-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mangini's calm can't quell Jets storm The more you listen to Eric Mangini, the more you wonder whether this Brett Favre experiment is going to work. The coach's temperature runs cool, always, while the quarterback's biorhythms sizzle between ardent and fervent. And so a day after Favre ruefully took to heart a deflating defeat in Oakland, Mangini was at the team's practice site in Florham Park saying how proud he was of his players despite their loss to the horrid Raiders, and how he didn't second-guess any of his own decisions. It seemed there was plenty to regret, if Mangini allowed himself that glimmer of self-examination. The Jets' special teams appeared clueless on a pivotal fake punt, for one thing, which is indisputably a coaching failure. And then the Jets came out in overtime and overworked the running game. It's always easy to say that in hindsight, but clearly the strategy did no good. And again you have to wonder sometimes: Why, exactly, did the Jets get Favre if they weren't going to let him be Favre? Mangini is not the most adventurous guy, and if you ask him why the Jets lose games he will invariably point to the turnovers column. Although Mangini directly denied it Monday, it is easy to believe he has become afraid to allow Favre to throw those balls downfield with a game on the line. "I mean he threw he ball 38 times, we're running for 7.2 yards per carry and the only touchdown (drive) we had in the game was eight out of nine runs," Mangini said, defending the play-calling. "I feel pretty comfortable with what we did in overtime." Right about now, Mangini should feel very uncomfortable. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this defeat to Oakland, especially considering that the Jets' schedule toughens significantly after they host Kansas City on Sunday. The season is very much in jeopardy, and Favre is not a long-term investment. He's a win-now deal, with no guarantees or real commitments beyond 2008. Mangini is more or less sitting in the same lifeboat with Favre, though you would never know it from listening to the two men. Favre looks you in the face and tells you his dreams are on the line, and he doesn't like what he sees. Mangini speaks in a monotone about how his defense excelled in "a four-minute situation." This doesn't mean the two can't produce a winning year, but it does suggest they need to get on the same page in a hurry. If the loss to Oakland was devastating, then a defeat at home to Herm Edwards this weekend would be fatal. The Jets need to make hay against these rotten teams, the same way that the Giants have padded their record against a series of early-season patsies. If the Jets travel to Buffalo on Nov. 2 with a 3-4 mark - facing New England, Tennessee and Denver on the near horizon - all hope is lost. Because this is the NFL, Favre only speaks to the media on Wednesdays between games. So it was impossible to mine much passion inside the Jets' facility, or around the empty locker room. Chansi Stuckey was the only wide receiver to comment, and he certainly wasn't going to question the game plan. "The running game was going well, it was something that was working for us," Stuckey said. He was right. The running game was just fine on Sunday. The Jets gained 242 yards on 33 rushing attempts. Then came overtime, and it didn't work that great anymore. A first- or second-down pass might have made the difference. On Sunday, Favre had called the loss one of the worst he'd ever experienced. "I think how he feels is how he feels," Mangini said. "I think it was tough for all of us." The coach was asked whether he hesitated at all to allow Favre to throw, because of the growing turnover problem. "No," Mangini said. "Not at all." Mangini was done with his 12-minute situation, otherwise known as the Monday afternoon press conference. Not a word was spoken in anger or with a sense of urgency, even as the calendar and the standings scream for something different. fjbondy@netscape.net
The fact he felt comfortable and had no regrets tells you something. SO the only scoring drive was 8 out of 9 runs. So? To say the coaching staff didn't make mistakes, and to say he is proud of his players, is just downright silly. No coach says that after a game like this. They say there was some bright spots, but there are things that need to be worked on. It's as if he thought they won the game. Just silly. Favre has every right to be disapointed. You were running the ball at 6 yard clip for a good chunk of the game, yet did I see even ONE PA deep pass called? *sigh* Coaching did screw up Mangini, and it's time to start ADMITTING PUBLICLY that you guys need to get better - because everyone else knows it but you. EDIT: Oh, and that OT play calling was rediculous. I don't care if you were able to run it all game: This is overtime. You may only get the ball once. Whats funny is, he got it more then once. And kept doing hte same things over and over. Gues what Mangini, they stopped the run in OT. They were litterally DARING you to let Brett Favre win the game, and instead you took it out of arguably your best player of offenses hands. Thats like not giving the ball to LT, taking the ball out of Peyton's hands, etc, when everything is on hte line. It does not matter how well certain facets of the game were working up to that point: When the game is on the line you put the damn ball in your leaders hands and ask him to win it for you. You chose not to do that, and that cannot just be forgotten.
When we did throw in OT Favre threw one to the other team that should've been an INT and ended the game and when someone was wide open (Baker) he falls down as Favre lets the ball fly......My main concern from this game was the D and OL. I don't understand why we weren't blitzing the hell out of Russell...we let a below avg. QB look above avg. The OL couldn't block anyone. Everytime Favre dropped back is was being hit...we are lucky that he didn't get killed back there.
Well, my main concern isn't Brett, and certaintly not the WR options there. the OL and DL did not play very well. Fact remains,t eh coachign staff didn't either. Sure, one pass hsould of been picked in OT, but it wasn't. Those passes happen every game to every QB - passes that shoiuld be picked but are not. Are you insiuating it was THAT call that made him stay conservative with it all on the line? Sure, Favre had a very nice looking Deep pass late in OT to a wide open Baker who fell down, but why the hell did it take so long to go deep on a defense stacking the box, and why the hell was it a TE of all people? PA Deep to a WR would of been open all game with that running attack, and he chose to not use the PA. I just didn't get it.
I think they tried going deep during the game but he never had the time and when he did the Wrs were covered so he had to dump it off to a TE. The WRs couldn't get open at all during the game and to me the only ones getting open were the TEs.....Keller was opened on a pass that was also over thrown.....I agree we should've thrown more in OT especially after Jones had two good runs for first down and they then come back and ran it again. I felt that they should've done a lot more play action. I'm not worried about Brett either just the passing game as a whole.
I really don't like Mangini's style in dealing with the media (of course he learned this from watching Belly). He doesn't directly blame his players, but then again, he never suggests that he would do anything differently after a game. We can lose 48-0 and he will just point to abstractions like turnovers and field position. Hey Eric, we lost, so obviously the way you coached didn't equal success. How about saying we should have thrown more? Mangini's problem is you can act like an unemotional and unreflective tool at your press conferences when you, like Belly, have won a championship. Until then, how about admitting that you could have called a better game?
My problem with Mangini is his apathy on the sideline. I couldn't care less how he addressed the media, if he wants to downplay mistakes, and not air the team's dirty laundry yadda yadda yadda. That's fine with me. But when I see that mopey shit from him during a game, whether it's a crucial moment or if someone needs their ass kicked, I wanna reach through the TV and slap the stoic off his face. If his attitude is reflected onto his players, then when will they ever be fired up? NO WONDER he likes Bob Sutton...
I've come to the conclusion that the CS are a bunch of gutless human beings so caught up in there stubborn gameplan that they cannot adjust during the game and play to win. I give them one more season because they are guaranteed 09. If the above statement does not prove to be wrong by 2009, its time to keep looking.
I love this post because those two points seem to be ignored by the media. Favre was smacked on almost every play in the first quarter, and it didn't get much better throughout the rest of the game. And the OL knew we were running a spread with no protection in the backfield and it didn't matter. What the hell is going on with Faneca this year? I was excited since December about the prospect of getting him and thrilled when we finally got him, but he has no fire, and has not been the pulling guard I hoped for. And the defensive play calling was pure crap. We put no pressure on Russell, and he was allowed to stay in the pocket long enough to pick the secondary apart. I'm with Favre, this loss really hurt.
i remember everyone liking him not throwing anyone under the bus publicly like 2 years ago. just because he stands up in front of the media and doesn't call anyone out, or talk about the coaching staff not making mistakes doesn't mean he actually has to believe it. now if behind closed doors he is talking to the team about how proud he is of the performance during a loss, and telling the coaches not to change anything, then it might be a problem. but him being cool and calm in front of the media is a non issue to me. its his job as head coach to protect his players and assistant coaches from the media. as far as i can tell thats all he was doing.
Did you really watch that game??? The defense WAS NOT STACKING THE BOX. They were giving us the run and sending dynamic blitzes, protecting the pass for the majority of the game. Thomas Jones was taking what they gave him, as he usually does, although he ran with more heart than he has all season. They just didn't respect him enough to defend the run that much. A lot of times defenders were overpursuing because they were playing the pass. They may not have gone deep a lot, but they did send receivers and the wideouts were not getting open. Plenty of plays, Favre was looking downfield while dancing around the pocket 4-5-6 seconds trying not to get killed. He may not have thrown deep most of the game, but it wasn't because the plays weren't being called. The passing coverage was just very good. There is no one reason why we lost this game. And by the way, play-action passes get your QB killed when the other team is not respecting your running game.
Here's something that bothered me about the OT. Knowing that our rushing game was racking up yards and getting 7.2ypc, and it was evident we were going to run it anyway, how come we didn't put a fresh pair of legs in Chatman back there to pound the ball? The Raiders defensive line was tired as well as our OL, but if the Raiders were daring us to run, and if our OC thought the same thing, why not let Chatman do it and give Jones a breather and rotate in certain situations? Even Washington with his 19 yards in 3 carries was averaging a nice 6.3 yds per carry. Chatman looks like a strong runner. Some of us here even thinks he runs better than Jones. He wasn't in the Inactive list so why wasn't he in the game, especially in OT?
My patience with Mangini is wanning. I think he's turning out to be a fraud rather than a genius.. Just curious what Johnson and Tannenbaum will do if the Jets go 6-10 this year, which is probably what will happen...
As far as Chatman goes, the initial knock on him was recurring weight issues, maybe he isn't in shape. I had hope for the guy, but if he isn't on the field on Sunday it means he isn't getting it done in practice.
You're right, it couldn't be the diuretics that showed up in his piss. It's got to be the steroids that didn't. Everybody loses weight with steroids these days.
You just figured this out!? C'mon mick. We've been screaming this for 2 years now. I know, sometimes the truth is hard to digest especially when they lie to you and say that is was because of Pennington that they had that game plan. It's ok though, maybe they will learn and adjust now..It's not too late. Or are they going to do the same thing & put up 50+ points one game and pack it in the next 2.
1. The run game was working fine during the entire fucking game, but he intentionally ignored it. Then overdid it. That's what I call stupid. 2. The three retards cannot even figure out how to make game-time adjustments. 3. Happy? Fine. Mediocrity is such a blissful state. 4. The team goes nowhere with the three clowns sticking their heads up their collective asses.
