By now it's becoming obvious to the last of the non-believers and Chad/Thomas Jones bashers that last year's O-line was mostly the problem with our offense. I know we had considerable debates about O-line versus Chad Pennington's arm and the Thomas Jones bashing... "he's a bum, etc." He only averaged a little over 2 YPC and had one TD all season. Compare that performance to his performance to date. Also, how's Pennington doing now with that "noodle arm?" Did you see that nice, deep, highlight-reel pass he had yesterday when given the time? He's got a running attack down there in Miami to help him too. Why? Because they've got an O-line. Okay, I'm not saying all things being equal, I'd take Chad over Favre. No way. I'm loving the setup we've got now. But nor was it all Chad's fault last year, and Thomas Jones was certainly not a "bum," so let's get off that too. Clearly, the O-line was the biggest problem, especially after we unwisely let Pete Kendall walk without an adequate replacement in the wings. At any rate, I'm glad that whole chapter is behind us now. This O-line is a good-looking front and Favre and Jones are clearly the beneficiaries of all of Tannenbaum's offseason upgrades. Kudos to Tannenbaum and Mangini for aggressively fixing the problem!
I think most of us would agree with you. I had a feeling it would take at least this long for this offensive unit to gel. Especially the O-line. I am pretty pumped to say the least about Thursday's game. We will see what kind of character this team has when faced with the challenges of the N.E. defense. I think now that the other side of the ball is making a name for themselves this could be a game where defense plays a prominant role in helping the offense. Favre needs to stay patient because N.E. will be baiting him all game long. And the O-line, well they just need to keep it up. This is the road to the playoffs.
You're right, but there were a lot of guys last year that hung most of it on Chad "the noodle arm" and Jones, "the washed up has-been." Both of those guys have just about re-invented themselves this year to date, so a lot of that bashing was mostly misplaced, IMO. That's my biggest fear. I'm envisioning Belichick going over game film of every Favre INT this season with his secondary, making them watch it over and over. Those guys are going to be ball-hawking like there's no tomorrow. If Mangini's smart, he'll remind Favre of that and have him run the same kind of dink and dunk we ran last week agains Buffalo. That and contol the game by establishing the run, which should be easier without Adelius Thomas on the field. Do those two things long enough and THEN you can throw the occasional bomb to Cotchery or Keller. But seriously, Belichick is going to have his secondary tune up for the INTs Thursday night.
Well the Pete Kendall thing might have been a blessing in disguise. We probably would not have the o-line we have now if we kept him
If that happens you might as well throw in the towel on the season and fire Mangini for green-lighting the acquisition of a QB he won't trust and Tannenbaum for giving away draft picks and cap space for Favre when he could have just held on to Chad. Not to mention how f'n aggravated it will make me. I will take a win whatever way it comes, but dink-and-dunk will not get you far in the playoffs and don't think that the Jets can just "turn it on" when they will need it.
I've said it all along. But people just love to hate and look for excuses to send players packing because they want Flash. Well look what we have now. Favre being asked to bring it down and play within the system.... Hmmm, Isn't that what Penny was doing all along? Ironically we've seen Penny throwing bombs in Miami and getting noticed yet when he threw them here nobody cared. The problem was not Chad. It was the O-line compounded with the OC. EOS. And again, please don't start with the PENNY IS GONE GET OVER IT BS!!! We know he's gone, we just feel he's gotten a bad rap for no reason and being a player with class and a great teammate he deserves to have a good name as a JETS player and not be thrown in the mudd.
Kendall was also the consumate locker room disruptionist and chief bitch artist. From what I'm seeing in all the press conferences and post game interviews on SNY after all the games, these guys are all on the same page and TEAMWORK is the key. All of them, to a man, are talking about how much fun they're having and how much they're improving and learning each other's abilities, etc. You don't hear one guy with any negatives. It's all positive stuff, with a little Brett Favre humor and frivolity thrown in. This is what a team looks like when they're on the verge of doing some great things.
Dink and dunk got it done in our win over Buffalo, and that's good enough for me. But since when did you see me advocate dink and dunk going into the playoffs? Of course we aquired Favre for the long pass. I love him for that and it's great that we have that. We didn't have that threat with Chad, and that's the greatest upgrade at the QB position. I think you either misread my post or didn't understand it. I'm certainly not saying that Favre should be reigned in on all games and into a playoff run, BUT FOR THE NEW ENGLAND GAME, it would be smart to have Favre tone down the deep throws into double and triple coverage, because those guys will be looking for that and will take it to the house. Talk about game-plan specific. This game is the ultimate test of that strategy. We need to do whatever will give us the best chances of winning, AGAINST THIS OPPONENT ON THIS NIGHT. A loss to NE on Thursday night would be devastating, but there's something worse... giving them the game on a silver platter by tossing away INTs. We can beat those guys straight up Thursday night, I'm convinced of that. And we can do it by controlling the ground game and running it down their throats and jabbing away at their underbelly with Leon Washington and short passes in the flat until they eventually give up the deep ball. That would be my game plan.
Chad is working within an offense that is specifically tailored to hide his limitations. There are only a handful of people in the NFL right now that could get this kind of season out of him and Bill Parcells is one of them. And anybody who thinks Parcells is not heavily involved in the overall gameplan is mistaken. Sparano is doing a great job, but he has a huge helping hand behind him at the moment. If Chad was on this Jets team with the good offensive line he'd still be a limitation. Assuming the Jets weren't direct snapping to Thomas Jones or Leon Washington 15% of the time. The ok season that he had in 2006 saw a lot of formation switchups also, with Brad Smith getting snaps out of an option setup. The Dolphins have just doubled down on that in a big way this year with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams.
Limitations??? He wasn't supposed to be able to throw 39 yard TD strikes on a field empty of defenders, much less into double coverage! hmy: [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD7KDrHMi90[/YOUTUBE]
I am not talking about the long bomb, I am talking about putting the games in the hand of your QB to go win a game. (e.g. not calling a screen and a running play on 3rd-and-goal) The Jets could not do that with Chad, but can with Favre. I am all for game planning, but turning Favre into a game manager is just a complete waste in my opinion. I may throw up if I see the Jets come out with the game plan you suggest. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the power running game and balanced attack, but I am not for the RB to be the primary option on pass plays. How they win or they lose makes no difference to me. All that matters is whoever gets more points. And Dink-and-dunk is a playing not to lose strategy which I am not for.
Limited, yes. Chad will always be limited behind any O-line. But he's winning down there, isn't he? In fact, there are Jets fans that are now looking over their shoulders at Miami going, "Hmm... do we have to worry about those guys now?" Chad over Favre? Of course not. They're both equal, as far as I'm concerned, in all areas, except that Favre has the deep threat and Chad does not. And that's a huge difference, O-line or not. But all I'm saying is, it's now glaringly obvious that although Chad's arm strength was a problem, it wasn't our biggest problem. It was our O-line. Chad never had the chance to get it done because the O-line didn't protect him during the pass and the O-line eliminated our running game by not blowing holes and dominating at the point of attack. That all played into limiting our offense to the point where Schottenheimer had nothing else upon which to draw than a 15-yard dink and dunk strategy. Everything else failed because the O-line provided nothing positive.
:rofl: Like that is some kinda point to argue. He's one game behind us in the rankings. Personally, I hope he falls off the wagon and the Dolphins go by the wayside, but despite how many TDs he has on the season, he's been a huge boon to the Dolphins. And he could have easily have done that with the Jets. Aside from the Arizona game, I haven't seen anything out of Brett Favre that I haven't seen out of Chad.
and it logged 55+ Yards air time!!! add to that, he did that while he was here but no one seems to count it. It wasn't the arm. It was the O-Line + OC....
He's always been able to throw the deep ball. It's fitting it into tight spots and outside the numbers where his limitations come into play. Seeing that throw into double coverage annoyed the hell out of me though. He NEVER took chances like that on the Jets. Sometimes you just have to take chances like that to make something happen. Since when is he going to start hucking it down the field and let his receiver make a play on the ball like that??
Chad isn't one game behind the Jets, the Dolphins are and 8 TD passes wasn't a point to argue, it is merely a fact. No doubt Chad Pennington has been successful in Miami, but it isn't like he's turned into a gunslinger down there like many here would suggest. I am glad he is successful and wish him well. And I would agree that the lack of a running game and O-line troubles were a factor in his performance, but Chad also had his own limitations which have garnered around 20,000 posts here in the last few years. I don't think the Jets would be sniffing 6-3 with Chad. I am happy with Favre and if Chad didn't go to the the Phins, I'd be happy for that team too.
Chad's problem in my opinion was bad luck with freak injuries basically every season. On any given hit there was a chance he was out for the season.
I do agree Chad does have some limitations... and Parcell's teams have always been great about playing to players strengths, so I do believe there is a little magic to his resurgence. But a lot of the crapping on Chad was over the top.. he's still a solid QB. I still prefer Favre. I totally agree about his throws downfield this year with the Dolphins. He didn't take those kinda chances, but I have to wonder was it really Chad's fault that he became Checkdown Chad? I think the coaching and specifically the playcalling had a hand in that along with the OL and possibly the receivers getting open. I don't think it was just Chad being a chicken-shit about it. Ok, I'm done with the Chad love for today... I'll let it go. :smile:
