to the outside giving the look of a screen, but I think this was a mental error on Sanchez because he was the only player on the field that wasn't giving the look of a screen play, he dropped back and started making progressions. - That Keller 1st down reception at 5:25 in the 1st quarter was a kicjk-ass play. Schotty is using him much more in the H-back role than he did last season - probably because of Favre limiting the playbook. Keller was lined up in this play as TE and Faneca, Moore and Woody immediately pulled for a screen, opening up a huge lane in the middle of the field. If the umpire hadn't been in Faneca's way, I think Keller might have busted open a much larger YAC than he did. - Houston's DC is an idiot. - Bart Scott is a fucking animal. He brings so much to this defense, in terms of intensity and leadership. One play that he wasn't even really an impact on had me out of my seat anyway - it was Gholston's TFL. Slaton ran to the outside on a sweep, Scott was trying to get into the backfield but he was being obviously held by their TE #80, and as Gholston was making the tackle, Bart put a fluid spin move on the TE and SLAPPED the helmet right off that fucker's head. It was awesome. - Neither Harris nor Scott are up to speed in coverage. Harris in particular is showing a tendency to stay in his zone too log when it's obvious where the play is going just outside the zone. - Ryan did a masterful job of saving Kris Jenkins for when it mattered. He used a lot of sets that didn't involve 77, mostly when the Texans were still out of rhythm, then when it looked like they would start to get something going, in comes Godzilla to bitch-slap their O-line. I think this kind of thing will keep Kris healthy a lot longer than Mangini's strategy of climbing on 77's shoulders and making him the be-all end-all of the success of the defense. - That effective Slaton screen that ended up with Strickland forcing a lucky fumble and recovery occurred while Gholston was rushing one edge and Murrell was rushing the other. If we have a weakness on D, it's when these two are on the field at the same time. I don't want to se that against NE. - I'm not as high on Gholston as I was on Monday and Tuesday. He blew some other assignments that weren't exposed because it didn't result in gains. On 52's 'horse collar' sack play, Houston sent the TE into the middle for a pass and he ran right by Gholston, who was manned up on him. You could almost see the question mark appear above 50's head as he scrambled after the TE - that would have been a first down because Shaub was looking right at the TE.
Answer: Westerman. I know we all have a hard-on for this guy and it's becoming a bit of a circle jerk but until the guy gives us a reason not to, I'm going West. I haven't noticed Murrell's vulnerability yet but that's probably because he wasn't a first round pick, and is able to fly under the radar a bit. I hate hearing about and seeing Gholston's poor performance, but it's a reality. To me it is becoming more and more clear that not only is this guy not a natural football player, despite his athleticism, he also doesn't seem to care much about football....doesn't necessarily seem to like football the way the passionate players do, and I think that is his most limiting factor. I also think that's what will drive Ryan mad. Remember what Herm Edwards used to say was the first question he'd ask a young player?
I saw that Scott play on the re-watch also, and it dropped my jaw too! To me it looked like once the play passed him by and he was still being blocked, it just infuriated him. He almost tore the dude's head off! But he also seemed to regather his emotions instantly, which impressed me too. I think I saw in the paper today that Jinx missed some practice with back pain yesterday. Spork tines to the heart for Jets fans. Yes, I said spork tines. Why nothing in the OP about how we should pressure Tom Brady on Sunday??!! Don't you think it would be a good idea to apply pass pressure to Tom Brady??! Should we pressure him, or should we just give him lots of time to throw??! Address this crucial issue next time, please. :wink:
Nice writeup. Your first comment regarding Eric Smith and Doug Plank was the most interesting to me. Did you notice how much we played the 4-6, if at all? One thing that has me concerned after watching Inside the NFL last night was a comment Phil Simms made when picking the Jets vs. Pats game. He asked, what was it that killed the old Buddy Ryan 4-6 defense? The spread offense is the answer of course. The use of Eric Smith was awesome - I commented on it earlier in the week, but didn't make the correlation you did. I need my DVR back.
I only noticed the 46 on the field twice, but it could have been used more. Smith was also being used as Will in the Nickel 335 as couple of times as well. He will probably be used a lot as a coverage LB. Yeah, the Pats are going to spread that offense all day long on Sunday, we're going to have to blitz the hell out of them with DBs to keep pressure on Brady. I think Jenkins will see the field a lot more than he did against Houston.
:smile: I got that. BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ. Hehehe. Like I said above, with their spread offense, we're probably going to see a lot of nickel and dime sets with 3 down linemen and 2-3 LB sets and a lot of DB blitz packages.
excellent. I noticed the same things about Keller, which was the most worrisome part to me. A couple of times it looked like he purposely avoided blocking the big guy and instead went for the small guy, messing everyone up. Ah well, I just hope we can do the Pats what the Pats did to the Rams in the SB lo those many years ago.
Smith as a coverage LB >>> Pace, Harris and Barton as coverage linebackers. It seems like such a simple thing, it bothers me that Mangini never tried it. It's funny, the spread offense was the death of the 4-6 pressure defense, yet mass pressure on Brady killed there spread offense in '07. I guess it's a matter of disguising it well enough to get pressure and keep coverage long enough for the pressure to get there. After seeing the defense last week I'm pretty confident Ryan will find ways to feed Brady field turf. This is going to be a great game.
I think the beauty of getting Smith up to speed in this defense is that it's something that can be very effective against a team like NE. It's a true hybrid, and can be shifted depending on the looks of the offense. You can shift from 46 to 4-3 to 335 depending on how they shift.
Great write up Abyz. Very good points and observations. I want to watch the Scott one with the helmet right now.
Very nice write-up. The play where Scott knocks dude's helmet clear off was seriously bad ass. Agree 100% with the Jenkins observation. Makes me realize even more how much of a fuck-up Mangina was. Sort of the way Herm ended CMart's career the year he won the rushing title.
Very nice OP, Abyz, and like WSW said, the first point was very important. Which is why it is first, right? Heh. E Smith has not impressed all that much before, but he has looked good from time to time. Perhaps better coaching and game planing will improve his performance? Maybe. Adding Leonhard to Rhodes was an upgrade, but the rotation still seemed thin given the bench, but if E Smith can improve his contribution, man that would be HUGE to this D. All the other points were good, too. I kind of avoid talking about Gholston because no good seems to come from thinking about him.
Great writeup Abyzmul. One point that's very underrated when people discuss the transition from last year's Jets to this year's Jets is the upgrade that was made going from Barton to Scott. I don't think there are many people who don't see it as an upgrade, yet it still seems to fly under the radar. Scott and Harris are two very different types of ILB but both bring a ton of juice to this defense. They're definitely the hammer in the middle that we've been looking for out of the 3-4 for a long time.
