Monday, November 2, 2009

Week 8 @ Jets Recap

Time to get out the brooms because that was a J-E-T-S Sweep, Sweep, Sweep!!!

Let's get right to the bullets, shall we?

  • First of all, Miami certainly got outplayed in many (most) areas of this game, but not all of them. So Rex Ryan, you huge steamin pile, stop trying to convince yourself and everyone around you that your team "totally outplayed" the Dolphins today. Did your special teams outplay Miami's? No. Did our quarterback continually throw horrible worm-burners on third downs? No. Did our running backs forget to hold onto the ball? No. Did your offensive line ever have Miami's front seven on its heels? No. So Rex, learn what the word "totally" means and pull your head out of you-know-where while you're at it.
  • In keeping with the theme of the Jets seemingly living in some alternate reality, it's rare to see a team this out of tune with their actual talent and performance level. You'd think a team that just lost to the same team twice within the span of a month would realize that they are not better than that team. Basically, the Jets players and coaches are acting like most of the fans of the Dolphins I criticize for being irrational homers. The Jets built these Dolphins games up so much, that it is just an absolute pleasure to know that they lost both of them and now will have live with that festering truth for another whole year. And no amount of foolish talk will cover up the fact that these two losses will eat away at the Jets.
  • Yeremiah Bell is to blame for that TD run by Sanchez. He's the outside contain guy and he never even thought about looking for Sanchez to run. He simply ran right into the backfield which wouldn't have done anything even if it was a handoff.
  • Ah, Jay Feely. You also did fancy yourself something of a tough guy didn't you? You wanted to be the guy who broke the mold on kickers not being tough enough to run down the field and make a tackle on returns. And I'll give you credit - you are pretty tough and you can make tackles, but the thing is, as the kicker you've got to make those tackles when they come to you as the safety man and not simply run headlong into the pile trying to manufacture 'glory' to stroke your ego. By abandoning your duty as the safety valve and running right into the crowd, you allowed Ted Ginn to slip outside and have a free race to the endzone without you challenging his angle. So thanks for being so irresponsible Jay.
  • Oh, and Ted Ginn, thank you for not losing your return abilities along with your confidence and good hands.
  • On a negative note for Miami, I can't recall seeing another secondary player as averse to contact as Sean Smith is. We all knew he wasn't a physical player, but this is getting embarrassing. Whenever the opposing team throws a screen pass or a toss sweep to Smith's side, he either runs himself out of the play to avoid getting blocked, or just gets tossed aside. He puts no effort into beating his blocker. He's also a pretty poor tackler in space it seems. He needs to watch how Vontae Davis and Nathan Jones and Will Allen lay wood on people, in the run game and pass game. As much flak as Ted Ginn gets for avoiding contact, Smith should be getting just as much. Being a corner isn't all about ball skills.
  • Speaking of the secondary, finally the coaches realized that what Gibril Wilson does best is blitz the QB. He, Bell, and Jones are lethal when rushing the QB.
  • It was nice to see Matt Roth back on the field if for no other reason than it will lessen the amount of times I have to watch Joey Porter get embarrassed as an edge setter against the run. Seriously, it looks like he's not even trying when a run comes his way (and a lot of them do since opposing teams know he's helpless to stop them). The tackle usually just kicks out, gets his hands on Joey, and that's it - Porter's completely out of the play, with a huge gap between the tackle and guard for the running back to saunter through. With Roth in there, he works to shove the tackle back and closes that lane off quick, then sheds the block and can make a tackle or string the play out until help arrives.
  • The offensive line was bad in the running game today, which is pretty inexcusable when the Jets are without Kris Jenkins. As far as pass protection goes, they were just OK. Chad Henne really needs to work on making his reads quicker and not taking so many sacks. He also has to be more aware of the pocket. On one sack he just kept shuffling to the left. Jake Long had his guy beat, but Henne just kept shuffling right past Long where the defender had an easy sack.
  • How about this trio of guys coming up big - Randy Starks, Paul Soliai, and Brandon Fields. Fields' booming leg gave the Dolphins defense a fighting chance in the field position battle all throughout the first half. Starks has been a force as a pass rusher this year, not just in this game. And Soliai is taking his opportunities and proving to this coaching staff that they may not need to look outside the organization anymore for a future nose tackle replacement. I've been impressed with him so far this year.
  • Oh and one last thing. I've already seen some Jets fans calling Braylon Edwards a "Dolphins killer." First of all, you have to actually beat the Dolphins to be called that. Secondly, maybe if the Jets still had that special teams ace (Jason Trusnik) they traded away for Edwards they wouldn't have been the first team to give up two kick returns of 100 or more yards in one game.

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