Also, I forgot to add, Favre looks fine to me on the Vikings. Sure it helps to have AP, but let's not act like TJ wasn't awesome last year and the Jets O-line isn't one of the better ones in the league. It's not like Berrian-Harvin-Rice are established top WRs in the league either. One guy's a rookie, another guy has been injured a lot and didn't do much of anything until Favre got there. You can't simultaneously say Favre sucks and that's an excuse for Schott but then turn around and say Favre is doing well this year only because of the situation. He got in about the same time, maybe later this season for the Vikings, and he only needed what, 2 games to get up to speed? Childress' system and playcalling is light years ahead of Schotty's. At some point you gotta blame the system, or at least how the coaching is being done. Norv Turner probably has the best offensive system in the league, although I think he is a bad coach. McDaniels and BB's puppet at OC have the next best systems. These guys do not need that much time to show competency with new QBs.
you cannot even begin to compare the Jets running game to theirs. Its not even in the same realm. Forget that TJ had a career year. AP is such a different animal. What makes Berrian-Harvin-Rice and different from Cotchery-Coles-Smith? Or Cotch-Coles-Keller? I'd honestly say they have the better three. What is different is the language of the systems. What Favre is running in Minnesota is very similar to what he ran in GB. So it didn't take long to get up to speed. The Jets system is way different. That's why he wasn't comfortable.
I'll also say this much. If Schotty goes- The CS better not hire someone who will change the language to where Sanchez is learning a new system. the system looks fine. its the decisions within the system thats being run. I have supported Schotty during the wins and the Saints loss but last week took the cake. You have 3 RBs who can pound the shit out of the Buffalo defense. Sanchez should have thrown the ball 19 times.
See I think it is the system and play design. Add that to the fact that Schotty doesn't have any rythm calling plays, and you have a inconsistent QB killing O.
I think it goes back even further. Just look at how Drew Brees has been playing since leaving Schotty's tutelage in San Diego. I really think this offense cripples QB's. All of the QB's since Schotty has arrived have been interception machines, except Chad mainly because he checked down so much. I just think there is something fundamentally wrong with the plays themselves, including the person calling them.
bradway pointed out the other day than even Penningtons INT/TD ratio was way worse than the rest of his career under Schotty.
True, but I also attribute some of that to Chad's arm being held together with tape and gum. I don't know where I heard this, but there was some stat I read that we had the most amount of passes thrown under a certain yardage than any other team in the league last year. I'm tempted to say it was under 10 yards. I think Schotty likes the short passing game way too much for his own good. The defense knows we're going to throw it short so they seem to play us short a lot. There was also some ridiculous stat the year we went 4-12 that when we lined up with a RB 8 yards deep in a single-back set, we ran on like 87% of the plays. He just seems way too predictable.
Even Chad was an interception machine under this system. He just checked down so often that he limited the overall damage. When Chad threw downfield in this system he got picked a lot.
To me it has more to do with the play caling then the offensive system. Schoty's problem is calling the right plays. He gets to complicated and out smarts himself. Ex: Throwing on 3rd and 2 in NO. The system is a good system when used properly. Schotty does not use it properly.
With all due respect, I didn't really say much before the third loss of the season. Like I've said times and again, I am a content man even with a losing franchise, as long as there's a sign of improvement in the team. That's exactly where Brian Schottenheimer fucks up so royally. He just never improves. Ok. Excuses, excuses, excuses, but I'm willing to give him the pass for the three years. Now this: Remember how Ravens got it done last year with a rookie coach and a rookie QB? They did it by pounding the ball. They did it smash-mouth way. That allowed Flacco to pick his spot and throw the ball when he wanted to, not when he 'had to.' It's not even like they had a legitimate WR that Jets have now. Who did they have to streak down the field? That old bone Mason? He's more of Cotchery than the blazing WR. The point is, the focus should have been on the OL, and the running game - much more so in the OL than the RBs. As it stands, Brian doesn't seem to agree - his playcalling says otherwise. Frankly, this can't be further from the truth. He's been dealt Kellen Clemens, who was a very good prospect on his own right - and Brian completely fucked up this kid. He's nothing more than a perennial clipboard holder now. He should have nurtured that kid in preparation for the post-Pennington era. He didn't quite do that successfully - which is why Jets ended up trading for Favre, then trading up for Sanchez. The body of work says otherwise. He's below average OC at best, if he's that good. You just do NOT call shotgun pass plays on 3rd and short. You don't spread 4 wide inside the opponent's 5 on a regular basis. You must pose threats that must be accounted for. Brian rarely does that.
To whoever thinks the system is fine, but the playcall is suspect: If my memory serves correct, Brian learned this version of WCO under Rob Chudzinski - who happened to be one of the offensive staff crew back at San Diego, then was the OC during Crennel's years at Browns. The system sucked so royally that, in the midseason, the RB coach (Maurice Carthon) took over the playcalling duty, after which, Derek Anderson started showing improvement. He won back (Yeah. I'm impressed with the quality of the staff at the Browns...) the OC duty in Crennel's final year, then was canned after the whole offense stunk up to the high heavens all season long. Is this system that 'fine' system? Browns then had Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr as the pass catching threat as well. To sum it up: 1. The system is NOT fine and 2. The playcall isn't much better either.
The problem with the system the Jets are using right now, and really have used for the three years that Brett Favre was not the QB, is that it demands too much of the players in terms of executing it correctly. All the shifts and the alerts require that every player on the offense be prepared to have their role in the play shift instantly based on how the defense lines up on each given play. It's like the Jets have 2 plays called in the huddle, which are alternatives based on how the defense lines up and then the QB has to make the decision at the line as to whether or not to run the main play or audible out to the one that is designed to work if the main play is stacked against. We saw Favre do a lot of hand-signaling at the line for most of the season last year with just his WR's, mainly the one split left, as the recipients of the signal. That was his simplification of the play when he didn't like what he saw from the defense, he was just going to zip the ball on a quick out to keep the Jets from getting stacked up in the middle. That's what Green Bay did in their WCO offense and it's what he did last year also. We've seen Sanchez do some of that also and I think it's possible that the Jets have already begun to simplify the system so that he doesn't have a brass band playing in his head before the snap on every play and then have to switch to a jazz quintet as he drops back and tries to read his progressions based on a play that he audibled into at the line of scrimmage. Really very few QB's can actually run the kind of offense that Schottenheimer is trying to enable. It requires a mental approach to each play that is beyond the capability of most QB's and then it requires a strong arm to make the throws, all of this interspersed with being able to lead the team in a manner that keeps them from constantly false-starting and holding as they adapt on the fly to whatever is going on at the moment. Peyton Manning could run the system, maybe a few other guys, but the majority of the players can't do it, based on who we have seen try and fail so far. Now add in the fact that a good defensive coach can manipulate the offense once he has enough film on it and it becomes a system that is not likely to be productive over the long term. The WCO is a productive long-term offense because it stretches the field and makes the defense cover sideline to sideline in order to stop the short passing game and the play action and traps and screens that flow out of that. You add in a strong armed QB who can stretch the field and it becomes very hard to consistently shut it down. What we have is something different and it's not hard to shut it down at all. In fact it appears to shut itself down against bad defenses all the time. One of the problems the Jets have is they're falling prey to the danger of cool things, when they don't really have the fundamentals down well enough. That explains the over reliance on gadget plays, without which the Jet's offense would have absolutely shut down against Miami on Monday night. They need to stop trying to do cool things and get the basics down. The Jets have not had a fundamentally sound offense since 2004. The one they had then was boring as hell but it gained yards and controlled the clock which in turn allowed the Jets to control the flow of the game against teams they should beat. In truth the Jets have not had a good offense since Charlie Weis left town. Their WCO offense has been a mediocrity over the nearly decade they've used it and has only ranked in the top half of the NFL in points scored twice over that period - in 2002 and last year.
^ if I could quote that, i would. They only allow 300 characters. I just went from being neutral with a slight support of Schotty due to my fandom to seeing the light and understanding we need someone else. He really doesn't support Ryan's philosophy of beating the shit out of another team. He gets cutesy. I'd honestly rather have Matt Cavanaugh promoted to OC. He was the 2000 Ravens OC. He knows exactly how to play ball control. Only this time, he has an exponentially more balanced offense.
whats interesting is that there are dozens of people who thought 6-8 wins is where this team was headed, and then due to the 3-0 start it changes to 14-2. its perfectly normal, but if people practiced standing firm to their early expectations they wouldn't go completely apeshit when the team begins to struggle.
1. I think WCO is a misnomer in Brian's case - in fact, it's not quite a misnomer technically, as the offense he learned is indeed from the west as well. What I mean is that, what Brian learned is not what you think it is, i.e. Bill Walsh WCO. His lineage belongs to the other offense from the west, which we call 'Air Coryell.' Sounds freakish, but hear this. Air Coryell, or Sid Gillman offense to be exact, preaches a smashmouth football, with bombs-away playaction fake. Norv Turner and Kevin Gilbride are two of the most prominent offensive playcaller in this philosophy. When it's fully functional, that offense is a defense's worst nightmare - they are in perpetual bind with a 4 yards a carry rushing attack, but they cannot commit 8 men in the box or the offense lights up the defense like a firestorm. Think the Trifecta of the Cowboys early in the 90's. 2. So what's the big deal with Gillman offense and Brian? As you would have guessed, Chudzinski happened to be the offensive crew with Chargers, under the tutelage of Norv Turner. And Brian learned from him. As such, Brian's package will always have a feature back like TJ. Norv never ran an offense that couldn't feature a good running back, and neither will Brian. Now, think back the 90's again (or 80's for that matter) when the Niners were the team to beat. Sure, they did feature a few good running backs, but the playcall didn't quite revolve around the running game. It was the passing attack that set up the rush, not the other way. Now, look at the Jets offense. You'd see more of Sid Gillman offense than Bill Walsh offense. 3. Now... here's the problem. In order to execute Sid Gillman offense, the offense must get physical (1) and be able to execute the smashmouth rushing attack at will (2). Brian can never figure out how to get these two basic elements to work for this team. So he has to rely on the gadget razzle-dazzle bullshit to keep the offense running. This is truly a sad reality. By design, Sid Gillman offense is a very sound, and very explosive offense - it's just that Brian can't execute the basics of this offense, which shows in days like last Sunday.
Favre is playing with a much better cast in an offense that he knows how to run. Favre was fine with us until the season wore on and the weather started to play a factor. It's October and he's indoors most of the time. He has a better OL. Much better backs way more speed at WR and it's his OC. We didn't even run Shotty's O last year.
