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Jets have laundry list of problems

stoicsentry

By stoicsentry
in NY Jets Forum

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stoicsentry

stoicsentry

Posted
Posted

...and their record ain't 1. Can you imagine what ESPN would be reporting if we were 1-2 or 0-3?

Guess what folks - there's no such thing as style points in the NFL. As long as you keep winning games (especially crucial division games), you have time to figure things out. Think the Eagles care that both of their wins were by 1 pt and that their QB sucked in those games? I doubt it: you take the win and you work on your problems in the upcoming week.

ESPN blows. I declare MEDIA MUTINY!

LINK

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Whether Darrelle Revis did or did not have the ACL injury that will almost surely end his season now, whether the New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins instead of picking up an ugly win, the takeaway from Sunday's game wouldn't change: The Jets are what we thought they were. Limited. Flawed. With obvious personnel problems, which were causing them to leak oil all over the field even when Revis, their best player, was still healthy.

That's what their uneven performance in Sunday's overtime escape continued to prove, even before Rex Ryan revisited the game Monday after learning just five minutes before he stepped to the podium that an MRI had just confirmed Revis will need ACL surgery.

Once Ryan began speaking -- in downbeat tones at first -- the Jets' coach said what you'd expect. He unspooled a low-key preview of the pep talk he would be giving his players in a few minutes, and began laying down the path he's going to hack out to lead the way.

Ryan is good at that kind of thing. With Revis out, Ryan immediately becomes the most important piece of the Jets' defense. Whether Kyle Wilson, Revis' replacement, is ready for his closeup is just a subplot. The Jets' best hope of finding a true difference-maker that's already on the current roster is Ryan -- because, as a defensive coordinator, Ryan really is that good.

But here's the problem: The longer Ryan took more general questions about the state of his team, the more all the other holes the Jets have already been trying to plug -- even when Revis was still around -- were laid bare too. It was like holding up a flashlight behind a slice of Swiss cheese.

Under direct but not rigorous questioning, Ryan was repeatedly led into acknowledging myriad other concerns. Most of them trace back to how the Jets' personnel simply isn't as good as it was when Ryan first got to town. Of course, Ryan didn't put it that way. In fact, he said the exact opposite, insisting, "We have enough here to get it done. … We have great football players. … And it's going to take everybody we have."

What else could he say? What was more revealing was when he went on to allow all this:

• Ryan is taken aback at the bad chain reaction now afflicting his defense. He detailed how the Jets can't stop the run well enough, which contributes to their inability to pressure the quarterback, which is connected to their inability to stop other teams from converting on third down. "I don't think I've ever gone through a stage like this right now," Ryan said. The hope that Aaron Maybin or first-round pick Quinton Coples would help the pass rush hasn't panned out. And Ryan acknowledged that solving all those problems becomes only more urgent with the San Francisco 49ers and then the Houston Texans, arguably the NFL's two best teams, just ahead.

• Santonio Holmes (147 yards on nine often terrific catches) finally had his first 100-yard receiving day in 28 games, a span stretching back to 2010. But hold the redemption stories, said LaDainian Tomlinson, the former Jet turned NFL Network analyst, who still won't let Holmes forget how he quit on the Jets on the same Miami field in their season finale last year. Tomlinson ripped Holmes yet again Sunday on TV, predicting, "When you play with a guy that has quit on you, you know that when the times are tough he will quit on you again."

We'll see. For now, the Jets have more urgent concerns. Stephen Hill, the rookie wideout they're starting on the other side of the field, finished his second straight game without a catch. He again dropped what should've been a touchdown pass, and now he also has a hamstring injury. Even if that hadn't happened, Hill might have found himself sharing more time with Chaz Schillens and especially Jeremy Kerley, who scored a long TD for the second straight game.

• Remember that ground-and-pound attack Ryan wanted to predicate the entire offense on? So far it has been as ineffective as this year's other big offensive innovation, the Tebow Wildcat, which the New York Daily News has taken to calling the "Wildcatastrophe." (Wish I'd thought of that.)

Supposed feature back Shonn Greene is averaging only 2.8 yards per carry, and is already starting to see his carries given to other backs. Matt Slauson is now splitting time at guard with Vladimir Ducasse. When Tebow -- who is now lining up more often as a receiver -- finally did get a ball thrown his way Sunday, Sanchez's pass bounced off his helmet. Sanchez later admitted that the importance of the situation (third-and-3 in the third quarter) and the defense ("probably not the best read") probably didn't warrant him throwing the ball to Tebow at all. "They covered it better than I thought," Sanchez said.

• Sanchez continues to stumble and bumble. He admitted he felt "off" and said "it just wasn't there" Sunday. But being a stand-up guy who keeps saying, "I left plays on the field," wore thin long ago. It's hard to rate Sanchez's performance when he has so little reliable help and he was hit seven times (although sacked only once) by the Dolphins. Like the defense, it's another one of those leg-bone-connected-to-the-thigh-bone conundrums: Has he been lousy the past six quarters because he's so average? Because there's no robust running game? Because of an offensive line that's giving up too many free runs at him? Because the team keeps getting stuck in obvious passing situations?

Against the Dolphins, receivers got open and he badly misfired on what could have been big plays. Which suggests the problem is all of the above.

Cast against all that, the anecdotes and embroidery Ryan added around his basic message -- that the Jets are going to have to "step it up" without Revis -- was nostalgic and colorful and all that. He meant it to be stirring when someone asked him if he finally had an "oh no" moment when he got the bad news, and he said, "Never happens." So he's taking this as a personal challenge? "Ab-so-lutely," Ryan said, tilting up his chin.

But when Ryan stood there telling stories of how he managed when his Baltimore Ravens' defenses had "a once-in-a-lifetime player in Ray Lewis go down for 10 weeks once. And Ed Reed followed it up by going down for five weeks," what he willfully ignored is that there isn't one player among the Jets' current front seven who is as good as the players Ryan still had left on that Ravens defense. And the same goes for his entertaining description of how there are different ways for his defense to "skin a cat" and stay aggressive, even without Revis. Why, look at what his old man did once upon a time, Ryan said.

"The most aggressive defense in the history of the National Football League was the Bears back when my dad was there, and he played with three college safeties and a college receiver from Yale, you know -- that was how his back end was made up," Ryan said. "So, we may be more aggressive."

Well … yeah. But again, those Bears teams had Hall of Fame pass rushers Richard Dent and Dan Hampton, and a linebacker named Mike Singletary.

And, for all his talk about having enough talent in-house right now, Ryan also allowed that there could be "multiple" roster moves coming soon.

See where this is headed?

"We know we have to get a thousand times better," linebacker Calvin Pace said. "We haven't been good enough."

The Jets are what we thought they were, all right.

With or without Revis, they're a so-so team still searching for itself. They're a team that's going to find every game a heroic struggle to win, even if they did magically wake up with a 2-1 record Monday with the added good news that longtime nemesis New England is at least no longer automatic anymore, given their loss to Arizona that left an angry Bill Belichick yanking on the arm of a replacement ref after the Pats dropped to 1-2.

"We're first in our division," Ryan made sure to drop in.

Which is true enough.

The Jets better enjoy it while they can.

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dbatesman

dbatesman

Posted
Posted

We're not a championship contender and our laundry list of problems won't be solved until and unless we jettison the QB(s) and the GM, at the very least. I've never rooted for us to lose and I never will, but the simple truth is that every week we "figure things out" is a short-term win and a long-term loss.

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Integrity28

Integrity28

Posted
Posted

They can write whatever they want, this team is better off having to fight for respect. They do much better that way....beating the Niners would be a good first step.

This. Why any fan wants their team lauded by the media is beyond me. Let the hate rain down... expectations are made to be exceeded.

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Bleedin Green

Bleedin Green

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Posted

I don't think the Niners get a lot of points this week, unless they are Sanchez Points. I just don't know if the Jets will score against their D. They will not run the ball well.

Yeah, even with Revis out, I'm far less worried about the D than O. It will be interesting to see what their plan is for this game. As far as the running game goes, considering the major shift in carries we've seen take place over just three games, combined with the Jets going out and picking up another RB, it should be interesting to see how this goes. I think there's a chance Greene is given maybe a quarter to show he can get his crap together before Powell gets a real crack to prove he should be the starter. Let's hope at least one of them does something worth a damn, because if it's all on Sanchez's shoulders, that won't be pretty.

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Bleedin Green

Bleedin Green

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Posted

While I can actually understand a lot of the other negative reporting, this may be one of the biggest heaping piles of crap I've ever read. We're supposed to believe that the entire team is going to concede that 2012 is now just a throw-away season after 3 games because of an injury to a CB? Give me a freakin' break.

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Smashmouth

Smashmouth

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Posted

While I can actually understand a lot of the other negative reporting, this may be one of the biggest heaping piles of crap I've ever read. We're supposed to believe that the entire team is going to concede that 2012 is now just a throw-away season after 3 games because of an injury to a CB? Give me a freakin' break.

youve seen this ridiculious bullsh*t before. Maybe this lights a fire under our ass . We still have a solid secondary

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El Gringo Loco

El Gringo Loco

Posted
Posted

They're a team that's going to find every game a heroic struggle to win, even if they did magically wake up with a 2-1 record Monday with the added good news that longtime nemesis New England is at least no longer automatic anymore, given their loss to Arizona that left an angry Bill Belichick yanking on the arm of a replacement ref after the Pats dropped to 1-2.

This guy knows what he's talking about, that's why I like him.

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NJ

NJ

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Posted

I just don't know if the Jets will score against their D. They will not run the ball well.

This may be the necessary enlightenment in Greene's demotion. He's not going to run repeatedly into the 9er's wall for a yard at a time all game. Get somebody (Powell) in there that can change direction and we might have a chance.
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kay_gee

kay_gee

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Posted

i actually agree with this. They win Sunday then go on and lose to Houston by 40 the following week. That would be most typical at least.

Yep. They'll pull it out, people will start talking about how gritty they are and maybe they can hang in against Houston. But the game against the Texans is a nationally televised game. They'll be embarrassed for sure.

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#27TheDominator

#27TheDominator

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Posted

The Jets have done pretty well against the Texans. Smacked them in the opener in 2009. Beat them 30-27 in 2010. Last year they lost in the preseason, but could have won, but some crappy half a practice squad WR dropped a gimme. We did run pretty well. That was the game McElroy played so well in. Texans defense is another world from what it was 2-3 years ago though.

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Bleedin Green

Bleedin Green

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The Jets have done pretty well against the Texans. Smacked them in the opener in 2009. Beat them 30-27 in 2010. Last year they lost in the preseason, but could have won, but some crappy half a practice squad WR dropped a gimme. We did run pretty well. That was the game McElroy played so well in. Texans defense is another world from what it was 2-3 years ago though.

Outside of preseason (which who gives a sh*t) the Jets are actually undefeated against the Texans. That said, they aren't quite the perennial losers they once were, so let's see if that holds up.

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Integrity28

Integrity28

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Posted

I don't actually think that is why expectations are made. I went to the factory once.

Well, despite the fact that I'm a loser and have no life, or intelligence, I actually embrace that as my own personal philosophy. Set expectations with my employers, my clients, my fiancée, my family, my friends, whoever... then go out, and exceed them. :)

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neckdemon

neckdemon

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Posted

We're not a championship contender and our laundry list of problems won't be solved until and unless we jettison the QB(s) and the GM, at the very least. I've never rooted for us to lose and I never will, but the simple truth is that every week we "figure things out" is a short-term win and a long-term loss.

what is it this year? blow for barkley? you'd be on board for that"?

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ZachEY

ZachEY

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You'd think Jets fans would have learned something after last year??? While record may be paramount, how you play catches up to you. Last year we 'found ways to win' towards the end of our schedule. We showed our 'grit' and 'resilience' and won a few games in a row. Then, our level of play remained almost exactly the same and we played better opponents... We lost 3 in a row. We're 2-1 right now, which is good, record-wise, but does anyone think if we continue at this level of play we end up at 12-4?

Play well and the wins will follow. Play like crap and eventually it catches up to you. We saw it last year. No doubt we'll see it this year.

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