Heros: 1) Secondary. Welcome to the NFL Dwight Lowry. He played amazingly well. Smothered everyone he covered. Revis was a shutdown corner today with an amazing interception to end the game. Kerry Rhodes was solid, but didn't make any highlight plays. Eric Smith screwed up a few times, but played alright. 2) Calvin Pace and Shaun Ellis. Pace single-handedly stopped a fleaflicker where Ginn was wide open for a touchdown. He got his first sack and pressured Pennington non-stop. Ellis was also wrecking havock. 3) O-line. Jones had some nice holes to run through and Favre had decent protection. 4) Brett Favre. Showed little rust and a good grasp of our playbook. Solid play, and made a highlight throw on 4th and 13. Goats: 1) Coles. Dropped a couple easy passes that disrupted a few drives. I believe he didn't even have one catch. 2) Nugent. Seriously, how do you get injured kicking an easy 30 yard kick? A kickoff or a 50 yard field goal is a little more understandable. This guy almost cost us the game. Overall, good playcalling by Mangini. The 4th and 13 play that ended up as a touchdown was questionable, but what are you gonna do when no one can kick a field goal? Mangini did a real good job blitzing and confusing Chad. After Chad had his touchdown drive, Mangini adjusted well and made sure Chad could not drive down that easily again. The score was not a good indicator of the talent on each team. The Jets screwed up many red zone opportunities and Nugent got hurt (which took points away from our score and gave the Dolphins good field position). The Jets should be able to score more with these opportunities. Bring on New England!!
Shaun Ellis is going to be the player he was before Abraham left, if today is any indication. He hasn't been consistently single teamed in a long time. Jenkins will make him look like a star. Very few OL can block Ellis one-on-one...
Calvin Pace is worth every dime. Ellis played well. Favre, obviously. Faneca played great, but Woody and D'Brick left something to be desired. By far, our biggest long-term acquisition is Jenkins. He was very good today and did every thing you ask of a NT. Took space, demanded double teams and collapsed the pocket on several occasions and rarely gave up ground. Great game for him today. Pouha played very shaky. There was a huge difference between Pouha and Jenkins.
Heros - Pace, Revis, Lowery, Rhodes, Ellis, Cotchery, Jones...etc Goats - I will only list Nugent here.
Welcome to the NFL Chansi Stuckey. You're talented, and at the right place at the right time. Thanks Dwight Lowery. You showed you may have what it takes to sit on the opposite side of Revis. Bryan Thomas. You're motivated again! That's good for us. Thomas Jones. You can thank a new o-line, but you came to play. Favre. Magic man. Mike Tannenbaum. So far, so good.
I disagree, I feel like Mangini's balls shriveled too much in the 4th in terms of play calling. Nugent and Coles should be in shackles.
Offensive playcalling went down the tubes late. You gotta let Favre throw the ball. Nugent and Coles would have been burned at the stake had we lost this. As well, the second safety spot really hurt us, as well as our LB pass coverage. However, the front 7, especially Jenkins, Ellis, Thomas, and Pace were fantastic. Revis and Lowery were great. Cotch and Stuckey looked good and seeing Favre air out the ball was great.
I'm not sure about that - if Woody doesn't have that awful movement penalty on the last drive the Jets win the game without any drama at all. The penalties and the kicking game made this game much closer than it could have been.
Agree to a point. I'm just glad our D looked so Good. Jenkins is the beast we hoped for. Pace Lowery and Revis are all very good.
There was a Dolphin in the backfield on that play and it looked to me like he sort of gave up on Jones when he heard the whistles. We'll never really know though.
Heros - The entire D, especially the secondary. Stucky Goats - Faneca - I just don't think he had a great game today. It's still early and he will improve I am sure, but today's game was not the reason he was signed.
I agree that the playalling was a little too conservative at the end. I think you have to at least try and get the first down on a 3rd and 7. my game ball would be too the run defence. Those are 2 potentially very dangerous backs that we kept in check today. Other stars were both Revis and Lowery - the real test for Lowery will come in the next few weeks against better receivers obviously. Also the pass rush - Pace, Ellis on that left side and Bryan Thomas was very good also. Offensively Favre was INT free and you can see how he turns the unit upside down. He'll have better games but it certainly wasn't a bad start. My offensive game ball would go to Thomas Jones though. Lets hope we see a few more performances like that from him
I'm glad their were messups and some sloppy play. Yeah you'd rather win it without the late game heart problems, but hey...It's better they screw up now and get a drilling from the coaching staff as they prepare for New England... Liked what I saw on defense though.
Yep. In any sport the old addage goes: You should play to win. You don't play to not lose. Coaching staff deserves a bit of the goat title for failing to abide by this rule, and also not having a plan for an injured kicker. That was really pathetic IMO and almost cost us the game.