Jets v. Bills Postgame

Bills- 16
Jets- 13

Jets: 3-3

I was disappointed after last weeks game against Miami but I felt that they came up with a game plan that was better than ours and were able to execute that game plan to perfection.  This week, the Jets came out flat, finished the 4th quarter flat, and played in overtime like they didn't want to win the game.  The penalties were outrageous, especially in overtime.  It starts with Ben Hartstock and the hold on the Thomas Jones run to the 10 yard line.  There is no conceivable reason in that situation to do anything close to hold the defender.  The ball was inside the 25 and Jones had at least 5 yards before the guy that Hartstock held would have been able to potentially make a play.  This killed the Jets first chance to win (along with a terrible botched hold) in overtime.  Ihedigbo is an idiot and deserves to be taken off the active roster for next weeks game against Oakland.  You do not commit personal foul penalties in overtime.  That is inexcusable and if Ryan doesn't sit him down for a week I will be extremely disappointed after he sat Clowney for simply wanting to contribute to the team.  Sanchez was awful.  There are no words that can describe how terrible he looked on the field today.  I can't think of one pass that he threw that I felt confident about and most of the time he was being bailed out by Braylon Edwards.  He has to do some serious conditioning in cold weather if he wants to be a quarterback in New York.  The penalties continued with defensive holding calls on Pace and false start penalties on D'brick and Keller.  The fact that the Jets were less disciplined than a terrible Bills team is inexcusable and is something I have been criticizing all year.  I am shocked, upset, and can honestly not believe what I just saw out of a team that I perceived to be a lot better than the way they are playing.

Game Ball:

• This is probably the easiest thing in the world to give on the Jets side as there were so few good games turned in.  However, Thomas Jones turned in a spectacular rushing performance with 22 carries for 210 yards and a touchdown.  The two big runs early in the game were huge for the Jets and really gave the feel that they would control the rest of the game.  He exploded through the holes and truly reminded Jets fans who are clambering for Shonn Greene to get many more carries why he shouldn't be overlooked the rest of the season.

Thumbs Up:

• Darelle Revis seems to get mentioned in this section every week as he turned in another amazing performance against Terrell Owens.  Revis was less than spectacular in the beginning with the two penalties but he rebounded later in the game to really shut down Owens.  The thing I notice every week about Revis is his tackling from the cornerback position.  He must be one of the top 5 best tackling cornerbacks in the league.

• Leon Washington had another great game running and catching the ball.  He ended up with 99 yards rushing on just 13 carries and 46 yards receiving on 3 receptions.  He was hitting the holes hard and made a great play in overtime to get the ball close to field goal range for Feely.  

• The offensive line really rebounded after having a tough couple of weeks.  The Jets gained 318 yards on the ground which is an absolutely incredible number.  The holes that led to Thomas Jones' two big runs were so big that Kris Jenkins probably could have ended up with at least a 20 yard gain.  The pass protection was average but the mistakes that were made cannot be blamed on offensive line play.

Thumbs Down:

• I cannot even put into words how bad Mark Sanchez was today.  His only job in this game was to control the clock and the ball and not allow Buffalo to have good field position.  He seemed to make it his job to throw the ball to people wearing the other color jersey as many times as possible.  I don't want to hear excuses like, "he's never played in cold weather" or anything like that because he has been training all week in cold weather and he has to learn how to play in inclement weather if he's going to be a quarterback in New York.  For god sakes, we are in October and he is already playing poorly in this weather.  What happens when its 10 degrees and snowing in December.  The five interceptions were absolutely inexcusable and they were pretty much all on him.  The one in overtime was incredibly stupid as the Jets could have punted and pinned the Bills way back in their own territory.  At that point in the game you have to use your head a lot more than he did.  There's really little else to say about this game for Sanchez other than he seems to be regressing.

• Rex Ryan is the head coach of this football team and should be imposing discipline in the players.  The Jets finished with 14 penalties for 96 yards which is an absolute joke.  I discussed the penalties above so I won't go into those but he needs to do something to stop all these penalties from happening.  I don't have the exact stats but I am sure that the Jets are near the top in the league in penalties and penalty yardage.  I can't fault Ryan's gameplan defensively because the defense was put in a lot of tough situations because of how badly Mark Sanchez was throwing the ball.

• Ben Hartstock blew the game with that holding call and I cannot fail to mention it here.  The Jets would have had the ball inside the 25 with a field goal attempt to win the game.  Instead, they had the ball at the 33 and ended up getting a botched snap/hold and forcing Weatherford to just throw the ball up which resulted in an interception and good field position for the Bills.  

Game Thoughts:

I've never been so pained trying to watch a football game. (That's probably not true but you know what I mean).  It seemed to me that neither team really wanted to win this game but the Bills played disciplined and safe while the Jets tried to give it away.  At 3-0 and coming off three big wins we all thought this team was very good.  However, these last two games have really exposed that there are serious problems with this team that have to be overcome if they are ever going to make a run at the playoffs this year.

Notes: Jenkins left with an injury and there are reports that it may be severe which would be terrible for the Jets defense.