Jets- 9
Jets: 0-1
The Jets came into this game with an offense that was a work in progress. New pieces were added in LaDainian Tomlinson and Santonio Holmes (out until Week 5) and Mark Sanchez was supposed to be a much improved quarterback than what we saw last season. What we saw tonight mirrors much of what we saw last season. Brian Schottenheimer called an EXTREMELY conservative offense while Mark Sanchez didn't even look capable of thinking about throwing the ball down the field. It is had to pick out which party is more at fault in this game. What can be said is that the Jets offense looked as bad tonight as I have ever seen it. The defense showed up to play tonight and played great with the exceptions of Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson. Wilson was victimized in his first NFL game and even suffered a fumble (recovered by the Jets) on a punt return. Cromartie was targeted all game and committed several very costly penalties. His only positive in this game was a pretty good interception and return. Overall, I was very happy with the play of the offense and absolutely disgusted with the play of the defense.
Thumbs Up:
- Jim Leonhard provided a spark on special teams with a pretty good punt return in the first half and another semi good one in the second half. With a horrible Jets offense any kind of spark was needed and Leonhard at least tried to provide that.
- Bryan Thomas finished the game with 1.5 sacks and really played great on defense. Along with the other linebackers the Jets held the Ravens to a minuscule amount of yards per carry and did a great job at shutting down the Ravens. The only touchdown they gave up was the result of a running into the kicker penalty by Braylon Edwards.
- Steve Weatherford punted great tonight and twice pinned the Ravens inside the 2 yard line. It is weird to praise a punter in my thumbs up section but he is the only non-defensive player that deserved this.
Thumbs Down:
- Brian Schottenheimer called an absolutely horrible offense tonight. He was incapable of taking any chances against a suspect Ravens secondary on first downs and the offense he did call seemed overly complicated. Mark Sanchez seems to think he is Peyton Manning with all the line calls. I don't know what has to happen but this seems to be the story with Schottenheimer every single year.
- Mark Sanchez played a terrible game. He never seemed to look downfield and every play was either a check down, a sack, or a Sanchez run. Unless this offense opens up and the ball gets thrown downfield there is no chance for anything to be successful.
- Dustin Keller needs to get the extra yard on that 4th down play. He had plenty of time to quickly turn up field and at least reach the ball over the first down line. I don't have much more to say about his play but he needs to get that done.
- Penalties, Penalties, Penalties. Was there any third and long tonight where the Jets didn't commit a penalty. Even with the horrid offense the Jets could have won this game if they had cut out two penalties. First is the Braylon Edwards running into the kicker and shortly after was the Kyle Wilson pass interference. This team needs a dose of discipline.
Notes: Kris Jenkins went out in the first quarter with an injury to the same knee that knocked him out all of last year and I don't expect the news to be good.
Game Thoughts:
If the Jets offense doesn't come alive in the coming weeks we are going to suffer through a lot of these games this year. The defense is superb and will finish top 3 in the league if everyone manages to stay healthy. However, for the Jets to win this tough division they need to get some offense going. I realize that the Ravens have a very, very good defense so I am willing to give the offense a break for this week. However, in the coming weeks I need to see something more before I proclaim this team to be as good as they talk
No comments:
Post a Comment