Buffalo post-game thoughts

Pretty big stinker, mostly from the QB position, but other units contributed as well. Having been a Jets fan for a while, we have seen some horror shows from the QBs, but this one is right up there.

- Ultimately, I think today was good for us, because realistically, our playoff chances were done after the Denver game, and certainly after the Pats game. Winning today wouldn't have meant anything in the big picture, but at least now that we lost, we are still frontrunning for some really high picks. Hopefully Oakland wins today.
- It's kind of sad, but I think Geno basically had that fork in the road moment today, where he played himself out of being an NFL starter. We did the right thing in letting him play through his struggles earlier in the season, because we needed to be sure, but after today, the team has to be sure. You just cannot have a game like that as an NFL starter in the middle of your 2nd season. Gannon thought it was the worst start ever for a QB, and you can't really disagree with him. All the 3 picks were really bad, either throwing into well covered receivers or bad throws or both. First time I've seen a QB with a 0.0 QB rating I think.
- Vick was better than Geno, though that's not a high bar. His rust was showing, as the commentators pointed out, he didn't see so many wide open targets (Amaro in particular), and was very careless with the ball. On the bright side, he ran well, and was able to move the ball at least. I don't really care who starts next week, as neither of these two guys are the answer for us next year. At this point I just want whoever it is who gives us a better chance to continue developing Amaro and evaluating Harvin.
- I thought Harvin looked good, considering how new he is to the team and who was throwing him the ball. He had a couple of nice Kick Returns, looked very good running the ball around the edge (unfortunately most of his gains there were wiped out by our penalties), and showed some flashes on the outside. I thought Buffalo secondary did a hell of a job staying with him and Decker on lots of possessions, but he did beat his corner at least a couple of times with speed. One time a safety was covering him over the top, so he couldnt get free, and the other, he got behind the coverage, but the Buffalo corner jumped up and either tipped the ball or obscured it from Harvin's view, and he wasn't able to catch it. Also, he was wildly overthrown on short crossing routes a couple of times.
- Amaro continues to impress. A really dumb push in the back penalty, but other than that, very solid game. 5 catches on 5 targets, 10 yard average, a 20 yard catch, several first downs. If Vick sees him the 3 or 4 times he was completely open in the middle, he might have had a monster game. Really glad we drafted him in the 2nd round. I think with a good QB (if we ever get one), we could have a real special player on our hands.
- Not sure how I feel about the O-Line. They weren't that great today, but they were going against a great D-Line and defense, and the stupid early QB mistakes put them in the hole and at a severe disadvantage.
- D-Line was great, Richardson, Wilkerson, Harrison all brought it. Linebackers had a good game as well, with Coples especially playing really well. Defense in general did a much better job than it looks, because every possession they had to defend from their own territory, sometimes from 1st and goal right off the bat.
- Secondary is still shit, but we already knew that. The huge catch by Watkins has got to be on Rex. They ran the same exact play and came close to hitting the home run. So what does Rex do the next play? Leaves single coverage on the guy again and blitzes. Pryor continues to be a non-factor in space, and taking really bad angles.

 

I know you are really impatient, but Idzik will continue to do the fixing for next year at the very least, and possibly for longer. The way he'll do it is by continuing to add talent on good financial terms. Believe it or not, but we are much more talented, younger, and in a much better cap situation than when he took over. It's just like Rex said, the two positions that lose you games the fastest are the QB and the CB, and those are the ones we haven't fixed yet. But we'll get there.

 

You do realize our top 3 CBs are not playing right? If any team's top 3 CBs aren't playing, who do you think they'd be playing out there? Deion Sanders?

 

Milliner played a position that tends to struggle in their rookie year, and came on really strong at the end. He also played really well in the limited time when he was healthy this year in preseason and during the season. And how was he injured "for most of last season"? He missed like 2-3 games.

McDougle never played in the NFL but he was a high draft pick who played well in college. When you are rebuilding that's how it goes.

Patterson was the third corner, who was also pretty good when he played for Miami, and had no history of going AWOL or other weird stuff.

Not saying those 3 would be like the Legion of Boom, but certainly they would be better than Walls/Allen/Wilson.

 

Milliner wasn't up and down talent-wise, he was down early on like most CBs, and then picked his game up and was one of the better CBs in the NFL when healthy (and hasn't missed much time before this season). Yes, McDougle is a rookie but so what, Revis/Sherman/Peterson were all rookies once too. Based on preseason play, he was ahead of Walls/Allen/Wilson for the 2nd CB spot. And Patterson was a good stop-gap CB. So I would say the talent gap between those 3 guys and what we are playing now is considerable.

 

Preseason doesn't matter. Veterans like Patterson go at half speed in those games and he was coming off some minor injuries. The guy had injury issues throughout his career, but when he played, he was a solid NFL corner. So you have one guy who showed he can be really good at the NFL (Milliner), another guy who showed he can be a solid contributor at that level (Patterson) and a rookie who had potential. Replace that with a career backup (Walls), a converted safety (Allen) and a complete bust (Wilson), and you have our current secondary. See the difference?

 

Well, if we stay away from conspiracy theories and all that, talent does not equate to wins. There are a lot of factors that determine wins, things like strength of schedule, coaching, talent, bounces of the ball, refereeing, injuries, etc. Last year we were less talented than this year, but we had a weaker schedule, got lucky with officiating and close games (the penalties against Tampa and Pats for example that won us those games), and were relatively healthy. So we wound up 8-8. This year, we ve had injuries, bad referring, tough schedule, and lost a lot of close games.