Not that I think you're talking to me w/these comments, I'm unsure though, just to clarify ... I personally never said they have done great, only focused on the numbers issue. I also wasn't jumping on SFJ - I thought he brought up a decent point of discussion even though it has been mentioned a number of times in other unrelated threads. In both games so far our run game has been abysmal until Schotty opened up and let Sanchez pass the ball. Without forcing defenses to respect our passing game, I don't believe we can "fucking run the ball down your throat". They haven't proven the ability to do that yet anyway. As per one of my first posts in this thread, I believe we need to pass to set up the run - much like we did against the Tits last year. At least until defenses respect our passing game. Sanchez has excelled in pressure situations so far, I don't see any reason why we can't pass to setup the run. The reason for my copy-paste-copy-paste bonanza was that the person I was responding to refused to even acknowledge all the posted stating as much. He was just saying things like "Jones sucks". Well most any running back is going to suck when he gets hit by two people at the line of scrimmage every god damn play. The Texans litterally had 8-9 guys in the box for most of the first game until Schotty started to open up with more passing on early downs after Sanchez had burned them a number of times on 3rd down. Again, I think we need to pass to setup the run at this point. Defenses are selling out to force Sanchez to beat them.
I certainly hope you are wrong about that... Jones carried 20 times vs the Texans and 14 vs the Pats. That gives him 8 "quality" carries vs Texans and 2 "quality" carries vs Pats... which I would find unacceptable. I understand some backs get better as the game goes along but I'd expect production much sooner than after 12 carries. I feel this is more on the O-line than the backs, but if we see 8 or 9 in the box then we should give Leon the ball much more often, because he has the breakaway speed that Jones does not, and that's how you punish a stacked box.
I say fuck the run...we're gonna have to open up the offense at some point(Saints-week 4) so might as well do it against the Titans.
5 Thomas Jones, RB NYJ 290 1312 4.5 59 13 82.0 2 Just to show you that are running game is where it should be, TJ is on pace to have the same season as 2008.
Numbers don't tell the story. The running game was non existent through 3 qtrs in the Texans game. Only reason we broke those 2 big runs was cause the Texans failed to compensate for our unbalanced line BOTH times. This is like saying that we were a very good blitzing team last year because of the lopsided number of sacks we had in like 2 or 3 games... would you have considered us a good blitzing team last year?
Seattle had the 18th best rush defense in the league last season. Not exactly dominant, so I'm not sure why that was relevant. Gore had a huge day. It happens. Outside of 2 carries, he had 48 yards on the ground. That's 3 yards per carry. Those two huge carries went for 80 and 79 yards. He's always had success against Seattle. This wasn't even his best performance against them. Whether teams knew how much juice was left or not, they respected Favre's arm from the outset. They'll start to respect Sanchez as well. On the contrary, Jones is excellent at falling forward a lot of the time to pick up an extra couple of yards. A) We haven't run the ball twice as many times as ANY teams in the league, let alone many. B) When a team is down, they tend to go away from the run. Not towards it.
Street you make a valid point and you also made my point, the reason why teams continue to pound the run is to wear down the D and have one or 2 big runs, sometimes you get them early sometimes you get them late, as long as you get them is what we should be concerned with.
Everybody knows we have a great running game so there stacking the box with linemen and there daring Sanchez to beat them and so far he has.
That did cross my mind as I was thinking about the situation, but if that was the case I would've liked to see the same in the Pats game, and we did not. My bottom line is that our O-line + our HB corps should = a game controlling run game. A run game that can close out games for us down the stretch. I assume that as the games go by Shotty will put more on Sanchez's plate, and the passing game will open up and in turn so will our run game. I hope that at some point in the middle or 2nd half of this season we reach a perfect harmony of an equally threatening areal and rushing attack. I guess I was just hoping to see our run game do a bit more than it has thus far. And as I've stated before, I'd like to see S. Greene show up sooner than later, perhaps Rex is being extra careful with his rib injury....
All things considered, I see no reason to introduce Greene into the equation right now. The RB position is not the problem, at least I don't think so. I don't think Greene can generate any more than the 2YPC that Jones has generated in all 64 carries (less the 5 carries he broke free on), as a result of the O-line not creating running lanes because of the supposed stacking. We either resign ourselves to no yardage in a running attack because of "stacking" and resort to a pass-first offense, or we try to resolve it, find a way to be a power-running, truly "run first" team, and become balanced. I elect for the latter. Ryan isn't going to accept any "stacking" excuses this week, I guarantee that.
Football Outsiders has the Jets run game at 20th without opponent adjustments and obviously not accounting for their stacking the box. Relax. Jones isn't great, but Leon is, and the O-line is absolutely fine.
The offensive line continues to not get any push. Unless they run a counter or some sort of misdirection then the back gets no space. Thomas Jones is an adequate back if he gets some good size holes. The moment anyone touches him, he goes down quickly. The issue with the offensive line is that I don't no who the problem is. Brick is the only guy that is not considered a good run blocker. All is I know is that 2nd and 8 and 2nd and 7 all game is a recipe for a 3rd and long and lots of punts. The Jets have to consistently get 4 yards per carry on 1st and 2nd down.
OK, be simplistic, but "so what, we won" isn't how you keep the train rolling. How is that not obvious?
