So, how's everyone feeling today?
Welcome to a Victory Monday at the Fort, which I don’t think will sound much like one.
Credit players like Kris Jenkins, David Bowens, Calvin Pace - and some others,too - for giving more than the “a win is a win” line after yesterday’s 28-24 victory over the Chiefs. Or, as Rich Cimini of the Daily News put it well, the non-loss.
“All is not lost," Jenkins said in Bob Glauber’s fine column off the game. "I'm not saying we're a bad team. We have the potential. But I'm not satisfied, and that should be the mentality of this team. We need to take it to the next level."
I ended my game story with a quote from Pace who was responding to a question I asked him. The question was basically this: at some point during the game did the guys on defense start wondering how in the h*** they were allowing Tyler Thigpen to do so well?
"Yeah, a little bit," Pace said. "You can't discredit him. He's trying to get out there and make some plays and stay out there. It's not like we were going out there and putting him down ... but that being said, it shouldn't have come down to that last drive."
No, it shouldn't have and the Jets were lucky they were playing the only team in the league yesterday that they could have possibly beaten the way they performed. It was especially concerning given how things had gone the previous week for the Jets against a bad Oakland team that, as you probably saw, lost ugly yesterday in Baltimore and showed they, indeed, are who we thought they were.
There’s an undefined “it” missing from this Jets team seven games into the season that’s hard to put a finger on. If lack of talent was an issue that would be one thing, but it’s not. Bottom line: I'm not sure this team is much better after Game 7 than it was after Game 1. As Jenkins said, the potential is there but the Jets seem a long way from reaching it. The good news is the same as the bad news. They're 4-3, a game out of first place. The bad? They're 4-3, a game out of last place. Nine games is a long way to go and a lot of good things can happen for the Jets in that time; a lot of bad can happen, too. For some reason, I still think this can be a playoff team, but things need to get straightened out in a hurry.
Eric Mangini will likely get some tough questions in this afternoon's press conference, questions that might make it seem as if the Jets lost the game rather than won it. Players are "off" but we'll get a few of them on a conference call after Mangini. Be back with some of that later. Also, we have another live chat scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 11. There, I'm sure everyone's day just got better.
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Comments (12)
Don't let that punk Mangini off the hook today with his glib off-putting non-answers. This man needs to seriously answer questions about the coaching staff’s deficiencies.
Erik,
Honestly, the only thing preventing the Jets from looking like a solid playoff contender the last 3 weeks has been the turnovers. A team with less talent would have gone 0-3 with that turnover differential instead of 2-1. That seems like the kind of thing that can be corrected with a little more discipline.
Erik
I'm sick and tired of Mangini and this terrible coaching staff. It seems like they have the same game plan every week. Schotenhimer has been awful with the play calling and Sutton is not to fair behind.
Do you think there is anyway Woody would fire Mangini and open the bank and get Bill Cower?
Erik, what do you think of the job the coordinators are doing? I wrote about this on another forum, but it was way too long, so I'll paraphrase: It seems like the coordinators are coaching not to lose instead of coaching to win. In 06, they would establish the run (despite having Barlow and Blaylock, not Jones and Chatman), find ways to get the ball into the hands of their playmakers in space, bring pressure from different angles, and move guys like Rhodes around so they could make more plays.
Now, despite all of the new toys they have to play with in Jones, Revis, Keller, an improved Cotchery, Faneca, Woody, Harris, Jenkins, Pace, and Favre, they seem scared. They rarely bring pressure and when they do, they rarely do anything creative (this week's safety blitz was the first good one in a while). Schottenheimer seems afraid to establish the run against the terrible run defenses he's facing, possibly because he was criticized early on for not letting Favre throw. They get the ball to their backs around 2.5 less times per game this year than in '06 by my calculations, despite the fact that they sucked. And it's hurt the team.
So I'm just wondering, what do you think about the job they've done? Where have the bubble screens, creative blitzes, exotic motion offenses that confused the defenses, those plays where the defense moved before the play to confuse the offense, and all the creativity gone?
The coordinators seem scared to lose instead of hungry to win, and I think they should be fired for it.
Erik, the play calling yesterday was just horrible. Why not run the ball more at all? Using the Baker injury excuse was lame. The Chief s are so bad stopping the run, even if they tipped their hands with the linemen, the Chiefs weren't going to stop it consistently. All the more reason to go to play action. Lining up shotgun 3rd and 1?
I like hearing the players taking it as a loss, the vets know something is wrong. They have to fix it, but with this coaching staff I have my doubts. I am hopeful they can pull it out in Buffalo this Sunday, but I wouldn't bet on it. This team just hasn't given us enough glimpses to believe they can pull it off yet.
"There’s an undefined “it” missing from this Jets team seven games into the season that’s hard to put a finger on. If lack of talent was an issue that would be one thing, but it’s not. "
It's called the coaching staff. They are horrible.
I'm jumping on the "coach staff blows donkey d*ck" bandwagon as well. There's poor execution, and then there's poor play calling. there are too many good players at the skill positions for the Jets to continue to be this inept on offense. we should have run the ball down Herm's throat all game. The Baker excuse is pathetic - what do you have Keller for? is he not a TE? can't you run out of the spread? get creative, that's what you get paid for. maybe instead of 4 QB and 3 kickers there would be some depth, too. Farve's decrease in productivity is alarming, but I'm not ready to get rid of him just yet
Defensively - where was the pressure? we forced zero turnovers against a heretofore bad QB. Yes, a QB rating of 44 qualifies you as bad. We made Yancy Thigpen look like...well like Chad Pennington did against us! (Chad who threw for over 300 yds yesterday). almost 300 yds and 0 int is not acceptable, especially when there is no running game to speak of...just pathetic.
it's sad when I agree with that FIRE MANGINI guy, but at least I'm not capitalizing random words
Erik,
Good post. And i am on the same page as you. This team is 1 game from being tied for 1st if the Pats lose and they beat the Bills. And if they lose bad this week things could get worse. I to believe there is too much talent on this team and they could make a palyoff run. But they better get it going this week or it will turn into a long season. Never give up but they are making it very hard.Make a statement this week and let Murrell play instead of Gholston. Not to pick on Gholston but maybe that will send a message to the players that they better kick into gear this week. No turnovers,no missed tackles,jump on the Bills early and lets get a balanced offensive attack. A win against the Bills will solve the bad feeling and maybe kick start their season.GO JETS!!!!
I admitted being too hard on Mangini this week, not this week. I want him gone. Marty Schottenheimer on Sirius NFL Radio today when asked about his son's play calling on the 3rd and 1 and going shotgun, "I wanted to call him and ask what the hell he was doing!!"...very funny. Nevertheless I'm DONE with this coaching staff.
Beat Buffalo, that is all it comes down to. Coaching has been horrendous, but maybe if Feeley hits that chip shot and the Jets go up 10-0, the game ends before it begins, maybe. They won, now go beat Buffalo. Beat Buffalo, and send a message that your for real. Win a game that you shouldn't for the first time in god knows how long, and give us a reason to get excited. While it was refreshing to hear Jenkins and Pace say that they weren't happy with the win, not good enough. There was no reason not to be up for yesterdays game. Get up, beat Buffalo, and set yourselfs up for a chance at a playoff run. This team has done nothing, absolutely nothing to even have the words playoff associated with it. Beat Buffalo, and that all changes.
I kind of agree with the other posters. Mangini is a very detail-oriented guy, but he's not calling the plays on Sunday. The offense can't seem to find a rhythm beyond the first drive because Brian Schottenheimer's play calling is all over the place. What ever happened to establishing the run to set up the play action or estblishing the passing game to set up a draw play? How about pulling the guard to run an end around? The Jets have one of the most complicated offenses in football and Schottenheimer's play-calling is like the mad scientist trying to come up with a secret formula. This team has too much talent to over-complicate things. Stop outsmarting yourself. Take a page out of the Giants' playbook and just dare the other team to stop you.
Defensively, it seems like there's always a linebacker/nickel back mismatch on critical passing downs. I'm not sure if this is a play calling issue or a personnel issue, but Bob Sutton had better figure this one out too or the Jets will be lucky to end up 8-8.
4 and 3...Very much in the playoff hunt approaching the half way point of the season. Take a good look at the teams in the AFC. A lot of teams at .500 or below. The Jets need to beat a few of the elite teams (two of which play in our division-Bills and Pats) to show they belong. Very exciting I'd say...or do I have to remind anyone about last year?