Postgame Review: Jets 13 at Ravens 20

[Warfish]

Well, another week and another loss, sadly. And this one felt alot worse than last week, because the Ravens are a beatable team and because the potential for a tie and OT was so, so, so within our grasp.......

First things first: The Jets were almost uncompetative for three or so quarters today. It is painful to say it, but it is true. We still are being manhandled for the most part on both lines, and it shows on the scoreboard.

With that said, we still saw at least some improvement accross the board. The O-line was better. The D-Line was better. The Defense in general was better. But Better can be misleading, because we were still very poor in all of these areas. For much of the first three quarters we could not protect the QB, and when we did that QB took too long with the ball. We could not put any pressure on Boller, and when we did he simply ran for the first. And we could not cover anyone.....except for a few plays here and there The lone bright spots were our slightly better-than-horrid Run Defense, and at least a glimmer of solid play from Thomas Jones in the running O.

Sadly, our Coaching wan't much better today. Mangini and Co. came in with far too conservative an offensive scheme for this opponent, still couldn't scheme any pressure on Defense, and made at least one very big error in judgement (the 52 Yard FG attempt, which was a error given the realistic chance a just-recently-crushed Nugent would make it vs. the odds of the Ravens using that field position to come back and score before the end-of-half on our porous defense).

Happily, much of this same-as-last-week-but-slightly-better play changed in the 4th Quarter. The Defense stepped up a few times, and looked much more stout, especially against the run (Happily keeping McGahee under 100 yards). We stopped them when needed to, and they got us the ball back with plenty of time to tie it up.

The Offense finally relaxed a bit, Clemens finally relaxed a bit, and the O-Scheme finally relaxed a bit (all out of the neccessity of being down by 17) and Clemens was able to use his superior arm strength to move the chains, and put up some points.

And that brings us the (I'm sure the hot topic tonight) of Kellen Clemens:

Like the rest of his mates, Clemens played average at best, and poor at worst for three quarters. If was VERY clear he was (in effect) a rookie-level QB, and his play reflected his inexperience, his inabillity to make quick decisons and his lack of pocket presence under a concerted pro-style rush package. Worse for him, the protection was spotty too, and he took plenty of hits. He played like a scared unsure Rookie, end of story.

However, also like his teammates, Clemens finally seemed to get a grip come the 4th, and played with some of the fire and potential we saw from him at times in pre-season. His throws were crisp and on target, and he was able to move the chains even against a tough Ravens secondary that knew he was throwing. His superior arm strength was apparent, and his decision making and ball handliing showed much improvement. We saw some of his potential, and Jets fans should be happy about that, as it looked pretty good. The game-ending INT was not his fault either.

Really, I am sure there is already more than enough hate for J-Mac (and a lesser degree Coles) for the three (yes three) dropped TD or potential TD passes at the end. And I agree, the two to J-Mac were unforgiveable, and even the lowball to Coles should (and would by Coles normally, he seemed off today to me) have been caught. When the opposing Defense gives you 2:30, 2 Timeouts and three open pass shots at the endzone, all of which the QB puts in a makeable catchable spot....well, the recievers have to make those catches, period. But sadly, the one quarter the rest of the team finally got it together, our receiving corps (a bright spot so far in a dim 2007) dropped the ball bad...literally. Our inabillity to tie the game falls squarely on their shoulders alone.

So, Week 2 come and gone, Jets stand at 0-2 with their season on the brink with a tough Division matchup against the rival Phins, also fighting to save their season before it's even really started. Make no mistake, the Phins will be exceedingly hard.

With the week ahead, Mangini must find some way to increase theri pressure on oppsing QB's. The O-line must find some way to contineu improvement in the running game, and moreso in protecting our passers (or else we'll likely end the season with Brad Smith at QB, and Chad, Clem and Tui on IR).

As we've all said, if you cannot win in the trenches, you cannot win. So far, we're 0-2 on both counts. 3 very bad quarters, one competative-if-not-great quarter today.

Overall grade is still a "D" for the Jets today, but at least there was a few small rays of light for us to lay some hope of a recovery this season on.

J....E....T....S....JETS! JETS! JETS!!!!

Lets hope for continued improvement vs. the Phins. The season can still be salvaged, but it needs to start against the Phins next week, before it is too late.