- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Messages
- 226
- Reaction score
- 34
Going into the season my view was that the inexperience and youth of the defense wasn't going to be our strength and I think most would agree with me. What we needed to see from the defense was limiting the opposing offenses as much as possible while our offense put up higher than average scores. Looking at the preseason we saw a vastly improved TE corps with guys who weren't only blockers but were legitimate receivers. Our receivers are probably the best we've had in a very long time; very few question marks there, if any.
The running backs were a question but it almost seemed as if (despite Brady's comments to the contrary) their primary role was to play a secondary role in the offense. Once Maroney was traded this seemed to be confirmed: going into the season with 2 older backs who would presumably get most of the 1st and 2nd down work which would likely not be a major part of our offense, Faulk who would continue to do what he does best on 3rd downs and BJGE who could come in as needed. None of these guys would need to carry the team but collectively could help to make opposing teams gameplan for a running game.
What happened today showed what happens when this scenario works and the offense is productive and what happens when the offense isn't productive. In the 1st quarter our offense controlled the game; the Jets really didn't have any opportunities on offense. In the 2nd quarter the Jets had opportunities and capitalized on them but we were able to outscore them and ended the half with a lead, so far so good.
2nd half, the offense couldn't do anything right, couldn't stay on the field and so the defense was put in a position of having to be on the field more than they should have, the weak areas of the defense had pretty clearly been identified at that point and the Jets exploited them very capably.
For us to be successful this year, the offense is going to have to put up a lot of points every week. This isn't a knock on the defense but they are young and inexperienced and they're on a learning curve. It may sound simplistic to say that if the defense held the Jets to 28 points then the offense needs to score more than 28 points but if the offense scores more than 14 points then it's very likely the defense allows fewer than 28.
The running backs were a question but it almost seemed as if (despite Brady's comments to the contrary) their primary role was to play a secondary role in the offense. Once Maroney was traded this seemed to be confirmed: going into the season with 2 older backs who would presumably get most of the 1st and 2nd down work which would likely not be a major part of our offense, Faulk who would continue to do what he does best on 3rd downs and BJGE who could come in as needed. None of these guys would need to carry the team but collectively could help to make opposing teams gameplan for a running game.
What happened today showed what happens when this scenario works and the offense is productive and what happens when the offense isn't productive. In the 1st quarter our offense controlled the game; the Jets really didn't have any opportunities on offense. In the 2nd quarter the Jets had opportunities and capitalized on them but we were able to outscore them and ended the half with a lead, so far so good.
2nd half, the offense couldn't do anything right, couldn't stay on the field and so the defense was put in a position of having to be on the field more than they should have, the weak areas of the defense had pretty clearly been identified at that point and the Jets exploited them very capably.
For us to be successful this year, the offense is going to have to put up a lot of points every week. This isn't a knock on the defense but they are young and inexperienced and they're on a learning curve. It may sound simplistic to say that if the defense held the Jets to 28 points then the offense needs to score more than 28 points but if the offense scores more than 14 points then it's very likely the defense allows fewer than 28.