Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 Chad Pennington not fazed with old mates around the corner By RICH CIMINI DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Friday, September 5th 2008, 12:13 AM Diaz/AP Chad Pennington hopes old friend Kerry Rhodes (below) doesn't intercept any passes of his this weekend. He'll take a few pass break ups though. Antonelli/News Chad Pennington doesn't talk trash. He apparently doesn't text it, either. On Wednesday, he sent the following text message to Kerry Rhodes, the Jets' ball-hawking safety: "No picks, please. Just PBUs." (That stands for pass break-ups.) Rhodes and Pennington became good friends over the summer - unbeknownst to the outside world, they roomed together in training camp - and they will be the critical pieces Sunday on a 100-yard chess board. The Jets-Dolphins season opener in Miami is being billed as Pennington versus Brett Favre, but if you want to get technical, it's more of a Pennington-Rhodes duel. Rhodes prides himself on being a cerebral player, and he'll need plenty of brains to outwit Pennington, who has made a career of outsmarting defenses. "I consider myself the quarterback of the defense and he's the quarterback of the offense, so we'll be going back and forth," Rhodes said Thursday. "It's going to be cat and mouse, kind of a chess thing." The Jets don't fear Pennington's arm - does anybody? - but they're concerned about him the way a hitter would feel about facing a crafty, junk-ball pitcher: If you let him find a comfort zone, he will make you look foolish. Pennington is a touch-and-timing passer, and the Jets' objective is to confuse him (perhaps wishful thinking) or force him to hesitate, perhaps by taking away his first read. The Jets know Pennington, and he knows them, so it will come down to execution and maybe a wrinkle or two. "If he's on the money and he's on time, and he has the reads, he can make every throw in this league," Rhodes said. "We have to get him off his spot." Rhodes and Pennington were teammates for three years, but they got to know each much better as roommates, an assigned pairing in the Hofstra dorms. It lasted only two weeks because Pennington was released the day after the Favre trade, but Rhodes called it a learning experience. He gained perspective on certain pass coverages from the quarterback's viewpoint, and he also gained perspective of the quarterback himself. "He's a goofy guy," Rhodes said. "He loves football, he loves life, he loves his wife, he loves everything. He's just a fun-loving guy." Now it Rhodes' job to make Pennington miserable for a day. The Jets, with such high expectations, can't afford to lose to the quarterback they kicked to the curb. But the stakes are just as high for Pennington. "I'd be remiss in saying that I'm emotionless. I'm a human being," said Pennington, who spent eight seasons with the Jets. "All of us have emotions ... but I'd be doing a disservice to my teammates and myself if I put too much into the emotional part of this." This week, it has seemed surreal at times for Rhodes, watching film of Pennington in another uniform. "It's funny seeing him in those - what do you call those colors? - teal and white," Rhodes said. "It's odd. You're going to play against a guy you're accustomed to being around. But you know it's him." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 NEW JETS SET FOR TAKEOFF By MARK CANNIZZARO PICK UP THE PACE: New Jets linebacker Calvin Pace closes in on Giants quarterback Eli Manning during preseason action.Last updated: 5:55 am September 5, 2008 Posted: 4:39 am September 5, 2008 With the season opener a mere three days away, there's a palpable anticipation emanating from the JetsNew York Jets ' palatial new multimillion-dollar locker room. There is always a level of expectancy for NFL season openers, but because the Jets have added so many significant new parts, that feeling is ratcheted up - particularly on the part of the key new players brought in during a busy offseason of retooling after last season's 4-12 finish. In an effort to bolster a defense that couldn't stop the run and failed to frighten opposing quarterbacks with a pass rush that had the ferocity of a toy poodle, the Jets brought in massive nose tackle Kris Jenkins to clog up the middle and linebacker Calvin Pace to pressure the quarterback. They also drafted linebacker Vernon Gholston with the hope he, too, will be a pass-rushing weapon. On offense, the line was bolstered with the signings of left guard Alan Faneca and right tackle Damien Woody. This was all an appetizer to the ballyhooed Brett Favre trade. Speaking to several of these new players yesterday, the feeling emerged that they have a heightened sense of anticipation for Sunday's game against the Dolphins in Miami for two reasons: first, because it's the first real game of the season with their new team; second, because they'd like to justify the Jets giving them all that money to come to New York. "I'm going to be nervous," Pace said. "You've got to go out there and prove yourself every day, but (debuting with a new team) does play a part. You want to come out there and give them what they invested in. "I am excited and a little nervous. With the new acquisitions and everything we've been building on, we've got some unknowns. We've seen what we can do in preseason, but preseason games don't count. That's why there's some uncertainty." Pace had a career-high 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 CHAD GOES FISHING FOR REVENGE VS. JETS By JUSTIN TERRANOVA CHAD PENNINGTONPosted: 4:39 am September 5, 2008 Chad PenningtonChad Pennington expected to be starting in the JetsNew York Jets ' season opener - just not for the Dolphins. The Packers did everything they could to ensure Brett Favre would not stay in the NFC North when it became clear he'd no longer play in Green Bay. But the Jets exercised no such precautions when they granted Pennington his release after they acquired Favre. Pennington won't have to wait long for a chance to make them pay. The Dolphins, who signed Pennington to a two-year contract less than two days after the QB was released, will host Favre and company on the NFL's opening Sunday. And this will be an important game for the Jets, with matchups against the Patriots and Chargers looming in Weeks 2 and 3. An 0-3 start would be no way to kick off the much-anticipated Favre era. "Chad has won games from behind and won playoff games," said Dan Marino, the CBS analyst and former Dolphin quarterback. "He has put teams on his back, and that's what the Dolphins needed. He will bring some credibility and calmness to the position where they feel they have a chance to win, as opposed to playing with a young man who hasn't won or doesn't have the experience." Gang Green's expectations were tepid after a disappointing 4-12 season, but a rash of acquisitions capped by Favre's has fans dreaming playoffs. One of the Jets' earliest free-agent signings could be crucial to making Favre's stay in New York a successful one. Alan Faneca, a stalwart on the Steelers' offensive line for a decade, was signed by the Jets to protect whoever was behind center. With the Jets, Favre may be throwing the ball downfield more than he did in Green Bay, where their offense was more geared toward the short to intermediate passing game. "They staked a lot of their productivity and season on fixing this offensive line," said CBS analyst Phil Simms. "It's going to be a nice test for them against the Dolphins, because they are stout on the defensive line. But when the Jets get in tough situations, they should be able to protect Favre long enough where he can do what he wants with the football." And Favre's skills are undeniable, even if he is soon to be 39-years-old. "I think he is one of the five best throwers of the football ever in the NFL. I think he is an incredible thrower. He can throw off-balance, and it is hard to hit him," said Simms, who is the only quarterback to lead a team to the playoff at the age of 39. Expectations were low for the Jets this season, but in Miami they were nearly non-existent coming off a 1-15 season. The future looks bright with Bill Parcells coming in as executive VP of football operations. It didn't for this season with John Beck and Chad Henne battling it out to be starting quarterback. "They are definitely going to be better with Chad," said ESPN analyst Cris Carter. "If that's five or six wins or more, we will have to see." justin.terranova@nypost.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 IT'S LIKELY DWIGHT TIME FOR LOWERY By MARK CANNIZZARO DWIGHT LOWERY Rookie CB may start. Posted: 4:39 am September 5, 2008 Eric Mangini won't say who'll start at cornerback opposite Darrelle RevisDarrelle Revis . But count on it being rookie fourth-round draft pick Dwight Lowery, who's had a terrific camp and preseason. In fact, while speaking to The Post yesterday, Lowery, inadvertently slipped to indicate that he will, indeed, start. "So when I go out there (to start) on Sunday . . .," Lowery said, speaking about not wanting to let his teammates down, before catching himself and quickly adding, "or if I go out there on Sunday as a starter, I've got to have that mentality - I can't let my teammates down." Justin MillerJustin Miller , who began camp as the starter, has a foot injury and has been limited in practice, and he might not be active for Sunday's game. When asked if Lowery would start, Mangini was typically vague, saying, "He's been working with the ones (starters), but so has David (Barrett) and Drew ColemanDrew Coleman ." * As Jets S and defensive captain Kerry Rhodes stood at his locker yesterday morning, he was reading a special text message from a friend on his cell phone. It read: "Please, no picks. Just PBUs." The friend was Chad Pennington, whom the Jets will face when they play the Dolphins on Sunday in Miami. Pennington was pleading with Rhodes not to pick off any of his passes, instead to limit his defensive plays to "PBUs" - pass breakups. "I just replied with a laugh out loud - LOL," Rhodes said. The Jets' defenders will not be taking it easy on their former teammate. "Chad was here a long time and he's been practicing against this defense for a long time," Revis said. "There's going to be a lot of back and forth. Chad's a great guy. We still care about him here and we respect him as a player." * Rhodes was still glowing about being appointed a team captain. "It was a big honor," he said. "That's an award that comes from within; that's your teammates, your peers. They're looking to you as someone who does his job consistently, and someone they can count on. It's definitely a big deal." * CB David Barrett (shoulder), WR Laveranues Coles (thigh), DE Shaun Ellis (hand), WR Marcus Henry (calf), DB Justin Miller (foot) and OL Damien Woody (shoulder) were listed as "limited participation in practice" on the injury report, but are expected to play Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 Manning, not Favre, is No. 1 in town- Wallace Matthews September 5, 2008 Eli Manning is no better than the third-best player on his own offense. Plaxico Burress, with his hands of Velcro and nerves of steel, is surely better, as is Brandon Jacobs, a snorting bull in helmet and shoulder pads. And yet, Manning is the No. 1 quarterback in this two-QB town, even though the other guy's name is Brett Favre. He earned that distinction when he led the Giants to their still hard-to-believe 17-14 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Wallace Matthews E-mail | Recent columns Manning doesn't have Favre's panache or his resume, but he does have one thing Favre does not, and probably will not, especially if his stay with the Jets amounts to just this season: A Super Bowl victory in the colors of a team that bills itself out of New York, even if the actual games take place across the river. That kind of thing buys you a lot of equity in this town, a lot more than 17 years of spectacular play somewhere else, and for the rest of this season at least, the heat is off Manning. But it is only beginning to warm up under Favre, who inherits the mantle of expectation that Manning shed in one evening. Until further notice, the thought of Favre in a Jets uniform is as jarring as the sight of Willie Mays in Mets livery or Joe Namath playing out the string in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Manning is looking more at home here. In only his fourth year in the league, Manning led the Giants to a place no Jets quarterback has seen in nearly 40 years, and until Favre matches that in a green-and-white uniform, he has to be content with being No. 2 on the local depth chart. It's been just as long since both New York teams boasted marquee quarterbacks at the same time, with Namath chucking for the Jets, while Fran Tarkenton was scrambling for his life as a Giant. But Favre's moment came nearly 12 years ago, and although his presence on the roster makes the Jets more relevant, it remains to be seen if his 39-year-old arm can make them a better team. The Giants, on the other hand, make Manning a better quarterback. They do it with defense and they do it with a rugged, at times unstoppable running game and they do it with Burress, who last night caught 10 passes, several of which he probably had no business catching, for 133 yards. Manning's job was made infinitely easier by his offensive line and by Jacobs, who gained 116 yards on 21 carries and put some serious hurt on Redskins defensive backs Fred Smoot and LaRon Landry, who were foolish enough to get in his way. Manning, in turn, gives them an increasingly steady hand on the throttle. In last night's Giants season opener, a convincing 16-7 win over an inept Washington Redskins team, Manning did nothing spectacularly good and nothing spectacularly bad. He made a couple of good throws, a couple of middling throws and one particularly ugly one that reminded you of the "old" Manning, the one who did not yet have a Super Bowl ring or the full confidence of the fans or the media, including the guy you are reading. I'm still not entirely sold on him but he got the job done in February and he got it done last night, scoring his team's only touchdown on a 1-yard bootleg to cap the Giants' first possession of the season. He even broke a tackle to do it. His final statistics - 19-for-35 for 216 yards, a 61.1 QB rating, no TDs and one interception on the kind of throw he used to make as a skittish youngster, under pressure, off the wrong foot and into the wrong hands - weren't good enough to make anyone forget Favre's glory days with the Packers, but certainly good enough to beat the hapless Redskins. "We hit some good plays, we did some good things, but there were some miscues that we had," Manning said. "Plaxico played really well tonight but I think the passing game can improve. We'll get better." Most of the miscues came from Manning - a couple of near picks, a delay-of-game penalty and two burned timeouts in the first half when he appeared confused by the Redskins' showing blitz only to pull back just before the snap - and yet none of them cost his team much more than a greater margin of victory. As a player, he is not necessarily a tough act to follow, but as a winner, Eli Manning is now the standard the other QBs in this town will be asked to live up to. Even one named Brett Favre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 Jets, Pennington couldn't know each other betterBY ERIK BOLAND | erik.boland@newsday.com September 5, 2008 FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Several Jets defenders have called the prospect of seeing Chad Pennington in the teal, orange and green of the Dolphins "weird." But besides the different uniform, there's another dynamic to Sunday's season opener at Miami. No one knows the Jets' defense better than a guy who, up until 3½ weeks ago, was practicing against it. Defensive end Shaun Ellis said that situation would be a "cat-and-mouse" game between Pennington, who spent eight seasons with the Jets before being released Aug. 7, and the defense. "It's tough when you're facing a quarterback that's been going against you at practice for the last couple years," Ellis said. "In the end, that's what I mean by cat and mouse: He may get us sometimes, but we'll get him, too. It's just kind of who can get who the most." How will the Jets "get" Pennington? "Basically, trying to make things look different so he doesn't get a jump-read," Ellis said. "When you just line up, Chad's going to know what defense you're in. So basically you have to disguise and mix it up." Of course, every week is a cat-and-mouse game, with defenses often showing "dummy" looks. But certain quarterbacks are easier to deceive than others, and Pennington has always had the reputation of being among the smartest. "We're going to play all sides of the game," safety Kerry Rhodes said. "Like I said, if he's on the money and he's on time and he has the read, he can make every throw in this league. That's why we're going into the game trying to get him off of his spot and trying to mess his reads up." But drawing either head coach into the Pennington discussion was nearly impossible. "From our end, and I've mentioned this to our people here, in my mind that's all overrated," Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said Wednesday. "What I believe is that we game-plan as coaches, try to come up with the best plan to attack people, and that's what we go on." Impressively, Eric Mangini managed to give an even more general non-answer to the question of whether there might be even a small advantage Pennington could enjoy from practicing with the Jets last month. "As we're going through training camp, you're covering the whole playbook and all those different things that are going to come up throughout the course of the season that you want to work on that you want to be able to draw from," Mangini said. "But when you get into the game plan, you narrow it down and maybe it's 10 percent of the playbook." Players, however, admitted the obvious. "[Pennington] knows what we like to do in certain things and we know what he likes to do in certain situations," Rhodes said. "So it's going to be a chess match, we're going to have multiple things to do against him. Hopefully, we can discourage him early and make him a step slower with his reads." Notes & quotes: Mangini praised Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning, a former Jets assistant. "He's very creative," said Mangini, who coached for the Jets from 1997-1999 and got to know Henning when he joined Bill Parcells' staff in 1998. "What I've always liked about Dan is the way that he's able to create leverage and angles when typically there aren't leverages and angles. He's done a lot of creative things against the 3-4 defense." ... DB David Barrett (shoulder), WR Laveranues Coles (thigh), Ellis (hand), WR Marcus Henry (calf), CB/KR Justin Miller (foot) and OL Damien Woody (shoulder) were limited in practice, but all are expected to play Sunday. Season opener Jets at Miami Sunday, 1 p.m. TV: Ch. 2 Radio: WEPN (1050) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 Pennington: It will be 'weird and different' facing Jets By Jane McManus The Journal News Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky Jet Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 Ghosts of aging greats who switched teams invoke no fear in Brett Favre Click-2-Listen By CHARLES ELMORE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 04, 2008 Brett Favre says he savors the chance to sail under new colors when the New York Jets open against the Dolphins on Sunday, even if the tide of NFL history tends to run against him. Some legendary Hall of Fame-bound quarterbacks wound up treading water when they switched uniforms late in their careers - sometimes literally. "When Joe Namath ended up with the Rams, I remember we did an interview, and he never even practiced," recalled Steve Sabol, founder and president of NFL Films. "He just swam laps in the pool." Who Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villain_the_foe Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 Chad Pennington not fazed with old mates around the corner By RICH CIMINI DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Friday, September 5th 2008, 12:13 AM Diaz/AP Chad Pennington hopes old friend Kerry Rhodes (below) doesn't intercept any passes of his this weekend. He'll take a few pass break ups though. Antonelli/News Chad Pennington doesn't talk trash. He apparently doesn't text it, either. On Wednesday, he sent the following text message to Kerry Rhodes, the Jets' ball-hawking safety: "No picks, please. Just PBUs." (That stands for pass break-ups.) Rhodes and Pennington became good friends over the summer - unbeknownst to the outside world, they roomed together in training camp - and they will be the critical pieces Sunday on a 100-yard chess board. The Jets-Dolphins season opener in Miami is being billed as Pennington versus Brett Favre, but if you want to get technical, it's more of a Pennington-Rhodes duel. Rhodes prides himself on being a cerebral player, and he'll need plenty of brains to outwit Pennington, who has made a career of outsmarting defenses. "I consider myself the quarterback of the defense and he's the quarterback of the offense, so we'll be going back and forth," Rhodes said Thursday. "It's going to be cat and mouse, kind of a chess thing." The Jets don't fear Pennington's arm - does anybody? - but they're concerned about him the way a hitter would feel about facing a crafty, junk-ball pitcher: If you let him find a comfort zone, he will make you look foolish. Pennington is a touch-and-timing passer, and the Jets' objective is to confuse him (perhaps wishful thinking) or force him to hesitate, perhaps by taking away his first read. The Jets know Pennington, and he knows them, so it will come down to execution and maybe a wrinkle or two. "If he's on the money and he's on time, and he has the reads, he can make every throw in this league," Rhodes said. "We have to get him off his spot." Rhodes and Pennington were teammates for three years, but they got to know each much better as roommates, an assigned pairing in the Hofstra dorms. It lasted only two weeks because Pennington was released the day after the Favre trade, but Rhodes called it a learning experience. He gained perspective on certain pass coverages from the quarterback's viewpoint, and he also gained perspective of the quarterback himself. "He's a goofy guy," Rhodes said. "He loves football, he loves life, he loves his wife, he loves everything. He's just a fun-loving guy." Now it Rhodes' job to make Pennington miserable for a day. The Jets, with such high expectations, can't afford to lose to the quarterback they kicked to the curb. But the stakes are just as high for Pennington. "I'd be remiss in saying that I'm emotionless. I'm a human being," said Pennington, who spent eight seasons with the Jets. "All of us have emotions ... but I'd be doing a disservice to my teammates and myself if I put too much into the emotional part of this." This week, it has seemed surreal at times for Rhodes, watching film of Pennington in another uniform. "It's funny seeing him in those - what do you call those colors? - teal and white," Rhodes said. "It's odd. You're going to play against a guy you're accustomed to being around. But you know it's him." If we were to lose to anyone this year, i rather it be Chad. As a Jets fan he's been a big part of my life and I really wish him much success in Miami. But if we happen to stomp them out, i'll take that as well. LETS GO FISHING YA'LL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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