We have allowed over 100 yards rushing every game since opening night. It's time to start shutting down the running game. San Diego averages 123 yards rushing a game. It will be a tough challenge but we must shut it down.
Agreed. It's startling how poor our run defense has been... I guess starting with the AFCCG. Mendenhall destroyed our defense and we've given up season high rushing numbers to two different backs this season. That's inexplicable. I can't believe it has to do with personnel: I don't think Shaun Ellis had that much of an impact against the rush. Could it be that the Steelers exposed our cutback liabilities and now the rest of the NFL is wise to Rex? I'll chalk it up to bad luck, good backs and ugly tackling for now, but losing Thomas and now Devito (who graded out as the best run stopping DE in the league last year) doesn't make me comfortable. "You can say what you want about me, but I'll stop your run. I guarantee it."
I think it has to do with not being able to use pads in practice and the lock out. Hopefully the Jets can improve it though, which I expect them to.
That isn't a good thing............ They also really need to watch the swing/screen pass with both Mathews and Tolbert. The Chargers use that in lieu of running plays and they have been getting huge gains, Mathews has some huge catches, is avg 13 yds a catch.
The Jets are 28th in the league in stopping the run. The only place to go is up. I think they will improve as the year progresses and tomorrow is the perfect time to start that process.
we miss BT badly. chargers actually have a running game again too. the tolbert/matthews combination has worked out well for them, and their offensive line has gotten better at run blocking. they used to be a much more pass happy offense
is it safe to say we miss shaun ellis vs the run? mo wilk seems to be very inconsistent in his rookie season.
Yesterday was the first game since opening night where we did not allow 100 yards rushing. Good job D!
absolutely. I said it all week, if we stop the run, we will win the game. We took away the run in the second half, put them in 3rd and long time and time again, and our defense got off the field.
The injury to Mathews certainly helped things.. but if you take away that one long Tolbert run, the D did a very good job yesterday against the run I thought. They pretty much forced Rivers to throw and he clearly had a bad game. Going forward though, we definitely need DeVito healthy, and we will probably see a lot more of Kenrick Ellis, provided his injury is not serious. Wilkerson has been inconsistent so far this year, but it's not like he's been bad. The big problem right now is not having Bryan Thomas outside. Westerman simply isn't big enough to handle that role. The other problem is we miss a lot of tackles up front. It never seems like they bring the runner down on the first try. A lot of that is probably due to the lockout and new practice rules with no pads, etc. The Jets are not the only team struggling in that area.
It's wierd how every week the jets defense gives up a couple of big gainers but otherwise they are very difficult to consistently move the ball on. It seems like the defense just has a couple of mental breakdowns but otherwise they are doing pretty well.
The other way to explain this phenomena is that the Jet's run D is stretched to the breaking point and that when something goes wrong it breaks momentarily. That's kind of how I see it. The Jets have no dominant players in the front 7 and just a few impact players. They keep it together somehow and then a determined opponent eventually breaks them down and busts a long-gainer. It's a testament to the coaching and to the player's dedication that things haven't gotten completely out of hand on that side of the ball but when you go 7 weeks and the lowest rushing total you have allowed is 98 yards things are close to breaking. The Jets need to use the bye to really tighten up the rushing defense or Buffalo will run all over them and put the Jets in a deep hole going into the Pats game. The Bills are the #7 ranked rushing team averaging 141 yards a game and 5.2 yards a carry. They're going to run the Jets right off the field if something doesn't change.
this is a bit of an interesting topic to discuss. pretty much every big play on our defense this year(in the passing game) has been some kind of mental breakdown, rather than a physical one. Obviously the Gates plays on the first TD drive, the play to Mcmichael, yesterday, then the Welker play, the game Witten had week 1 (outside his gigantic reception, which Smith had good coverage and fucked up the tackle), the play to Kevin Boss against Oakland. I mean its amazing how many miscommunications we have had defensively. If we played a miscommunicationless game in the secondary, I question if opposing teams would even be able to move the ball on us in the air? Against the run, we have been extremely spotty, but we showed encouraging signs yesterday. Hell we stopped the run better in the middle of the game when Harris was out, and ellis was long gone (without Devito possibly our best run defender left now that BT is out). So it was pretty exciting to see. Once we get those guys healthy, it will be interesting to see if we can really scheme our way to stopping the run.
not a great job in stopping the run, but good enough... with harris out for a good portion there and no devito, it couldve been a lot worse... thought tolbert was gonna dominate us all day at one point... that guy is a house... but the D as a whole stepped in big time in the 2nd half... it was like someone filled their water bottles with super devil juice at halftime... they came out possessed and that revis guy is decent...
Tolbert's not a house. The Jets just made him look like one. He had 36 carries for 105 yards coming in to the game or 2.9 a carry. He got to run against one of the worst run defenses in the NFL this year so he looked like an all-pro. You want to see house? Fred Jackson is a house. The Jets are going to get destroyed by Buffalo in two weeks if they can't figure out how to stop the run in the interim.
