PLAY by PLAY from the NY POST

[CobraVerde]

Great article if you ask me. Everyone wants to drop the blame on Penny but we must remember this is a team effort.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10022007/sports/jets/play_by_play.htm

October 2, 2007 -- Eric Mangini gathered his players together yesterday in the aftermath of the Jets' indefensible loss to the Bills and showed them edited film of several mistakes that led to a 17-14 loss and cost them a victory that would have gotten them to 2-2.

What he should have done was show film of the Giants' resounding Sunday night win over the Eagles, because the Giants did to the Eagles what the Jets failed to against the Bills: They attacked an injury-depleted team where it was hurt and exploited it en route to a 16-3 victory.

For a litany of reasons (everyone deserves blame on this one, from the coaching staff on down through the active roster) the Jets didn't similarly attack and exploit the injury-riddled Bills.

The Giants, knowing Eagles running back Brian Westbrook was sidelined with an injury and Philadelphia could not hurt them on the ground, went after quarterback Donovan McNabb with a vengeance. The end result was an NFL-record-tying 12 sacks, six from Osi Umenyiora, who has three more sacks this season than the Jets have as a team.

Why didn't the Jets exploit a Bills defense that began the game without four starters and lost two more defensive backs during the game? Why couldn't the Jets defense do anything to confuse, rattle, pressure or distract Buffalo's rookie quarterback, Trent Edwards, making his first NFL start for starter J.P. Losman?

There was much that didn't make sense about the Jets' loss in Buffalo, one that dropped them to 1-3 as they prepare to face the rejuvenated Giants this Sunday.

One clear message that came from Mangini, though, was this: It's time to move on, forget what has happened in this underachieving first quarter of the season and focus on the next task. Mangini's message came in the form of a recent conversation he had with Marty Schottenheimer, who was visiting New York last week for the Miami game.

"In talking to the team (yesterday) morning, I shared a story (about) a conversation that I had with Marty Schottenheimer last week," Mangini said. "I was asking him how he had gotten the 200 (career) wins, why he was so consistent year in and year out and so productive.

"He started explaining about when he was a player. He said that he didn't get in (the games) very much, (but) he got in one game against (Joe) Namath, and Namath was a friend of his, and the first play . . . he got the blitz . . . and had a clear shot at Namath. He felt like he should win that situation because of Namath's knees and his mobility and all that stuff, and he whiffed. On the next drive they ran right at (Schottenheimer) and he got pushed back, and the next drive he got beat in coverage.

"He said, 'Eric, what I realized at the end of that drive when I single-handedly gave up the touchdown was that . . . I hadn't let go of the fact that I missed him on the first play.' And he said, 'I applied that lesson to all of my teams. I told them the play that you're playing is the most important play and that you can't get caught up in what happened before, because every single game is going to come down to a handful of plays.'

"The difference between a winning team and a losing team is very small and you don't know which one of those plays is going to be in that handful of plays, and (Schottenheimer) wanted all his teams at all times to approach each play the same way.

"That's what I showed this morning - a handful of plays that, if we had played them a little bit better and executed a little bit better, the outcome could have been different. It wasn't a function of assigning blame . . . or saying that these were the only plays that were important, it was just a function of showing how at any point, slight execution can dramatically affect the outcome of the game." mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com

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