Leon Washington

As a Jets fan we can't seem to have a week without disappointment.  Even in the 38-0 win yesterday afternoon the Jets lost Leon Washington for the season with a compound fracture in his leg.  This injury came on Leon Washington's first carry and about 20 minutes after I took the tag off the brand new jersey which I wore for the first time yesterday.  Leon Washington is one of the most electric players I have ever seen and I will miss watching him greatly for the rest of this season.  Washington is easily my favorite Jets player and I hope he will return next season with a new contract.  This will become a huge issue in the offseason as Leon denied a long term contract of 4.5 million dollars in the off-season because he was looking for around 6.  I am predicting that Leon will sign a 1-2 year deal this offseason which is heavily backloaded to protect the Jets investment. 

As a huge Leon fan, I am hoping that this isn't the last time we see him in a Jets uniform.

Jets v. Raiders Postgame

Jets- 38
Raiders-0

Record- 4-3

The Jets responded with a great game against a terrible Oakland Raiders team.  The running game was great as both Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene rushed for over 100 yards and the offensive line opened up holes for them all day.  As I said before the game, I predicted that the Jets would scale down Sanchez's responsibilities and not put the game on his arm.  The Jets were great at forcing turnovers in this game and knocked out JaMarcus Russell before the first half ended.  However, with all the positives there are a few negatives coming out of this game.  It looks like Leon Washington will miss extended time and could be done for the season.  The injury looked terrible and he was taken off on a cart and taken to an area hospital.  Early predicitons are that he may have torn his ACL.  I will have more on this when we get a report on the actual injury and the time he will miss.

Game Ball:

• This could go to a number of different people but the player of this game was Calvin Pace.  Pace ended up with 7 tackles, 3 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles.  He started off the game with a forced fumble which set up the first touchdown run by Thomas Jones and stopped a Raiders drive in Jets territory with another strip sack.  Pace got a ton of pressure on the quarterback and seems to be back at full speed after a few subpar games after coming back from the suspension.

Thumbs Up:

• Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene turned in great games.  Jones ended up with 121 yards and 1 touchdown and Greene rushed for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Jones has a second straight huge game rushing after going for over 200 yards last week.  Greene really showed what he could do after the Jets lost Leon Washington to injury after just one carry.  Greene impressed me with the way he hits the hole and that he doesn't seem to go down after the first hit.  Both of these backs had incredible games and with the loss of Washington they will both have to keep up this effort in upcoming games.

• Bill Calahan and the offensive line had great games.  Calahan, the offensive line coach, has really done a great job with the line over the last few weeks.  He has designed schemes which have opened numerous holes for any running back that has the ball.  The offensive line played great today and allowed Greene and Jones to get to the second level without being touched on numerous occasions.  They are going to have to keep up this effort next week as Miami has a better front seven than both the Bills and the Raiders.

• Mark Sanchez managed this game very well.  After last weeks performance everybody was worried about how he would handle this game.  He ended up 9/15 for 143 yards and a touchdown.  The touchdown throw was a great pass down the sideline to Clowney (who also had a great game).  Sanchez is benefiting from a great running game right now and as long as he manages the game well and does not turn the ball over I am confident that he can do well and lead this team to wins.

•  Mike Westhoff and Steve Weatherford.  Rarely does a punter make any "thumbs up" list in an NFL game (unless you are the Raiders) but the fake punt by Weatherford was great and the scheme by Westhoff was even better.  The Raiders looked like they were blocking for Weatherford rather than trying to tackle him as he went down the middle of the field.
  

Thumbs Down:

• Injuries were huge in this game.  Leon Washington went down with a terrible injury and we will see in the coming days how bad that injury actually is.  My prediction is that we do not see Washington in a Jets uniform again this year.  The loss of Jenkins last week and Leon this week are huge hits to this team.  Bart Scott and Howard Green also went down and we will learn more about these injuries in the press conference.

Game Thoughts:

There wasn't much negative to take out of this game other than the injury to Leon Washington.  The Jets handed the Raiders their worst home shutout loss in team history and both the offense and defense had great games.  Calvin Pace was excellent on defense and Shonn Greene played great in his first extended action at running back.  Next weeks game against Miami is going to be huge and could make or break the season.  More about that in the coming days.

Jets v. Raiders Pregame

The Jets travel down to Oakland today to take on the Raiders in a showdown of struggling teams.  The Jets have lost three straight and are reeling after losing Kris Jenkins for the year.  The game with Oakland poses a lot of questions for the Jets.  Will they be able to stop the run without Jenkins?  Will Sanchez be able to rebound from an absolutely terrible performance last week?  How will the loss of Jenkins effect the rest of the defense?  All of these questions should be answered (in part) at 4 PM in Oakland.  The Jets have traditionally struggled in Oakland and this will be a very tough game.

What to watch for...

•  The Jets defense will have to survive without the key man in the middle, Kris Jenkins.  Jenkins is the best nose tackle in the NFL and him being out will dramatically effect the performance of the rest of the defense.  Oakland will attempt to run the ball right at the Jets all day.  Darren McFadden is out for this game which is definitely good news for the Jets.  Jenkins was amazing this year and he will be sorely missed.

• How will the scheme change?  Without Jenkins in the middle the defensive scheme will have to change. I expect to see more 4-3 fronts as the Jets will attempt to stop the run on the early downs and force the Raiders into 3rd and long situations.  If they can force 3rd and long the Jets will go back to their 3-4 defense and put a lot of pressure on JaMarcus Russell.  The key to this game will be stopping the run early, forcing 3rd and longs and making Russell actually throw the ball.

• Sanchez was talked to by coaches, Tony Richardson, and Alan Faneca about the body language he showed during his terrible 5 interception performance last weekend.  He has said that he has to stop getting too low with the negative and too high with the positive.  He will need a cool head in this game as the Jets have always struggled in Oakland.  Oakland is coming off a big win last week against the Eagles and they will have confidence that they can repeat.

Players to Watch...

• Mark Sanchez will have to rebound after blowing the game last week with a 5 interception performance.  Oakland has not been a good football team this season but they will have confidence after shutting down Donovan McNabb and the Eagles last week.  Sanchez needs to settle back into the rhythm that he was in the first few weeks.  Ibelieve that Rex Ryan and Brian Schottenheimer have scaled down his responsibilities this week which should allow him to focus more on making good reads and throws.

•  Thomas Jones and Leon Washington are going to get a lot of carries in this game as the Jets will try to win this game on the ground.  As I said before, Sanchez will have his responsibilities scaled down and this will put extra pressure on Jones and Washington to have repeat performances as last week where they combined for over 300 yards on the ground. 

• Sione Pouha  will have to play a great game to replace Jenkins in the middle.  If the Jets hope to create any pressure out of a 3-4 front Pouha will have to do at least half the job that Jenkins has been doing the first 6 weeks.  Pouha is not even half the player that Jenkins is but his play will be key if the Jets hope to create any pressure as well as stop the run.

Game Thoughts:

I think the Jets will win this game for the simple fact that the Raiders offense is not very good.  If the Jets can put up some points early they shouldn't have a problem holding the Raiders defensively and winning this game.  The key will be stopping the run which has been difficult for the Jets to do so far this year.  If JaMarcus Russell has to win the game by throwing the ball I have no doubt in my mind that the Jets can take it. 

Game Prediction:

Jets: 13
Raiders: 7

Jenkins Out

News comes today that Kris Jenkins, the Jets most important defensive player, has a torn acl and is done for the season.  Jenkins is the most important player on the Jets defense.  At 350 pounds he dominates the middle of the line and requires at least two people to block him every single down.  This opens up lanes for the Jets other pass rushers to get to the quarterback and stop the run.  Jenkins has had an amazing season so far and was consistently getting 2-3 yards into the backfield before the running back even had the ball.  Jenkins will be sorely missed and I think this will provide a new challenge to Rex Ryan's defense.  Rex is going to have to change up his defensive scheme to hide the fact that he no longer has a big nose tackle in the middle to disrupt plays.  The combination of Sione Pouja and Mike Devito are going to have to fill the gap that is left by Jenkins.  Look for more 4-4 schemes out of Ryan as he will play two DT's to fill the gap left by Jenkins.

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.

Jets v. Bills Pregame

The Jets will return home after two weeks to take on their division rival the Buffalo Bills.  The Jets are coming off an extremely disappointing Monday night performance against the Miami Dolphins and the Bills are coming off an even worse loss against the Cleveland Browns in a game where neither team seemed to want to win.  The word out of the Jets this week is that they are moving on and forgetting about last week.  The Bills come into the Meadowlands playing some of the worst football in the NFL.  They lost a game last week where they only allowed 2 completed passes by the opposing quarterback.  The Jets should have their way with them at 1 P.M. Sunday but anything can happen in division matchups.

What to watch for:

• Can the Jets grab the momentum early?  An early lead should go a long way in the Jets securing this win.  No game in the NFL is easy and if you allow a team like the Bills to make a few plays early it can result in them gaining momentum and potentially pulling off the upset.  The Jets defense will come out attacking and they are going to force Trent Edwards to beat the blitz by passing the ball.  The Bills have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL so don't expect a repeat performance of Monday night when Miami offensive lineman were blowing people off the line of scrimmage.  

• How will the Jets defensive leaders respond after last weeks terrible showing?  Bart Scott, Kerry Rhodes, and Kris Jenkins (among others) are the key leaders of this Jets defense and  I think they will be out for revenge after their poor showing in front of a national television audience.  I think  they will come out playing with a passion and physicality that will not allow the Bills to get any momentum.  I am expecting to see a defense that looks like the one who shut down the Texans.  

• I was wrong about this last week but it looks like Jerricho Cotchery is really not playing in this game.  He seemed to be out there as a decoy on Monday night and Sanchez was really not targeting him that much in the passing game.  It appears that he aggravated the injury during the game and he has been held out of practice all week.  On another injury note, Lito Sheppard will return at full strength and Donald Strickland appears to be sitting another one out as he is only back to practice in a limited capacity.

Players to watch...

• Braylon Edwards came up huge in the Monday night game making several spectacular catches.  I expect even better things this week as Edwards now has had a whole week and a half to study the Jets playbook.  He will have to make some plays with Cotchery out and I expect the Bills to roll all their coverages to his side.  This should open up some running lanes for Leon Washington and Thomas Jones.

• Darelle Revis is the Jets MVP so far and should be on a short list for MVP in the league.  He has played at an incredibly high level and I expect him to bottle up Terrell Owens this week.  When you can only point out one bad play a cornerback has made in four weeks, you know that he is playing extraordinary.  Revis is the top cornerback in the league (sorry Asomugha) and he shouldn't have a problem with Owens this Sunday.

• I can guarantee that Rex Ryan did not get a lot of sleep this week after his defensive game plan blew up in his face and allowed the Dolphins to come back 3 separate times in the 4th quarter.  Ryan will have an improved scheme for this week and I expect great results.  

Game Thoughts:

The Bills are not a good football team and I find it hard to believe that they will come into New York and find a way to win this game.  However, this is the NFL and crazy things do seem to happen every week so I will not look past this game and I don't think the Jets players are either.  I am expecting huge games out of both the offense and the defense and I expect that the Bills weak offensive line will be their downfall.

Prediction:
Jets- 24
Bills- 3

Chad Henne

Here's a video to make everybody feel a little better about last week....