Ok, i've been thinking a lot about our season and why we are so inconsistent. After a nice mid season run, we seem to have regressed to the "out of sync" Jets that we saw in the beginning of the season. What we have seen this season that was successful: -The Jets led the NFL in sacks at some point this season Our pass rush in the beginning of the season was nasty. Calvin Pace, Bryan Thomas, Jenkins, Harris etc were fantastic and applied pressure to the QB. We have seen a major drop off in pass rush and have put more people in coverage recently. This had led to our pass defense dropping to 31st overall in the league. Sutton- rushing 3 or 4 people every play is not working. We saw that when we applied pressure to JP Losman yesterday, big plays came our way. -Our Running Game Thomas Jones has over 1,200 rushing yards and 13 rushing TDs. Leon Washington has also been a major contributor to the rushing attack. Our new offensive line and Tony Richardson have opened up big holes for our running game. When we have played our best football, we have run the ball 25+ times, giving both Jones and Leon a decent amount of carries. Leon has a 5.9 yard/carry average and Thomas Jones has 4.6 yard/carry average -Special Teams Leon has been fantastic at Punt/KO returns. Feely hasn't missed a FG in several games and has made some really clutch kicks (knocks on wood). Our Punter has been very consistent. Also, Wallace Wright, Brad Smith, and even Vernon the Ghost have been incredible on Punt and KO coverage -Our Run Defense We were ranked 3rd in rush defense a few weeks ago. A lot of this can be contributed to Kris Jenkins. The last few weeks we have let up most rushing yards we have all season. Why is this? is Jenkins injured? Are we dropping too many people in coverage to make up for our pass defense? What we've seen this season that has been both successful and unsuccessful -Our Passing Game Some games, no one can stop our passing attack. Keller appears to be the real deal, and we have above average WR in Coles, Cotchery, Stuckey, and maybe even David Clowney. We lack a true deep threat which does hurt (maybe Clowney can fulfill this role). i've noticed that when our offense gets going (scores on the first drive) we usually play well the rest of the game. Also, when Favre throws a pick, our offense usually loses rhythm and it seems like we can never recover. -Coaching Staff We all loved them in the off-season for making all the FA signings and trades. They looked like geniuses after the second NE game and the TENN game. Now, we are all calling for their heads. They seem to always outsmart themselves. When a team is ranked 30th against the run, we pass the ball and don't let Jones and Washington control the clock. They make things too complicated. We have so much talent, just let them play football and do what they do best. Halftime adjustments are non existent as well, which is why we always play like shit in the 2nd half. -Tackling We all of a sudden forgot how to tackle. i wanted to throw up after all the missed/broken tackles the last 3 weeks. What we have seen that has been terrible -Pass Defense We are ranked 31st in the NFL and make QBs like Hill, Thigpen, Cassell, Losman look like Pro Bowl players. When we apply a pass rush, our Pass Defense is not bad at all, but we can never do that consistently. Revis has been great this year, but Rhodes has not been playing his best football. Lowery is a rookie and looks great at times, but he's slow and gets beat for TD after TD. Coleman, Smith, and Barrett are all terrible. Law has played decent at times but it's clear that he has lost a step. Elam is not good in coverage and takes a lot of risks, but he has made plays that have won us games and saved our season. Our LBs are terrible in coverage as well. Calvin Pace and Bryan Thomas cannot cover passes over the middle, especially against TEs. Harris is back, and we've seen some improvement over Bowens in coverage. -3rd down Defense it seems like when we need it most and need to get the D off the field, we can't. We always rush 3 players on 3rd and long and we continue to get burned time after time. At the start of the season, we were making 3rd down stops, and even 4th down stops (The 4th down conversions lost us the game at SF). i thought this was incredible because when you can make big 3rd down stops, it changes momentum of the game and lets our offense control the ball. What were we doing differently? Easy, we stopped rushing the passer and can't stuff the run anymore. Keys to victory- How the Jets can make the playoffs and be a contender -Run the ball and control the clock. Favre has played his best this season when he's a game manager (Look at our 5 game win streak- this is what we did during that). This also keeps our defense off the field. Our defense is excellent when they are fresh, and not so good when they are on the field for 30+ minutes in a game. -Eliminate Turnovers. When we turn the ball over, our offense never seems to recover and our defense never gets off the field. We have had some bad luck with crazy turnovers (like the one Coles dropped) but we have over 26 on the season (4th most in the NFL i think) -Rush the Passer. When we rush the passer, our defense makes plays. We continue to give opposing QB all day to throw the ball and pick apart our defense. This is the main reason our Pass Defense has been so bad lately. Revis, Rhodes, Lowery, Elam, and Law are definitely not the 2nd worst unit in football. -Let our playmakers make plays. Get Jones the ball 20+ times a game. Throw to Keller 9 times a game. Give Leon Washington at least 10 touches a game. Give Clowney a chance. When these guys touch the ball, big plays happen. So Schotty, i don't care how you do it but get these guys the ball. Hell, even Cotchery and Coles don't get the ball enough. -Game planning and Half time adjustments. The Jets need to go back to basics and do what they do best. i think the last 3 weeks may have been a blessing in disguise. We played as bad as we possibly could but we are still, somehow, in 1st place and control our own destiny. Coming away from that Buffalo game with a W was huge. We have a big game against SEA on the west coast. if we take care of business there we are in for one of the most exciting match-ups in Jets history in week 17. We have seen how inconsistent our team has been this year. One week we can play like a SB contender and the next week we can lose to the worst team in football. But most importantly, we have shown that we can bounce back from adversity. Our season was all but over, and somehow we managed to squeeze out a win and kept our season alive. Maybe the team needed that. Most of them thought our season was over, and i bet that was a huge wake up call for everybody. Our team is full of high character/high talent guys that just got a second chance.
Stoped reading after you said VG was good on special teams. The thing that really bothers me about him is that he isn't even a good special teams contributer, which is why he wasn't on the roster yesterday. Anyways, I don't want to start another VG thread, but yeah.
He has been decent on special teams and it showed yesterday when we didn't have him. He has been selected by the coaches for Special Teams player of the Week before. But anyway, this isn't about him.
How about stop playing there safties 30 yards back so teams can hit the 10-15 yard passes all game against us.. The Jets play there safties further back then almost anyone in the league.. I want to see creative blitzing, our best blitzes have been when Elam comes from the edge or a corner blitz.. When you see your front 4 cant get pressure you cant sit in that defense.. If your going to go down, go down swinging.. But mandufus rather pray for the other team to make a mistake on offense when in reality you have to force the other teams into mistakes with your agressiveness
Absolutely. i would much rather lose by blitzing and taking chances to make plays, then lose by sitting back and allowing QBs like Hill and Losman to pick apart our defense
We were never good on defense actually. Pretty much all our sacks were coverage sacks or against terrible O-lines, or a combination of both. We never got consistent pressure. We've never had many QB hurries or knockdowns, either we got a sack or nothing.
i do agree that we didn't have consistent pressure when we were getting all those sacks. The Jets need to get creative with the blitzes. Maybe we should try that formation where the front 7 doesn't get set before the snap and just moves around constantly. We did this several time the past 2 seasons and it has worked somewhat well
I agree we are making QBs look better than they really are... but JP did not look like a pro bowler or a good QB at all. His throws were all over the place, 2 INT (1 was the last play but still), and a lost fumble which turned the game around all together. While you can blame the CS for the call, he could have easily thrown it away (he was out of the pocket) or had better ball security. 3rd down defense is a HUGE problem for us I agree. Too many times they opposing teams are getting just enough for the 1st. Turnovers are apart of the Brett Favre package... So we really can't afford turnover like the one off Cole's foot. While I agree we need to give more touches to leon, I don't see how we can achieve 20 plus with Jones, 9 catches to Keller, and 10 carries to Leon. What happen to Cotch and Coles? Mangini was right in his presser that we have a lot of good weapons in the skill positions, so their touches should fluctuate from game to game.
He has 4 total tackles for his entire NFL career. Please tell us how he is any better on special teams than he is on defense? Because he stays in his lane as he runs downfield at 1 mph?
i will admit that i haven't watched him much on special teams, but i am going by what others have said. Also, our special teams coverage SUCKED last week and Gholston was inactive. So maybe his impact is more than people think. And yes i know Brad Smith was out and hs absence made the biggest impact. Anyway, this thread isn't about Gholston. i know this forum only likes to talk about Chad/Favre, Fire Mangini, and Gholston is a bust but i thought it would be nice to talk about the rest of the team
