Well, a change in quarterbacks still resulted in our 6th straight loss to bring our record to 1-8. But, there were things that I liked in our 23-20 OT loss to the Skins. There were more things that I didn't like than I did like but let's begin.
Kellen Clemens made his first home start and I think he did a decent job. He made some good throws and made some bad throws that luckily were not intercepted. Kellen was 23 for 42 for 226 yards which is not a great completion percentage but even with the lead, for some reason, we abandoned the running game. Plus, if you add the 5 dropped passes, the numbers would be about 28 for 42 for 290 yards which sounds a lot better. What bothered me is that we had a 17-3 half-time lead and we were only able to muster a field goal over the final 46 minutes of the game which was in the final 30 seconds. Plus, if you take away Leon Washington's game opening 86 yard kickoff return, the offense really only scored 13 points. Kellen did do some nice things. He did throw a touchdown pass to Joe Kowalewski of all people. The Jets looked great on their first possession. Kellen was 6 of 8 moving the Jets 73 yards which stalled when he was sacked and we had to settle for a field goal. But, it was nice to see the kid walk the team down the field.
We finally put in the QB with a strong arm and we still throw tons of little short dinky passes. Let's air out the ball a bit more and spread things out. Get this stat: Only 4 of Kellen's 42 throws travelled more than 20 yards in the air, completing only 2 of 9 on attempts for more than 10 yards. Of the 9 longer throws, a few of them were balls he threw away and a few of them were drops. Why are we not running longer routes? Why do we change QBs and run the same pathetic offense? Is Brian Schottenheimer sleeping? Wake up and air it out already. Clemens did, however, throw completions to 7 different receivers which was nice to see but you want to see balls go for more than 6 yards per reception.
The running game surely didn't help the passing game. Thomas Jones was invisible again running for a pathetic 49 yards on 13 carries. Part of the problem is the offensive line not creating any holes as well as not protecting the QB. Clemens was sacked 3 times and had a few late hits on him that went for penalties. They need to protect this kid better or he'll be broken by years' end. What was scary was the Clemens was running for his life but wound up with 48 yards rushing, just one yard behind Jones. I liked his instinct to run at certain points but he was also running for his life.
There was so many mistakes by the offense. Cotchery dropped two passes and lost a fumble (his first since 2005.) He wound up with 5 catches for 90 yards but should have had a lot more if he could catch the ball. Brad Smith dropped another 2 balls and I forgot who had the 5th drop. Why can't people catch Kellen's ball? Is it moving too fast for them? Are they used to standing around to wait for a ball to get to them? McCareins killed Kellen in the 2nd game of the year dropping two balls and now 5 drops from 3 players pretty much put the nail in the coffin.
The defense was embarrassing yesterday blowing a 14 point lead. But, it's how we blew the lead which made me want to vomit. One of the more disgusting plays was Abram Elam failing to get to the ball on an on-side kick attempt catching the entire Jets team off guard and giving the ball right back to the Redskins. But, the story of the day was our run defense. We allowed 296 yards rushing. Yes, you heard me right...296 yards rushing. It was their worst defensive performances since 1983 when they gave us 328 yards to the Patriots. Portis alone rushed for 196 yards on 36 attempts. To make matters worse, it was Portis' first 100 yard game this season as he had been averaging 55.8 yards in his previous 6 games. Okay...what the HELL happened yesterday? Was it the combination of Ex-Jets - Pete Kendall and Jason Fabini - creating monster holes for the running game? Just in the 2nd half alone, we gave up 198 yards on the ground. What is going on with our defense? It took 9 games into the season for Eric Barton to get his first sack and first interception. And how about David Harris making 24 tackles (20 solo ones) and we still gave up almost 300 yards on the ground.
I'm glad I went yesterday to see Kellen play. I'm also glad I sold the final 3 games of the year so I don't have to freeze and watch this garbage they put on the field. The offense is now a work in progress to get ready for next season and have Clemens learn the position. As for the defense, this needs a serious overhaul as whatever scheme they are planning is NOT working at all.
NOTES:
1. With a 1-8 record, tying the 1996 team for the worst start in the 47-year history of the franchise
2. Our sixth straight defeat officially eliminated the Jets from AFC East contention.
3. Leon Washington scored the Jets first game-opening kick off return for a touchdown since 1986.
4. The last time the Jets yielded that many yards to an individual back was 1997 when Curtis Martin (Patriots) racked up 199 yards.
5. Leon's kickoff return was the Jets 10th kickoff touchdown since 2001.
6. Washington became the 11th player in NFL history to record the hat trick, the first since the Bills' Terrence McGee in 2004. Bobby Humphery (1986) was the last Jet to score on the opening kickoff.
7. Laveranues Coles (concussion) didn't play, ending his streaks of consecutive starts (104) and games played (107) - the longest current streak by an NFL receiver.
