I truly believe we let a win slip away today as we outplayed the bears 3/4 QTRS today but just couldnt make the timely play or catch a break. There are certainly negatives to take away from the game..but lets look at some of the positives from this young team. Coles- Had a very good game, moving the chains on several occassions...if Chad had seen him open in the end zone in the 2nd qtr..we might be celebrating a win right now. Rhodes- Had another monstrous effort, and at this point if he misses the pro bowl...it's a crime. Was all over the field, whether it was blitzing, in coverage or making hits at the LOS. D Rob- Had another very good game in which he pretty much dominated an all pro in Kreutz. Extremely disruptive in the backfield and it's a shame Kimo was so bad to his right or we might've suffocated the Bears D even more. O-line- Another great game all around. The rookie's had acouple costly false start penalties but they kept Chad on his feet for most of the game against an extremely fast and aggressive Bears D. Hopefully we can build off the positive performances, shrug off this loss and finish strong looking forward to a playoff appearance.
See these are the types of comments that drive me up the wall. Barlow was HUGE for us @ NE. One bad game and you want to bench him permanently?! What is wrong with you man..... We just lost to the best team in the NFC, and while they are overrated, they are still very good. We went 1-1 in our games vs NE and Chicago. We should be pleased with this team's performance so far this season. Bench Barlow....unreal.
After a loss, Jet fans NEED a player/coach to use as a punching bag... At the beginning of the year it was D rob and Miller... D rob has played better and Miller has moved to nickel back, so now the punching bags are Barlow and Chad.
But Barlow wasn't expected to be a 1500 yard rusher. Atleast not by me. We knew it'd be running back by committee from the start. So why permanently bench him? Leon dissappeared @ NE, why weren't you demanding he be permanently benched last week?
He wasn't given any carries. Leon has played great week in and week out. Barlow has played awful, week in and week out. He avg. less than 3ypc.
Not a running back issue. Expect more veteran leadership from Chad and coaching staff. Expecting some game feel. Chad's thrown more INTs that TDs, he's looking like he's peaked.
bingo...im glad houston was finally active...he runs hard, and while i do like barlow as a goal line back, i think houston can probably replace him....houston definitely impressed today, picking up right where he left off vs. indy
I too was happy to see Houston back. I think he and Washignton might just make a very good duo for us in the future. Both are young and if our OL continues to improve and we get a better passing game that should help them a bit too.
RUSHING STATS: Houston 11-50 Dwight 1-28 Washington 13-22 Smith 1-6 Barlow 4-2 Houston had a decent day (4.55 YPC) considering the caliber of the defense and this being his first time out since the injury. I expected more from Washington today (less than 2 YPC) because of the dry conditions and the hard surface, which should have favored his style, but they were clogging the running lanes pretty good.
nice analysis, Kurt. it's awesome to see D-Rob improving each week. i posted something similar to what i'm about to post in the Draft forum, but it's loosely related here. with D-Rob playing better at NT each week, and Kimo being a waste of space, do you see us trying to get Alan Branch in April and move him to DE to replace Kimo? the original question i posed was if we had the chance to select Branch or Woodley (knowing the other would be gone by our next pick) who would it be? at this point, i'm leaning towards Branch because he solidifies the 3-4 DL. finding a good pass-rushing OLB is easier in R2-4; but finding someone like Branch - when most of the college players aren't suitable for the 3-4 - is much more difficult to do outside of R1. even though Branch didn't perform particular well throughout the entire Ohio St. game, do you think he should be our target? because anyone you slice it, we'll need a quality 3-4 DE next year. cheers
Same with Leon the week before. And for the record, I'm not arguing that we shouldn't be playing Houston. I said in another thread that Houston is probably our most complete RB. I think we should mix all 3 guys in in certain situations. Neither of the 3 should be 'permanently benched'.
Really? Leon had 4 carries for 2 yds against NE to avg 0.5 ypc? Against NE leon had 9 carries for 35 yards, avg of 3.9 ypc. He avg almost 4 yds per carry last week compared to Barlow's trashy 0.5 ypc this week. So remind me, how was it the same?
Oh, I thought you said Leon didn't get any carries vs. NE... I guess he did didn't he. Why am I still arguing about this with you? If you don't see how Barlow contributes by being effective in the red zone and in short yardage situations then open your eyes. He has 6 TD's, why would we bench him? Use all three backs in certain situations.
To be honest, and I'm not always on the cheery side of things but, we win that game next year. We win the Cleveland game, the Indy game etc etc.... This team has come a long ways. So many people are so are short on attention span. You can't have everything right now! I can envision this defense just causing havoc next year. The blitzes are starting to work, even some of the normal pass rushers are getting there. (see Ellis on Brady last week) There are some discipline issues but by the time Mangini gets his whole thumb print on this I don't think anybody will be complaining. I was very impressed the way Chad was able to respond on numerous 3rd down conversions. I think they set some sort of record. When was the last time you were able to feel they had a shot at making some of those. The running game is coming along and the pass protection is getting better. On defense with new personell in the middle next year, nobody runs up in there. Everything is gravy this year! Sure there were some bad overthrows in key situations that I don't wanna speculate on but, they were in it the whole way and I never would have given them credit for it unless I saw it. This is gonna be a great team.....eventually. Finish strong and that's good for me.
Houston is a younger and faster version of barlow. We used him early in the season in the redzone, remember against buffalo? And remember him in the redzone last year? Barlow can get it in from the 5, but so can houston. He's not needed, at all. Leon and Cedric are the only 2 backs needed on this roster.
Chad is a reasonable place to point to, though. His shoulder is done, Kurt. You can see that for yourself. Mentally, he's a fatastic QB. Physically, though, it's over for him. I totally agree with your other assessments, though. the OL has been such a pleasent surprise for me.
