Thanks! But again...were these things not being tried before by Bowles? Or have the guys finally begun to "get it"? Does having two stud Safeties enable a lot of this to work? Thanks for your insight.
Well I'm not quite ready to call Bowles the next Lombardi, but I'm glad to see him improving. All I want is for the Jets to become a good team, one that goes to the playoffs most years and wins a SB within the next couple of years. If Bowles and Macc can do that, I'm all for them sticking around, but I don't have a lot of patience and after 55 years I make no apologies for that. I haven't called for them to tank because A) I can't root against them, and B) It's silly to think any team will purposely try to lose (with the possible exception of a final game where losing one more game won't matter except in getting the #1 pick). But I won't be satisfied with an 8-8 or 9-7 record and barely sneaking into the playoffs and being eliminated. It's long past time for them to return something to the fans who have stuck with them despite all these years of mediocrity and failure.
The score doesn't show it, but N.Y dominated that Jaguars team. One play changed everything (scoreboard wise). We're up 10 points and about to go up by either 13 or 17 with 1 quarter remaining. And then it happened. Backwards lateral/fumble & Jags all of a sudden down by only 3 points. One too many penalties but don't get it twisted; N.Y dominated this game. Our defense faught as hard as a D could fight especially during the clutch and Leonard Fournette was shut down running the ball throughout the 2nd half. Our offense also carved up a JAX defense that was statistically ranked top 5 across the board. Enjoy these highlights below because man oh man i sure did.
Well in Bowles final year as DC of the Cards, he employed a 3 safety look. He had Tyrann Matheiu as the FS, Tony Jefferson as the SS and Deone Buchanon who was playing the hybrid S/LB role. That's the look he really loves to employ. He wants to have guys who can support in the run but also be assets in the nickel and dime packages and guys who can interchange their roles without much drop off. Especially when the NFL was already moving to a shotgun 3/4 wide type set, in Nickel packages, he'd often have either 2 or 1 LB's and having Buchanon as the other "LB" who had the ability and speed to cover RB's, TE's and sometimes WR's all the while not hurting the run support game. In essence now, he has the safeties needed. Adams is basically playing the Buchanon role but more expanded. Bringing in Brooks gives the Jets a safety who can cover and play the deep middle as a strength. Maye plays deep as well but he can help in run support as well. All 3 can move around and be stout in run support but also handle 3 WR and an athletic TE hybrid/ 4th WR type sets as well. This is something he lacked last season. He tried to do 3 safeties but Pryor was a mess trying to play up towards the line because he wasn't disciplined and was all over the place. Gilchrist was awful trying to play as the deep safety. The defense was a total MESS last year and it really did begin with the secondary. Revis couldn't cover a soul, the #2 corner position wasn't effective at all. I think this kinda correlates to Lee as well. I think Bowles had aspirations of Lee being this super fast LB who could play in the middle and fill that "Buchanon" role. But as it went last year, the lack of a true NT hurt, Lee was being blocked out of plays and also wasn't a good instinctive cover LB. Back to this year, it's a work in a progress but many coaches say the first 4 games is a feeling out process of what the team is and what it could be for the rest of the season. The first two games were BAD in terms of the defense, especially against Oakland. But as it's been reported, there was some weird positive that came out of the Raiders loss. In the last two games, it seems like the base of this defense is in place and it can be a very good unit. I think though, the Jets defense would go to another level if Mo can find himself to be the guy he was two years back.
It was actually the Dolphins who refused to play at a neutral stadium. They didn't want to give up the revenue of a home game.
