{"id":21929,"date":"2013-09-16T02:42:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T06:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=21929"},"modified":"2013-09-15T21:44:48","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T01:44:48","slug":"monday-morning-thoughts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2013\/09\/16\/monday-morning-thoughts-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JetNation.com<\/a>I decided to wait a few days, watch the game\u00a0again prior to writing this editorial.\u00a0 The Jets lost a close game 13-10 in tough conditions, in a tough environment in Foxboro.\u00a0 They had several opportunities to take advantage of a rarely stagnant Patriots offense and didn’t capitalize.<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Game Ball: Chris Ivory: 12 carries, 52 yards.\u00a0 He ran very hard and got some key 3rd down and short conversions for the Jets.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Jets started to develop a consistent run game against the Patriots.\u00a0 Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg is not known to run the ball a considerable amount, but he abandoned it and relied on his rookie quarterback Geno Smith to throw the ball 35 times yet again.\u00a0 A rookie quarterback needs to have a balanced attack in order to not panic and to avoid putting too much pressure on him.\u00a0 Chris Ivory only had 12 carries but had 52 yards, and Bilal Powell had 13 carries for 48 yards.\u00a0 Jets need to have these guys in the 15-20 carry range in order to be successful.<\/p>\n

The Patriots and Bill Belichick knew the Jets would throw the ball often.\u00a0 At first, they played zone against the Jets wide receivers.\u00a0 After several dropped passes, including 4 from Clyde Gates, and 2 from Stephen Hill(the Jets dropped 8 balls all together), the Patriots realized that they could get more aggressive with their coverage.\u00a0 They went man to man with safeties on top for the rest of the game.\u00a0 This led to 3 interceptions by Geno Smith.\u00a0 The first interception was the “dagger.”\u00a0 Already well within field goal range for the tie, on 3rd down and 4 Smith rolled out to his left, threw across his body behind Santonio Holmes, and threw a key interception when it was almost guaranteed that the Jets would come out of that drive with points.<\/p>\n

This is the frustrating part for fans because it feels as though the Jets have went back in time four years and are saying once again, “He’s a rookie, he’s got to learn.”\u00a0 Smith will have to learn quickly, and with the help of a proven offensive coordinator and a quality quarterbacks coach (David Lee), Smith will continue to progress.\u00a0 The other two interceptions he threw were behind his intended target, poorly thrown balls.\u00a0 Keep in mind that weather was a factor, and Smith has very small hands.\u00a0 He struggled last year in the Pinstripe Bowl against Syracuse in the snow, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he throws the ball as the weather starts to get colder and precipitation starts to come down more often.\u00a0 Once it started to rain, Smith struggled with his accuracy, and\u00a0the spiral on the ball wasn’t quite as tight as it was in the beginning of the game.<\/p>\n

Smith made some very tough throws in the pocket and the Jets avoided using the Wildcat formation for the first time in three years.\u00a0 There were several good things offensively that game out of this game, but at the end of the game, the offensive line losing their temper, throwing punches and running over an official will certainly not help the cause as the Jets come home to play Buffalo next Sunday.\u00a0 D’Brickashaw Ferguson could be suspended for throwing a punch, although early indications say that he’ll just be fined.\u00a0 This will be a major development as the week goes on.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Game Ball: David Harris: 7 tackles, 1 tackle for loss.<\/em><\/p>\n

Keeping Tom Brady to 185 yards, you would think the Jets won this game by two touchdowns.\u00a0 The run defense was stellar all game long.\u00a0 David Harris had his best game in two years, and that young defensive line continues to impress.\u00a0 This group is young, fast, and can get into the backfield.\u00a0 They’re only going to get better.\u00a0 Keep your fingers crossed that Mo Wilkerson’s ankle injury isn’t serious and that he won’t miss any significant time.\u00a0 He was carted off the field late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

As good as the Jets run defense was, their secondary was the exact opposite.\u00a0 Dee Milliner was benched by Rex Ryan and replaced by Darrin Walls after getting beat several times by Patriots wide receivers.\u00a0 Milliner needs time and reps to figure out when to turn and run with NFL receivers.\u00a0 The cushion in the NFL\u00a0needs to be\u00a0a lot bigger than what he was\u00a0used to playing in college and it’ll take time for him to learn.\u00a0 Antonio Cromartie had another bad penalty early in the game that led to a Patriots touchdown scored on a blown coverage.\u00a0 Darrin Walls filled in for Milliner nicely having a key pass deflection.\u00a0 After the game, Rex Ryan wouldn’t commit to starting Milliner next game, which could be a good thing.\u00a0 He needs to learn and in time he’s going to be a great cornerback.<\/p>\n

The Jets were handed a gift by the Patriots, whose receivers made the Jets receivers look like Hall of Famers at times.\u00a0 Rookies Aaron Dobson and Kembrell Thompkins made key drops and didn’t get their head around quick enough on several plays.\u00a0 There was an obvious disconnect between Brady and his receivers, which hasn’t been seen in a very long time from them.\u00a0 As bad as the Jets secondary looked, they could’ve been exposed even more if these receivers would’ve made a few more plays.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Game Ball: Nick Folk: 1\/1 FGs (37 yards), 2 touchbacks<\/em><\/p>\n

The Jets forced the Patriots to punt 11 times this game, but they manage to do something that I’ve never seen in the NFL.\u00a0 The Jets, on multiple occasions, decided to have no one return a punt and go for an all out block.\u00a0 They never came close and luckily, the Jets got a few lucky bounces on punts that could’ve landed them inside the 10 a few times, but stayed around the 20 yard line.\u00a0 Kyle Wilson cannot return punts, neither can Jeremy Kerley.\u00a0 The Jets need to find someone to return punts and kicks, maybe a Josh Cribbs(if healthy) or Roscoe Parrish.\u00a0 Neither of the current guys make good decisions.\u00a0 Wilson had 20 yards of room in front of him and decided to fair catch the ball.\u00a0 With a rookie quarterback, the Jets need to have good field position, and he failed to get the Jets in a position to do so.<\/p>\n

On kick returns, Clyde Gates(who dropped 4 passes on offense) was ineffective.\u00a0 Punter Rob Malone was erratic.\u00a0 He had several chances to pin the Patriots deep and failed to do so.\u00a0 Nick Folk was again the highlight, going 1-1\u00a0 with a 37 yard field goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I decided to wait a few days, watch the game\u00a0again prior to writing this editorial.\u00a0 The Jets lost a close game 13-10 in tough conditions, in a tough environment in Foxboro.\u00a0 They had several opportunities to take advantage of a rarely stagnant Patriots offense and didn’t capitalize. Offense Game Ball: Chris Ivory: 12 carries, 52 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1337],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-editorials","8":"category-home-slider"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/USATSI_7429742_158813650_lowres.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-5HH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21929"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21934,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929\/revisions\/21934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}