most people will bash this post as someone trying to see the glass half full when weve been 1-4 in the last 5 after going 3-0. thats fine, your entitled to do whatever you want. thats why were all here. that being said, I dont understand the need to "give up" as a fan, let alone beat ourselves up over the fact we have the 2nd ranked defense in the NFL and are dealing with the ups and downs of having not only a rookie QB, a rookie HC. People are expecting Roethlisberger/Flacco/Ryan results. Roethlisberger: Cowher had been around the block and took his team to a SB already. its not like its both of them feeling out their new responsibilities. Flacco: Heres where people cite Harbaugh as a rookie HC. Heres where I tell you Rex Ryan ran the defense, and they ran the ball more than anyone in the league. we also dont have Ngata, Lewis, and Reed playing with Scott and Leonhard. Now Ryan has to focus on every facet of the team instead of just manning a defense. By the way, Ravens defense fell off......wonder why...... Ryan:Two words, their division. The Saints defense was a joke last year, and well they play the Bucs twice a year. Mike Smith rookie HC? of course. more to debate on that. that being said I think Matt Ryan is just a stud. Now we can point to various plays in certain scenarios that cost us the game, that would be the sensible thing to do right? Of course, but its been done 20 times in 80 different threads with fans either making excuses for the team or pinning the blame solely on one person. Heres reality, this year is about winning, every god damn week is about winning. Ultimately though were a talented roster with plenty of youth but age in the trenches, that can compete with anyone at this point in time. which we have all year. -The ultimate goal though is for Rex to install his new scheme (2nd in the league to date, checkmark success so far) -Develop Sanchez and surround him with targets (i dont think anyone realizes we havent fielded our current starters all year, and we wont ever this year with leon out. that being said, Sanchez has been thoroughly impressive, but thats my opinion. although there have been quite a few throws he shit the bed and I see everyone blaming the reciever. Honeymoon syndrome for some of you) -Stay competitive (nobody can tell me we havent done this, hell in the losses weve had we shouldve lost by much more but this team plays with pride, and its evident.) Now I'm not making excuses I'm just defining the foundation thats being established here. We have some key players who need new contracts, and we also have alot of dead space coming off the books (kenyon coleman and pennington) We also have a viable 1-2 combo in the passing game and Edwards WILL recieve his contract. you dont draft a rookie QB make the move for Edwards let him get comfortable with Edwards-Cotch, and then change the equation in year 2. thats just common sense, now if Edwards looked like garbage id give thought to it playing out differently but we all know thats not the case. If Leon can successfully rehab he will get a new contract and be happy about it. I think hes a genuine team player who crossed his fingers cause of a money grubbing agent and lost that bet. Point in case were stacked at RB and this should be the least of our worries. Clowney needs to be incorporated more. plain and simple. I just dont get why theres not more sets with Edwards-Cotchery-Clowney-Keller. especially with leon gone we should see more of this. Those ST's plays we gave up, people need to stop trying to be cute and be the few people looking to blame Westhoff, that was all execution. Thats like when the Chargers fans castrated Marty Schottenheimer for losing his final playoff game when it boiled down to bad execution and decisions on the field by his players. Count the missed tackles and bad angles and tell me that was the scheme that failed. Rex Ryan has shown his hand as a rookie with Challenge/Time Management issues. Hes too football savy and intelligent for me to not think this will fix itself as he gets more experience. That aside, the biggest thing about this year is the culture change. It couldnt be more evident on this board when you see people wanting to cut their wrists over stupid shit. As opposed to the rest of the fans who maintain a "kick their fucking teeth in" attitude and can objectively analyze our situation win or lose, suck it up, and move on next week. I'm not telling anyone to feel good about losing, and I'm certainly not saying its acceptable to lose games the way we have. That being said, the new attitude and identity of this team oozes through the players and the coach; and if you dont like it, go become a curling fan or something. this isnt your daddy's jets, the days of everyone hating their own team and fanbase togehter in some matter of factly, "I told you so" ; "woe is me" pompous attitude that makes you sound like you know the game of football. or the same, sit on your hand, yet come out in full force positive after a win, and negative after a loss mindset. Fake fans move aside, real fans time to ride.
I'd like to see a bit more consistency in the offense Coach. I'm looking forward to Ryan 2.0 as he'll hopefully look at this year with a critical eye towards correcting tactical errors and administrative issues during the offseason. We're getting better but for right now? We're still beating ourselves and that's got to stop be it this season or next.
I love the attitude in the post, I could not agree more. Win, lose, or Tie I'm a Jet fan till I die- (A positive one at that) I hate when fans say, "you're just going to cheer blindy for them". No they're my team and I love em and want wins just like everyone else. That doesn't mean every time something bad happens to bring out the same old attitude. The culture of the team has changed, the fan base has to catch up.
i couldnt agree with you more, but thats why i mentioned Rex being a rookie HC. micromanagement becomes key. as far as the offense goes, some of it is playcalling. I like Schotty but he tends to overthink sometimes and get cute. the playcalling has been suspect at times, but the execution hasnt always been there. chalk that up to some questionable calls by Schotty JR and Sanchez still racking up some experience. I think we shouldve passed even more against MIA. Sanchez seems to need a play or two to establish confidence before he gets into rhythm. and he wasnt forced to until we were playing from behind. if we put the boot down on their throat with their weak secondary we'd either be worshipping schotty for having faith in sanchez or blaming him if sanchez threw some costly INT's. thanks, yeah I'm not happy about our record but we are fielding a team to be proud of, even though in the end the W-L column writes the story. im just sick of the same nihilist attitude most fans have.
Well written, great attitude. I was behind the move to get Rex and am still behind him today. I knew there would be "rookie" errors this season and knew long term, it would be worth it. Rex will figure it out. I look at what he has done to our defense with a very small personnel change. We have lost Jenkins and even when Ellis and Pace were out, this unit continues to be played at a high level. The pussycat got shut down (their whole offense for that matter) several weeks after scorching us. Doesn't mean I still dont get pissed with a close loss or I get a bit impatient with the development of this team but I get over it and am looking forward to the next game.
Wow, very impressive. One of the best things I have read on here in weeks!!!!!! We all just need to rally around Rex and the team and not have them under such an ultra critical microscope that is New York. The team has played half a season so far with changes and we are 4-4. It could have been better, but it also could have been worse. I say lets take the record and move on to the second half of the year. Will there be other Jets heartbreakers this year? Probably, but I truly beleive we will get this all worked out if we, as true fans, show a bit more patience with this regime. I know there will be those that say they have been patient for 40 years, but we are with Rex now. I for one, do not want to give him a short ticket out of town. Things will get better. We need some long term coaching continuity for once in the last 20 years.
Here's the real question with Ryan, though: Can he reflect back on decisions made and learn from it, or will he just be like his old man and say "I do it this way, and if you don't like it, tough shit" We've heard him say that already. What does that cover? his ideas about how to coach at game time or does that encompass his mouth? I'm thinking it's the whole thing. I'm not convinced he's going to change his "let my coordinators do their thing. I can only make it worse" philosophy. That statement alone makes me think he's not going to learn. Riddle me this, how is a guy that's so great designing schemes to stop offenses not able to have valued input on the offense? Its an absurd thing to say, and an even worse practice.
it could be any number of things. one thing he might look at and that he made reference to, was the success Harbaugh saw as a rookie HC with a rookie QB. he attributed a large part of it to Harbaugh letting Rex run his defense and basically Harbaugh having the trust in him to call his own game. now he inherited an offense that put up just over 400 points last year. yes it was bloated by games the likes of ARI. but thats something you cant overlook. thats one frame of thought. another could be since he just wants to make sure theres a heavy dose of running he'll let the guy whos in his 4th year here try to establish some consistency since hes almost had to install his offense with 3 QB's in 3 years with a OL that only showed up last year. making the calls with the personnel hes watched develop since hes been here. now as far as Rex being more hands on in the offensive philosphy I believe were like top 5 or 6 in run attempts. and 1 in rushing yards. its pretty much already there. chalk up the rest to a few questionable calls and a lack of execution on key plays. rookie qb injured WR corps consistency is harder to establish. if the losing continues you bet Rex Ryan will become involved, and im sure we'll be the first people to hear about it aside from Schotty JR himself.
perhaps, but leaving that responsibility up to another person, when the onus is ultimately on Rex to bring wins, seems fool hearty. Rex needs to look not at the fact of what they produced last year, but what he wants to produce this year and beyond. Do you think Mangini didn't get involved? Whether that was a good or bad thing is irrelevent, it's the fact that you don't have an accurate picture of the past if you weren't actually there, and Rex wasn't, All he can control is what's under his control. Game plan and in-game decisions are under his control and he will live and die by those decisions. If he wants to leave it up to people under him, that will be his demise.
I have been a Jets fan for 40 years. That doesn't mean we don't have a right to express dismay at the pitiful decisions and execution that are put on display by the team and some of the coaches.
Glad to have come back to read your post Coach K. I totally agree with everything you wrote. Losing sucks for sure, but the Jets have been losing with pride. Call it a moral victory or what have you, but that's been evident. They've managed to stay extremely close in the games they've lost. Whether it would be 1 defensive stop, or 1 offensive drive. We've been right there. We just didn't get the breaks or we shot ourselves in the foot. Our worst enemy right now is ourselves. Not the opposing teams. I'm still confident this team will figure it out when it matters most...down the stretch and who knows, maybe gain some momentum going into the Playoffs as a WC. Jenkins said it best yesterday on SNY. He likes the talking but doesn't like the talking. He loves it cause some players in the locker room need it. It makes them step up. It makes them play better. The reason why he doesn't like it, is because he doesn't want to get the FANS pissed that the talk isn't translating into wins. To Mr. Jenkins I say, fuck the fans. You guys go out there and do what you gotta do to play at a high level. The ball will bounce our way eventually.
Great post. The Only thing "Same Old" I see about this season is the same old fan base. The Defense has been very good for the most part. The offense is a work in progress, but has a lot of good parts in place. Yet, we still have morons who want to label Greene a bust after one fumble. "Manic Depression is a frustrating mess"
that right there needs to be bolded and quoted once again. Its a great post, and very truthful our fanbase is bipolar and that just is hard to deal with from the perspective of the message board. But with Rex in town, as soon as he walked in the door and at his introductory press conference, had all of you wanting to strap on the pads and got hit somebody? I remember the majority of the board was fired up and couldnt wait for Houston. Well when Houston got here, we went out and kicked their ass, and Rex's pregame speech was no small part of that. Kris Jenkins was quoted that Rex needed to be put on the Banned substance list, because what he said was definately performance enhancing. Rex has the attitude, and he has an uncanny ability to motivate everyone in this organization and that includes the fan base. on top of that, the guy can do the X's and O's! Herm couldnt pretend to know how to do that. Mangini could only wish he could motivate like Ryan. Ryan just simply has what it takes to make his players play hard every day and on top of that, the ability to put his guys (the defense) in a position to make all the stops. This guy will be a gem in NY. give him time to develop this young team into an elite powerhouse, and I have no doubts that it will lead us into a period of greatness this Jets franchise has never seen before. Does that mean a superbowl victory? I don't know, but what I do know, is that this franchise is on the cusp of going several seasons in a row of being very involved in the conversation, very late in the year, for a long time running.
Mostly agree,a very good foundation is there and some very promising signs. I do take issue with your assertion that we should've lost by even more in each of our losses. Huh? More accurately, in each of our losses, we played well enough in 2/3 phases of the game to win (except Buffalo, where STs and Offense both played horribly). (Saints= D,STs+/ O-; Dolphins1= O,STs+/ D-; Bills= D+/STs, O-; Dolphins2=O,D+, STs-) I think what irks my ass, and many of the fans on here, is that all of the losses were winnable games (off memory, not checking game history think we were in the game into the 4th quarter in each loss; into the final possession in 3 of the 4). Fact is, in close games this year (all but texas and oakland), we are 2-4. That is what's most frustrating. Though I have reason for high hopes in future years, I also have/ had high hopes for this season based on the talent and potential I've seen on the field. And the fact that this talent has come up just short in 4 of the past 5 weeks is tough to swallow.
thats what I mean when I say we shouldve lost by more. Games where we lose the turnover battle by a wide margin, things happened in most of those games where teams generally lose by much more statistically, even though weve shot ourselves in the foot weve still played well enough to compete in every game.
