I hate starting a thread, but I didn't see anybody noting any of the positives about today. With 6 minutes left in the 4th, the Jets were down by 2 tds. The Pats scored 2 tds on big plays today, on 2 breakdowns in coverage on kickoffs and pass defense. So therefore, you take away the 2 single big plays and the score would have been tied with 6 minutes left in the 4th. As ugly as it was for us, the whole game came down not to our inability to stay with the Pats blow-for-blow, it all came down to just those 2 plays. We could have won, even as bad as the whole team looked. Now if you take it from there, realize that the coaches now know, with a fair degree of accuracy, exactly where our problems lay and what needs to be accomplished in order for the team to succeed. Ours Jets will not be a bad team, the holes on the offense and defense will be patched as time goes by, and I don't think it will take a very long time before this team will be a contender again from where we are today. After all, if we can stay with the Pats today, as horrible a game as we had on both sides of the ball, than I don't see why we can't beat anybody. Just take away the big plays and do a little tweaking on both lines, we will do just fine. Its really not the end of the world in week 1, people. We knew it was going to be hard early on, what with no left guard and little game-time for guys like Jones and Pennington to get used to playing full-time again. The rust came off today, Jones did much better in the 2nd half. I predict its all going to get better from here, and this game will just be a distant, bad memory. After all, its not like this is the first time we stunk it up in the early going only to make it to the playoffs. Hell, that seems to be our normal way of doing things here, actually. So am I alone in not feeling that bad about today? Probably so. Next time we play NE, we win. I'm looking forward to it, a little revenge for challenging that stop outside the end zone late in the 4th, now that was uncalled for. Anyway, enough of my sunny rambling, any comments welcome.
You don't get to take away big plays. They are part of the game. If they do not score on that KO return, who says they don't drive down and score? If they do not score on the big Moss play, who says they do not drive the ball for 6 minutes and score? The game was ugly, but I do agree with one thing... I think we played the best team in the NFL today... keep that in mind.
Thanks for the post, hiker. I agree with the sentiment. Remember the game against Jacksonville last year? The Jets got absolutely man-handled and looked like the worst team in the league. But it was just one week and so is this. It's not necessarily a sign of things to come - it's just one week. Sucks to lose but there are 15 more games.
i wish i could be that optimistic. today was just the beginning. the place where games are won and lost are in the trenches. we fail on both sides. if it were only 2 plays i would feel a lot better. today we were beaten by a much better team. maybe theres some solace in the fact that the pats will probably be in the afc championship game if not the super bowl. i think today cements the fact that we are still a ways away from being an elite team.
I'm not really that annoyed by the loss in reflection. I don't think anyone could have beaten the pats today. And that one drive was really well done by Chad...
The problem is that a lot of the problems New England exploited are problems that we probably can't solve. We're not a good team in the trenches at all. I don't know how we can change that. And we also generated zero pass rush. Most teams probably won't be able to exploit those weaknesses. We'll play teams where we can get to the quarterback and teams we can run on. But a game like that largely deflates the idea that we can reach the elite this season.
Theres nothing elite about this team right now.. as was stated.. the trenches is where the battles are won and we fail miserably on that account.
The Jets have a chance to get better on defense by aggressively replanning, particularly against the big physical teams. The 3-4 is DOA against a team like Baltimore next week (Willis McGahee behind Baltimore's o-line, just think about that for a second) or the Patriots today. Against that type of power attack the Jets must use more 4-3 or they are just getting blown out because the center of the 3-4 is rotten against the run right now. On offense we're basically screwed. Next off season to fix that.
I think we were fine. It was a bad day to play the Pats. In spite of what everyone said about our weak offensive line, with a rookie LG in there, we were still able to drive down the field. Yes, protection broke down multiple times, but next week it'll break down less, and the week after even less, etc. etc. For every time it broke down and looked like a mess, there was a time that there were proper blocks and good setups. Young players, esp. rookies have the fastest learning curve, so we'll see rapid improvement on the left side of the line, a line that we were able to actually drive down the field with against the Patriots, a defense that is very solid. In week 1, defenses always have the upper hand. When we go out there and face a high powered offense like the Pats, it shines through that our defense lost this game. With that three receiver set, those two tight ends, and that running back with that line, the Pats are going to be the most ridiculous offense in the league this year. We may have a team that is "playoff ready" by some analysts' projections, but it feels like for the last two years we've been in a "rebuilding year" in terms of our defense. We don't have the personnel for the 7 men in the box fully set up. Our defensive backs look great, but when we're constantly trying to cover the run and play tight, guys like Randy Moss can stretch the field and creating gaps in coverage. Further, players like Vilma get stuck trying to play the run so much since we don't have a fantastic nose tackle, that when he gets burned up the gut in a play where he is supposed to drop into coverage, he's scrambling to recover and get on his man, which a quarterback like Tom Brady can capitalize on. Since we lack adequate personnel in our 3 and 4 of our 3-4 for the defense Mangini wants to run, other players get extra responsibilities to take up the slack, and those extra players get stretched thin, generating seams.
Knowing that we'll have about 7 draft picks next year, 3 of which any given year can contribute, and that this front office doesn't appear to be one to make big free agent signings, it looks like we're years away from having the talent we need, but this doesn't account for the fact that, as the younger players get ready to step up, we need to replace the older guys (Jones is 29, maybe 2 good years left, Coles is 29, getting up there, Ellis getting up there, etc), and it doesn't look good at all...
Another horrible outing vs. the Ravens would be more worrisome than one bad day vs. the Patriots. I remember feeling pretty low after the loss to JAX last year, and we turned it around. I am confident that at least we have a coaching staff that can figure it out. Whether they can fix it, that's another thing. The thing I'll say here is that the Jets will never ascend to the top of the heap with a loser's mentality in its fanbase. We'll see how good a team we have next week, but my God, it's the first game of a 16-game season and we played one of the best -- if not the best -- team in the league. And like has been mentioned, it wasn't a blowout at half time. I've got the Sunday ticket, and neither the Bills or Dolphins looked like they're getting ready to challenge the Pats, either. So let's not shout about the sky falling yet.
Let's face it...The Patriots dominated. The botched field goal attempt was a 10 point swing as it gave the Jets a short field. I think you'll have better luck running the ball om Baltimore next weekend. good luck.
what kinda makes me a bit sad is that we took a hard loss, and people are calling for chads head. none of this loss should be laid at his feet more so than any others. he shares 1/53 of the blame. he played a solid game. he got crushed and missed one series before it was decided to keep him out for health measures
The offense was rotten this year. You can get away with that if your defense is strong, but the defense was also poor, although they got a good end of schedule again to look competent against.
:drunk: to put a fitting end to the season, they went out to win a meaningless game, costing the 3rd pick in each round, down to 6th in the first. think cheaply! :drunk:
Given how well Brick and Drob fourth picks turned out, maybe it may not be such a bad idea to have the number six pick. Revis and Harris where picked at #11 and in the second round and so far have worked out much better than our two #4 picks.
Third and short. Both sides of the ball. On Offense, we'd get no surge at the point of attack. On Defense, we were getting pushed 5 yards off the ball. If I had to pick one problem all season, that was the one that killed us. Goal line stands, both sides of the ball, we were ineffective and this was the reason why. Instead of just slamming the ball home on offense, we had to try trickery. Sometimes it worked, most of the time, it didn't. Why? Because the threat of just driving the ball home wasn't present. Now as for big plays against our defense, because we couldn't stop the short runs, we had to bring the safety's (and linebackers) up thus leaving our CB's on an island and vulnerable to the play action fake. It's a problem that has to be addressed. Now as to who should we use to fill in these gaps... I'll leave that to people who are more qualified, and more into the collage game, than I to decide. For now, it's time to just sit back, lick our wounds, and watch the bowls, combine, free agency etc. and see how things work out.
