I applaud the strategy of Mangini last night, they brought in TY Law specifically to execute this strategy but it had one glaring weakness and will get exposed every time. Revis on Welker was brilliant, take our best cover guy and put it on their go to underneath guy who moves the chains. Put Law on Moss (was initially Lowery until halftime adjustment) and roll the safety coverage to double team Moss. Put Lowery on the third receiver Gaffney which he struggled with and gave up the TD before half. Gaffney had numerous catches against both Law and Lowery who switched roles at halftime. Here is the flaw, Calvin Pace could not cover Watson and Watson had the best game of the season for him 8 catches 88 yds a 1TD. Those are Antonio Gates numbers we gave a pretty average TE. Barton could also not keep up with him. This is where we needed David Harris to attempt what Calvin Pace could not do - cover the TE. We were also very exposed to Cassel running, we need a faster LB to stop him from gaining 20+ yds every time he took off. It was so obvious when Barton would go to cover the RB running out into the flat and Cassel would take off right down the middle. We needs Harris back asap.
Looked the same to me – marginal. Good on first and second down but no ability to stop on 3rd; allows teams to move freely between the 20’s and consistently allows average quarterbacks above average games. I don’t see any real difference with or without Harris.
In my opinion, they should have switched to like a 3-3-5 and put rhodes on watson and then had another guy back Barret maybe?
Yeah, anybody have a handle on how he's recovering? I like the back end of this Thursday night BS now.... kinda like having a mini-Bye week to get guys healthy.
I agree. And I hate to say it but this is where Vilma would have been useful, none of our linebackers have speed anymore and none of them can cover.
Barton was a beast last night. The pats definately exploited the absence of harris, but barton shouldn't be getting any blame. . in fact should be praising his 10 plus tackle night. he blanketed his guys, not his fault.
I think he was just covering his responsibility though. That's schema - the DT's should have started pinching the middle at some point if they were going to run a D that left the middle vulnerable like that.
I'm surprised Belichick chose to run the ball at us so much in the beginning of the game. It was like he wanted to challenge our run defense. Well, hello, you didn't think that was going to work real well, did you? After we dominated them and shut them down on that (and scored multiple times, including Leon's return), Belichick finally abandoned that late in the 2nd quarter when they started moving the chains. Had he abandoned the running game earlier, or came out passing right off the bat, we probably would have lost that game. It was scary to see Cassel running at will in such an open field. With having to cover the little Weasel Welker and Watson and Gaffney with Moss out there too, it was almost too much to handle. Harris would have definately helped. But that's what made the win so enjoyable. We were able to hold on and came back with our own offense score... then do it again in overtime.
Harris could have been the blitzing ILB rather than Bowens. i know its Bowens' strength, but he doesn't garner the same respect. Also, if they are going to pass all day. At least get pressure quickly plus a QB spy. I would have liked to see the safeties move up every now and then like the Elam play in Buffalo. Fake deep, attack the comeback route.
Harris sucks in pass coverage so I don't think he would have changed much in last night's game. He's definitely better than Bowens though. Hope he comes back soon.
If Harris is healthy: 1. We have more depth 2. Our LB's don't have to play special teams AND defense 3. There is a reason why he's the starter As a whole we did great. All things considering: Lowery had SINGLE coverage on Gaffney. That's A LOT to ask of a corner let alone a rookie. If we were able to give him help, maybe he could have made some plays. Our pass rush was non-existent because Pace was forced to be in coverage for TOO long. Most of NE's TD's were because we had to manage our personnel effectively. A great game though for us to win AND learn from at the same time.
To tell you the truth, I think the Jets' two best defensive performances of the season were both WITHOUT David Harris. (@ Buffalo two weeks ago AND STL last week) Our biggest weakness on defense has been our intermediate pass coverage and Harris' biggest weakness is his pass coverage. He is a tackling machine but Bowens has stepped in and done a nice job for us.
Of course the Defense isnt the same without David Harris. He is one of the best players on that D and an Inside Linebacker. When he is out and you take David Bowens who was an outside linebacker his whole career and move him in there your gonna get a drop off.
