Observations on the Jets scrimmage....

[patfanken]

......I hate the Jets sucks thread, or at least the title. Its just seems so "jet fan-like", with people spouting baseless hatred for no apparent reason. OTOH, it IS interesting to comment on the team which currently provokes the most interest....and who is our main division rival, and the reason why so many of us hated the end of last season. So if we are going to discuss the current state of the Jets,I think it deserves its own thread. But if the mods want to merge it, so be it.

Disclaimer: Prior to the preseason, I am on record as predicting a step back by the Jets this season. While I think the Pats have made some significant upgrades to the team, I think the Jets were relegated to keeping as much of last year's team together as they could, and actually suffered some downgrades at the WR, DL, and OL.

I thought the key for the Jets, if they are to succeed is having Sanchez make a quantum leap in his third year to overcome those issues. So given that here is what I saw after watching the game on line (Bengal local feed) into the middle of the 3rd quarter.

1. the Jets will live and die with Mark Sanchez this season. His play in this game, at least, tells me that HE did NOT make a quantum leap in his most glaring issue, his accuracy. Now lets get this straight. I don't think Sanchez sucks. I think he is a good QB....not ELITE. He is good enough to take a great team to the superbowl, his is NOT good enough to "carry" a lesser team there.

In the game he was 12 for 20, a respectable 60%. However just like last season he was consistently bailed out by some very good catches by his WR. His first pass of the game was a perfect example. He completed a nice in cut to Burress, but the ball was behind him forcing Burress to make a Price-like maneuver to make the grab and effectively eliminated any chance for YAC. Later he converted a 3rd down with a quick simple 4 yd out to Holmes, but the pass was inaccurate forcing Holmes to have completely turn his body to make the catch. Even the TD to Plex was more about the catch than the throw.

BTW- he made some very nice throws as well, especially a long sideline pass to Holmes, the TD to Holmes, and a couple of nice passes to Keller. Again he is NOT a bad QB....as much as we'd like him to be. That said he also had 2 picks dropped

BOTTOM LINE - To date...and that is an important consideration...Sanchez hasn't shown a marked improvement in his accuracy

2. I was predicting that Plexico wouldn't be effective and a significant downgrade over Braylon Edwards. Er....I might have to rethink that a bit. Plex was very good, no other way to say it. However I STILL think, even at his most effective, Plex isn't an upgrade. He isn't the "field stretcher" threat Edwards was, and while an excellent redzone threat, not better than Edwards who was also an excellent redzone threat.

3. There were a number of guys here who liked McElroy late in this draft. Based on what I've seen in 2 games, there were right. Very poised, very calm under pressure, seems like a good decision maker. In due time he could be THEIR version of Brian Hoyer,

4. Some of the other good things I saw..if you are a Jets fan. That ikid Kerley is a very nice slot WR prospect. Lots of quickness and goes for the ball aggressively. I think he's going to be a good pro...just not this year.

b. they have a 2nd TE named Cumberland who in the 2 Jets games I've seen has flashed well. Very much a Keller clone. Good speed, good receiver, blocking.....not so much. I think they are going to try to get both on the field this season at the same time.

c. No one flashed on their DL last night, but no one ran against them either. Much like last season, the DL was VERY good against the run, but didn't generate any pass rush by itself. That's better than I thought, since they are playing a lot of young inexperienced guys. So far, not as big a weakness as I hoped

d. Revis is STILL Revis..... but on the plus side, Cromartie is still Cromartie. He has trouble with anyone who is quick and can get off the LOS

4. Some of the bad things, that Jet fans should be worrying about.

a. Their OL had a real bad day. LT had 9 carries for just 16 yds...and I was surprised it was that much. The Jets a ZERO running attack in the first half. Not only that, they were positively porous in base pass protection The only time Sanchez truly had time to throw was when he went to play action. The worse offenders were Ducasse and Hunter, though on a replay they showed DBrick beaten badly, and another showed Mangold manhandled

Again, if Sanchez is to improve he's going to have to do it with a weaker OL and no speed on the outside (though that didn't seem to stop the Pats last season )

b. Their first offense was for the most part ineffective. Their defense, or rather the embarrassingly inept Bengal offense (their best player on offense was their punter) constantly gave them great field position. Their first 10 points were gifts from the Bengals. Their only long drive came at the end of the half (99yds) and produced most of the stats that allowed Sanchez to have those respectable numbers It included 3 long passes to wide open receivers

c. Based on last night, this is NOT going to be a great NFL offense. The Jets are going to have to be a top defense AGAIN this year if they have hopes for a championship run. That offense isn't a BAD one, but there are a dozen or more that are better.....again...so far.

d. Their Kicking game specialists are erratic. Not good in an area where consistency is the key to keep your job.. Folk kicked a 50 yder....yet missed badly on a 40 yder....just like last year.

So there you have it. One person's view of what I saw in the Jets/Bengals scrimmage And love em or hate em, they ARE the team we have to get by to win the division. its the first step

 

[Sicilian]

Thanks for the summary! I wanted to watch the game to see how they looked but it wasn't on, so this helps me get an idea.

Hearing that Plax looked good is discouraging, as that means he could be a good replacement (possibly even better in some areas) for Braylon. Though I still think that Mason will be a downgrade from Cotchery, so that just may end up being a wash.

Any opinions on the defense should have an asterisk though... not that the Pats have faced any elite offenses in preseason yet, but the Bengals could be in a whole other class of awful on offense this year. If they top 12 points per game it'll be because they've had a few Defense/ST TD's

 

[WhiZa]

Rex's direction is to run the ball and play good defense. As long as they are able to do that they can still make another run at the AFC championship game. This also takes the pressure off of Sanchez who even Rex doesn't have 100% confidence in.

 

[TheSolderKing]

They were not very impressive w/ their starters on the field. Turnovers in the first 5 series were ultimately the biggest source of the Jet offense and it gave them great field position. Plax made a hell of a TD catch over his shoulder @ the last Jet drive of the half and Santonio made a good early catch in the 1st or 2nd series can't remember. I think it was the 1st. he had a TD also.

I was very unimpressed by their offense and Sanchez was missing his targets and they had to make adjustments to catch the ball. Plax and Holmes were 2 guys that had to make those adjustments. I focused only on the 1st Half... I walked away unimpressed by their inability to make a long drive.

The best drive imo came from Dalton in his long scoring drive. Like I said I only watched the 1st 1/2.

 

[TriplecHamp]

Agree with pretty much everything you said.
1) I love how Jets fans think they have good special teams because of westhoff. Truth is they've looked average outside of one good kick off return.
2) They are struggling to run the ball which is a big concern for their offense and their team's philosophy in general.

 

[Gwedd]

Good summary, and thanks for posting it. I missed the game, but I can accept your survey and summary.

My take, for whatever it is worth, is that Rex's biggest problem with the JETS is Rex himself. HE lives or dies with his team, and I don't think that he really sees objectively what he has.

Rex Ryan is a good coach, but this last year, and this year it just seems to me that he is seeing what he WANTS to see, and endowing his team with abilities that they just don't quite have at the moment, and it's going to cost him.

The JETS will get into situations this year that Rex thinks he can coach them out of, and they will fall flat because of him. He's going to try to do things with them that he believes that they can do, and they won't be able to do them.

Rex Ryan sees the JETS through JETS' colored glasses, and I truly think that it will cost him a shot at the playoffs this year.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Agreed on Sanchez being the key. Much as I dislike him,he did make quite an improvement year 1 to year 2. It's a little worrisome if he continues that progression, but IMO he's nearing his ceiling. He just doesn't strike me as the TB12 type that could win 3 super bowls in his first 4 years and still be hungry to work on taking his game to the next level. Just seems too much of an arrogant *****, weren't he and other Jets partying it up the night they lost the AFCC?

 

[TheSolderKing]

good summary. I gave some input as well.










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(who ever rates threads a 1 is a jerkoff for a person. I just gave this thread a 5 to make it a 3. Just stop rating threads. I never do it unless a 1 star rater puts their mark on 1st)

 

[everlong]

......I hate the Jets sucks thread, or at least the title. Its just seems so "jet fan-like", with people spouting baseless hatred for no apparent reason.

I cannot stand the thread title either but I've equated it to the infamous Red Soxs chant of Yankees suck which I have forever loathed. If you're going to be insulting at least be clever about it. When I think of Patriot chants I want to think of Cut that meat, etc.

 

[Gwedd]

I cannot stand the thread title either but I've equated it to the infamous Red Soxs chant of Yankees suck with I have forever loathed. If you're going to be insulting at least be clever about it. When I think of Patriot chants I want to think of Cut that meat, etc.

That was funny as h3ll when they did that in the stands. Even the announcers thought it was funny too. That's the sort of stuff that sticks with folks, not the typical "Yankees/JETS suck stuff.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Burress did look alot better than I would have thought possible given his age and time off (and didn't he hurt himself in camp? guess he's better).

I agree tha tthe team goes in whatever direction Sanchez takes them and he's played well in some big games. I wonder if Burress becomes his binky/go to guy when things get tough (hoping Plaxico can out jump/muscle the smaller CBs for the ball). If so, that's something I woudl expect the patriots to exploit if their pass rush is much improved.

I just hope BB saves enough surprises for the post season or it just becomes a nearly unstoppable team. I don't think we even think the defense has to improve that much to make the overall team better. Still, they were an opportunistic defense last year, with a little more pass rush, that can actually improve quite a bit.

 

[NEPatriot]

Good analysis Ken. It's nice to talk about football without all of the "this team sucks, we're going to kiss their ass". While I agree that Sanchez was off on several throw last night the rain was fairly heavy. Otherwise, very good.

 

[Husse]

Good summary and thanks for the write up. Nice to see something civilized instead of random name-calling and rants.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

To put this Jets pre-season in perspective, I recorded and watched last years Jets pre-season. Like this year their D seemed to keep the points down. The main difference being that last year LadyT looked decent. But last year Sanchez was inaccurate and Viola! he benefitted from what appeared to me dropped INTs. From those observations about the total ineptitude of the offense in scoring while inept defenses dropped pick opportunities, I felt the 2010 Jets were not a threat. So much for pre-season prognostications.

 

[patfanken]

As good as he looked I think he is limited and can be taken out of the game. For example you take one of our quicker LBs, ie Guyton and get him to mug Plex in the short zone, with a CB over the top. He isn't fast enough to get off hard coverage easily. It will slow down the timing of the play. Sanchez likes to throw short slant/out combinations and he throws them fairly well. I think when playing the Jets you want to squeeze those patterns with tight under coverages

What you DON'T want to do is wind up with a Whilhite or Butler type CB because at his size he will just outfight them for the ball.

If the Jets continue to have problems running the ball, then it will force them to into an offensive that they aren't comfortable with and don't have the tools to implement. the running game BETTER improve over the next few weeks or it will be a very distressing season over at JI and Ganggreen

 

[Trocadile]

To put this Jets pre-season in perspective, I recorded and watched last years Jets pre-season. Like this year their D seemed to keep the points down. The main difference being that last year LadyT looked decent. But last year Sanchez was inaccurate and Viola! he benefitted from what appeared to me dropped INTs. From those observations about the total ineptitude of the offense in scoring while inept defenses dropped pick opportunities, I felt the 2010 Jets were not a threat. So much for pre-season prognostications.

Exactly. Haven't we learned from the last two years that the Jets and Sanchez looking mediocre or even terrible in preseason and regular season doesn't accurately reflect the threat they are? There have been countless posts dismissing them based on a bad performance or two or three, but they still have four more playoff wins than the Pats and Brady. Until they look so bad that they miss the playoffs, I'll assume they are a legitimate contender.

 

[Deus Irae]

Exactly. Haven't we learned from the last two years that the Jets and Sanchez looking mediocre or even terrible in preseason and regular season doesn't accurately reflect the threat they are? There have been countless posts dismissing them based on a bad performance or two or three, but they still have four more playoff wins than the Pats and Brady. Until they look so bad that they miss the playoffs, I'll assume they are a legitimate contender.

but they still suck.

 

[Trocadile]

but they still suck.

Agreed. [9, 10]

 

[Haley]

I agree with most all of what you said, ken. (Well except for your comments on the jets suck thread, which is just for "the lolz" and therefore has nothing in common with an observations thread such as this.)

Only thing is, I'm still not sold on Burress. I'd like to see him against some better corners before The Jury completes deliberations.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

As good as he looked I think he is limited and can be taken out of the game. For example you take one of our quicker LBs, ie Guyton and get him to mug Plex in the short zone, with a CB over the top. He isn't fast enough to get off hard coverage easily. It will slow down the timing of the play. Sanchez likes to throw short slant/out combinations and he throws them fairly well. I think when playing the Jets you want to squeeze those patterns with tight under coverages

What you DON'T want to do is wind up with a Whilhite or Butler type CB because at his size he will just outfight them for the ball.

If the Jets continue to have problems running the ball, then it will force them to into an offensive that they aren't comfortable with and don't have the tools to implement. the running game BETTER improve over the next few weeks or it will be a very distressing season over at JI and Ganggreen

Two good points. Pats gotta put a non-midget on the Jets TEs in short coverage.

More importantly IF the Jets run game is MIA this year, it portends a horrific season for play action oriented Sanchez. No run means either more pass rush pressure or alternatively another player dropping back in coverage seeing errant tosses; hopefully it's a defender without stone hands, ready to lobby for a fat next contract fed by Sanchize pick stats.