Better matched up for this year against Colts? Opinions.

Manning is still Manning, and that still scares the crap out of me. As it should for Eric Coleman and Dwight Lowery.

 

Rex Ryan's Jets match up better this year against Colts due in part to addition of...

Sorry if this article was posted already-

"The boldest and brashest coach in sports has every right to blather this week.

Rex Ryan's greatest hits include plenty of outrageous material, but he doesn't need to apologize for ratcheting up the chatter before the Jets face the Colts in a wild card game on Saturday night.

Indianapolis may have Peyton Manning, but Ryan has the better team.

The Colts' litany of injuries coupled with one invaluable Jets offseason transaction gives Ryan a realistic chance at redemption from last year's AFC Championship Game loss at Peyton's place.

"Hopefully we match up better than we did last year," Ryan said Monday.

They do.

Manning has been Ryan's Kryptonite through the years. The future Hall of Fame quarterback has won five of six games against Ryan's defenses, including twice in the playoffs. But the 10-6 Colts barely resemble the team that went to the Super Bowl last season due to injuries to key offensive weapons, including Dallas Clark and Austin Collie. Indianapolis has placed an eye-opening 17 players on injured reserve.

"To be honest," Ryan said, "I don't feel sorry for them."

The Jets reached a dead end on their road to the Super Bowl last season thanks to a lack of cornerback depth. Manning shredded the secondary in every imaginable way and against every imaginable defensive scheme.

He completed 18 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns against Jets cornerbacks not named Darrelle Revis in the AFC title game. He targeted Collie and Pierre Garcon on 62% of his passes. The young receiving duo repeatedly beat Dwight Lowery and Drew Coleman after nickel cornerback Donald Strickland left the game late in the first quarter with a groin injury.

Enter Antonio Cromartie.

The former Chargers cornerback has come as close to having Manning's number as anyone in the league. Cromartie has four interceptions in four career games against Manning. Ryan didn't need to explicitly tell the cornerback that the Jets traded for him to help stop Manning. Cromartie already understood.

"I knew what their feeling was," he said. "The feeling was mutual."

The Colts, who tied the Cowboys' NFL record with their ninth consecutive playoff appearance, are vulnerable this time. Due to circumstances, traditionally pass-happy Indianapolis became even more one-dimensional this season.

Manning attempted a career-high 679 passes - 15% more than any of his 13 seasons - for the league's top-ranked pass offense with a lopsided 63-37 pass-to-run ratio. Despite the high volume of drop-backs, Manning was sacked a league-low 16 times.

So, it won't be easy for the Jets' middling pass rush to get to him. Indianapolis has also transformed into a better team on the ground in the past month. After averaging 3.6 yards per carry in the first 12 games, Jim Caldwell's club had a 4.5 ypc average in the final four games.

On the surface, the Jets' fourth-ranked rushing attack should have its way against Indianapolis' 29th-ranked run defense. But the Colts, who have 11 defensive players on IR, have corrected errors that plagued them earlier in the season.

Through the first 12 games, the Colts had the worst run defense in the league (142.8 ypg). In the past four games, Indianapolis has given up an average of 79.8 rushing yards. But the Colts may be without linebacker Clint Session (elbow) and top run-stuffing defensive lineman Daniel Muir (chest) on Saturday.

In the end, Manning's performance will almost certainly determine whether or not the Jets move on to face the Patriots in the divisional round.

The biggest difference from the past is Manning's comfort level with fill-ins Jacob Tamme and Blair White. Manning's 17 interceptions are his most since 2002, but he appears to be finding a rhythm with his new pieces. He threw 11 of his 17 picks during a brutal three-game stretch that saw the Colts fall to 6-6 in early December. He didn't throw an interception in three of the final four games.

Although the Colts have become a more plodding offense - Manning's 6.9 yards per pass attempt is the lowest since his rookie season in 1998 - the Jets are well aware that the quarterback is more than capable of beating them deep at any time.

"You're never going to stop Peyton Manning," Ryan said. "But you've got to contain him enough to where he doesn't beat you by himself or light the scoreboard up. He's done it many times. He's done it to me."

Ryan has waited an entire year to get another crack at Manning. He tinkered. He traded. He knew their paths would cross again.

"He got his wish," linebacker Calvin Pace said.

Now, will he deliver?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f..._due_in_part_to_addition_o.html#ixzz1A5E0afsP

 

Erik Coleman plays for the Falcons, dude.

 

"It's like Eric Smith and Drew Coleman had a baby."

For reference: http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=60089

 

Session has been practicing the last two weeks and should be back. Muir was a game time decision last week and looks to be back for this game, but you never know. The Colts are like Fort Knox when it comes to giving out info on injuries. I have found that if they don't talk about an injured guy, then he probably isn't going to play. If they mention his progress then there's a good chance they will play.

 

Ground and pound is a recipe for lots of 3rd and longs and a loss. We need to be very balanced maybe even slightly favoring the pass on first down to free the safeties and set up play action. If we try to "ground and pound" we lose. I would even go so far as to say that the Jets should run more of a k-gun offense especially early.

 

I think with how beat up the colts are. I think the k-gun / hurry up would work and throw them off balance easily. Its the playoffs take the training wheels off sanchez

 

A lot of people had the bright idea of running the hurry up to start to second NE game. How did that work out for us?

The way to beat IND is to keep Peyton on the sidelines. We need to shorten the game, not extend it.

Now I'm not saying heavy ground and pound. I think we need to keep it even run v. pass, remembering to throw on first down. That will open up running lanes, allowing us to have some of those 10-15 play drives.

 

At the end of the day, I think the Jets win this game. There's a reason a road team is listed as +110 to win the game: the Colts are the slightest of favorites, and on a neutral field, the Jets would likely be favored.

The Jets are much, much better matched up this year, a little because of improvements the Jets made, and a lot because of injuries on the Colts side. The Jets can move the ball on the ground and through the air on the Colts. A lot will depend on which Sanchez shows up for the game, but he's played well the last few weeks, so hopefully that will carry over.

I think the Jets win this game. We can run the ball better than you can, and unlike last year, our secondary matches up well with your weapons. Last year, we put Revis on Wayne usually, so Garcon, Collie, and Clark killed us. This year, Collie and Clark are gone, and Tamme and White are not nearly as good, though Tamme isn't bad at all. But this year, Revis can go on Wayne and Cromartie can guard Garcon, and your personnel as secondary weapons just aren't as good.

That said, if our pass rush allows for Manning to sit in the pocket all day and get in a rhythm, we'll get picked apart, and this game could be a shootout. That, and big performances by Tamme, White, and Garcon, will be the difference. Those three guys are inconsistent, and with Revis on Wayne (and make no mistake, Revis is a blanket this year), they will need to step up.

A lack of pass rush will make our secondary look bad. But our matchups on the outside are light years better, both offensively and defensively.

 

I could be wrong, and it wouldn't be the first time, but imo this game is a relatively easy one to analyze beforehand. The above bolded quotes cover all the key areas.

1. Cromartie goes a long way toward neutralizing the way the Jets got beat last year, but just like we have seen opponents drill down to third and fourth wideouts and their TE's, that is now the best approach to attacking the Jets. I will return at 4.

2. Sanchez. Let's face it, he's better overall this year than last, and somewhat more consistent, but still too inconsistent to make Jet fans feel really good about him. Yes, which Sanchez shows up? If we see him play at his worst from the regular season, it could be a long night for Jet fans. But if he plays well, and combines with what should be a good running attack, it will be very hard for even a Manning led team to outscore the Jets. For example look at the Chicago game - Cutler had his best game of the season, but he also had better receivers than Indy has now. Sanchez put up enough to win, but it took that awesome third quarter by the Bears to eke out a win by 4 points at home.

3. Pass rush. Call me crazy, but I think we saw in the Buffalo game the pass rush coming together better than it has all year, at the right time. Indy's OL is a weakness. Yeah, Manning has the quick release, but he can be harried. I ain't counting on it, but I would not be at all surprised to see the Jets have a decent pass rush. Taylor and Pace are both playing quite well at the right time, and blitz packages will be a factor.

4. Tamme, White et all v. the Jet nickel and dime packages. Probably the key to the game. I don't want to go crazy coming out of hte Buffalo game, but again Cole and Wilson just might be getting it together at the right time. Meanwhile if I were an Indy fan, it would make me nervous relying on White and Tamme. You can forget about Garcon and Wayne having big games.

 

I think right off the bat we will roll DB heavy, and the Colts will try and run on those packages. If we can stop the run with 5-6 DBs on the field I think this will be a great defensive day.

I'm very confident Sanchez shows up, the oline will continue to play well, and we get a solid running game from our backs.

 

Peyton can go off for 300+ and 4 TDs at any time. In my view he is that good and he is certainly more than capable of beating the Jets at home on Saturday. Whether he will do that depends in large part on the extent to which our OC has a ball control gameplan that he successfully prepares the offense to execute. If our OC decides to have a shootout w/Peyton we will most likely wind up giving Peyton numerous opportunities to beat us which he will take advantage of to the hilt. We saw this against Brady when the OC had a failed gameplan and called a terrible game.

 

I agree with 1 & 2, but as for 3 & 4 I think you're putting too much stock into the Bills game. Brian Brohm was playing a step slower than a normal NFL starter, let alone a Peyton Manning. He wasn't able to read the blitzes presnap and adjust, was a step slower in making his reads and the d-backs benefited from it.

I do think we'll see a little better pass rush on the turf than we did in the shitty conditions in Chicago but I'm still pretty scared we won't get much of a pass rush. I'm also still not confident in our CB's after Cro.

 

The problem with that strategy is that the Colts are better at run D than pass D.

 

I will get back to the pass rush, but my point at 4 was not limited to Cole and Wilson. The larger point is whether Tamme and White will be able to succeed as we have seen teams with talented receivers past their 1 and 2 options.

I am not going to say they can't, for obvious reasons, since we don't know that, and Manning can certainly get the ball to them as well as anyone.

But at least going into the game, the Colts, with Clarke and Collie out, do not seem to have the talent levels at receivers as teams that have sucessfully exploited the Jet D past Revis and Cro.

Hey if it turns out they can utilize those two effectively, as I said that could very well be key to the game, and that would greatly increase the odds of a Jet loss.

Wilson and Cole - they clearly played better in the Buff game, but I think in a way that was not limited to the opponent's lack of quality. Wilson in particular showed us turning his head at the right time. I think he showed development there, and this was what he was NOT doing early in the season and paying for it. Cole for me is someone whose been showing an ability to make plays before the Buff game, and I have a feeling about him. It's also the case in discussing these two that we at least know there's a chance of getting better performances out of them than if the Jets had to put Coleman and Lowery out there all game.

Pass rush. It's not just the Qb that is a factor here, the Colts OL is not one of the better ones in the league. Pace is totally healthy now. He was not earlier in the season. I even think the CS may have been saving Taylor a bit for the playoff drive. He's well rested. And I am hardly saying I expect a first class pass rush. Just a better one than the shitty one we saw earlier this year. It could help.

But yeah, if Manning can get the ball to WHite and Tamme, and they can make some plays, could be the deciding factor.

 

The Colts will play run first and load up the box. They have proven they can stop the run with this defensive game plan. Our running game is not as good as it was last year. You can go three and out running against 8 or 9 in the box as easilly as you can passing three times.

I think the key is to make the Colts pay early for loading the box. Over the middle passes over those cheating up LB's will soften them against the run, and the safeties may cheat up to cover those short middle passes. Then, I'll take either Holmes or Edwards one on one with those shaky Colts CB's.

If we come out running against 8 in the box, the Colts WILL stop us. I have no doubt about that. Either we have a QB who can throw against 8 in the box or we don't. We play into what the Colts want us to do, run, or we play to win, and attack their weakness, the defensive backfield. If we can't beat the Colts with the pass, we don't belong in the playoffs.

 

If Greene doesnt go down and the Jets dont play so conservative at the end of the first half, they make the superbowl in 2010