The Defense played good enough to win

[Mike in 333]

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.

 

[Rob0729]

Kinda hard when your QB throws two picks and fumbles one away, I guess thats Butler's fault too.

No. Hence why I said both sides of the ball didn't play good enough to win. The Pats' offense turned the ball over and didn't complete drives with points, but the Pats' defense couldn't stop the Jets from having long substained drives ending in points. A total team failure.

 

[StevePatsFan]

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.

I kind of thought this was understood to people who actually follow the team. I mean last week was great, but did people really think the D would be that good game in game out?

Before this season started I expected the Offense to have to carry this D more than not, one game didn’t change my opinion.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Kinda hard when your QB throws two picks and fumbles one away, I guess thats Butler's fault too.

Can't blame the fumble on Brady...Blame it on Light who was blocking him...or was it Neal?

I want to see ANY QB in the NFL not fumble the ball when hit hard on the back in a blindside hit by a hall of famer DE nonetheless

 

[Ring 6]

Neither the offense nor the defense played good enough to win. The offense scored 14 points. The defense allowed 28 points. Neither of those numbers are good enough to win unless the other side of the ball plays lights out. The Jets scored on five drives which is not good enough to win. The Jets dominated time of possession 32:32 to 27:28.

This was an entire team loss. Both the offense and the defense. To suggest otherwise is ignoring the facts of the game.

Actually I think both the offense and defense played well enough to win until it came to crucial game deciding plays, then neither did.

 

[thechris]

Seriously did they replace the gatorade with semen? D played good 1st half then like a bunch of tampons the 2nd half. wtf

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Actually I think both the offense and defense played well enough to win until it came to crucial game deciding plays, then neither did.

I thought the Jets had the worst offense in the NFL?,Wouldn't it have been cake for our great defense to stop them then?,If a teams offense is horrid then how did they put 28 points on the board?

Do you really believe the Jets offense is worse than the Pats defense overall?

What some like you failed to realize is MOST offenses will look horrid against a top defense ...Baltimore should be 2-0 but thier offense let them down,Pittsburgh is 2-0 without Roethlisberger and has given up nearly nothing to thier opposing teams.

We will probably not fare much better than the Jets when we play Baltimore in a few weeks,its apparent that good defenses are dominating games so far and are pounding the lights out of opponents offenses.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Kinda hard when your QB throws two picks and fumbles one away, I guess thats Butler's fault too.

I believe the throws sadly went where they were supposed to and Matt Light says Hi. The defense lost their edge after the second Brady TD pass of the first half. Whether they also ran out of gas is debatable but they weren't getting pressure thereafter and unlike in Brady's case Sanchez much maligned receivers stepped up, perhaps the loss of Revis triggered something, but they made plays on offense and defense thereafter and our playmakers didn't.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I've defended this defense alot, namely in most of the 2nd half breakdowns last year. But they were AWFUL today. 28 points to the Jets, this is when our offense held the ball for about 14 minutes of the 1st quarter. And one of the Jets scoring drives started on their own 3 yard line. Zero forced turnovers. That is an awful performance. They were not good enough to win.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

i'm going to put this one squarely on brady and the OC. Brady's decisionmaking in the second half was horrendous. Also, what's up with the long bombs to moss all the time? The pats had the jets D on their heels in the first half - throwing the short underneath stuff and moving the chains. then all of a sudden brady starts throwing deep balls in the second half and wasn't able to connect.

 

[mgteich]

yes, with Tom Brady and the best offense in the nfl. The stats would not have been quite so outstanding for Sanchez if the patriot offense did anything in the second half.

Are you telling me that allowing Mark Sanchez to go 21/30 for 220 yards and 3 TD's and no ints accompanied by LT rushing for 76 yards at 6.9 a pop is "good enough"?

 

[mgteich]

1)Any time Tom Brady and the offense scores zero points in the second half we should expect to lose.

2) Any time Tom Brady and the offense score 14 or fewer points in a game, we should expect to lose.

3) Yes, the defense made Sanchez look like Tom Brady in the second half. Yes, that was aweful. But it would have been much less likely to happen if the patriots scored another touchdown in the first half with all their time of possession. And it would have been much less likely to happen if Tom Brady wasn't doing his Mark Sanchez impression in the second half.

4) And the loss would have been much less likely if we had even ONE coordinator that Belichick could count on.

This is just insane. The Jets have a mediocre offense and have had a poor passing offense since Sanchez stepped in. Not fair to ask much more from this group? What would it be fair to ask for against the Colts? To hold them under 50?

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Kinda hard when your QB throws two picks and fumbles one away, I guess thats Butler's fault too

The second int was tipped by Moss, Brady made a good throw, Jason Taylor hit him blindside unabated, dont see how your blaming TB.

 

[TriplecHamp]

yes, with Tom Brady and the best offense in the nfl. The stats would not have been quite so outstanding for Sanchez if the patriot offense did anything in the second half.

I don't care how well Brady and company plays, 14 points may not be enough most of the time but you are certainly not scoring 28+ points against the Jets defense most of the time. In short, you can't give up 28 points to the Jets and expect to win.

 

[mgteich]

Tom Brady can do no wrong! Do you really think that the long throws were reasonable decisions. Do you really think that these two plays are the reasons for the aweful performance of the offense, and the fault doesn't go to brady?

 

[homer alert]

There are issues on D dont get me wrong, but it was good enough in this game but got no help...

Other than the 21 straight points, 28 points overall, that D was tough to score on.

 

[Rob0729]

I still don't know why people want to always blame the offense for the defensive problems. It wasn't like the defense was stopping the Jets and only gave up points because everytime they forced the Jets to punt, the offense went three and out. Both sides played poorly in the second half. they both gave up critical plays that either left points on the field or allowed the Jets to score points.

I don't think we can honestly say that if the one side of the ball just played average and didn't make any mistakes that they could overcome the mistakes on the other side.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

The second int was tipped by Moss, Brady made a good throw, Jason Taylor hit him blindside unabated, dont see how your blaming TB.

And the first Moss referred to as a miscommunication, although what disconnect seemed to emanate from was Moss inability to beat Cromartie, a bigger corner who is apparently also as fast as Moss, to the target area...

 

[MrNathanDrake]

the D had no time to catch their breathe since Brady threw those 2 INTs and put our D right back on the field.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Tom Brady can do no wrong! Do you really think that the long throws were reasonable decisions. Do you really think that these two plays are the reasons for the aweful performance of the offense, and the fault doesn't go to brady?

Moss was targeted 10 times. He caught two balls. None in the second half. Brady has not been remotely inaccurate this season. Is it a bad decision to go to the most talented receiver on the team who is in his contract season after signing a 3 year $27M deal? Apparently it sure can be. That first long throw to Moss doesn't get any better unless the receiver doesn't bobble it...