An Optimist's Point of View

[Oswlek]

I thought that I might add another positive thread to the mix considering this game was actually very positive, and IMHO, not worth all the fuss that many fans and most media members are making. Said another way, if NE was getting their doors blown off, and managed to make the game close by getting 2 fluke TDs that had about a .02% chance of being repeated, would there be just as many threads about how "impressive" the comeback was? Would the media talk about how "mentally tough" and NE was for not giving up when they were losing? The answer, of course, is no on both counts. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

* I have to take some responsibility. I was outside playing with my children for the entire first half and most of the Jet's opening drive of the second half. I walked in just to see Barlow get stuffed twice on 3rd and 4th downs. So, it clearly was my watching of the game that made NY come back. Again, I apologize.

* The game that this one is very similar to is the regular season Indy/NE game in 2003. NE jumped out to a big lead and was dominant on both sides of the ball. Then a few things went Indy's way and voila! Indy was moving with relative ease. For all of the fuss about Geno is the Jet game, he was terrible in the second half of that Indy game. And it wasn't just a few fluke plays, either. Indy just drove up and down the field for most of the second half, actually putting up 21 pionts in about 7 minutes. And that was with the D that is probably the best one NE has had in the past 10 years, certainly the best secondary. NE's offense also was actually worse in that game. Indy's defense was not as good as the Jets is and NE was held to 14 second half points; 7 on their first drive and 7 after a long KO return. Without the KO return, NE probably wouldn't have gotten that TD. Absolutely no way that they could have run over 8:00 of the clock to seal the deal like they did yesterday. So, NE's offense played worse in the second half in the Indy game, and their D did as well, yet they ended that season pretty well, didn't they?

* NE's run game is for real. 80 yards in the first half when the game was still pretty close, plus some decent running on the final drive. The Jet's run D is not great, but they always seem to give NE problems.

* Listening to Joe T. (tonight's analyst) was comic relief for my drive to work. Some highlights:

1) "Tom Brady is carrying this team right now.." - Uh, Joe. I love Tom and wouldn't trade him for anyone, but you do realize that Brady just had what would have been his 3rd and 4th worst performances of 2003 and 2004. Far from carrying this team, a normal Brady performance and neither game is close. I counted three poor Brady throws on open receivers and that was after hearing Gil and Geno comment on 3-4 of the first half. Some of this is attributable to poor protection, some is getting used to new WR's, but a lot is on the man himself. Three of those misses were to Troy with decent protection.

2) "They just wore out their TE's in the preaseason" - He didn't mean the TE's have nothing left, but that they used them heavily. Joe, you do realize that 4 of NE's 5 WR didn't play a down in the preseason for the team, right? And the 4th was Troy Brown, who is getting up there so the team held him back. You know this, right? Is it really that big of a surprise that TE's were used heavily when they were the only stable part of the passing game?

3) "Receivers just aren't getting open..." - OK, let's look into this a little. Brady had 15 completions, of which 8 were to WRs, or 53%. Now, let's go over to a team that certainly has few questions at the WR position, Indy. Manning completed 16 out of 26 passes to WRs for a WR catch % of 62. Huuuuge difference.

* For all the fuss about the secondary, Pennington passed for what should have been about 200 yards (assuming the long plays were caught and brought down in a more realistic manner) on a day were the Jet's were down 10+ points for almost the entire game. Yes, Coles' TD was an adventure in mistackling, but it wasn't the whole game. I would be far more worried if they looked like Pitt's secondary vs. Miami, yet that D was lauded by most pundits, and NE fans on this board.

* NE can certainly be faulted for going a little flat after Maroney's TD. Or, more accurately, after Crotchery's TD. Ne was getting great pressue on Penny during that drive prior to that play, but they seemed to get none after that.

* If this game is played 1,000 times following Maroney's TD, NY wins once, NY makes it close 10 times, and NE wins by 2+ scores 989 times. Add in the actual manner in which NY came back, and it hard to see how one can see it as anything other than a fluke that the Jets were ever in this game. I will give the Jets a TD on one of their fluke play drives, and their FG drive was certainly legit, so this was really a 27-10 game that bounced in a slightly different direction.

* I will say that I am slightly concerned at the lack of turnovers, and I still think the pass rush needs to be a little more consistent. Other than that, and Brady's play, I see no cause for alarm at all after this.

 

[Oswlek]

Oh, one more thing:

Joey T also talked about how he is not sure if Seau is going to have an impact or not. That was the most flabbergasting, considering that Seau made a huge 3rd down tackle just before the 4th down stop.

I also just wanted to bump to see if anyone else wanted to join in on the positive bandwagon.

 

[jct]

Also, our team seems to be getting healthier, meanwhile other teams are loosing starters and falling behind in the W-L record.
I see us beating denver next week...
We have enough to reach the playoffs this year.

 

[Bertil]

I for one, am at a loss to discern the difference between a bad throw by Brady and a bad route by a receiver. If I had to choose, I'll stick with the latter. The TV view is not a good vantage point from which to render a conclusion on that.

 

[Bella*chick]

Good post. Lots of good points.

I don't know that this has anything to do with, well, anything, but I was thinking last night about last years regular season game with Denver. Remember that one? They jumped out to a huge lead and then sort of fell asleep at the wheel and we started making a comeback but ultimately came up short. I don't really follow the Denver press, but I'm sure that it was acknowledged that they fell asleep a little and let us back in the game, but it was no big deal. It's kind of like what happened yesterday, except our falling asleep at the wheel seems to be interpreted in the media as we are "unconvincing". Talk about an annoying double standard. Now, I know you could say it's because it was the Jets, but frankly, the Jets are a divisional rival who know us well, coached by one of our old coaches so they know us even better AND it was on the road. Yet we still played a very solid first half and let things kind of get away in the second, only to put together a very good drive at the end to hang on for the win.

I guess I'm just babbling, but sometimes the media coverage, despite my avoidance of it, really bugs. I feel a lot better about the team's performance now as opposed to early last year, personally.

 

[Oswlek]

I for one, am at a loss to discern the difference between a bad throw by Brady and a bad route by a receiver. If I had to choose, I'll stick with the latter. The TV view is not a good vantage point from which to render a conclusion on that.

The Watson EZ incompletion was clearly on Brady. With the others, you have a point, but when Troy Brown is involved, as much as I love Brady, I side with Troy.

 

[Oswlek]

Good post. Lots of good points.

I don't know that this has anything to do with, well, anything, but I was thinking last night about last years regular season game with Denver. Remember that one? They jumped out to a huge lead and then sort of fell asleep at the wheel and we started making a comeback but ultimately came up short. I don't really follow the Denver press, but I'm sure that it was acknowledged that they fell asleep a little and let us back in the game, but it was no big deal. It's kind of like what happened yesterday, except our falling asleep at the wheel seems to be interpreted in the media as we are "unconvincing". Talk about an annoying double standard. Now, I know you could say it's because it was the Jets, but frankly, the Jets are a divisional rival who know us well, coached by one of our old coaches so they know us even better AND it was on the road. Yet we still played a very solid first half and let things kind of get away in the second, only to put together a very good drive at the end to hang on for the win.

I guess I'm just babbling, but sometimes the media coverage, despite my avoidance of it, really bugs. I feel a lot better about the team's performance now as opposed to early last year, personally.

Excellent analogy. Even better than my Indy one, because it is exactly what I said *would* happen. Absolutely no one in the media had anything good to say about NE's performance, and most posters on MBs knew that the end of the game was not indicative of the true performance.

 

[old 55]

What I saw..

Brady did underthrow Watson who was waiting for the ball in the endzone. He also tried to force one into Gabriel and was picked.

Our pass rush was in on Penny several times and got tackled from behind without calls. I also saw a couple of instances where illegal motion before the snap wasn't called either.

I think we left some points on the field when we didn't just give Maroney the ball instead of passing on the slant to Gabriel. I also felt we should have gone for the first instead of kicking the FG. We got a very bad spot on the prior play as well.

In short, I think we may have made some bad plays and bad calls, but the refs let a lot of stuff by the Jets go while calling us a lot after we got up 24-0.