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Not sure how long this one will be. There are a lot of subtleties to dissect even though many will want easy black and white answers. I know it gets tiresome, but it IS the way of the world these days.
Bill will tell you that a win in the NFL should be cherished. They are hard to come by and ALWAYS well earned. I don't think that I ever played or coached in a game that I lost that in retrospect I didn't think we should have won. If we ONLY did this on that play, or if the ref had only called it this way, or if I had only read my keys correctly, etc. We do a lot after loses, and we are often even MORE critical after wins. I have a feeling that my commentary might tend to be on that side, mostly because when you win, you team accepts the criticism a LOT more readily. So lets get on with it.
1. General Comments about what I saw this Sunday:
You know when I say it is hard to win ANY game in the NFL, a lot of people here think of that as being a cliche, or just coach speech. But it isn't. This isn't HS or college where there can be tremendous talent or numbers differences and there ARE easy games. This is the NFL where the worst guy at the end of the roster was on of the top 5 guys on his college team and already a great athlete. In the NFL he gets the finest training, coaching and nutrition, and are paid well enough that they can do nothing else all year but get ready for a 6 month season. You get get SOOOO much better AFTER you come into the league...IF you are smart and tough enough to take advantage of your athletic abilities and learn your craft as a professional.
Also, since I'm in the preaching mode here. I always thought I was a student of the game when I played. I would watch film back in a time where most of the time you would only watch the last week's game once and some film of who you were going to play once. Well I would come in and watch during the week and try and find something that would help a 210lb college NT get an edge. So it would come as a shock when I first starting coaching back in 1969, just how LITTLE I knew about the game of football.
One of the beauties of the game was that over what was close to 2 decades, just how much there is to learn. Being a football coach is like a constant lesson in humility. Every time you sat down with another coach or at a clinic or college spring practice there was ALWAYS something you could take away. And NOW with all the data available, one of the more difficult things for a coach to do is to EDIT all the minutia and put it into a teachable format to give to your players. Now I'd like to think that I know more about the game than most, but I will ALWAYS believe that I know about 10% of what an NFL coach does......ANY NFL coach, even someone only in the league a few years. Great coaches are great listeners. You don't get to that level if you woke up one morning and thought there was nothing anyone could teach you about the game. Bill Bellichick might be the best in history, but I KNOW he doesn't believe he knows it all.
But just like any fan, I can second guess with the best of then, and I DO. There are no hard object allowed in the TV room when I'm watching games, though throw pillows are widely scattered around to minimize damage to the TV. But AFTER the moment has passed, I have to admit that whatever decision was made, the coach who made it, did so with so much more information than I had making mine. I know that won't stop anyone from voicing their thoughts, nor should it. But it SHOULD make everyone more understanding about why those decisions were made. What we DON'T know as fans is massive. And with that, I will now give you my opinion on everything I THOUGHT I saw this afternoon. I think Thelonius would tell us that that is "irony"
.
2. I no longer watch 3 games every Sunday like I used to. All the hypocrisy of the league along with just getting old, I have become less of a football fan and more of a PATRIOTS fan. Now and then after the Pats have played, I will catch a few plays of one game or another and even stay want watch for a bit if the game is compelling. 2 games stood out with lessons to be learned. After hearing the Dolphins put SEVENTY up on the Broncos, just maybe the Pats put up a much better defensive game against the Fins than we gave them credit for. Get ready for the wave of attention they will be getting. The other game was the Cowboy Cardinal game. Think next week's game is unwinnable? I bet you don't now. EVERY game in the NFL is hard to win.
2. OFFENSE
a. General: What was it Bill said at the presser. Points are the most important thing in a football game and turnovers are #2. I ready about half of the GDT and one poster wrote something that stuck with me (and I apologize for not remembering who it was). He said, we forget sometimes that football games are "SITUATIONAL". It matterswho you are playing and what the conditions are. So yeah, 13 points is a HORRIBLE number. AND there were several opportunities where that number could have and should have been larger. BUT.....let us not forget that the Jets have what many would call a "championship level" defense who were playing AT home, IN the rain and wind, and as much as we want to rant and rave about the offense, it should be noted that the Jets are good at defense too and it had a factor in the amount of points the Pats put up. It should also be noted that 357yd of total offense isn't as horrific a number as the 13 points. The Pats DID move the ball, but there always seem to be a "timely" holding call that killed drives. The kind of calls the networks don't want to have reviewed for the audience....if you know what I mean.
The offense in general was painfully boring and uninspired but I haven't any clue how much of that was dictated by the Jets defense, the weather, or the flow of the game. Until the Jets last drive (aided by the refs) there wasn't any reason to take any chances and the strategy needed to be "minimizing chances of losing the game". That won't work every game.
BOB ran a LOT of RPO's at Alabama. He knows it well. Mac was successful in it. I THOUGHT it was going to be a part of the offense, but I'm not seeing it. A lot of Mac under C. Regular play action passes, but there doesn't seem to be much RPO action. Anyone have the stats for how much RPO the pats are running percentage wise?
b. QB- This was clearly Macs worst statistical performance of the year. But it was a game where I thought he made strides in his game. The "stats" say the Jets had no sacks and 2 QB hits. Seemed like a lot more hits than that. The OL improved (especially before Strange went down) a bit and I thought Mac had marginally more time. There is STILL a misconnect in communications with JJSS and Douglas on the kind of plays that require the receiver and QB to be on the same page when he has to adlib. I think those throws to the outside that went incomplete to both Douglas and JJSS were examples of that. Those are the kind of plays that only time and reps can create.
My favorite play by Mac was his 8 yd sprint. He saw and opening and he took it. He needs to do that a BIT more often. My biggest complaint was that Mac's ball handling on play action passing wasn't nearly as crisp with the RB as it should be. There was nothing even close to a mesh between the 2. It needs to be cleared up.
Listen the haters are going to light Mac up. Whereas his good completion percentages from the last 2 week didn't matter, THIS week it does and just over 50% just show how bad he was. The Jets defense didn't matter. The weather conditions don't matter. It's just Mac.........and Bill
c OL - STILL a work in progress.....that made some progress. 157 rushing yds against that front 7 is good work. Best yet, for the 3+ quarters that I watched I NEVER heard the name VLowe mentioned once, and for an OLman that is music to your ears. Now I have no idea how good or bad he actually played but its a start. The Strange injury sucked. We won't know how bad it was, but just when it looked like they were going to get the band back together, we take another step back. The OL is NOT where it needs to be, but each game seems to be better than the last.
d TE's - The Pharaoh Brown Project. I say about time. This isn't a dish on Mike Gisiki, it's about the need for a blocking TE which is what Brown is, and I think it showed in the running game. The fact he had 71 receiving yds is a bonus that shouldn't be overlooked. It showed that there ARE simple routes that a primarily blocking TE can run and be effective, We see it all the time. 2 or 3 targets a game and solid run blocking more than makes up for any route running pluses we gain from Mike. Let him play in passing situations. We need a solid run game if we are going to compete and to do that we need a good blocking TE who can occasionally catch a 10 yd pass. Brown can do that and he showed it today. There will be situations for Gisiki. I don't think next week he'll be featured.
e WR's Bourne and Adams seem like they could be the guys Mac can count on, not that anyone looked great today, but I like what I'm seeing from Kendrick. JJSS WILL be the main topic of "conversation". I'd like to think that he's still working out the kinks with the new offense and QB. He DID miss a lot of preseason time and it will get better. However every game that the status quo remains his results the din will grow and in a few weeks be justified. Just not now, imo. I like Douglas as much as the next guy, but it's a really big jump for SEC WR's to make impacts their rookie years, let alone someone from Liberty
f. RB's - BOB still insists on running the ball right up the middle most of the time. I am hoping that they start to break that tendency starting next week. The run blocking was better and thus the RB results were better. Couldn't help notice that Zeke's long gain came when he cut back against the grain and caught the Jets overrunning the play. I would mind seeing more of this in the future, if only having the RB's looking for it. I'd like to see the RB's used more in the passing game and not just on screens.
Bill will tell you that a win in the NFL should be cherished. They are hard to come by and ALWAYS well earned. I don't think that I ever played or coached in a game that I lost that in retrospect I didn't think we should have won. If we ONLY did this on that play, or if the ref had only called it this way, or if I had only read my keys correctly, etc. We do a lot after loses, and we are often even MORE critical after wins. I have a feeling that my commentary might tend to be on that side, mostly because when you win, you team accepts the criticism a LOT more readily. So lets get on with it.
1. General Comments about what I saw this Sunday:
You know when I say it is hard to win ANY game in the NFL, a lot of people here think of that as being a cliche, or just coach speech. But it isn't. This isn't HS or college where there can be tremendous talent or numbers differences and there ARE easy games. This is the NFL where the worst guy at the end of the roster was on of the top 5 guys on his college team and already a great athlete. In the NFL he gets the finest training, coaching and nutrition, and are paid well enough that they can do nothing else all year but get ready for a 6 month season. You get get SOOOO much better AFTER you come into the league...IF you are smart and tough enough to take advantage of your athletic abilities and learn your craft as a professional.
Also, since I'm in the preaching mode here. I always thought I was a student of the game when I played. I would watch film back in a time where most of the time you would only watch the last week's game once and some film of who you were going to play once. Well I would come in and watch during the week and try and find something that would help a 210lb college NT get an edge. So it would come as a shock when I first starting coaching back in 1969, just how LITTLE I knew about the game of football.
One of the beauties of the game was that over what was close to 2 decades, just how much there is to learn. Being a football coach is like a constant lesson in humility. Every time you sat down with another coach or at a clinic or college spring practice there was ALWAYS something you could take away. And NOW with all the data available, one of the more difficult things for a coach to do is to EDIT all the minutia and put it into a teachable format to give to your players. Now I'd like to think that I know more about the game than most, but I will ALWAYS believe that I know about 10% of what an NFL coach does......ANY NFL coach, even someone only in the league a few years. Great coaches are great listeners. You don't get to that level if you woke up one morning and thought there was nothing anyone could teach you about the game. Bill Bellichick might be the best in history, but I KNOW he doesn't believe he knows it all.
But just like any fan, I can second guess with the best of then, and I DO. There are no hard object allowed in the TV room when I'm watching games, though throw pillows are widely scattered around to minimize damage to the TV. But AFTER the moment has passed, I have to admit that whatever decision was made, the coach who made it, did so with so much more information than I had making mine. I know that won't stop anyone from voicing their thoughts, nor should it. But it SHOULD make everyone more understanding about why those decisions were made. What we DON'T know as fans is massive. And with that, I will now give you my opinion on everything I THOUGHT I saw this afternoon. I think Thelonius would tell us that that is "irony"
.2. I no longer watch 3 games every Sunday like I used to. All the hypocrisy of the league along with just getting old, I have become less of a football fan and more of a PATRIOTS fan. Now and then after the Pats have played, I will catch a few plays of one game or another and even stay want watch for a bit if the game is compelling. 2 games stood out with lessons to be learned. After hearing the Dolphins put SEVENTY up on the Broncos, just maybe the Pats put up a much better defensive game against the Fins than we gave them credit for. Get ready for the wave of attention they will be getting. The other game was the Cowboy Cardinal game. Think next week's game is unwinnable? I bet you don't now. EVERY game in the NFL is hard to win.
2. OFFENSE
a. General: What was it Bill said at the presser. Points are the most important thing in a football game and turnovers are #2. I ready about half of the GDT and one poster wrote something that stuck with me (and I apologize for not remembering who it was). He said, we forget sometimes that football games are "SITUATIONAL". It matterswho you are playing and what the conditions are. So yeah, 13 points is a HORRIBLE number. AND there were several opportunities where that number could have and should have been larger. BUT.....let us not forget that the Jets have what many would call a "championship level" defense who were playing AT home, IN the rain and wind, and as much as we want to rant and rave about the offense, it should be noted that the Jets are good at defense too and it had a factor in the amount of points the Pats put up. It should also be noted that 357yd of total offense isn't as horrific a number as the 13 points. The Pats DID move the ball, but there always seem to be a "timely" holding call that killed drives. The kind of calls the networks don't want to have reviewed for the audience....if you know what I mean.
The offense in general was painfully boring and uninspired but I haven't any clue how much of that was dictated by the Jets defense, the weather, or the flow of the game. Until the Jets last drive (aided by the refs) there wasn't any reason to take any chances and the strategy needed to be "minimizing chances of losing the game". That won't work every game.
BOB ran a LOT of RPO's at Alabama. He knows it well. Mac was successful in it. I THOUGHT it was going to be a part of the offense, but I'm not seeing it. A lot of Mac under C. Regular play action passes, but there doesn't seem to be much RPO action. Anyone have the stats for how much RPO the pats are running percentage wise?
b. QB- This was clearly Macs worst statistical performance of the year. But it was a game where I thought he made strides in his game. The "stats" say the Jets had no sacks and 2 QB hits. Seemed like a lot more hits than that. The OL improved (especially before Strange went down) a bit and I thought Mac had marginally more time. There is STILL a misconnect in communications with JJSS and Douglas on the kind of plays that require the receiver and QB to be on the same page when he has to adlib. I think those throws to the outside that went incomplete to both Douglas and JJSS were examples of that. Those are the kind of plays that only time and reps can create.
My favorite play by Mac was his 8 yd sprint. He saw and opening and he took it. He needs to do that a BIT more often. My biggest complaint was that Mac's ball handling on play action passing wasn't nearly as crisp with the RB as it should be. There was nothing even close to a mesh between the 2. It needs to be cleared up.
Listen the haters are going to light Mac up. Whereas his good completion percentages from the last 2 week didn't matter, THIS week it does and just over 50% just show how bad he was. The Jets defense didn't matter. The weather conditions don't matter. It's just Mac.........and Bill
c OL - STILL a work in progress.....that made some progress. 157 rushing yds against that front 7 is good work. Best yet, for the 3+ quarters that I watched I NEVER heard the name VLowe mentioned once, and for an OLman that is music to your ears. Now I have no idea how good or bad he actually played but its a start. The Strange injury sucked. We won't know how bad it was, but just when it looked like they were going to get the band back together, we take another step back. The OL is NOT where it needs to be, but each game seems to be better than the last.
d TE's - The Pharaoh Brown Project. I say about time. This isn't a dish on Mike Gisiki, it's about the need for a blocking TE which is what Brown is, and I think it showed in the running game. The fact he had 71 receiving yds is a bonus that shouldn't be overlooked. It showed that there ARE simple routes that a primarily blocking TE can run and be effective, We see it all the time. 2 or 3 targets a game and solid run blocking more than makes up for any route running pluses we gain from Mike. Let him play in passing situations. We need a solid run game if we are going to compete and to do that we need a good blocking TE who can occasionally catch a 10 yd pass. Brown can do that and he showed it today. There will be situations for Gisiki. I don't think next week he'll be featured.
e WR's Bourne and Adams seem like they could be the guys Mac can count on, not that anyone looked great today, but I like what I'm seeing from Kendrick. JJSS WILL be the main topic of "conversation". I'd like to think that he's still working out the kinks with the new offense and QB. He DID miss a lot of preseason time and it will get better. However every game that the status quo remains his results the din will grow and in a few weeks be justified. Just not now, imo. I like Douglas as much as the next guy, but it's a really big jump for SEC WR's to make impacts their rookie years, let alone someone from Liberty
f. RB's - BOB still insists on running the ball right up the middle most of the time. I am hoping that they start to break that tendency starting next week. The run blocking was better and thus the RB results were better. Couldn't help notice that Zeke's long gain came when he cut back against the grain and caught the Jets overrunning the play. I would mind seeing more of this in the future, if only having the RB's looking for it. I'd like to see the RB's used more in the passing game and not just on screens.
