i also agree that getting harris back will help alot. pace was very good causing pressure and getting sacks. now that he has been playing coverage he hasn't been able to rush the passer. once pace is free to rush the qb again the pass rush should see an improvement.
I agree, Harris being out is whats effects our pass rush the most. When he was playing we were putting pressure on almost every pass play and were getting a lot more sacks. This will allow Bowens to go back to what he does which is pass rush on 3rd or 2nd and long which keeps pace and thomas fresh. linbacker coverage will also improve and you will see the D dominate.
So essentially what you're saying is, we have this problem but we shouldn't make observations about it or discuss it, yet? Is your motto in life to bury your head in the sand until it erodes around you?
You nailed it man. Dead on...................... Harris being out has meant the Jets most effective pass rusher, Pace, has to play in coverage way way way more. Harris being out is huge. Of course it is difficult to gauge how effective the pass protection and pass rush will be when Harris comes back because I am of the belief that Harris was never healthy this season. If Harris comes back healthy, just think about how good this D can really be if it can cover the underneath, middle even just 15-20% better. One thing is certain the Jets have fixed the gaping hole next to Kerry Rhodes. If Harris comes back healthy: So far almost every team since the Arizona game has had to give up their running game because of the general ability of this D to stop the run or they were significantly behind, that is not going to change one way or another when he comes back. So that ability will still be there. In my opinion the big change will be us not having nearly as much concern about the pass defense. Harris is as important to the middle of the field as Jenkins is to the interior line. Meaning that Pace and Thomas will be freed up and will be significantly better pass rushers, dare I say sack machines (lol just kidding to an extent). If this does happen, then the Jets will have a defense that the opposing team is going to have to play lights out on O to beat. One thing is for sure is that with Harris out the D can be somewhat less than average despite being a monster run stopper.
yeah we really looked slow and clumsy yesterday, damn guys stop bitching our defense dominated yesterday, our pass stats are skewed we have given yards to teams that we had huge leads on, relaxx
Well I guess I'll watch again, but I remember there being a decent amount of pressure on Collins. Our priority was coverage against CAssel.
I agree that we don't seem to have any particular player on D that's a big threat in the pass rush, but I don't feel like it's a major problem for us when you look at the bigger picture. Our blitzes up the middle do seem to be a bit weak, but we've had some big plays blitzing DBs from the outside this season (Rhodes, Elam). What seemed to be the key yesterday, and was in contrast to some other games this season where teams came back huge on us in the second half, was that the coaching staff generally decided to stay with an aggressive style of defensive playcalling - often bringing 5 or 6 instead of 3 or 4 - in the second half (finally!) and it paid off big time. We may give up some plays underneath due to the lack of speed/coverage ability of our linebackers (we got burned by Welker pretty often in the Pats game as well as by Scaife with some big underneath plays this week), but the rest of the strong points in our D - great run-stopping and the ability of our secondary (read: Revis ) to shut down big time WRs - more than make up for it. It's alot to ask for us to have the best guys at every position on the team. Barton may be a bit slow and not the best LB when it comes to coverage, but c'mon, this guy has been making huge plays for us. I think the overall mentality and strength of our D can easily make up for a few weak points, especially if our O continues to put up the kind of numbers that it has been (we're 2nd in the NFL in overall points and 2nd in PPG!). As far as the pass rush in particular, yesterday was a case in point. We don't necessarily have to get to the QB every time, but we clearly put enough consistent pressure on Collins to throw him out of his comfort zone, which I thought made all the difference - and we still didn't give up the big play deep. Nitpick all you want, but our D is playing great right now - we lost the turnover battle yesterday and still dominated for 4 quarters!! Everyone and their mother was saying that turnovers would be the deciding factor in this game and our D completely nullified it! Picking up some youth and speed at LB would be a great move for the Jets for next season, but I feel like this team has plenty of talent to get it done right now - it's all just gonna come down to how badly they want it. And it seems like they're feelin it right now... bring on the Broncos baby! This is awesome! FUCK YEAH!!!!! :jets::beer::jets:
Our secondary is better than their WR Corps so it wasn't much of a challenge. I'm concerned when we deal with teams that have better WRs.
This "giving yards to teams because of the lead" argument is a farce. The SD passing attack destroyed us. When the Pats were coming back, cut it to 7 and tied it, Cassel threw all over us. But yeah, it's only when we're winning HUGE.
we're third in the league in sacks (35), but our sack rate is actually slightly lower than the cowboys and giants. we have the third most pass attempts against us at 395 (only the chargers and bears have more). i suspect that this is mostly because we're good at stuffing the run and getting ahead, forcing teams to abandon the run and rely almost exclusively on the pass. thus, our sack totals are a little bit inflated. many of these sacks, i would say are "coverage sacks" as opposed to just really good pressure. do note that we've played against some really good offensive lines the last two weeks and rarely blitzed, keeping our sacks down. very few teams can consistently produce good pressure using just 4 rushers (giants and steelers are the only two that come to mind), and we do get that once in a while... but they're against the worse teams of the league. we've got a good pass rush, just not a great one. the big problem is not that we don't have a good pass rush, it's that we can't cover the middle of the field. our lb's aren't very good coverage guys and neither are our nickel and dime backs. the slot receiver/tight end/rb out of the backfield is almost always where we give up our big plays. again, our secondary is good, not great. as far as defenses go, there are worse things to be bad at. the greatness of this defense is in the man in the middle. Kris Jenkins. if we could combine that run-stuffing given with an opportunistic secondary, we can just flat-out kill everyone. for now, though, we have to rely on coaching to get us through the weaknesses of our defense. so far, they've been doing a pretty good job outside of the chargers game and the second new england game.
True. The team just has to play like it's been playing. Then, it should improve when its top ILB comes back.
Well this is what I was afraid off.... our lack of pass rush vs a good passing team and we're in trouble.
There has been a fairly obvious change in the pass rush since Harris went out. I have a feeling the reason is b/c Harris is our best coverage LB..which allows other guys(BT,Pace, and Bowens) to concentrate on their strengths(mainly pass rushing). But w/ Harris out..it's causing some adjustments to be made that have hurt the overall scheme including the rush at hand.
Good post... I'm curious to see how things change when Harris comes back in... do we have any word on his status? I think Mangini lost my phone #