Time for Eric Mangini to adjust to Brett Favre By Ian O?Connor / The Record (Hackensack N.J.) Monday, September 15, 2008 - Added 1h ago E-mail Printable (0) Comments Text size Share (0) Rate EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? Matt Cassel has an arm that belongs in the Mets? bullpen, and the Patriots [team stats] were smart enough Sunday to hide it as much as they could, to use every healthy body part on a September roster expanded by Tom Brady [stats]?s shredded knee. The pennant race started early for Bill Belichick, started the opening-day minute his transcendent ace went down and out for the season. Belichick knows Cassel will test his alleged genius to the max, and so he asked every backup pulling guard and special teams wedge-buster to spill another drop of small-picture blood for the benefit of the big-picture cause. Good strategy, better result. But what?s Eric Mangini?s excuse? AdChoice His transcendent ace, Brett Favre, is alive and well and still throwing high and tight fastballs as he approaches his 39th birthday. Only for the second straight week, the Jets? coach gave Favre the Cassel treatment. New England won by a 19-10 count as a result. If nothing else, Mangini appears hellbent on running Thomas Jones to Canton before Favre ever gets there. So you?re actually surprised that Cassel?s Patriots did to the Jets what Brady?s Patriots always did to them? "Everybody?s got long faces," said New England?s nose tackle, Vince Wilfork [stats], as he walked through the Giants Stadium tunnel and toward the winners? locker room. "Like it?s a shock we beat them." Brady is 12-2 against his favorite shade of green, and his team hadn?t lost a road game to the Jets since Al Groh was coaching them. Cassel?s presence under center gave the Patriots a chance to validate their socialistic system, to uphold the Patriot Way. New England won the coin toss and immediately deferred to the hosts, sending a message without playing a single down. The Jets were penalized on the first drive for having 12 men in their offensive huddle, and were penalized in the fourth quarter for having 12 men in their defensive huddle. They wouldn?t have won this game with two dozen Jets on the field, not after Mangini assigned his best player to a supporting-cast role. Favre was 15-for-22 for 194 yards in the first game, 18-for-26 for 181 yards in the second. And just as Mangini and his offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, ran the ball three times near the end of the Miami game, rather than have their quarterback throw for a victory-clinching first down, the coaches refused to let Favre throw near the goal line in the second quarter, Patriots up 6-0. From the New England 3, Jones carried for 1 yard on first down, for 1 yard on second down and for a loss of 2 yards on third down. The field goal sucked the life out of a crowd carried away with the possibilities represented by Brady?s left knee. "We liked the plays that we had," Mangini admitted. So did Belichick. "We liked the way we were moving the football on the ground," Mangini said, "and thought that was our best chance at that point." Once again, the Jets employ one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. They made the biggest trade in franchise history to get him. And Mangini doesn?t think Favre amounts to the Jets? best chance to score? Brilliant. Just brilliant. Mangini might?ve embraced Belichick?s style when they worked together up north, but he didn?t leave New England with Belichick?s brain. AdChoice Mangini?s lucky he never ended up in a vice presidential debate with Lloyd Bentsen ("I knew Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick was a friend of mine. Coach, you?re no Bill Belichick."). Mangini?s also lucky Favre is so willing to go along with the plan for now, anyway. Asked about the three consecutive up-the-guts with Jones that defined this game, Favre said: "Had we run it in on the first, second or third play, then it?s a great call. I don?t second-guess (Schottenheimer?s) calls one bit. Would I?ve liked to have thrown? I?d like to throw every play. But you?re not going to win that way." Truth is, Favre looks a lot more comfortable in his Wrangler jeans than he does in this offense. The quarterback is a freewheeler at heart, a go-for-broker who hates bringing a knife to a gunfight. On truth serum, Favre would concede that the Jets? philosophy is as boring as a Mangini briefing. "I?m fine with it," Favre swore. "My job is to come here and run this offense, and believe me, regardless of the plays that were called, I looked at the pictures on the sidelines and there were some opportunities for some big plays, and that falls back on me." Down, 16-3, in the fourth, Mangini was forced to let Favre be Favre. The quarterback completed all six of his passes for 51 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown pass to Chansi Stuckey. But the Patriots [team stats] committed fewer penalties, played better on special teams and had Stephen Gostkowski kick four field goals to protect the one quarterback in the game who actually needed protecting. "It was my first start since, what, the seventh grade?" Cassel said. Mangini helped make it a memorable one by trying to prove Jones is better than he is, and by trying to make good on the $65 million spent up front on Alan Faneca and Damien Woody. Belichick? When he said in his opening postgame statement that the Jets were "riding high off of last week?s win over Miami," he meant to say "1-15 Miami," of course. It was Belichick?s way of telling the Jets and their fans to get a clue. So be it. The sport is dominated by the quarterback position, and Belichick scripted a plan to get the Patriots? novice past an opposing Hall of Famer. In the end, Mangini took a knee (not Brady?s) to the gut. Favre doesn?t need to adjust to his coaching; his coaching needs to adjust to Favre. __________________
Good read and very true. We the ability to make big plays with our QB and are not getting things done. We have weapons on offense like Cotch, Coles, Stucky, even guys like Keller who get make plays in the vertical game and are still running too many 5 yard outs. We need to adjust our thinking fast.
It would be nice if they let him audible. They will have more int's i would think but it's better than getting raped by your opponents weekly. I knew we were in trouble when I saw Kurt Warners half time stats against the fish.
I think they will give him that freedom after the bye week. Someone mentioned that on this board before and I think its a good point. You need him to be entirely comfortable with the playbook before he can audible.
Mangini does still not get he does not have to run the prevent offense anymore. Keller, Franks and Baker and Keller and he runs at Seymore three times. He is not what we thought he was. Herm pt 2! Play to win!
Yep so true, so true. BF is a fish out of water when complying with the play calls from Shotty (who should immediately be fired if we had an owner who did not accept the medicore)
Brett should be telling Schotty what plays he wants to call. He has the Hof Resume not our coach or OC!
Does anyone remember that just last week BF was quoted as saying in the huddle...."ok guys uh, same play"?!? He does not know the playbook enough to be calling audibles the way he will be in a few weeks. He needs time and this will turn around when he is able to open the plays up.
If I was BF I would tell Woody I am retiring for good after the display of coach & P/calling yesterday
None of us can really know whether Favre is truly still unable to run the offense well because of unfamiliarity; given yesterday's performance, we can only hope that that is true. But even given that, there are simple changes that any QB and offense know how to do (rollouts, play-action passes) that could take much better advantage of Favre's skills, and they don't seem to be part of the gameplan. That just seems ridiculous to me, and evidence of incompetence in the playcalling.
Favre sounded frustrated with all the different formations and shifting in our offense. He said it just confuses people and makes everything harder to remember and do when the play is the same. That makes sense. The guy has played in the NFL for 18 years, let him use that to his advantage.
the bigger issue seems to be, what we've all known all along. Mangini took the job and had a system in mind. Didn't matter if he had the personnel to match it. He would get them in time. Whether it's on offense or defense, Mangini will continue to play it his way, and not try to exploit his own assets. I think the big difference yesterday was that as usual the patriots game planned for the Jets, just like they say they do each and every week for their opponents. The Jets on the other hand, have a playbook, a system, it doesn't matter whom they are playing, or who is playing for them, no need to customize. the approach will be the same every week. Some weeks it may work .... others, well you know!
Mangini Aint that good The jets would be much better off if they lost the I hate NE crap, stopped taking coaches from NE and hired a real coach like Tom Coughlin or somebody like Mike Shanahan when they become available. They are playing tit for tat with the Patriots. Mangini seriously is not that good of a coach, I am waiting for the day that a player smacks him upside the head. He ratted out belicheck and the rest of the NFL, and If he loses his job in the Jets Org. I highly doubt he will be able to even land a HS football coaching job. On top of that the Jets players actually thought they had a chance to win that game? The pats dominated them and had cassel thrown another completion they would be down by double digits. The Buffalo Bills have slowly rebuilt their org while the hapless Jets Management keeps trying to take "has been players" to create a competitive team. Next week they march into a PISSED off San Diego team. 1-2 is the scenario for the jets with a thrubbing from San Diego. The schedule is not an easy one and the Jets will be lucky to go .500. Its the coach, not the players.
There was a time in this league when Qb's called their own plays and everything wasn't scripted.. I think BF probably could come up with a better gameplan than Shotts on any given Sunday.
Seriously... I wish they would let Favre just run the offense from the huddle and at the line. He doesn't know much of the playbook and would know which plays he needs. Like he said anyway, "Head Coaches think you need a million different plays... I think they have too much time on their hands, you only really need a handful of plays executed well to win"
