Dropped Passes. Without a doubt. There is a lot of concern about our receiving corps ability to fight for YAC or burn somebody down the sidelines on long bombs. I'll take good hands over tough YAC or fast feet any day of the week. Did anyone see one dropped pass from the Jets yesterday? I might be out of line, but I'm pretty sure one of the announcers during the Patriots game said Jerricho Cotchery had the longest streak in the NFL of receptions without a drop. That Justin McCareins was the only player on our team to drop any passes, I think. Man, we gotta get rid of that guy... BTW, did anyone else think that McCareins looked terrified at all times yesterday? I couldn't figure it out! Everytime he caught a pass, they'd show a close-up of him, and he looked like the most petrified person I've ever seen!
... our coach didn't make a complete ass of himself parachuting onto the practice field on Thursday instead of game-planning, and then imagining this was going to provide some sort of motivation?
That was a factor... perhaps the Titans score another TD and add 5 mins of TOP with caught passes... but their LOS wasn't theirs. It was the Jets all day long.
The biggest difference was the Jets finally decided to put the ball on the ground and control the game against a good team. That's what dominant teams do and the Jets are looking pretty dominant at this point. This team does look better than any Jets team since 1998 and the reason is the same now that it was then: good hard run defense, a rushing attack that is next to impossible to shut down, and a QB who is both strong-armed and accurate with a gunslinger's personality. Favre is an upgrade on Vinny and that's probably the thing that will put us over the top if we get to the Super Bowl.
Seriously, if the Titans want to use the dropped passes as their excuse for the loss, so be it. But we beat them soundly on both sides of the ball. There were times when their defensive line invaded our backfield on some running plays but for the most part, we imposed our will on them all day long. The dropped passes would have made the game closer I think, had they all been caught, but in the end I think we still would have won that game by at least a TD instead of by 3 TDs.
The biggest difference in my mind was the offensive lines. Our OL played steller football against one of the stoutest front 7 in football. Theirs? Not so muhc. I can remember a time when Mawae could have handled Jenkins, too, but that time is long past I guess. I kinda felt bad for him.
The two major differences was that we were able to consistently run and pass the ball whereas the Titans simply could not. Both our OL and D did an outstanding job with a dominant performance against one of the top offensive and defensive lines in the NFL. The Titans only managed 45 total yards on the ground while we ran for 192. Our run blocking is getting better with every game and the short route/quick release passing game that seems to be the signature of our passing offense makes it very difficult for opposing defenses to pressure the QB. In fact, other than the Giants (if we meet in the SB) I don't know that we'll be facing a more formidable pass rush this year than we just did yesterday.
Heart and soul also played a big part in the WIN. This NYJETS team is running on all cylinders..............:jets:
Collins threw the ball well enough early on, but his receivers missed a lot of big changes. Coles, Cotch and Keller out played Gage, MacCarine and Scafe. that was a huge difference in the first half.
This game was won in the trenches. We completely shut down their otherwise dominant running game. We pushed their elite DL around and Favre had sufficient time to throw downfield. We won the battle upfront all game long...we beat them at their own game.
Bingo we shut them down early and jumped on them to the point that they couldn't stick with the running game and even though they shut down our running game early on we were able to wear them out and ran them over
Everyone is mentioning the six drops, and I know one play can change a game, but consider four of the six (I don't remember the other two). One drop was to LenDale White in the flat who may have gotten about 3 yards. One drop was to Chris Johnson on a screen play on 3 and 15 One drop was to Justin McCareins on a WR screen One drop was to Bo Sciafe down the seam for about 20. No I know any player could break a play, but from what I saw it didn't seem like the first three listed would have been big gainers. Sciafe's drop was a big one.
the difference was mccarins 'trying' to get both feet down 5 yrds from the sideline with the tits trying to answer and the 1st down marker a foot away. what a douche bag. that led directly to an early 'momentum killing' 3 and out and set the tone for the remainder of the game.
That play was funny. It was like he was trying to prove he could keep his feet down while falling out of bounds. The only problem was his feet were like 2 yards away from the sideline. Then, Nantz and Simms suggested that the shadows on the field could make it tough to see.
I agree with MSUJet and Kurt - this game was won on the O and D lines. The dropped passes were a factor, Favre playing amazing was a factor, etc... but we beat them up phsically at the line of scrimmage all day and that was the thing that set up everything else they were able to do. The talk all week was about whether the Jets would be able to come to TN and play physical enough to compete. We absolutely flattened them. I love it!!!! :jets:
In McCarein's defense, I couldn't tell where the sideline was most of the game because it looked like they painted over or, removed the paint from the sideline, it looked like there was 2 sidelines on the field.
It has been a number of years since I have seen the Jets dominate on both sides of the ball, a very good football team.
The biggest difference? The jets we're better in all phazes of the game. All of them. The jets are just a better team right now, period.
