I'm not blaming anyone just trying to make more sense of this all. Up until the JAX game the JETS have been playing very good and exciting football. But, even in those games it appears we didnt show up for the 1st qtr. 1st QTR Stats Penny is 22/33 for 150 yards 4.5 YPA 0/1 TD/INT ALL YEAR 60 % completion on 1st down (not just 1st qtr) Accuracy is fine, yardage is ugly. Not even pointing fingers, but as some of us have said Schotty JR should be more assertive with the passing game play calling early in the game. Not asking for a Houston Oilers air it out, but more intermediate to deep routes using 3 to 4 WR's and 4 to 5 Targets (HB or TE). Now having no running game inhibits us alot, but its not as dreadful as the first few games. But Schotty (in an act I like, just not in the 1st qtr) calls runs with the amount and frequency of a team with an effective running game. In order to keep the Defense somewhat honest. Thats fine, just wait till late in the 1st QTR to start this. I dont know if we like to call the games conservative in the first to see if we can get away with running on them. Or, something I might start believing is our coaching staff is better at adjusting to the opponent than they are gameplanning. Which isnt much of a dissapointment considering we made the playoffs 3 out of 5 with a really good motivational speaker as a head coach. Now, its WAY too early to jump to conclusions or to buy into any assumptions I've made within here, but just some thoughts that were floating around. I'm at work as we speak, later I'll see if I can compile any other 1st qtr stats. and we can give more validity to any debates that might come out of this. On a final note about our passing game in JAX, it was obvious our staff was afraid of the D-Lines ability to penetrate so we kept TE's sometimes double Tights for pass pro only sending out 2-3 targets to be covered by 6 or more players. Our success has come from overloading sides of the field and getting it to our receivers under the coverage.
The main issue with the poor first quarters is tentative play calling and play. the Jets aren't getting any kind of sustained drives until they get into the second quarter. I seem to recall they had this problem with Herm too early on, although that was more like one drive for a score and then a quarter+ of piddling around while the other team took the momentum. Back then I attributed it to Paul Hackett's endless conservatism, but now I'm starting to wonder if it isn't something in Chad and Laveranues Cole's make-up that causes it.
The poor first quarters are magnified by the fact that our D can;t stop anybody from running the ball. Think about it. If the opposition gets 2 long drives during the 1st quarter they will likey chew up much more than half of the available playing time. So our O is out there for less. If our O struggles then the ball is in the Opposition even longer. That is why we find ourselves digging out of a hole at the end of the 1st quarter. We are down 10-0, 14-0, 21-0, 13-3, etc. If our D was shutting down the other team the complaints would be far, far less. Our D is the big issue right now. Way, way more than the offense.
