Thomas Jones can't be happy about his limited role in the Jets' offense, but he did a good job of masking his feelings yesterday. "I'm here to play football," he said. "As far as the number of carries the past couple of weeks, that's up to the coaches." Jones rushed 13 times for 36 yards in Sunday's 35-24 loss to the Giants, with only three carries in the second half. The Jets abandoned the run late in the game, passing on 12 of their first 15 plays in the fourth quarter, when it still was a close game. Leon Washington, the third-down back, received most of the playing time in that stretch. "Most feature backs in this league get the ball 20 to 25 times a game," Jones said. "You can get a feel for what the defense is doing and you can get a feel for how the offensive line is blocking. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to do that the past couple of weeks." The Jets lauded Jones' pass-catching ability when they acquired him from the Bears, but he usually comes out on passing downs. Asked if he's surprised he isn't getting more opportunities in that role, Jones said, "That's something you'd want to ask the coaches." Wasting time with this guy, I remembered when we got him everyone said he was a steal. We don't even use him. AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT'S BECAUSE OF THE OL, THAT IS BS.
Look at his career stats, dude has never been a standout. He is a good back but nothing that was going to bust the Jets offense wide open. He can produce but like CP needs help, namely a good offensive line.
I'm really starting to think that our O line isn't that bad, and in reality it's that defenses know that we're going to run the ball... no back can escapee that kind of foreknowledge.
I had a blame the CS thread but people wanted to point the fingers back at the players, but yeah when teams know what you are going to do, how can the players be successful?
If we had a punishing O-line than TJ would be veryporductive, but we don;t have a punidhing O-line so TJ's contribution is very reduced. We can not establish the run. Period. It is killing us this year.
OL wasn't bad last year, just can't give the guy the ball 13 times and that is it. Being prdeictable is killing us.
Thomas Jones has never been particularly effective from carry 16+. It's his pattern and it's pretty well established at this point. If he's not getting yards early on he's not going to keep getting the ball. He's not Curtis Martin, who kept getting better the more you gave him the ball.
Almost every great team that ever won a champoinship the teams they beat new exactly what they were going to do. Teams that execute, block and tackle well and have talent don't need to fool anyone. We had a crappy team out scheme other crappy teams and got to 10 wins last year. We have a better team this year but it's still not very good and our record reflects the truth of our team.
That was Curtis in the first couple of drives. By halftime he was rolling and he was just a dominant 2nd half back. Probably one of the best 2nd half backs in NFL history.
If we could actually play from even or ahead, Jones would get more carries. The problem is, we're always playing from behind, and with Chad's inability to stretch the field, there's no time or room for Jones to run.
The amount he is getting to run the ball has a lot to do with our horrible defense. When we get down a lot of points, we're forced to make up with it with passes. If the D would do its job, Thomas would be handed the ball on every play.
Yes it is. The Oline couldn't run block last year either, it was ranked towards the bottom of the league. What made you think Clement and Moore would all of a sudden be able to open a run gap this year when they couldn't last year? On top of that, add Clarke being in there instead of Kendall, and they can't run to the left now either. So the run blocking got worse. Where would you like Jones to run, into the back of Clement? Don't kid yourself, the Oline has decent pass blocking, it has even started to improve in this area. But it is absolutely horrid at run blocking. Opposing defenses don't fear our run game because they know the Oline blows and don't fear the passing game because they know Chad can't throw.
It's true, our run blocking stinks. Watching the Giants offensive line open holes or provide lanes on the outside with their blocking schemes was depressing. Can't our coaching staff get our guys to do it right, like opposing teams do to us?
