And that brings up another point. The Jets won the coin toss and elected to defer. Rex would do that playing the Patriots and it drove me crazy. Even if you have a good defense, you don't give Brady the opportunity to put your team in the hole to start a game. That might be a good strategy with a QB like Tannehill, Bridgewater or even Darnold, but with a QB like Ryan, the same rule should apply. When facing an elite QB, you gotta try to get ahead first even if you fail.
Matt Ryan isn’t an elite QB, Jets just made him look like one. Also was a 3 and out first drive without the terrible roughing the passer penalty.
Honestly, it's hard for me to blame Saleh anymore than I can blame any other HC? It's not like this problem is new to the Jets. Rex and Bowles all had the same issues. The one universal, immutable truth about the Jets has always been that they're notoriously slow starters on offense. They very routinely take one quarter to one third of the game off. All the while taxing the defense to the very point that they get gassed. Which is exactly what happened against the dirty birds. Now I'm not forgiving Saleh in any way, I just find it hilarious when people act like this is some sort of new problem? I'm not ready to go head long into "Fire Saleh" signs either. He needs time just like the grace period we gave Rex Ryan and Todd Bowles. The Jets offense has a lot of new faces and Zach is young and inexperienced. It seems as though he has a problem with completing the most routine of passes? Although when he's throwing passes off schedule he numbs the exceptionally long bombs. It's really kind of confusing? What I know I haven't seen yet is the Jets go into a game with a clear, concise plan. Mike Lafleur is most certainly NOT helping right now. His play calls are horrid. The game plan should include a much higher emphasis on running the ball setting up play action correctly for Zach. But honestly nobody should be getting bent out of shape about this? The Jets are NOT competing for anything this season......
I agree that Saleh deserves the blame in the sense that the buck stops with him. He runs the show, so every loss is on him. I have been wildly unimpressed by Saleh this year. Seems like a cool dude, but so did Bowles. Having said that, putting all the blame on him absolves way too many other parties in this game. I have plenty of blame to spread around. 1. Zach played awful. Even when he had time, he was extremely inaccurate. Cant win football games if you're inaccurate from a clean pocket. I know he didn't get a ton of help from WRs, but he was still awful. 2. The defense got bullied at the line the entire game. This seemed like a huge mismatch in favor of the Jets, and no one came to play (thats on coaching as well) 3. Defensive linemen were in coverage on the Falcons two touchdown passes. That is some horrible coordinating. Hopefully that shit stays in London, because it was embarrassing. 4. Offensive playcalling was pretty brutal, but there were open receivers that Zach didnt see or wasn't able to accurately hit. Either way the Jets dont need to be doing a throw behind the line like they did at the end of the game. The playcalling could do a bit more to get him in a groove early. But I dont know how many opportunities because Zach missed.
From Brian Costello at the Post today: Digging in on the first quarter statistics paints an ugly, ugly picture: 0 points, 79 total yards, five first downs, 2-for-11 on third down (none converted since Week 1), 42 total plays run, 68 rushing yards, 11 net passing yards. QB Zach Wilson is 5-of-18 for 34 yards with two interceptions in the first quarter.
Basically comes down to two things. This coaching staff looks lost at times and Wilson is not ready to play at this level yet. DEs covering pass catching TEs? Trotting out our terrible TEs, not one at a thime, but two? Wilson CONSTANTLY missing easy throws.
I love the rant, but I think the excuses are valid for this team. I said before the draft that hiring a new coach, drafting a new QB, revamping the OL, bringing in a new receiver corps would be going back to Square One. That argument was countered with: it wouldn't be Square One because Saleh (much better than Gase) was such a great pick as HC, Wilson (much better than Darnold) was such a great pick at QB, OL fixed by drafting AVT in Rd 1 (even though he's a G). I think all these moves are solid, but you can't expect so many changes on one team to click all at once. In other words we're back at Square One like it or not. Yet, I feel more hopeful about this team than I did three years ago when the FO failed to put any talent on the team. There is talent on this team, it just needs time to gel.
Holy shit that is dismal. I mean, that is a LEGENDARY level of dismal. Considering that is five first quarters, that is more than a full game's worth of stats. A single football game with those exact stats would be a beatdown of historic proportions.
