Well...I slogged my way through that game...and seeing, in my mind, as the 2nd and 3rd pre-season games are the most important, this is what I came away with (some points are as obvious as hell but must be re-stated to make the post a whole).... We need another wide receiver, if not two. Clowney is a nice deep threat...but doesn't appear to be an every down player...Stuckey...slot...ONLY. He has decent initial separation but gets picked up too easily by the check down safety. Occasionally he'll open up but not often...in the slot his best asset, quickness, is what puts him into the "above average" slot player. Sanchez will learn. I liked the way he continued to fight through it. He saw a top flight defense and the lessons he picked up are invaluable. Although, I must say...that pass was right AT Ngata. He might as well have been the receiver. Horrible decision but as I said...he appeared to get his feet under him as the snaps went along. I would say that we should start Clemens this season, if for no other reason than to save Sanchez from a serious ass whupping but we have our line...not the expansion Texans line. He won't suffer from the same shell shock that David Carr did which will not hamper his growth or confidence. With Leon, TJ and Shonne back there we have enough running and line play that his jersey should stay clean to the tune of only 20 or 30 sacks this season...maybe. I like Danny Woodhead...if for no other reason that he's a little guy from a small school that shows a crapload of guts. We are RB deep this year which will probably keep him from making the squad, practice squad maybe...............unless............they try him at kick and punt returning. Other than that...he's an odd man out looking in. Which brings me to my next point...this is game 2...and outside of Washington our return guys have been abysmal!!! Dropping balls...losing balls...you name it! My god! Try Woodhead back there...he can't do any worse and maybe he makes the team and we have a spot duty running back to boot. The defense will be fine...Lowry has to stay in the nickle until he matures. He is getting burnt way too much by these WR's. Gholston is done...what a waste...I already mentioned him in another thread...I spent the majority of this game watching him and he did zip..zap...NADA!!!!!! What a WASTE! Could go down as the biggest bust ever. If he didn't make the guaranteed money that he does he would be gone. Give his spot to that young LB'er out of Rutgers if you ask me. Hell, Woodhead, as mentioned above has been 9 times more productive that Gholston. My god, what a waste. Overall, I give this team a C for the Ravens game. They weren't in it until garbage time with a bunch of scrubs...I realize this is Pre-season but I expected more from the first unit all the way down. Let's see if they can hit the tape and learn something and claim NY bragging right for another year this Friday. Peace! The Mezz
Good post. Danny Woodhead showed me a lot tonight. The guy is tough and runs hard. I think he's gonna stick somewhere in the NFL if not in green.
A little much is being made of that first pick. Hunter stonewalled Ngata; he was essentially removed from the play. But he is Haloti Ngata, he is one of the best 3-4 defensive end in the game, possibly THE best, and he got right back into the play the only way he could, by getting his hands up. Most NFL ends can't make a play like that. If you're concerned about poor throws, the would-be pick to Ray Lewis was much worse. You can't telegraph a pass like that against an NFL defense.
Vernon Gholston continues to disappoint. The guy is invisible. How will we ever survive without Calvin Pace for 4 weeks?
I agree that 2nd one was bad..but that is what I expect of a rookie to do in that situation...errr rather the mistake to be made...staring down a receiver. Ngata literally moved 1 half step to the left to pick that ball (I rewound 3 times and counted) That ball was right in the ole' bread basket. But I get your point and understand completely. He will learn...just how long it takes is the only real question.
All these things are what preseason is for, sanchez has played 2 and half quarters. Of course we can take some of what we see and break it down but its going to be fine. Hes got plenty more mistakes to make and plenty of good plays will come along with it. This town has got to give him TIME. Look at what all the haters were saying about Eli in his first three years. We need to calm down as a whole and let this kid be our guy because hes going to make it. Kellen clemens cannot be this teams starter. He threw an awful pass for a pick 6 and hes been in the league for four years, not acceptable in that situation. We needed to see more of Shonne Greene tonite. I only saw him in like 3 or 4 plays. Woodhead was great and I look forward to seeing more of him. Washington will continue to make huge plays barring any injuries Once this defense gets on the same page, lookout, were going to be fierce, they have been a unit for less then a month and are already looking nasty. Rex Ryan needs to shut his fat trap and worry about his football team.
First point.... Woodhead. WTF is Leonard doing back there as a return man? We NEED him at safety. Why risk him as a return man? STOOOOOPID. I said this game would get ugly... and it was. Sanchez just saw the toughest D in the NFL, and looked like he did. Nice that he came back, but Leon made that play, the pass was underthrown. Sanchez is a rookie, and looked like one. Gholston.... geeze, I held out hope against hope for him, but he is lost out there. I tend to be very patient, but at this point, he sure looks like a bigger bust than DRob was. Disagree about Clowney. His speed alone keeps the safeties honest. That helps the running game, creates mismatches where LB's have to cover Leon and Keller... and few NFL CB's can stay with Clowney deep. I think he helps the entire offense just by being out there as the deep threat.
Yeah the pass that Sanchez threw was under thrown, he was escaping pressure was able to set his feet and throw the ball where it needed to go. it may not have been thrown perfectly. but it isn't like he was just chillin in the pocket without pressure and under threw him. he took a good beating tonight, hopefully he learns from it.
I am not a doom and gloomer and this is a pre-season game but the one thought I had of this game was yuck. I am basing this on the Jets 1's vs. the Ravens 1's, I could care less about grocery baggers playing one another. Things I did not like: 1.) Undisciplined play- To many stupid penalties, delay of game, holding etc. etc. Wr's not knowing where the first down marker is. 2.) Poor Tackling- How many times did the RB get past the initial tackler? 3.) Secondary (without Revis)- This is a boom or bust system and the secondary right now looks busto. The Ravens Wr's are not very good and man they roasted the Jets pretty easily. 4.) Jets Wr's- One word comes to mind ........ awful. I realize that some of this can be corrected through the play calling and practice as there is still a bunch of time till the regular season. Things I liked: 1.) The running game is going to keep Sanchez or Clemens out of trouble. Once the line gets back together the Jets are going to be able to run on most teams. 2.) Leon Washington- He single hand-idly brought the Jets back to within a touchdown. When he turns it on he can be a top 5 most exciting player in football. 3.) David Harris and Bart Scott- I think both of these guys are going to have big years. This is going to be a very good tandem for the Jets. 4.) Pressure- I think the biggest difference from last year is this Defense will be able to pressure teams and really get at them. Hopefully, this will take most of the pressure off the poor play of the secondary. Things I was mixed about: 1.) Sanchez- This is pretty much what I expected. He struggled, got punched in the mouth, was rushed quite a bit and forced and the end result was he made rookie mistakes. What a revelation...... This was the first time he played a real D. The good thing was he hung in there didn't wilt. I couldn't tell from this if he is a real leader or not but at least he didn't fold and lead a drive at the end with many thanks to Leon. 2.) Gholston- I will let the endless masses rip him apart. For some reason I just can't give two shits about him other than the fact I do not know if he played tonight or not. j/k He does look like a UDFA. 3.) KC- One word meh. He makes some really retarded plays and makes some real good ones. Right now none of the QB's really instill confidence. I would have thought a QB in his 4th year would be better, as I would be happy having Sanchez on the bench for at least the start of the season. This game was a little disappointing as not many stepped up and played well. Edit: I just want to add I have seen several people say that Sanchez's td pass was underthrown, sorry but GMB.......... I watched it 5 times. It was a perfect pass, Leon turned right into it. Further Edit: I liked some of the new D-line players. Brad Pitt (yeah not his name and too lazy to look it up) and Howard Green seemed to play very well. Both made some very good plays at the line and behind it. It looks like here is some depth on the D-line, thank god. The O-line oth has serious problems behind the 5 starters......
I liked how both Sanchez and Clemens bounced back and made some nice throws after their mistakes. Both of their INTs were brutal, but it is a work in progress. If you took the names off the backs of their jerseys you wouldn't be able to tell Clemens from Sanchez and that is alarming considering KC is in his 4th fuckin year.... Sanchez still leads the competition IMO. The defense looked bad. Alot of pressure was applied, but they got carved up when they couldn't get to the QB. That is natural and expected, and we will probably see alot of this during the season. We were, however, missing Jenkins and Revis. I expect growing pains on both sides of the ball this year. Leon Washington is fucking outstanding.
Good post. Gholston didn't come in until pretty late in the game so I think by that time he was with the seconds. He didn't disappoint.. but only because I've stopped expecting anything out of him. He made one decent tackle though. Lowery is still terribly inconsistent. If I'm remember right, he kept pace with Mason and batted down that deep ball, and he had a few other moments. But then he also got burned a lot.. and I don't even want to talk about that yellow-bellied stunt he pulled late in the game. That was inexcusable. Sanchez played pretty much as expected. They should have had 2 pick-6's; that TD to Leon was his only saving grace.. a really good read IMO. The rest of his "bounce back" was all Washington. And I thought Clemens played well aside from that one boneheaded dunk. Not enough to distinguish himself, but pretty solid. Our running game was great tonight.. a huge improvement over last week. I can't help but credit Mangold with that, at least to some degree. Our defense also started strong but a lot of mistakes were made in the secondary, especially later on.
Was it just me, or did Sanchez look sick to his stomach at the start of the game? He seriously looked like he was playing scared, and was a deer in headlights for the first two drives. He definitely did calm down and play better... probably would've been even better if they would have allowed Clowney to play at all in the first half. Clemens sucks. He threw the nice TD to Clowney but that has more to do with Clowney than with Clemens. The interception Clemens threw was even more atrocious than Sanchez's int and near-int.
^ LOL. Seriously? All those INTs were atrocious, none less than the others. If Clemens sucked, pretty-boy bit it.. hard.
By saying that one was "more" atrocious than the others, it is implied that they are all atrocious. Thanks thought police!
I Agree. Gholston is dog shit. We need another receiver , Woodhead has a lot of heart and Sanchez will only learn from this and get better.
This was a good down to earth for Jets fans who were expecting a 12-4 season. Against a vicious Ravens D we got taught a few lessons but the good thing was that MS seemed to learn from this. We have not one GOOD experienced QB on our roster , but Sanchez seems to have a good spirit, intelligence and talent which go well together. Clemens still looks like a rookie ( JP Losman anyone!). Our game will be about ball control and dominating the play clock through the running game , it won't be pretty but we cannot allow Dirrty to be left in 3rd and long situations. The kid needs time to grow. Our D looked okay bearing in mind who we were missing, Lowery is just a nickel corner nothng more. As for Gholston. can we just bury him on ST and hope no one asks about him, a bit like the drunken Uncle that no one talk about at Xmas. The signs are there that we are on track but a bit of realism never hurts!
Sanchez threw a nice pass for the TD. That was his only bright spot. He showed more arm strength then I thought he had on that pass. The pass to Brad Smith that came back on a penalty was a nice throw too.
All I learned last night is the Ravens have one very good looking young QB and Westerman and Murrell are going to get a lot of work until Pace comes back. I also think Shotty better dumb it down a little. How about just executing some plays against a good veteran D rather than asking a rookie QB to outhink them on every play.
Only watchted until half time, as it was 2-30am, but the first half showed how far away both QBs are. Fair play to Sanchez, who at least started to come back after an appalling start, and had the sense to dump of an easy pass just to get a completion on the board. Washington continues to excite me, I really hope he signs. Sadly, I can only agree about Gholston, I only realised he was out there when he got a mention by the commentators...I then forgot he was playing again. Sometimes there is no point throwing good money after bad...I'd love to wrong, but...