Subplots and musings and observations from the Jets week one, season opening loss to the Ravens 10-9.
– In a good news/bad news kind of way, the score told two stories. If you’re a Jet fan you can wake up knowing that despite how poorly the Jets played they came close to winning the game. Of course if your a Jet fan this morning you’re probably waking up from a very bad hangover. That kind of good news is the equivalent of telling a terminally ill person that they’ve lived a good life immediately after learning of their fate. Of course the bad news here is that the score suggests that the game was tighter than it was. The Ravens dominated this game from possession time to third down conversion to passing defense.
– The All Star duo that was supposed to be the Jets secondary was nowhere to be found. Darrelle Revis was supposed to be rusty but he was cool as a cucumber acting like he didn’t miss 36 days of training camp. Kyle Wilson and Antonio Cromartie proved to be the weak links to a secondary that now seems to be a mixed bag. Sure we don’t want to jump to conclusions because its just week one but something tells me the media won’t be slow to anger here. After all the hulabaloo over how much the Jets didn’t need him, it seemed as though Revis was the only one who knew what he was doing. Crushing penalty after dumb penalty kept drives alive and set up the lone touchdown of the game, a one yard run by Willis McGahee. Wilson’s defensive hold gave the Ravens a first down on a 3rd and 28 and then his pass interference on TJ Housh, set up 1st and goal.
– Kris Jenkins is done for the year with an ACL tear which is such a devastating injury to a defense that was counting on him to stay healthy. Rex Ryan put it best, there aren’t too many Kris Jenkins in the league, so it will be interesting to see how Sione Pouha plays out the rest of the year. He did a good job last year when Jenkins went out after 6 games, but this time his stay will be extended. Tough break for Jenks who worked his butt off to get back healthy after injuring that same knee last year, will be done this time in 6 plays.
– The game plan the Ravens used is something I’m sure Bill Belichiek watched closely. The Jets scheme leaves a lot of man to man with their cornerbacks left on islands (cue Revis’ theme song) and thus puts emphasis on the cover ability of the corner to shadow the receiver long enough for the blitz to reach the QB. During the beginning of the game, the Jets defense dialed up blitzes that were getting through emphasized by the very first play in which Flacco got sandwiched by Bryan Thomas and Shaun Ellis and the ball was scooped up by Sione Piouha. Of course, Flacco responded and Cam Cameron had Flacco move around in the pocket right from the snap enough that the Jets ended up playing zone and the Ravens allowed Flacco to be a pocket passer for the rest of the afternoon. The game plan was to attack Kyle Wilson as they had Mason and Boldin motion and go into the slot and as soon as the blitz came the ball always ended up where Wilson was regardless of who he was covering. Great game plan and until Wilson shows he can consistently cover the slot, teams will feast on him. A tricky part of the equation was that the Jets were minus Brodney Pool (their cover safety) and really had no idea what Revis was capable of. They had Revis on one side and never asked him to shadow Anquan Boldin who’s first game had to excite Ravens fans. It won’t ever be THIS bad for their offense because they faced a run defense just as stout as theirs, so watching Boldin grab catch after catch, gaining huge first downs had to be exciting. Ravens officials won’t admit this, but he probably earned his contract with last night’s performance.
– Look, coming into the season the weakness of the offense was underscored by the signing of LDT and the trade to bring in Santonio Holmes, and all through preseason they scoffed at everyone who grew increasingly worried with each game’s lack of a threat and told people not to worry. But now, people are worried though its still week one. One bright spot was LDT who had a very good game despite the team’s lack of any offense. The Jets knew coming in that their running game would be the focal point but Shonn Greene ran indecisively and had too many fumbles to keep him out there and LDT was the featured back for most of the evening which is NOT how OC Brian Schottenheimer wanted it to go. But the Jets major question mark was Mark Sanchez and in his first game in his sophmore season, he led many to believe that maybe those Super Bowl reservations should be held. Poor decision making was his undoing. While he didn’t do any dumb throws off his back foot, he consistently went to the check down and never bothered with trying the Ravens on their weak link which was their secondary.
– If there had to be a great group in this game it had to be the special teams of the Jets who consistently made Baltimore take the ball against their own end zone plenty of times and made stellar plays. Plus all the Jets points were scored on field goals despite the offense being in the red zone twice. Defense and special teams can be a pretty solid tandem but you have to be able to perform on offense and the Jets were NOT able to do so.
– As I predicted, Sanchez’ most reliable target is Dustin Keller who continues to be a mismatch for LB’s and and corners. The pair had a long completion negated by a holding penalty that absolutely doomed them from perhaps having that one TD that would’ve made the difference. Look for the partnership to continue to develop.
– With this whole investigation surrounding reporter Inez Sainz (which I think once everyone gets more information about her will blow over) the major storyline surrounding the Jets will be this feeling that they are a very uncontrollable group of raging animals. It shouldn’t be the case but the amount of various dumb penalties won’t help matters. Perception is huge in New York and right now, in the Jets very first test, they graded very low. They had no rhythm on offense and seemed to play it really conservative which will HAVE to change and that’s on the coaching staff. The defense was intense and just overly aggressive. Cromartie’s play was erratic and it showed. This defense will give him opportunities to gamble and you will see plenty of interceptions for him and Kyle Wilson since we can safely assume after showing no sign of rust, that no one will be dumb enough to throw to Revis’ side. The Jets will HAVE to make do without Kris Jenkins. Again. Its tough to not have a presence in the middle like Jenkins but now the scheme is more important than ever. Whatever the Jets do, their biggest need right now is offense and however they can get it, they have to find a way. I was really disappointed in Shonn Greene who seemed to show none of the burst you would want to see out of a feature back. He finally acted like the young rookie everyone thought he’d act like last year when he had that really promising run during the post season. There was a statline where Greene had fumbled 3 times in 70 carries which is unusually high for a RB especially one who hopes to get the bulk of the carries.
I give the Jets a C- for their performance. Only reason its even a C is because of the defense and more importantly special teams.
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