Having Pace and Revis back 100% healthy....should alleviate concerns about defense. As long as we continue to win...I won't be too concerned.
Pace and Revis, two key components on our defense for the front 7 and the secondary respectively, we had communication problems against Miami and with those two back soon we'll return to form I think since Pace and Revis have 2 years of experience learning this defense and they will pick up players like Wilson and Cromartie who may not understand everything about Rex's system right away, we just need to stay healthy from here on out.
This is what being a good team looks like. The offense is gonna have another shit day or two at some point this year and the defense will have to pick them up.
I'm not too worried. We pretty much shut down the Patriots in the second half in Week 2, but let the Ravens and Dolphins throw all over us. If Ryan Fitzpatrick gets more than 250 yards passing, then I'll be worried.
Here's the good news: the reason our secondary is underperforming is because the new Jets don't have a complete grasp of the system yet and aren't communicating with each other properly. As far as problems go, that's a good one. It's not like Crom, K-Dub and Pool are getting burnt because they don't have the skills. They just don't understand the system. That's a problem that fixes itself in time. Think about our run defense last year. Contrary to popular belief, Sione Pouha, as much as I respect the guy, is not a superior run-stopper to Kris Jenkins. Our run defense didn't improve because Jenx went down and Pouha stepped in; it improved because the players on our team needed time to fully grasp and understand Rex's system. This year, the majority of our front seven have a year in the system under their belts. We've got the number 4 rush D. The majority of our secondary are new to the system. So our pass D seems inferior. This will level out, and it will be fun to watch it do so.
I'm not worried about our defense in the least. When it comes to a Jets/Dolphins, or any divisional/rivalry game, you throw out all the stats and expectations, and just hold on. The Bills will be much the same. Yes, they suck, and technically we should run roughshod over them, but divisional games are always tough.
I'm not too worried. Buffalo is Buffalo, and if we can't beat them without Revis and Pace we've got bigger problems. We should have everyone healthy for Lord Favre and then we've got Denver and the bye week. It would be great to hit the bye week at 4-2/5-1 with guys rounding into shape and Santonio with two games under his belt. Then other people can worry about defending the Jets. -X-
A lot of our recent moves are quite contrary to Rex's Hard Knocks sentiments. Woodhead and Washington, though marginally talented, answered Rex's call. They played their asses off in the pre-season. Alleged, that was what you had to do to make the team. Meanwhile, each of those guys were not secured so that we could take looks at totally unproven and ultimately worthless players like Patrick Brown and Pat Turner. And Dave Clowney is on the team. Oh well. Mike Tannenbaum knows what he is doing. Quite frankly, Danny Woodhead and Chauncey Washington would've locked up roster spots on Eric Mangini's Jets en route to a 7-9 record while LT dominated for the Vikings and Jason Taylor and Santonio Holmes tore it up for the Pats.
Rex's defense will finish top 5 this year one Pace and Revis come back.. Losing your best secondary player and best pass rusher would cripple any team
Its about making the final 45 not the final 53 (Also Rex's words). Woodhead was good enough for our final 45 for 1 game--they decided to go another direction. The 8 guys not dressing are either injured, 3rd qb, or have potential too good to send to the PS--McKnight, Cumberland, Brown, Turner, Ducasse (if Hunter is healthy). Not dressing Woodhead or Chauncey Washington...doesn't make any sense--that's what it came down to.
In all likelihood, Revis' and Pace's return will boost the Defense to where we thought it'd be. But still, I don't think Pace is a dominant pass-rusher that drastically changes the Defense's performance; maybe, when he's combined with Jason Taylor (which we've yet to see), they will form a fearsome pass-rush. I wonder what the Ravens D would look like if Suggs was out -- the absence of Reed/Suggs would be comparable to the absence of Revis/Pace, although Suggs wreaks more havoc on QBs than Pace does.
I agree that Pace isn't a top pass rusher in the league, although he definitely has that potential. However, he has the ability to collect 10 sacks in a season and is definitely the best rusher on this team from the edge. I think the Suggs/Reed comparison is good even though I feel like losing a corner of Revis's ability is a bigger deal than losing a safety of Reed's.
I agree with this. This is divisional play, you cannot count anybody out, and you cannot use stats to predict or justify. The bills will play us tough, just like the dolphins and the pats (well, the pats played us tough for a half at least) I think we will still take care of buffalo, but this is definitely not a gimme.
Reading between the lines a little it seemed to me that it was probably Pool that wasn't in the right spots. Hopefully that eases as he learns the system more.
