First off, what a great win. It wasn't a perfect performance, it wasn't a blowout win, but we clearly outplayed the Colts, we clearly showed on the big stage that this team is to be reckoned with this year. Outside of a few bad plays, in all three areas by the way, offense, defense, special teams, it was a clean game. Another thing that bothered me a little was the playcalling at times. Too many times did we line up with 4 or more receivers, too many times we threw the ball when ahead in situations where we should have probably just ran instead. Fitz ended up tossing a pick once because of that. Another thing that kind of disappointed me was the running game. It seems like in the 1st half we couldn't generate any push in the middle. Colon, as big as he is, for whatever reason just can't move anybody anymore. I don't know what's going on with him but a guy his size and with his strength and leverage should be able to bulldoze over guys 1 on 1. He's solid in pass protection, he picks up blitzing linebackers, linemen on stunts, but his run blocking looks really frustrating. Mangold also didn't have his best game, neither did Breno. Carpenter I thought had a solid performance, some really nice blocks in pass protection and as a run blocker, getting to the 2nd level and delivering some pancakes. The right side however has to step their game up. But maybe the Colts really have improved their run defense. They looked good last week vs the Bills, and they were very aggressive this week as well. Speaking of the running game, where was Chris Ivory? He looked like a shell of his former self. He had a couple impressive runs late in the game, in the 2nd half, but he was a non factor in the first half. He kept leaving the field, he just didn't look right. I'll put this on whatever injuries he's dealing with right now. I expected a lot more from him. Powell meanwhile ran the ball well for the most part considering that there was almost no space created by the O-Line. He was invaluable in pass protection and keeping guys off Fitzpatrick, picking up linebackers every 3rd down, not missing any blocks. The defense started out kind of slow, at least against the run. The Colts had some momentum early on with a couple of decent runs right up the middle which was kind of shocking to see. But they adjusted well, Mo stepped up, Leonard did a heck of a job as well, Snacks, Harris. The pass defense looked great for the most part except for like 2-3 plays which were all on Cromartie. I don't know why Bowles kept him in the starting lineup. He might have been healthy but this would have been a good opportunity/excuse to keep him out for a game or at least limited to give Marcus finally the shot he deserved. Didn't happen of course. Cro gave up 2 rather easy touchdowns again. He did have one really nice pass breakup but this won't get the job done against the Patriots or any other sound team fighting for the playoffs. Last week we overcame those bigplays he gave up, the long TD, this week we did it again. It's only a matter of time/team before this is going to cost us games. I know that some fans really like him, we all do. But that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that he's the weak link in our backfield. He either needs to step his game up or Bowles has to move him out of the lineup. You can't win a championship with this offense when you give up these easy touchdowns on defense. I called it in camp back when some people tried to play it down, saying that he's just taking it easy in camp, he's trying some new things, stuff like that. No, Cro is who he is. He has been that same guy his entire career. If he could just cut down on those bigplay touchdowns he would be a great #2 corner but it just continues to happen on a regular basis and with somebody like Marcus Williams on the bench there is no need to not make some adjustments and fix this issue. The pass rush was really good for the most part. Mo again was impossible to block. Hit Luck a couple of times, blew up some running plays, the Colts got some holding penalties on him, he broke up a pass and he also almost blocked a punt. He finished the game with 2 tackles. So that's how much statistics say. Nothing. Leonard Williams looked good, had a couple of nice rushes and he looks very athletic. Coples had a sack but apparently we're playing flag football now. Pulled Luck down on his jersey and he gets a "roughing the passer" penalty that wipes out his sack. Those refs should be banned from ever reffing another game at any level. They've done that the entire game, Jon Gruden even called them out a bunch of times. Talk about ruining the flow of a game. Anyway, Demario Davis I noticed was blitzing a lot and he came through unblocked a couple of times. Maybe we finally found something where he can be really good and effective at. David Harris is playing better than ever so far, he rarely if ever makes a mistake and he doesn't waste any steps which helps since he's not getting any younger, to keep up with backs and receivers. The gameball was a tie to me. For overall impact I'd say Revis, he's just lights out good. I don't know why people continue to try him. His awareness in coverage is top notch, he sticks to receivers like glue and when it's time to play the ball he actually shows better ball skills than receivers do. Truly an all time great. He gave up a couple of short balls that were sort of meaningless, when he played off coverage, and there was one open field tackle where Hilton made him miss Revis wasn't built to cover these short track star type receivers so I'm not gonna blame him here. The other guy who probably didn't have as much of an impact but just overall made great progress from last year to this year was Pryor. He has a knack for making plays, turning games around, creating turnovers, and so far he's been flawless. His coverage looks great and the way he hits people it hurts even watching him pop receivers and backs. He just stands there like a wall, lowers his head like a ram and knocks people backwards. This is the type of play I hoped for before the season began and he's really stepped up so far. He still has ways to go because of how much potential he has but I think at this point we should feel really good about him reaching his potential and becoming a long term perennial Pro Bowl type player for us down the road. Gilchrist has also been lights out so far. Very, very smart, very sure tackler, great cover skills. Had a nice interception at the sideline. Really underrated addition this year. Buster Skrine, same here. I love how he plays the game. He looks tiny out there but he's got the heart of a 6'3 player. Scrappy, ultra aggressive guy who won't back down from no one. He blitzed from the nickel position a bunch of times and had a big impact on the game, forcing some incomplete throws and I believe that Pryor interception even. Special teams was a disappointment. Kerley was caught on camera like once and he just looked like he doesn't even care anymore at this point. Folk with a missed FG. Quigley with his trademark botched punt. Just ugly performance by the unit yesterday. Anyway, here are some of the guys that stood out to me this week: - WR Brandon Marshall & Eric Decker (15 rec. for 198 yds and 2 TD) It's impossible to shut these two down at the same time. And it's great so see Fitz pick defenses apart by just going back and forth between the two. When Marshall is in double coverage the ball goes to Decker and Decker wins that matchup almost all the time. When Decker isn't open Fitz tosses it to Marshall who even in good coverage still beats his guy. That's a true #1 receiver right there. When the ball is in the air he's one of the best, and with the ball in his hands he's also dangerous. What did he cost us again? A 5th round pick? Genius, Macc. Genius. And while I like Fitz' willingness to let Marshall make plays, sometimes he really should protect the ball better and not toss it up there in double coverage. We can't afford to turn the ball over that easy. Enunwa showed some promise, but also some inconsistency. Young receiver, that's to be expected. I still think he's a better weapon out of the backfield, you can create a lot of mismatches there. With that spider 2 Y Banana.
- The Defensive Backs (23 Tackles, 3 INTs, 2 Fumble Recoveries) Shocking how this group couldn't generate a turnover in a year last season and fast forward to now, you have a ball hawking secondary that flies around and hits people. Cromartie didn't have a good game but he also has the skills to be a difference maker, to create turnovers on a regular basis. You throw in the rest of the guys, it's really hard to throw on us after 2 games. Once Sheldon returns, once Mauldin returns it'll be even harder to complete passes. We still have Marcus Williams who unfortunately doesn't see the field often. I really love this group. Hopefully we can keep these guys together for a couple years. - The Defensive Line (8 QB Hits, 1 Sack) Officially we didn't register a single sack because of a BS flag on Coples for roughing the passer, but this group was all over Luck last night. Wilkerson, Coples, each had 2 QB hits. Douzable was decent as a pass rusher, Pace had a QB hit, Leonard Williams had one. Again, once Sheldon returns this group goes from good to hopefully elite. - ILB David Harris & Demario Davis (13 tackles, 1 Forced Fumble, 2 QB Hits) A great performance from both guys. I have to rewatch the game to reall see how Demario did against the run but his pass rushing was great and hopefully Bowles keeps this up because he could easily finish the year with 5-8 sacks. David Harris...some people thought it was crazy we brought him back for this kind of money but he's worth every penny and then some. There's a reason why other teams either offered him the same amount and even more, including Rex. Good decision by Macc and Bowles. This defense wouldn't be the same without him. - Right Offensive Line While I'd still like to rewatch the game before I grade the O-Line from the little I saw during the game the right side especially struggled in run blocking. I mentioned it earlier, Colon doesn't generate a push anymore, he didn't last week. Mangold didn't have his best game, Breno had a costly penalty. The pass blocking was more than just solid but we have to be able to run the ball better for this offense to work the way we need it to. - CB Antonio Cromartie Why was he out there in the first place? Anybody who watched the TD pass he gave up saw him bascially being unable to run full speed. He looked like he tore both his ACL's the way he tried to keep up with Moncrief, it was a sad sight. He had a nice pass breakup but if he isn't at close to 100% by next week he should be on the bench. We have a very capable corner in Marcus Williams to take over for him. - FB Tommy Bohanon I don't know why he's still on the roster to be honest. There isn't one thing he does well. In an offense where you want to be able to run the ball up the middle you need a road grading fullback who can take out linebackers and Tommy simply isn't that guy. Whether there's a better blocking FB out there or not, we might as well just get rid of Bohanon and put Kellen Davis at FB instead, he can't be much worse with the limited amount of snaps Bohanon has been seeing anyway.
I'm not mentioning Jeff Cumberland anymore in case you wonder. He's got season tickets for my negative players list.
Great job DB. Very nice read. The lack of anything from the tight end position is a problem. I mean its nonexistant in a controlled type offense. Other than that? Just a well coached game. When the colts scored I turned to a friend and said....if this is really a different jet era...we will come down and score. We did...easily. I'm all in right now.
Bowles should have been mentioned. He's been doing such a terrific job in every area. I think he was calling the plays on defense as well, at least that's what it looked like. He kept calling the plays in.
Some more stats/info: Decker will probably miss at least one game. Who steps up? Enunwa? Owusu? Bad timing.
Snacks with only 21 snaps. Douzable got twice as many reps. Owusu with over 50, I think he'll take over for Decker. Harris and Demario are the only two guys that played every single snap on defense. Kerley again got ONE snap.
I would expect kerley will be worked into the rotation this week if decker does miss time. We need reliable hands on the field and when you split 4 wide, especially on third down, we need someone who can be dependable
Cant help think that there had to be an attitude/effort problem with Kerley. I'm sure the attitude is rock bottom now. We can question the playcalling at times and the inability to take advantage staying 10-0 for so long. Still, this is as well coached a JET team as I can remember. Maybe going back to parcells. Only 2 games and plenty of time for Bowles to hit the shit list.....but something very rare seems to be taking place with this team. Down to a weak team and then roll week 1. Blown opportunities and then the Colts strike and what does this team do? Go down the field with the most dominating drive of the year. There truly has been nothing "Jet like" in the first two games. Makes me very happy.
It's going to depend on Devon Smith's availability I think. I don't see Kerley getting a lot of snaps with this offense unless an injury wave hits. For whatever reason the coaching staff has decided he's not a plus player and that's obvious at this point. To get on the field a few of the guys they see as assets are going to have to go down or get in the doghouse some other way. The new regime and Bowles may just prefer size and speed over everything else. In that scenario Kerley has to really stand out as a quick, sure handed receiver who creates opportunities for the QB or he's in trouble, which apparently he is.
Defense for sure gets the game ball. Interesting the lack of snaps that Snacks got...paid off on the goal line stand though. The goal line stand was the game. This is why you love it.
The weird thing with that is a lot of times in 4 WR sets we didn't even have 4 receivers on the field, usually it was Powell and/or Ivory when we could have given Kerley some more snaps.
Barnes and Snacks in the middle, there's no way you can gain a yard there. Those two eat up like 4 blockers.
Powell can be called back into the backfield to block if need be. I think for whatever reason the Jets have decided that Kerley doesn't bring enough to the table on offense to put on the field at this point. They've gone out of their way to put big rangy receivers with some speed out there.
Surprised Luck didn't try to give them more with a hard snap count; see if he could get someone to jump. In the beginning it looked like Gore was having a lot of success up the middle and even outside the tackles. Someone in the game thread was calling out the outside linebackers. I think, maybe, Snacks wasn't in for a lot of Gores solid carries, 4+yds, early on. Bowles probably had more of a pass defense setup for Luck, allowing Gore to have the early success.
Fitz seems to be testing the secondary on almost every other series...he likes to air it out a bit. A couple of times he just launched way over receiver, defender, everyone.
I think those were probably throwaways in the field of play. The deep pass that was 10 yards overthrown was almost certainly a throwaway. So far Fitzpatrick has avoided the badly under thrown deep balls that turn into picks. Not all of his shots down the field have been thrown well but the pick last night was contested by both players instead of being an "oops" play where the defender was the only one with a real shot at the ball. The pick against the Browns was just an inaccurate throw of the type that often gets made when the QB thinks somebody is turning one way and they go the other way instead.
