from Rich Cimini blog...............One of the reasons why the kickoff coverage stunk was three key members of the unit were out -- Brad Smith (quadriceps), Ahmad Carroll, Marques Murrell and Marquice Cole. Smith was deactivated because of his injury, but Carroll and Cole were scratched because they wanted to dress extra "big" people to face Miami's rugged rushing offense. An injury to LB Bart Scott (knee) also factored into them carrying two ILBs, Larry Izzo and Ryan Fowler, as contingencies. Well, the decisions backfired on the Jets. Carroll is one of their best special teamers and may have made a difference on Ted Ginn Jr.'s two TD returns. The team thought Smith was going to play (he would've lined up in Danny Woodhead's key spot), but he reported problems with his quad last Friday. Murrell should've been activated instead of LB Vernon Gholston, who, by Westhoff's own admission, isn't as good on special teams as Murrell. Why was Gholston active, considering he played only a handful of snaps on defense? Come on, you know the answer to that question. It was to protect their own behinds because it would look embarrassing to deactivate Gholston, the sixth overall pick in the '08 draft.
I agree Murrell should have been on the team and Carroll as well, but who do you take out of the 45 man roster? Maybe Woodhead but he was supposed to get snaps at RB too, maybe a DL but we had to counter the wildcat... maybe Coleman but he's on the ST unit too... all in all it was a difficult choice to make.
