We've been saying all along, that with Chad under the center, teams stack the box with reckless abandon, which causes the run game to suffer, and also, in turn, causes the short-passing game to suffer. Last year's stats reflect just that: his Yards per attempt is a dismal 6.8 yard/attempt, and TJ gained on average, 3.6 yards per carry. Now, shouldn't the same logic apply to the dolphins offense as well? If his arm strength is that much of a detriment to the offense, how come Chad is throwing a healthy 7.7 yards per attempt this year? Also puzzling is the YPC by Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. Ricky is posting 4.1 yard per carry, while Ronnie is posting 4.3 yard per carry. Ok. Wildcat could give them a bit of an edge, but over the entire course of the year, that evens out with other running plays that get stuffed behind the line, so in all, installment of wildcat is but inconsequential. (It's not even like Dolphins used Wildcat exclusively on running plays either.) Now, the question really becomes: Was the last year's dismal offensive performance really the fault of Chad Pennington? How come this year's Dolphins are not going through the same problems? (True, Jets LG is a road pylon, but that doesn't mean Chad had a HoF line in Miami either)
Or maybe teams stacked the box against us because our OL was atrocious last year, and maybe not so much because Pennington has a weak arm. Last year's performance was largely due to the OL issues. We couldn't run, and we couldn't protect the QB. It didn't matter if you had Tom Brady back there, the outcomes would have been similar for the most part.
The o-line was bad in 2006 too but we worked around it with inventive and risky play-calling. The same type of play-calling that Miami used these year. At some point the Jets abandoned that type of play-calling, which I think was a big mistake. Now the closest thing you get to a trick play is Brad Smith lining up behind center and running, which shockingly sometimes works even though you know he's gonna run or a WR running behind the line and then back out again (what's the point of that anyway?)
In 2006 the line was withered, but not quite dead. By 2007, along with the loss of Kendall it had broken down as bad as it could be. I do agree with you about the playcalling, especially where it was inconsistent this season and the game planning overall. But even inventive play calling is going to take you so far when your lines are busted. Miami has done a nice job of throwing in some wrinkles, but even their offense was not all gimmicks.
This is a good discussion about CP as I've wondered about this as well. I think CP is obviously the kind of mistake-free QB you'd love to have if the rest of your team is solid. The 2007 o-line and defense was terrible, Chad isn't good enough to win without these two aspects helping him (in fact very few Qbs can do this). Look at Thomas Jones in 2007 vs 2008, theres a big difference.
2007 was totally Mangini's fault for two reasons: 1-He ripped the a Titanic-sized hole into the left side of his offensive line weeks from opening day, and installed a turnstile in it's place. 2.- His ultra conservative playcalling killed momentum in several key games where the Chad might've been able to pull out a win. I'm glad he's gone and I hope he has a fucking heart attack and dies.
Yup! Thanks for pointing this out. And if this fact is not obvious to even a casual observer of the NFL? Then you are even stupider than me! (And THAT is going a long way!)
Isn't that more the responsibility of the GM? Whoever made the decision to ignore the OL definitely needs to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the 2007 season.
The best description of Shots play calling is that if something works he stops doing it and if it doesn't work he does it every game. Dan Henning surprised the league by making Testaverde a great QB in '98, guess whose coaching Penny this year. And if Henning had Favre he'd be tearing up the league even worse. No team sport is more affected by coaching then football. Time for Jet fans to figure out the real reason for 40 years of frustration: Walton, Coslet, Kotite, Groh, Edwards, Mangini, etc.
if i remember right we were all looking forward to chad playing behind- and tj running behind- our all new and greatly improved offensive line. then it all changed. we had convinced ourselves that the 'miami chad' was about to become the 'jets chad', so why is anyone confussed when exactly that happened in miami?
yeah, Mangerine and MT both reneged on a deal to pay Kendall in 2007 if he took a pay cut in 2006, they showed their inexperience by thinking they could just replace him and have the same results they had the previous year add to that the Left tackle and Center were both wet behind the ears and well we saw what happened...then we go to the other extreme this year with a QB who doesn't try to manage the game and takes too many chances, maybe we can find a qb who is in the middle, has the arm strength to throw down field but has the smarts to manage the game....I think Montana has one more year in him!!
Do me a favor when you watch the Dolphins play today, I could be wrong, however I have noticed that Chad is throwing the ball with more velocity, IMO the staff has asked him to put some mustard on it, if it gets intercepted so be it but don't give the defense a chance to make a play on it.....too many times when he was our quarterback he underthrew the ball or did not put enough arm strenght on it and the defense made a play on a pass that should have been a reception.
he is throwing as hard as he did in early 2006. He was throwing the best I had ever seen him throw(velocity wise) early in '06 but he wore out as the season went on. It was only a year at that point since his last shoulder surgery, now it's been 3+ years- that makes a HUGE difference. His arm was never half as bad as people made it out to be until he hurt his shoulder.
1. Ok. Adrien Clarke is a human turnstile, that I agree. But Pete Kendall surely isn't HoF calibre LG either. On top of that, Dolphins OL this year may still be slightly worse than 2006 Jets line, which wasn't all that spectacular either. Is OL to blame for the entire fiasco? They must be largely responsible for it, but they don't deserve to get the entire blame. I am throwing a red flag at Brian, if you didn't get it yet. 2. Regarding Pete Kendall fiasco: this should be the highlight of Mangini/Tannenbaum incompetence. In conclusion, I am thinking that Chad took the fall that year for the incompetences of the front office added with the incompetent play calling by Brian.
agreed, how many flee flickers has Chad throw for td's this year? I would bet more than he did his entire career here, including the postseason.
