Jets vs. Dolphins Postgame

Dolphins- 31
Jets- 27

Record: 3-2

This one was painful. The Jets came out on Monday Night Football in front of a national television audience and absolutely blew this game from the very beginning. The defensive effort and game plan was horrendous and without a few excellent plays by Mark Sanchez, Braylon Edwards and the rest of the Jets offense this would have been an absolute massacre. Going into this game I expected the Jets defense to dominate Chad Henne, Ronnie Brown and the wildcat. Ryan drew up schemes last year that could do it, why not this year? I was absolutely wrong on every level. The wildcat gained something like 8 yards a carry and they kept the Jets defense off balance all day using a variation of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. The defense was incapable of getting off the field all day and the Dolphins seemed to just impose their will on the Jets defensive front.

Game Ball:

The game ball for the Jets is going to Braylon Edwards. Edwards was traded to the Jets just four days before this game and came out and played like he has been in this offense since training camp. He made a great catch on a Mark Sanchez pass down the sideline which ended up resulting in a one yard Thomas Jones run. He also forced a pass interference call on a long pass into endzone which resulted in a second Jones TD. Edwards was a playmaker on the field on offense and seemed to dispel a lot of the notions about dropped pass and inconsistency which made Jets fans nervous. Great game by Edwards and I expect a lot more in the weeks to come.


Thumbs Up:

• Thomas Jones showed me more last night than I have seen from him all year. I am giving the thumbs up to Jones over Washington (despite the fact that Washington had the better game) because I have not seen that kind of effort from Jones since last year. He was hitting the holes hard and regularly ripping off gains of 5 or so yards. My major criticism of Jones this year is that he seems to hit the hole slow and has been making his offensive lineman hold their blocks too long which has resulted in numerous runs for less than two yards. I don't know what Jones did differently tonight but he seemed to be finding the running lanes and not going down on first contact. He was fighting for yards like I haven't seen in a while out of him

• The punt game tonight is something that is going to be lost in the losing effort. Weathorford single-handedly kept the first Jets drive alive by running for 20 or so yards on a fake. Later in the game Brad Smith took a direct snap off a punt 10 yards up the middle for a first down after breaking a couple of tackles. These two plays were huge momentum boosters for the Jets and directly resulted in the team getting points when it looked like they were giving the ball away.

• Despite the fact that the defense was terrible last night, I have to give credit to Kris Jenkins. Jenkins has cemented himself as the top 3-4 NT in the league and he was the only Jet player last night to get any pressure on Chad Henne. Jenkins shot the gap a few times in this game and stopped running plays in the backfield. The one thing that continuously impresses me about Jenkins is his ability to make a tackle while an offensive lineman is holding a block. On one play Jenkins was able to penetrate a few yards into the backfield and made a one armed tackle on Ronnie Brown while being blocked by a Dolphins OL (Jake Grove?). Jenkins was great and could have played an even larger role in ending the Dolphins scoring drive to Ginn had the ref seen the blatant hold in the middle of the field. Nevertheless, great game by Jenkins.

• David Clowney had his first impact in a regular season game. He made a great 50 yard catch over the middle of the field which led to a Jets scoring drive. I hope to see more of Clowney in the lineup (pending the injury) in the coming weeks.
  

Thumbs Down:

• Rex Ryan failed to draw up a scheme which could even remotely slow down the wildcat offense. The Dolphins beat the Jets down with it all game and were able to pick up 7-8 yards a carry without even really trying. He has to do a better job drawing up a scheme if the Jets are going to have a chance when the Dolphins come to New York.

• The defensive line was absolutely embarrassed by the Dolphins offensive line. They were blown off the ball on every wildcat snap which allowed Ronnie Brown to pick running lanes and get to the second level. I haven't seen a Jets defensive line dominated like that in a very long time. Their job in the 3-4 defense is to hold their gaps and allow the linebackers to come up and make plays on the running back. When they are getting blown 3-4 yards off the line of scrimmage there is going to be no opportunity for those linebackers making plays.

• The linebackers were incapable of making tackles or filling the gaps and containing the wildcat offense. It is unacceptable to give up that much yardage to a gimmick offense and I believe that the linebackers are completely at fault. I have repeatedly said that Bart Scott and David Harris are one of the top 3 best middle linebacker tandems in the league and they did not act like that at all last night. Against the wildcat offense you need to be able to gain penetration and make tackles when you have the opportunities. Calvin Pace was fairly absent during this game but I will not get too upset over this because it was his first game back and he needs to get up to speed.

Game Recap:

This game was sickening to me and many Jets fans. The team came out completely flat on defense and was incapable of stopping anything. They had plenty of opportunities to get off the field on the final drive and they were unable to stop Chad Henne and the other 18 people that seemed to take snaps at quarterback for the Dolphins. Next week the Jets have the Bills and I expect a much better outcome. I will post my reaction to Rex's press conferences throughout the week when I get over this loss and am able to listen to post game reaction without breaking something.