Jets Take Too Much Time to Get Going on Offense By KAREN CROUSE Published: September 19, 2006 HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Sept. 18 ? Jets receiver Laveranues Coles remembers the catch as if it happened yesterday. ?Over the shoulder, corner of the end zone,? Coles said, accurately describing the last offensive touchdown the Jets scored in the first quarter.Unlike Cole?s touchdown reception Sunday against the New England Patriots, it was not a fresh memory. The play came against the Miami Dolphins in the second week of last season, on a 7-yard fade from Chad Pennington. Sixteen games have been played since. A new head coach and offensive coordinator have taken over. Seven starters on offense have changed. The only constant, it seems, is the Jets? inefficiency on offense in the early stages of games. ?We?ve had some good drives early in the game, they?ve just stalled there on third down,? Coach Eric Mangini said. He added that the Jets had stopped themselves in those situations in ways glaring and small. ?A receiver was open and we missed him,? he said, ?or we came up a yard or two short on a run.? During the Jets? 24-17 loss to the Patriots, Pennington misfired twice in the first quarter on third-down passes intended for Jerricho Cotchery and Coles. If those passes had been on the money, it might have been a different game. That much became clear in the third quarter when Pennington threw third-down strikes to Coles and Cotchery, who turned them into touchdowns with spectacular individual efforts after the catch. He added that it was no surprise that the Jets were long on character and endurance. Mangini and General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, Coles said, ?picked guys that would never quit.? ?Because if you had any quit in you, you wouldn?t have made it through that camp,? he said. With the Jets trailing by 24-7, Cotchery provided a spark with his 71-yard reception on third-and-13. He caught the pass with his back to the end zone, with two Patriots covering him as if they were slices of sandwich bread. He fell on safety Eugene Wilson, but regained his balance before his knee touched the ground, spun around cornerback Chad Scott and sprinted 40 yards for the score. It was such an impressive effort that Mangini replayed it over and over during Monday?s meetings. ?It?s one of those things where you notice something different on the play every time,? Cotchery said. There was nothing subtle about Coles?s effort. On the Jets? next possession, he caught a short pass on a crossing route and willed himself into the end zone, sprinting the final 40 yards of the 46-yard play as three potential tacklers bounced off him. It was the longest scoring play of Coles?s seven-year N.F.L. career and possibly the most exhausting. ?I haven?t had to run that far in a long time,? Coles said. Of his other five catches, four resulted in first downs. ?Laveranues had several plays where he just wasn?t going to be denied,? Mangini said. As Coles goes, so goes the offense. Of his 14 catches in the first two games, only one has come in the first quarter. Coles had two defenders shadowing him for much of the first half Sunday, which frustrated him but afforded Cotchery more space. At the start of the third quarter, Brian Schottenheimer, the Jets? offensive coordinator, sidled up to Coles on the sideline and told him, ?Laveranues, we?re trying to get you involved a little bit more.? That was all Coles needed to hear. ?It gives you a bit of motivation as a player,? Coles said. ?The only thing I?m looking at is what can I do to get us going earlier.? That may be the collective focus of the offense, too. ?As a group we need to start the same way we finish,? Mangini said. ?That?s the main thing.? EXTRA POINTS On Sunday afternoon, Jets cornerback David Barrett picked off a Tom Brady pass that was shown on CBS. A few hours later, he made an appearance on ABC as a guest helper on ?Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.? The segment, in which a blind family received a new home, was filmed during the off-season in New Jersey. Barrett said the phone calls he received Sunday were split, with half of the people calling to say they had seen his interception and half calling to say they had seen him on ?Extreme Makeover.? ... Cedric Houston, who rushed for 108 yards in the Jets? final preseason game, has been inactive for the first two games, during which time the Jets have rushed for 142 yards. Eric Mangini said the decision came down to special teams. ?It?s carving out a niche where if you?re not getting the bulk of the runs, you really have to have a role to help the team win,? he said.
