Greene’s Right in the Middle of This Run

[Bruce Banner]

http://blog.newyorkjets.com/2010/10/14/greenes-right-in-the-middle-of-this-run/

There are several reasons for Shonn Greene to have a Rocky Mountain high this week. One is he’s never played in Denver before. Another is that he and the guys are eager to have an impactful game for their position coach, Anthony Lynn, who before he became a coach was a two-ring winner with the Broncos in 1997-98.

“This is a big game for him. We’ve been talking about it,” Greene said today at his locker. “We want to do our best for him.”

But Shonn, LaDainian Tomlinson and the “big fatties” up front want to grind away at the Broncos defense for two other reasons: They like being top dogs again.

“Every team, I think, wants to be No. 1 in certain categories,” Greene said. “That’s how our defense feels, and that’s also how we feel after being No. 1 in rushing last year. We want to continue that.”

Greene continues to talk in “we” terms even when the questions are about himself, and this is a good thing. The Jets have transitioned from TJ to LT, from Alan Faneca to Matt Slauson, everyone’s a year older, and yet the Green & White are again, as they finished the 2009 season, the top team in the NFL in rushing yards per game.

And SG, even though he started only two of the five games, even though he’s gotten almost 20 percent fewer carries than Tomlinson, is making this ground game a force to be reckoned with. In fact, Greene’s 280 rushing yards are the most by a No. 2 back in the league at this point. Talk about a one-two punch.

“Shonn just keeps hitting you, he keeps hitting you, then he bounces it on you,” head coach Rex Ryan said at today’s news conference at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. “He can bury teams in the fourth quarter. That’s his running style.”

Greene helped throw dirt on the Vikings with his 23-yard misdirection-run TD with 4:30 to play Monday night, but Ryan remembered another run when a Minny safety, perhaps Madieu Williams, tried to take him down.

“The safety came down and tried to take his ankles out. He dove low — and Shonn still rammed him with his helmet,” Ryan said with that ground-and-pound smile. “How the heck did he get his body down there? He has such great forward lean and balance. No matter how low the safety got, Shonn got lower. That was impressive.”

“That’s what I try to do, so at the end of the game, the fourth quarter, nobody’s going to want to come down and tackle me,” Greene said of his powerful style. “I think I picked up that style back in high school. The main reason for me playing football was that I liked to be physical and rough. I always had that mentality to be tougher than the next guy.”

Some still worry about Greene’s style banging him up too much for the postseason, but sharing the load with Tomlinson won’t hurt his late-season health. If the Jets’ two-man wrecking crew keep up its current pace, the two will finish the regular season with a combined 442 carries for 2,288 yards. Split those numbers up roughly in half and there’s more than enough to go around for both Greene and Tomlinson to help the Jets lead the league again and, more important, to supply a big chunk of the team’s planned-for playoff run.

Rex Cetera

We already tweeted the news that Ryan and the team’s doctors and trainers had both CB Darrelle Revis and LB Calvin Pace “limited” at today’s practice, taking part in some but not all team drills, a step up from Wednesday’s “did not participate” for both.

Rex isn’t yet ready to declare both players ready to roll for Denver, but he did state that “Both will definitely make the trip. … I’m hoping both of them can go. We’ll see. That flight is a long one. We’ll see how they come out of the flight and how they run around a little bit on Saturday.”

We’ll update here with the Broncos’ Thursday injury report when it arrives.

A Big Jenks Comeback?

Ryan was asked about DT Kris Jenkins, who suffered his second season-ending knee injury, this one in the Baltimore opener, saying recently that he wants to come back and play again in 2011. Rex was all for that.

“You’ve got to be 100 percent committed. If he wavers, that’s going to be tough. But I love the fact that he’s saying it right now,” the coach said. “We all know Jenks. If he says it, he’s going to go out and do it.

“We were expecting he was going to have a huge year for us. Coming off this injury, you’d like to see him really get his weight off earlier, which can only help him. This guy is a special player. I’m hoping he can do it. I don’t think he’s done.”

[bitonti]

greene is looking fwd to denver cause they can't stop the run

[Kleckineau]

Shonn and Ladanian (I wont degrade him by calling him LT) will both break 1000 yds this year.

[#27TheDominator]

I think Greene's been deserving more carries. In my opinion he deserves his #1 RB title back from Tomlinson. He may have gotten it and it was nice that they used him on the important short yardage play. They had been using Tomlinson there. I assumed that was more for ball security issues than power, but interestingly it was pouring Monday night, just like the opener when Greene was spitting it up.

I don't think Rex should be pointing out that Greene is ramming people with his helmet. I think that can get you a fine, but I guess the O can do anything they want.

[stoicsentry]

Shonn and Ladanian (I wont degrade him by calling him LT) will both break 1000 yds this year.

I think that's actually possible, which is quite an accomplishment. LT is in the 400 yard range, only 5 games in. You have to figure Greene will start to take more and more carries... so his yards per game should improve. LT can get 600 more in the next 11 games, no problem. Greene will hit 1,000 too.

[sh4dy15]

I really think youre gonna see Greene start to takeover later in the season. Not that I'm saying LT won't still be playing well but Greene has looked better each game and made some big plays late in games.

[ToonTime]

We should not pass the ball anymore than 20 times, tops.

This has the feel of BUF last year, over 300yds easy. I cannot wait..

[sh4dy15]

We should not pass the ball anymore than 20 times, tops.

This has the feel of BUF last year, over 300yds easy. I cannot wait..

I agree plus it keeps them off the field. I would like to see a few deep routes to Holmes and some fades to Edwards though. I like having a team that can finally make some plays through the air too haha

[serphnx]

This offense runs through LT. If they're not running it to him, half the passes are targeted to him. You take that option away and Sanchez will lose a huge security blanket, because Greene isn't a tenth of the receiving threat LT is. Opposing defenses have to focus on LT, and that opens everything else up and slows down the pass rush immensely.

I look at Greene as the closer. Even he mentions it, late in the game it's too hard to tackle him. He's coming in fresh and running like a truck while the D has spent roughly 3 quarters being frustrated by LT and the rest of this offense. Then bam, Greene comes in and just runs through everyone.

I like having 2 backs in the NFL now because I think it's too much punishment for one guy. We have a great setup right now. No point in messing with it at all. LT has a few more years left, after that I think we should draft another back again to pair with Greene. I just don't believe in the single back anymore really. Only CJ2K and AP can really handle the load it feels like these days, mostly because the two are so talented and are holding up so well. They rarely take clean hits either. I am worried that CJ2k though will get injured the way they're running him, but he has quietly put together another great season and is on pace to break 2k again.

[slats]

I think Greene's been deserving more carries. In my opinion he deserves his #1 RB title back from Tomlinson. He may have gotten it and it was nice that they used him on the important short yardage play. They had been using Tomlinson there. I assumed that was more for ball security issues than power, but interestingly it was pouring Monday night, just like the opener when Greene was spitting it up.

I don't think Rex should be pointing out that Greene is ramming people with his helmet. I think that can get you a fine, but I guess the O can do anything they want.

I don't mind LT starting the game and Greene finishing it, especially if Greene doesn't mind.

But I'd definitely like to see Shonn's carries increase and LT's decrease. LT is on pace for about 243 carries this year. Pretty low for him, but he is on pace for 54 receptions which is right around his career average. Close to 300 touches is a lot for a 31 year old RB. He's been phenomenal, and should continue to be a big part of the offense, but they should try to get those touches down so he's still reasonably fresh in the post-season.

It'll be really cool if McKnight is continuing to progress, and can maybe handle some third down work. But that might be asking too much.

[Bleedin Green]

I don't mind LT starting the game and Greene finishing it, especially if Greene doesn't mind.

But I'd definitely like to see Shonn's carries increase and LT's decrease. LT is on pace for about 243 carries this year. Pretty low for him, but he is on pace for 54 receptions which is right around his career average. Close to 300 touches is a lot for a 31 year old RB. He's been phenomenal, and should continue to be a big part of the offense, but they should try to get those touches down so he's still reasonably fresh in the post-season.

It'll be really cool if McKnight is continuing to progress, and can maybe handle some third down work. But that might be asking too much.

Agreed on the workload split. If the Jets can get a good balance going that keeps both guys healthy going into the postseason the Jets are in fantastic shape. While LT isn't getting the workload he used to get with the Chargers, the point still remains every year the guy was run into the ground by the time the playoffs came around. On the other hand, part of Greene's dominance in the postseason was how fresh and healthy he was, so if the Jets can keep from overworking each guy, that would certainly be ideal.

Any contributions from McKnight would just be gravy.