I hope last night killed off the stupid "ground and pound" philosophy for the foreseeable future when it comes to the Jets. I really hope that Woody is so sick of the philosophy that he refuses to hire anyone that believes in it while he owns the team. Rex ran an offense that should have died 30 years ago (and has for 6 years now). It just doesn't work in the NFL in the 21st century, especially when there are ~15 guys every year that can throw for 4000 yards. You simply cannot play games to try to win 17-14. It simply does not work. QB's are too good, and if your defense shits the bed, you will get blown out (as we have numerous times during Rex's tenure). So here's to hoping for one outcome to come out of last night (whether Rex did it to say "fuck you" to Idzik, or whether he truly believes that you can go better than 9-7 with a "ground and pound" offense) - that this team finally embraces 21st century football, and gets coaches that can implement an exciting style of football. In other words, enough defensive minded coaches who don't give a shit about offense. Can we finally have a team that can score 30 points every week and a QB that can bring some excitement to this team?
Yep, the Jets should be putting the ball in the air. I know its just a name, but a team called the Jets that just grounds and pounds doesn't make sense.
Ground and Pound works though. If we gave Brady chances at throwing with a super stacked box the score would be in the 40s.
The ground and pound would work well if you had even a halfway competent qb ,we rushed for 275 yards and lost,that's only happend 5 times in nfl history.We could have been burning them on play action after it became obvious we were only running the ball if we had a real qb
Good post I feel the same way. I was a big Rex fan, but I think that was because I liked his style and I wanted him to go a big "FU" to his detractors, (eg a Mike Francesa). I wanted his way to work. But after 6 years of the same mistakes, and the same negative results, which you correctly pointed out, it's time for a change. BTW, this is at least the second time in Rex' tenure that the Jets rushed for 300 yards and they lost.
I am not saying the team needs to abandon the run - just the philosophy that you can win games 17-14 through running the football and defense (which makes the qb completely irrelevant). Brady is great when the running game is good but Brady can also win a shootout when he needs to throw the ball 50 times. Manning is great when he has a good running game, but if it doesn't work, he can throw for 400 and 5 td. The Jets brand of football leads to one of 2 results - either close wins (or losses) when the defense plays well, or blowouts when the team needs to abandon the run because the defense is getting torched (usually by a guy like Brady).
I think the old "defense wins championships" adage is obsolete. Look at the last several SB winners. They consistently score points, 30 or more per game, even against good defenses. I can't even remember when the Jets were a team like that. Maybe you have to go back to the ken O'Brien Wesley walker days.
Look the running game in the first half was superb. It was tons of fun (mostly because it worked) but besides that it was inventive and cool. We were all having a blast yesterday at this time. And then things went from brilliant to about as dumb as you can be. The Fins make obvious adjustments and Marty and Rex for whatever reasons give the game away. Was it on purpose in a battle with the GM or just plain being out coached again. And how many times can you say that.
I agree whole-heartedly with your opinion about the ground and pound. I never thought the team really bought into it though. I saw it as building a strategy based on the talent on the roster. I also saw it as a means to sell it to the fan base. The latter effort was somewhat successful. For several off-seasons you would see many a mock based on maintaining the ground and pound philosophy.
Like Seattle ?Or the Ravens?What about the 49ers?who played in the Superbowl and three afc title games
And by all means if a HC candidate comes in and even hints about using the Wild Cat, throw him out of the interview immediately, if not sooner...
Ground and pound doesn't work? Did you miss the last Super Bowl? What doesn't work is having the 32nd best QB's in the league.
You have to have a very good QB to win games in December throwing the ball in open air stadiums in the northeast. Whether Ground and Pound makes sense or not is unclear earlier in the season but you need to be able to do that at the end unless you have the good fortune to play in warm weather or indoor stadiums in the playoffs. The Jets problem is not the Ground and Pound philosophy, it's that their QB's suck. That's on Rex. He has not developed a QB in multiple opportunities to do so. I think the better change for the Jets would be away from defense first and towards the offense.
Successful teams have a balanced attack, pivoted by a good QB and a solid running game. The better the QB the more effective the running game because you have to respect the pass. When you don't have a QB that can play is a one sided fiasco that can barely keep the offense on the field with a Herculean running effort. No matter how good a running game you have you will not win without a solid QB. With a great QB, you can get away with a weak running game but not against the best defenses.
Score points to get to the playoffs(airing the ball out) run the ball in the playoffs to get to the ship, Play defense to win the ship