Despite the fact that the Jets were not ready to tackle when the game started, they would've been able to get off the field if they'd only remember the Rules for Managing Roethlisberger: 1) Keep a lineman in front of him at all times. When pressed, Big Ben will run and his favorite route out of the pocket is straight ahead. Jaws and Hodge talked about this tendency during their NFL Matchup show, as did others. The way to stop this is to keep somebody squared up directly in front at all times forcing him to the side. Despite getting ripped by Mendenhall on the first drive, the Jets had the Steelers at 3rd and 12 around midfield. The secondary had everyone covered. Then, in an effort to get to the QB, Ellis evacuated the middle and Roethlisberger took off. David Harris, who was about 8 yards back on the play, moved toward Ben but slipped and Roethlisberger had the first down. Even if Harris doesn't slip, I'm not sure he stops him in time. The Jets front line needed to trust their secondary to stay with these guys a little longer, and maintain control of the QB by keeping a man right on his nose. 2) Force Roethlisberger Left Like most right-handers, Ben likes to roll to his right when pressured and he's much more accurate from that side. On the final play of the regular season game, the Jets forced BR to scramble to his left and he was unable to complete his pass. On Sunday night, the Jets leftside defenders continually allowed BR to roll to the right and he burned them time and again, particularly, on the passes to Miller and Brown.
The Jets didn't stay in their rush lanes. They completely abandoned any outside contain on Mendenhall as well. They played very undisciplined defense all the way around. Other than perhaps the DB's, the defense was lost out there in the first half.
Calvin Pace had a clear shot at Ben on the 3rd-and-12 on the 1st drive -- and fell down. He hits him, it's 4th-and-5 and they kick a FG. Big turning point.
Damn, that's classic. === The front seven was a mess. Hard to believe this is the same D that held down Colts & Pats. The tackling & lack of discipline was sad.
That whole first half was just one bigass bucket of fail. Jets have a history of choking in the second half of AFCCG's. This year they just decided to change up a bit.
