JETS ARTICLES - WED

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwMDY3NTAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Jets looking ahead

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Early line

Jets by 3

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/SPORTS01/610180378/1108/SPORTS01

Blaylock still a Jet as trade deadline passes

By ANDREW GROSS

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original Publication: October 18, 2006)

Derrick Blaylock will walk into the Jets' locker room today, just as he always expected he would. Yesterday's NFL trade deadline passed without the team making a move.

"It's the same, man," the sixth-year running back said. "No frustration, man. What's to be frustrated about? Just go out and play and when you're called upon to do your job, make sure you know what you're doing. That's how I approach it week in and week out."

Speculation focused on the 27-year-old Blaylock as yesterday's trade deadline loomed because he had fallen out of the Jets' running-back rotation.

Blaylock started the first two games but has not touched the football since a 24-17 loss to the Patriots on Sept. 17. He was used exclusively on special teams in the Jets' 20-17 win over the Dolphins Sunday.

"I don't feel like I'm a forgotten man," said Blaylock, who has 43 yards on 25 carries this season and who was inactive for Weeks 3 and 4. "I'm part of this team. Whatever I can do to help this team, I'm there. I covered punts. I'm a utility guy. Whatever you need me to do, I do it."

Blaylock said Monday he did not expect to be traded.

"I can't worry about that," Blaylock said. "Until something comes up, I can't worry about it. I have to focus on what we're doing and focus on this (week's) game against Detroit."

It's a mature attitude, one Blaylock admits he's developed over time.

Before being inactive for the 28-20 win at Buffalo on Sept. 24, Blaylock had not sat out a game when healthy since his rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs, 2001, when he was inactive for all 16 regular-season games.

The week preceding the Bills game Blaylock's wife, Kristen, gave birth to the couple's fourth child. Blaylock said his growing family has helped him maintain his priorities.

"You definitely grow as time goes on, as you get more years in the league," Blaylock said. "Your first year, you don't know what's going on. But as you grow and you learn the business, you start to mature and know that, hey, it's out of your control. You just have to focus on what you're doing and do your job."

With Curtis Martin on the physically-unable-to-perform list

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwMDY4MzYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Former critic: two thumbs up for coach

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

When last we left a certain player who requested anonymity the first week of September, he wasn't a happy camper.

He felt coach Eric Mangini had overworked the Jets all summer to the point where their legs were dead with a whole season staring them in the face. He thought Mangini's style and rules punished people.

The story was a lightning rod. Some readers of the "What has Mangini won?" crowd sided with the player. Others of the "boo-hoo" view said no one should be complaining about hard work in general, and especially less than a year removed from 4-12.

We checked back in with Anonymous (no relation to the author of "Primary Colors") after the win over Miami raised the Jets' record to 3-3. Not surprisingly, the player said:

"I understand what Eric's saying now."

Not all has been forgotten from the long off-season, but much has been forgiven.

"To tell you the truth, it was tough for everybody," the player said. "It took a while to get adjusted to a new coaching style, and it's a completely different style. This year, no one knew what to expect. He had to be a certain way to get his points across.

"There was the spring stuff, and he had a really tough camp. But we got through it. Was it worth while? I can say that now. ... I'm not saying I want to go through it again next spring."

However, the player thought 2007 will be different. With a year under his belt, Mangini should be less of a trial-and-error boss. He'll know his players better, and vice versa. A foundation will have been laid.

Of course, that's getting ahead of the game. Al Groh no doubt thought he had begun a sturdy foundation when his stern approach got the Jets to 9-4 and within a win of the 2000 playoffs. The Jets never got that win, the veterans vented with vitriol, and Groh departed for Virginia before New Year's Eve.

Interestingly, now that the Jets have shown they can beat three one-win teams to get to .500 after six games, expectations are being ratcheted up.

A popular Big Media question Monday at Weeb Ewbank Hall: "Are you concerned you haven't shown a killer instinct?" A Boston writer sized up the Jets' final 10 games and speculated they could be this season's surprise team, coming into the regular-season finale at home vs. Oakland at 8-7 and with a postseason berth on the line.

But despite their redeeming qualities, the Jets have holes and weaknesses. They've got to make the weekly progress Mangini harps on or this year will wind up as empty as 2000 and then we'll see if this team has as many internal critics as that one did.

Anonymous didn't think so. He sounds like a Mangini convert.

"It's been a fresh change," he said. "I think we're going to continue to win with the way we're going. He does know what he's doing."

NO LIFE AT DEADLINE: The NFL's trading deadline passed Tuesday with no reported activity from the Jets. That's not unusual. The last time they made an in-season trade, they sent linebacker Alex Gordon to the Los Angeles Raiders for cornerback Dennis Price on Oct. 15, 1990.

E-mail: lange@northjersey.com

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/story/462715p-389323c.html

Jets' Brad of all trades

BY RICH CIMINI

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

It got lost in the craziness of yet another Jets-Dolphins thriller, but it may have been the most impressive individual performance of Sunday's game. Brad Smith, the Jets' do-everything rookie, made a solo tackle on three consecutive special-teams plays in the second half.

Some perspective: A top special teams player will make anywhere from 20 to 25 solo tackles in a season. Smith did it three times in less than 12 minutes, a hat-trick that dramatically tilted field position. His open-field tackles limited Wes Welker, one of the NFL's best returners, to a combined 28 yards on two kickoffs and a punt.

Not bad for a quarterback who plays wide receiver, moonlights on special teams and does cameos at running back.

Sound familiar? A decade ago, the Jets had another Brad Smith. His name was Ray Lucas, who has become an unabashed Smith fan. "He never ceases to amaze me," Lucas said yesterday by phone. "Every time I watch him play, I say, 'Holy ---.' There's at least one 'Holy ---' per game. I really think this kid is something special. The sky's the limit for him, if he stays hungry."

Lucas can appreciate Smith perhaps more than anyone. An undrafted quarterback out of Rutgers, Lucas played his way into the NFL as a special-teams kamikaze for the Patriots (1996) and Jets (1997 and 1998) before getting his big break at quarterback in 1999, the year Vinny Testaverde went down. Until then, Lucas was willing to do anything to earn a paycheck: Cover kicks, bust wedges, run the option, you name it.

"I would've shined shoes and shined helmets if it kept me on the field," said Lucas, who lists one of his greatest thrills as playing special teams for the Patriots in the Super Bowl against the Packers. As a fourth-round pick, Smith, a record-breaking quarterback at Missouri, didn't have to fight his way up from the bottom like Lucas. But their skills are strikingly similar, especially the toughness. Not many quarterbacks would relish a full-speed collision on a kickoff return.

Eric Mangini was on the Jets' staff when Lucas came up, and that gave him the idea to turn Smith into a multi-purpose weapon. So far, Smith has six rushes, three receptions and five special-teams tackles. "Ray Lucas set a pretty good precedent," Mangini said.

When Smith got the call from the Jets moments before they drafted him, he told Mangini in no uncertain terms that he wanted to play quarterback in the NFL. Lucas laughed when he heard that anecdote.

"That's what I told (Bill) Parcells," said Lucas, referring to his first coach. "He said, 'Good, go to Canada.'"

Smith has accepted his role as a "Slash" player - receiver/running back/quarterback/special teamer - always evading questions about whether he'd like to be a full-time quarterback. That's a no-brainer, according to Lucas.

"Are you kidding me? You know that's what the kid wants to do," said Lucas, who'd like to see more of Smith on offense. "It took me three years to get there, but I got there. In the meantime, if you're given the opportunity to run or change field position by covering kicks, you do it. In this game, if you're unselfish, things will come to you. That's what Parcells taught me."

And it's what Mangini, who got his humble start as a ball boy, is teaching Smith.

NO DEAL: The Jets didn't make any deals before yesterday's trading deadline. They kept RB Derrick Blaylock, who hasn't carried the ball in four weeks. ...CB David Barrett, inactive in two of the last three games, is wondering about his role. He's listed with a hip injury, but he said, "I'm healthy." He declined further comment.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10182006/sports/jets/missing_martin_jets_mark_cannizzaro.htm

MISSING MARTIN

By MARK CANNIZZARO

October 18, 2006 -- THERE'S a sign with the word "Winner" on a wall inside the Jets' locker room in the bowels of Giants Stadium.

On Sundays, as Curtis Martin would head out toward the stadium tunnel, he would slap that sign for good luck.

Martin hasn't carried a football since last Dec. 4 in New England, where his Hall of Fame career began in 1995. And he hasn't been any good unless the Jets played bad teams for even longer. Yet he still joins his teammates in the pregame locker room before home games and still slaps that sign on the way out.

But instead of trotting through the tunnel onto the field, Martin, dressed in street clothes, steps onto an elevator and watches from a luxury box.

He'd probably rather be in a jail cell than watching his teammates play without him.

"He wishes he was still out there with us," Jets' running back Kevan Barlow said this week. "He has a lot of pride and doesn't want to go out the way he did."

Barlow should be the last man in the Jets' locker room who wants to see Martin return to the field.

He is, after all, a competing running back.

Barlow, though, is a number of other things to Martin, the NFL's fourth-leading all-time rusher.

He's a huge fan of Martin, having grown up one neighborhood from Martin in Pittsburgh, idolized him and followed his path to the NFL, through the University of Pittsburgh and then the NFL draft.

Barlow, six years younger than Martin, revealed that he calls Martin after every game seeking feedback.

"I call him to ask what he saw or if I could do something else," Barlow said. "I try to absorb as much as I can from him. I try to ask as much as I can. Fourth all-time leading rusher? Yeah, I try to listen to the man.

"I emulated Curt coming up. That was, like, my hero."

Now that Martin is eligible to practice and come off the physically unable to perform list, Barlow wants to be able to get that feedback much more immediately, like on the sideline during games.

Whether that'll ever happen is, sadly, very much in question. The fact that the Jets said Monday that the earliest Martin will practice is after the Oct. 29 game in Cleveland has to make you wonder what another two-plus weeks will do for him.

If his ailing right knee is not ready now, will it ever be ready again?

The Jets have until Nov. 8 to decide whether to allow Martin to practice or to place him on injured reserve, officially ending his season and probably his career.

Until the team makes a final decision, Martin - 10 months removed from the supposedly successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, remains a mystery - even to his teammates.

"Curt is the sneakiest guy I know," Barlow said. "I don't see him one minute and then we'll be in here, ready to go to a team meeting, and he'll just come in, right before, like 8:29. He's just as elusive on the field as off the field. You don't hear anything out of Curt but two peeps, except when he's trying to help you out as far as football."

Here's hoping Martin is helping the Jets out on the field in uniform soon and that we have not seen the last of the great No. 28.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-spjchalk184937811oct18,0,6124851.column?coll=ny-jets-print

Dozing off late requires wake-up call

October 18, 2006

Some would call it exciting. Others would choose excruciating. Either way, the Jets have proved that even though they already have exceeded most expectations with three wins through six games, nothing comes easy. All three wins (and two of the losses) have been decided in the fourth quarter, with Sunday's victory over the Dolphins coming by way of a missed field-goal try in the final half-minute.

But the other thing all three wins have in common is the opponent's ability to come back against the Jets, who seem to fall into a defensive coma just when it is time to wake up. The Titans overcame a 16-0 deficit to tie the score in the opener before the Jets pulled it out. The Bills were down 21-10 after three quarters and 28-13 with 3:20 left but still managed to come within a touchdown of tying it. And the Dolphins, nearly buried by a 20-3 Jets lead, hung in there only to come up just short (in field- goal attempts and coaching decisions) of forcing overtime.

Jets opponents have scored 60 of their 149 points in the fourth quarter while converting 14 of 26 third downs (53.8 percent). That includes the Jacksonville blowout when the Jags had only a fourth-quarter field goal and were 1-for-3 on third downs. Seven of the Jets' 18 touchdowns allowed came in the last quarter.

Coach Eric Mangini said he didn't think the fourth-quarter stumbles have been the result of a young defense learning a new system, and he cited the rally against the Patriots after trailing 24-0. "You would think in that situation, being a little further along in the program, you could argue that that should have been a knife-through-the-heart type deal," he said.

The fourth quarter of the Dolphins game is a prime example of the Jets' "bend but don't break" mentality. After taking a 20-3 lead early in the period, the Jets let Joey Harrington explode, completing 18 of 28 for 196 yards in the final three drives.

As the game got tighter, so did the Jets' defensive play-calling. After blitzing on four plays on the first Miami drive, which made the score 20-10, they scaled back to one blitz on the second drive that made it 20-17. With the Dolphins pushing for the tying field goal, the Jets blitzed only once on the final drive, sending two safeties on a questionable third-and-2 pass that fell incomplete and forced Olindo Mare to try a 51-yarder.

"I wouldn't say it's a philosophy we like to live by," linebacker Victor Hobson said of hanging back and then hanging on for dear life toward the end of victories, "but if it happens, we take advantage of it."

The Jets have been lucky, too. They have beaten the Titans, Bills and Dolphins, teams with much bigger problems than the Jets are facing. Each should have been a comfortable win yet turned into a thriller.

There are plenty of soft spots on the rest of the Jets' schedule, and a 10-win season as well as (clear your throat) a playoff berth are starting to become possibilities. But if the Jets cannot adjust their fourth-quarter philosophy in tight games and get more aggressive, one or more of those wins they were counting on could be stripped from them in a heartbreaker.

Bend but don't break? Gimme a break!

STORYLINES

Lions and Tigers, oh my!

The Jets haven't played Detroit since 2002 and have faced the Lions only 10 times. Yet Sunday's game between teams that were not expected to cause much of a gurgle on their way down the NFL drain could be the second layer of a heated rivalry between Motown and the Big Apple. If the Mets can beat the Cardinals in the NLCS, Game 2 of the World Series between the Mets and the Tigers would be scheduled for Sunday night in Detroit. One of the teams would have to defend the honor of our fair city, right?

Hobson on the ball

LB Victor Hobson has picked up three turnovers in the last four games, returning a fumble for a touchdown against the Bills and grabbing an interception and a fumble recovery against the Dolphins on Sunday. It's the first time he has made more than one takeaway in a season in his four-year career. "A linebacker's job is to be around the ball," Hobson said. Perhaps working with Bryan Cox, the Jets' assistant defensive line coach who is also in charge of takeaway technique (yes, there is such a thing) has helped Hobson and the Jets, who have 11 takeaways.

Facing Donnie

The Lions' defense is ranked 27th, but it no doubt will be fired up this week by coordinator Donnie Henderson, who spent the previous two seasons in that post with the Jets. Players were already talking about facing their former comrade after the game Sunday. "Coach Henderson is coming back and I know what kind of defense he preaches and teaches," Chad Pennington said. "They will have their A game." LB Jonathan Vilma, one of Henderson's prized pupils, joked that the coach may be so fired up that he'll take the field himself. "If he could, he would," Vilma said.

Statlines

Laveranues Coles is second in the NFL in receiving yardage, third in receptions and is nudging his way into conversations about elite receivers in the league. If he can maintain his pace, he will not only finish with the best season of his career, but the best statistical season any Jets receiver has ever compiled.

Through Projected Coles'

Stat 6 games 16 games career high Jets record

Yards 537 1,432 1,264 1,434, Don Maynard 1967 Receptions 38 101 90* 93, Al Toon 1988

* Coles' career high of 90 receptions came with the Redskins in 2004; his high as a Jet is 89 in 2002.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/SPORTS01/610180348/1049

Rogers suspended 4 games

Agent: Tackle took an appetite suppressant

BY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

October 18, 2006

Matchup: Lions 1-5, N.Y. Jets 3-3.

When: 1 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Meadowlands, East Rutherford, N.J.

Line: Jets by 3 1/2 .

Pro Bowl defensive tackle Shaun Rogers has been suspended for four games without pay by the NFL for using a banned substance.

But Rogers made an honest mistake in taking an appetite suppressant, and he will use his time away from the Lions to take care of his nagging knee injury, his agent, Kennard McGuire, said Tuesday night.

Rogers suffered from sleep apnea before having his tonsils removed while sidelined with a shoulder injury during training camp. He had trouble sleeping. It led to his oversleeping the day of a game last season.

It also led to his eating late at night. Rogers, who is listed at 340 pounds, was worried about his weight -- because he had to keep it at an appropriate level for his job, but also because sleep apnea led to the death of Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White.

"It was a combination of things that led to him going through this process," McGuire said. "He wanted to make sure that he kept his weight and everything under control. He took an over-the-counter GNC supplement that he was really unaware was one of the forbidden substances."

McGuire said he didn't know the name of the supplement or the banned substance in it, but he said Rogers tested positive during training camp, even though the league didn't suspend Rogers until Tuesday and a formal announcement isn't expected until today.

"This is not something that just happened," McGuire said.

McGuire said there had been no appeal and there would not be one.

"We just felt that going through the appeal process would only delay the inevitable," McGuire said.

Rogers has been playing on a sore knee, and McGuire said he would see a knee specialist in Houston -- he hopes today. McGuire said there was a "50-50 chance" Rogers would have minor surgery.

"He's going to take the time to ensure that he gets healthy," McGuire said.

Rogers' suspension leaves the Lions without one of their best players and without their two starting defensive tackles for the next month.

He won't play Sunday at the New York Jets, then Nov. 5 against Atlanta, Nov. 12 against San Francisco and Nov. 19 at Arizona. He will be eligible to return Thanksgiving Day against Miami.

Shaun Cody is already out with a dislocated left big toe. He said last week he expected to miss four to six weeks.

Cory Redding, usually a defensive end, is expected to start in the middle next to Marcus Bell.

Lions officials were unavailable for comment.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nj.com/jets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1161149981158060.xml&coll=1

Thomas steps up his game at just the right time

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

BY DAVE HUTCHINSON

Star-Ledger Staff

Defensive end/linebacker Bryan Thomas has gone from bust to boom and is positioning himself for a big payday after the season as an unrestricted free agent.

After four nondescript seasons with the Jets highlighted by a dramatic weight loss and assault allegations by a former girlfriend, the former No. 1 pick seems to have found his niche in coach Eric Mangini's 3-4 scheme.

In the alignment, Thomas' duties include rushing the passer, dropping back in pass coverage and giving Mangini the flexibility to line him up at several positions.

With more teams playing a 3-4 defense, Thomas' ability to play that all-important position makes him a valuable commodity. He's in the final year of his contract.

Last Sunday against Miami, Thomas, 6-4, 266 pounds, had a team-high 11 tackles, one quarterback hurry and was named by Mangini as the defensive player of the game. He was especially effective in the running game, repeatedly making plays on the edge. He has yet, however, to develop into the pass-rusher he was in college.

"I really liked Bryan's game this week," Mangini said. "He made good plays in the running game. He did a real nice job against the tight ends and the (offensive) tackles. He just played good, solid football, playing within the scheme, being able to take advantage of his natural strength, his natural ability."

This season, Thomas, drafted 22nd overall in 2002 out of Alabama-Birmingham, has 31 tackles, one sack, two pass defensed and one forced fumble.

"This defense and my position, I love it," Thomas said. "It allows me to do a lot of things. I'm not just going upfield. I can drop back. I can do everything. ... It's very exciting. I love coach Mangini. He requires us to know a lot of stuff, but I love this defense."

Early in his career, Thomas backed up former Jets DE John Abraham and current DE Shaun Ellis. Entering this season, Thomas had 19 starts, mostly in place of an injured Abraham, but never distinguished himself. He had just 6 1/2 sacks in 61 career games.

"I never had the opportunity," Thomas insists. "Now, I'm having an opportunity to showcase what I'm about and that's what I'm doing. I've learned from two pretty good players. I'm just going to keep working hard every day and do my best."

NEXT OPPONENT

The Detroit Lions, under rookie coach Rod Marinelli, finally got into the win column last week, defeating Buffalo, 20-17. Detroit (1-5) is starting from scratch, having jettisoned QB Joey Harrington and WR Charles Rogers.

Veteran QB Jon Kitna, whom the Jets courted this past off-season, has completed 63.6 percent of his passes with six TDs and seven INTs. He has been sacked 22 times. Loudmouth WR Roy Williams (6-3, 220 pounds) can play. He has 36 catches for a league-best 552 yards and two TDs.

RB Kevin Jones has rushed for 388 yards and four TDs on 95 carries (4.1-yard average), including 127 yards last week against the Bills.

Defensively, the Lions are struggling under former Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson, who plays an aggressive, multi-front scheme. The unit has allowed a whopping 158 points, only the 49ers have yielded more (194).

DE James Hall has 5 1/2 sacks, tied for fourth in the NFL, and the Lions notched a season-high five sacks against Buffalo.

The Lions' special teams allowed 152 yards on five kickoff returns by the Bills' Terrence McGee last week.

GAME PLAN

The Jets will likely try to use a lot of misdirection and draw plays against an aggressive Lions defense. QB Chad Pennington should find some open receivers against the Lions' 30th-ranked passing defense (247.7 yards per game). Defensively, the Jets will be facing a Lions team that will feel it can move the ball. After all, the Jets rank an embarrassing 30th in the NFL, yielding 370 yards per game.

STORY LINE

Former Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson returns to the Meadowlands and would like nothing more than for his defense to play well. Henderson spent two seasons with the Jets.

INJURY REPORT

Jets -- RB Cedric Houston (knee) is getting close.

Lions -- RB Shawn Bryson (knee) is out. RB Kevin Jones (hip pointer), FB Cory Schlesigner (hamstring) and LB Ernie Sims (elbow) are hurting.

KEY MATCHUP

The Jets defense vs. Lions RB Kevin Jones

The Jets are allowing a whopping 145.3 yard rushing per game. Jones is likely licking his chops, especially after his big game against the Bills last Sunday.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://blogs.trb.com/sports/football/jets/blog/2006/10/countdown_to_curtis.html

Countdown to Curtis

By Tom Rock

There had been some talk that Curtis Martin would be made available to the media today, but that was pushed back to Thursday, so expect a big C-Mart story in all of your Friday papers. Not that he’s likely to say anything other than that he is working hard to come back. The fact that he has left the Jets complex early the last few times we asked about him and he wasn’t around on Monday does create something of a question though: Will he decide to hang ‘em up? Stay tuned.

A few reporters were on a conference call with Lions WR Roy Williams and walked into the locker room to find a mob of us huddled in front of Curtis’ locker. The gasp was almost audible, and I think if I rewind my recorder I can hear Andrew Gross squeal in horror at the possibility of missing the big Curtis interview. Turned out it was just Bryan Thomas sitting at a stool in front of Martin’s locker (which is next to Thomas’).

Just a thought on those two NY running backs who do the McDonald’s commercial together: it’s interesting that one is practically killing himself to come back to football while the other appears to want out of football so he doesn’t kill himself. Smart and noble aren’t always on the same wavelength.

Bobby G. stopped by this afternoon to spread some of his good cheer and check in on Gang Green after some CP in NYC this morning. Always a ray of sunshine.

Reporters are starting to pick up the Mangini dialect, using terms like “the other place” to describe New England and “fluid” to talk about positions with rotating players. Pretty soon we should all be able to recite the core Jets values, just as Mangini does on a near daily basis. For the record, they are smart, tough, hard-working, competitive, selfless, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Oh wait, some of that is from the Boy Scouts.

Posted by Tom Rock on October 18, 2006 02:51 PM