" The S.S. Bowles was on the verge of capsizing... " ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

A look back at Jets' turning point: 'The ship was going to sink'

 

The S.S. Bowles was on the verge of capsizing after last month's horrible loss to the Houston Texans, which dropped the New York Jets to 5-5. So says linebacker Calvin Pace, who painted it as a turning point in the season.

"It was a point in time where we had to come together or the ship was going to sink, I think," Pace said Monday.

Since then, the Jets have won five straight, taking control of their playoff destiny. If they beat the Buffalo Bills in the season finale, they're in the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

The Jets were in a bad way after losing to the Texans and third-string quarterback T.J. Yates -- a 1-4 funk after a 4-1 start. You could sense the frustration in the locker room after that game, but Todd Bowles said the situation wasn't as dire as Pace described it."I don't think the ship was going to sink," the coach said. "I'm sure he didn't mean it that way. If we were going to do anything from a playoffs standpoint or a season standpoint, that was the time to come together. We were still growing and building then. It wasn't a problem, worrying about the ship sinking; it was a matter of playing more consistently."

It's semantics, of course. Most coaches don't like the "sinking ship" analogy because it often means the coach is losing the locker room. I don't think Pace meant it that way. I just think he just felt the season was going under -- and it was. Another loss probably would've doomed their postseason chances. They've been operating with no safety net the last five weeks, clearly embracing the pressure.

> http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/57527/a-look-back-at-the-jets-turning-point-the-ship-was-going-to-sink

[faba]

Playing Miami next helped- hah hah

[kelly]

One of the lasting images of the 2014 season, at least from this perspective, was Sheldon Richardson -- near tears -- addressing reporters after a 38-3 road loss to the Buffalo Bills. It dropped the New York Jets to 2-9, pushing them further into the darkness. Many years ago, I saw a talented cornerback named James Hasty crying in his locker, because he couldn't take the losing anymore. Losing can crush the spirit of the strongest men, and I thought about Hasty that night as Richardson spilled his guts.

"I've never lost nine games," Richardson said. "That's not me at all. I didn't get drafted to lose games, period. If it don't hurt nobody like it hurts me, they shouldn't be on the team."

"I don't want this organization broke up in no type of way," Richardson continued, "but that's what happens when you have seasons like this. They clean house. I don't want it. I play for a lot more. All I am is a number with a name on the back of my jersey. I play with my heart. I don't take L's like this, especially to the Buffalo Bills. My god, man."Freeze that picture in your mind; now we go to another locker room scene, with Richardson talking with reporters after Sunday's overtime win against the New England Patriots. The victory pushed the Jets to the brink of the postseason, and there was the big defensive lineman -- life in his eyes -- talking excitedly about the Week 17 showdown against the Bills, fittingly.

"I want it, I want it bad," he said of his first playoff appearance.

"This team in the playoffs is going to be tough to deal with."

What a remarkable split-screen shot.

Old: The look of despair in a promising young player.

New: Fire and swagger.

Anything is possible in the NFL. With the right leadership, the right plan and a little luck, a franchise can go from laughingstock to blue-chip stock in only a year. The Jets, one year removed from a 4-12 disaster, are 10-5. A season-ending win over the Bills would clinch their first playoff spot since 2010 and mark their greatest one-year turnaround since 1997, when Bill Parcells went 9-7 after inheriting a 1-15 mess.Now, like then, it took a massive overhaul to restore credibility: new management, new coaches and a handful of new players. The Jets filled the biggest holes by trading for Brandon Marshall and Ryan Fitzpatrickand buying a new secondary. It looked good on paper, but you never know. Anybody who follows the Jets realizes they have won multiple offseason "championships" only to stink it up in the fall. Chemistry is so important.

How do you know the team won't splinter when its presumptive starting quarterback, Geno Smith, gets punched out by a teammate in the locker room?

How can you be sure eight new starters, many of them well-traveled players with sizable egos, will blend together?

You don't, but you throw everything into a pot and hope the chef -- head coach Todd Bowles -- knows how to make a bouillabaisse. Apparently, he does."We've got plenty of guys that have been in big-time games and the playoffs," Fitzpatrick said. "We've got some guys who have been to and won the Super Bowl."

"Then there are the old, curmudgeonly guys that haven't been to the playoffs at all," he added in a joking reference to himself and Marshall."We have a mixture of guys with a ton of experience," Fitzpatrick continued. "Everybody has that drive and that passion to get [to the playoffs]. We come at it from all different angles. We have guys who have experience in this league and know it doesn't happen every year. We think we've got a special team."

Left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, one of the two longest-tenured players on the Jets, said he knew from the beginning of this season it was a special team. It didn't look that way during a 1-4 slump at midseason, but the adversity made the Jets stronger, not weaker. Now they get a chance for redemption against a team they used to dominate. The Bills have won the past four meetings, including the blowout in November 2014 in Detroit, which hosted the game because of a snowstorm in western New York.

This time, there's no snow in the forecast. Everything is warmer, especially the Jets.

>    http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/57510/same-new-jets-from-despair-to-championship-dreams-in-one-year

[kelly]

The New York Jets' turnaround started with a math analogy.

After losing to the Houston Texans last month, Todd Bowles announced a back-to-basics approach on offense, saying they needed to return to algebra after an unsuccessful foray into trigonometry. The Jets scored only 17 points in each of their back-to-back losses to the Buffalo Bills and Texans, apparently botching their cotangents and cosines.

On Monday, Ryan Fitzpatrick spoke candidly, if not specifically about the change and how it needed to occur. The Jets quarterback, explaining the slump, said "we were just trying to reinvent the wheel. We were putting people in a bunch of different positions and situations. I think that was hurting me more than helping me, just in terms of my decision-making."Fitzpatrick didn't offer any details on the changes, lest he reveal any secrets to the opposition. He said many of the plays and route combinations are the same as before, revealing only that the wrinkles are of the pre-snap variety. He said they're "getting guys in certain positions that I'm comfortable with. That's probably the best way to put it."

After some detective work, my hunch is that he's referring, in part, toBrandon Marshall and where he lines up. In fact, he's not moving around the formation as much as he did before the five-game winning streak.

Here's my theory: I think the Jets were so freaked out by their Week 7 loss to the New England Patriots, who held Marshall to four catches, that offensive coordinator Chan Gailey started scheming up ways to free up his No. 1 wide receiver. That's what you'd expect any coach to do, but maybe he got too cute. He started relying on deception instead of letting the player's talent solve the problem.The statistics back it up. Comparing Marshall's before-and-after numbers, you'll see he's lining up on pass plays more frequently on the outside as opposed to the slot -- from 73 percent of the time to 83 percent, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. It's not a dramatic shift, but there's no doubt the Fitzpatrick-to-Marshall combo has become more efficient and productive than ever. Whatever they did -- there's probably more to it than this -- is working.

A breakdown of Marshall's past 10 games :

PRE-WINNING STREAK (Weeks 7 to 11)

Total routes: 193

Slot (left and right): 53

Wide (left and right): 140

Total targets: 54

Catches/yards: 25 for 289 yards, three touchdowns

WINNING STREAK (Weeks 12 to 16)

Total routes: 204

Slot (left and right): 34

Wide (left and right): 170

Total targets: 50

Catches/yards: 39 for 576 yards, six touchdowns

Unfortunately, I don't have a statistic for motion/shifting, but I suspect Marshall is moving around less than before. Basically, the Jets are saying to defenses, "We're not trying to fool you. Here's Brandon; now try to stop him." I'm sure the back-to-algebra approach has resulted in other tweaks as well. For instance, I can tell you that Eric Decker is getting more time in the slot than pre-winning streak -- an increase from 61 to 68 percent of his total routes.You have to give credit to Gailey for adjusting on the fly. A lot of coaches are stubborn and refuse input from players, but he was willing to scale back the offense. He, too, has admitted they tried to do too much, leading them down a bad road.

Don't underestimate the Gailey-Fitzpatrick relationship, which dates to 2010 in Buffalo. This is their fourth year together, a rarity in the ever-changing world of the NFL."We just have a great feel for each other," Fitzpatrick said. "He knows me so well. I think our philosophies line up, just in terms of the way to attack a defense. I think he plays to my strengths as a player and often times now I can kind of anticipate what's coming in or what's going to be called. He'll ask my opinion and see if I like a play or don't like a play."

>   http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/57554/algebra-trigonometry-and-the-offensive-change-that-saved-the-jets