This one hurts
-
- September
- 30
Yes, the Jets always have trouble in Buffalo, having now lost four of five, but today’s 17-14 loss was inexcusable.
The Jets played with their first-stringers. In some instances, the Bills couldn’t even get their third-stringers onto the field. But, as usual in football, it comes down to the lines and both the Bills’ offensive and defensive lines outplayed their Jets’ counterparts.
Take, for instance, Marshawn Lynch’s 10 yard touchdown run. First, left guard Derrick Dockery and left tackle Jason Peters manhandled Jets’ nose tackle Dewayne Robertson, pushing him way off the line. Then Peters left that scene of destruction and sealed off Jets rookie linebacker David Harris, paving a huge lane for Lynch.
And even after talking to the Jets after the game, I can’t offer a coherent explanation as to why the Jets, facing a Bills secondary missing three-fourths of its core, could not push the ball downfield better. Yes, the Bills looked to take away the deeper routes, that’s just what they do in Cover-2, but they shouldn’t have had the personnel to do so so effectively.
Something, maybe a lot of things, is wrong with these Jets and they may be in far too big of a hole to get out of to be a serious playoff contender.
The thing to remember, though, is the season is just 25 percent over, there is time to turn this around. But given the way Eric Mangini runs this club, he also stands a shot of losing the locker room if the team doesn’t get some wins soon.
And then things could turn very ugly.
That’s it for now. I’m tired and hungry and I’m going to get to the Anchor Bar to watch Giants-Eagles. In the meantime, here are the Jets-supplied post-game notes:
Chad Pennington finished the day 32-of-39 for 290 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. The 32 completions are a career-high, surpassing his previous best of 31, which came versus Buffalo on 10/10/04. Pennington also surpassed Vinny Testaverde (12,497 passing yards) for 4th place all-time in team history with 12,554 passing yards.
Pennington’s five-yard TD pass to Laveranues Coles was Pennington’s fifth of the season and Coles’ fourth touchdown reception. Pennington was 4-of-4 for 72 yards on the drive.
The touchdown pass was the 77th of Pennington’s career, tying him with Vinny Testaverde for fourth all-time as a Jet.
Pennington completed 15 consecutive passes, his single-game career best (14 at Miami, 12/28/03), before the interception by Jabari Greer in the fourth quarter. The interception was Pennington’s first in 115 regular season attempts, dating back to 12/17/06 at Minnesota.
Pennington hit Jerricho Cotchery with a pair of 28-yard passes during the Jets first touchdown drive, the longest completions for Pennington this season.
Laveranues Coles caught eight passes for 65 yards and a touchdown, giving him 530 receptions for his career. Today, he passed Brett Perriman for 81st on the NFL’s all-time receptions list.
Coles recorded his 28th touchdown reception as a Jet, tying him for ninth all-time in team history. The score was the 35th of his career.
Coles is the first Jets receiver since 1998 to have at least four touchdown receptions through the first four games. Keyshawn Johnson hauled in five touchdown passes through four games in 1998.
When Laveranues Coles caught an eight-yard pass from Chad Pennington in the first quarter, it marked his 65th consecutive game with a reception.
Leon Washington’s 8-yard touchdown run was his first rushing touchdown this season and fifth of his career. It was the Jets first rushing touchdtown of the season by a running back. Chad Pennington has the Jets only other rushing touchdown. Washington also has a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown vs. Miami, 9/23.
Leon Washington established a new career-high for receptions with eight catches for 38 yards. His previous career-high was seven, set against Buffalo on 12/10/06. He also carried the ball four times for 24 yards and returned two kickoffs for 54 yards.
Jerricho Cotchery caught eight passes for 106 yards. It was his second 100-yard receiving game of the season and the fourth of his career.
Brad Smith finished the day with one carry for two yards and two catches for 36 yards. He caught a 26-yard pass from Chad Pennington at the 5:30 mark of the fourth quarter for the longest reception of his career.
Thomas Jones finished the day with 12 carries for 35 yards. He now has 5,638 rushing yards, passing Pete Johnson for 77th on the NFL’s all-time rushing list.
Tight end Joe Kowalewski’s one-yard reception in the fourth quarter was the first reception of his career.
Jets played their first scoreless half since Dec. 25, 2006 at Miami. The Jets prevailed in that contest, 13-10.
In the first quarter, Victor Hobson registered his first sack of the season on Trent Edwards to end the Bills first possession. Hobson now has five sacks in nine career games against Buffalo.
Shaun Ellis recorded his second sack in as many weeks. He now has 50.5 career sacks, trailing Mo Lewis by 2.5 sacks for 5th on the Jets all-time list.
Jonathan Vilma forced a fumble by TE Robert Royal with 1:46 to go in the first quarter, which was recovered by Victor Hobson. It was the Jets first defensive fumble recovery of the season.
Andre Dyson picked off a Trent Edwards pass in the end zone for his first interception of the season and 22nd interception of his career. Of defensive players entering the NFL in 2001, Dyson is third in career interceptions.
1. Anthony Henry, DAL 26
2. Nate Clements, SF 23
3. Andre Dyson, NYJ 22
4. Ken Lucas, CAR 20
5. Fred Smoot, WAS 19
Mike Nugent’s 37-yard field goal attempt that hit the post at the end of the first half broke a string of 23 successful field goal attempts inside of 50 yards. His last miss inside of 50 was at Tennessee during the opening game of the 2006 season (9/10).
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 8:22 pm by Andrew Gross.
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Jane McManus 
mangenius isn’t looking so bright is he. why didnt jones run the ball more. and where was the pressure on the inexperienced quarterback. mangenius may not loose the locker room but he is losing fans
[...] derek eisel wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAnd even after talking to the Jets after the game, I can’t offer a coherent explanation as to why the Jets, facing a Bills secondary missing three-fourths of its core, could not push the ball downfield better. … [...]
Andrew, just a couple of questions, as a Pennington fan, I have heard all the crap about his arm-strength and let’s face it, this guy is an NFL quarterback and can throw the ball 50 yards but it seems that the play calling is not allowing for this. He did have the nice strike to Brad Smith late but that was it. Is it the play calling? Is it the time he has? It seems like he had some time today. It just doesn’t make sense. The Jets as complex as the offense is just seem to get too cute sometimes and instead of trying to pound the football or work the middle of the field with Baker, et al, they get too concerned with the movement and reverses and I think that hurts them. Plus TJ only getting 12 carries is atrocious..almost as bad as the defense!!
this game was disappointing for so many reasons, andrew, here are just a few:
1) they are now 1-3 in the conference, which is a killer for tie-breakers down the line, and considering the next several games are NFC heavy this will continue to plague the Jets.
2) yet again the jets chose to punt instead of going for it on 4th and (barely) 1 inside Bills territory. this highlights the total lack of aggressiveness which is seemingly becoming a key characteristic of these Jets. they did the same thing early on against NE, too, and we know where that game went.
3) for the scond straight year, it seems like other teams are able to read Chad’s eyes just a bit too easily, resulting in critical INT’s.
4) the pass to Coles made no sense w/ 11 seconds left, b/c there was no guarantee coles would have been able to get out of bounds and stop the clock, even if he had caught it. considering that officials have a strong tendency to err on the side of winding the clock instead of stopping it, the last 11 seconds may have run off anyway.
5) the lack of urgency surrounding the play caling leading up to the INT was excruciating – when a key game is on the line, how do you accept two screens/dumpoffs to backs and one five yard out pattern to coles that is nowhere near the sideline.
based on the extraordinary parity in the afc (there are a ton of 2-2 teams and the steelers are a fraudulent 3-1), the wildcard race should come down to the final weeks of the season. whether the jets are part of that chase will depend upon the team’s ability to rebound starting next week.
the worst case scenario would be losing to giants next week and then falling to herm’s kc team vying for the playoffs in week 17.
ugh
My problem, is that the daring Mangini of last year, seems to have bought into our previous head coach’s fearball mentality.
The team has become so conservative, and predictable.
I never was sold on lil Schott. He never has been able to get a handle, on how to use Leon, Brad Smith, and now Thomas Jones. I think they’re so spooked by the offensive line, that they’re scared to take any time to throw downfield.
Lots of people keep saying it’s because of Chad’s arm, but I think it’s their OL fears.
As soon as the Bills scored yesterday, we moved down field, with mid-range passes, for a TD. Why we need to be behind, before they allow a pass more than 10 yards… drives me crazy.
And on D, they’re not doing the movement & camouflaged coverages, that were so successful, during the 2nd half of last season.
I’m terribly disappointed in this coaching staff, for being so scared.
Last season, Mangini would go for 4th & 1. Yesterday, in the 1st quarter, we were moving the ball, we had a 4th & 1 in Bills’ territory. They tried to draw the Bills offsides, wasted a timeout, and punted.
Drives me crazy, that Mangini is now emulating the Preacher.
One more thing… Andrew, can you ask Mangini, why they refuse to even attempt a pass downfield?
Whether it’s successful or not, you have to let the D know, that it’s possible, otherwise they’ll show no respect, and just clog the line-of-scrimmage, as they’re doing.
Sometimes you’ll get an interference penalty too.
And yes, I know Chad’s arm isn’t the greatest, but he can throw 30 – 40 yards. You have to show it to the D.