It was a nice sunny day. The Jets vs. The Patriots. The battle was set. The NFL was about to kick off the season and the grudge match for 1st place in the AFC East was about to begin. Soon after kickoff, the optimism faded and the chance for a positive outcome looked bleak.
The Jets started off nice with a few first downs but then stalled at midfield and punted deep. From there, this is where things go bad.
We had ZERO pass rush. Tom Brady could have stood back there all day looking for his receivers as we didn't put a hand on the guy all day long. And, when he wasn't throwing the ball, they were running for 6 yards a carry. Yup...the 2nd year of the 3-4 defense is working really well...NOT ! And, it was a learning experience for Darelle Revis as he was the lucky sucka to have to cover Randy Moss for half of the plays while David Barrett did just as bad in coverage. Moss wound up with 183 yards so that tells you how good our coverage was. But, I'm not going to fully blame the secondary. Part of the problem is that we don't have the personnel for the 3-4 system. And the other part is that we have NO pass rush. We haven't had a sack artist since John Abraham exited 2 years ago. When a QB doesn't get touched all day, he'll eventually find a receiver and Brady kept on finding them. Did we even send a blitz? I didn't see many of them all day.
We couldn't stop their offense. Once we blocked a field goal attempt or maybe they muffed it. They punted either once or not at all the entire game. I can't even remember. The worst was when we were down in the 4th, the Patriots had a 10.5 minute drive to officially seal the deal. We barely even forced 3rd down all game. They were getting 1st downs on 2nd down most of the game. It's one of the worst defensive games I've seen us play in a long time.
As for the offense, not good either. And, I'm not even blaming Pennington for the lack of offense. He had NO time to throw and was sacked on his ass 5 times. The issue is the offensive line. With Kendall gone, and Jacob Bender being inactive, we had in Adrien Clarke. Who the HELL is that? D'Brick and Mangold mixed with 2 inexperienced players resulted in no QB protection and no holes for the running game. If you can't protect the QB and can't run, you are not going to move the ball too well. And Chad played decently completing 16 of 22 for 167 yards and 2 TDs both to Coles. Thomas Jones, our new RB, gained 42 yards but there were really no holes for him to run through.
The Pennington injury was eerie. This team has NOT had luck on opening day. In 1999, Vinny tore his Achilles (against the Patriots). In 2005, it was Chad got hurt. Now, again, Chad was limping off the field and the crowd booed which he didn't deserve. But, I did cheer for Kellen Clemens who completed his first NFL pass. It was reminiscent of when Mo Lewis broke Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady comes in to lead his team eventually to 3 Super Bowls. If Clemens is that guy, then hopefully it is a nice omen that the Patriots were the team to get Clemens onto the field. However, the season is young and I hope that Pennington is okay to play the Ravens on Sunday or it could be a long season.
The big killer of the game was starting off the 2nd half and giving up a 108 yard kickoff return. That was demoralizing to the team as well as the fans as we were now down by 14. Speaking of fans, where the HELL was Fireman Ed yesterday? Did they take him off payroll and replace him with the Jets Flight Crew? The Flight Crew did good but I still would have liked some loud J-E-T-S to get the team and crowd going.
The game was totally lopsided. We were outgained 431 yards to 227...OUCH ! Mangini is now 1-3 vs Belechick....OUCH !
The final score was 38 to 14 but could have easily been a lot worse. Hopefully they can re-group from this disaster or it could be a long season.
-- Birdman
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