Defense Wins Games !

It was Kellen Clemens and the Jets in another Must Win game vs the lowly one-win Bucs. History against the Bucs was in the Jets favor only losing to them once in Jets history. However, we had our backup quarterback behind center and it would be typical for the Jets to lose a game to a pathetic team in December destroying all possible playoff hopes. But, we are now 7-6 and tied with three other teams for the Wild Card even though we don't hold many of the tie breaking scenarios, there's still three weeks left for a lot to change.

However, history was in our favor as we were able to beat the Bucs 26-3 despite not really moving the ball much on offense to notch our third straight win.

The game showed a ton about Kellen Clemens; he's NOT the answer. He misses wide open receivers. They didn't let him throw the ball much but when he did, there were not many throws that impressed me. Let's just hope Sanchez is OK to go on Sunday. Clemens finished 12 for 23, 111 yards, playing mistake free ball. So, the good thing was that he didn't throw the ball to the other team but man, some of the throws were quite pathetic. The most embarrassing throw was missing a wide open Jerricho Cotchery in the endzone.

Luckily, we were able to run the ball with Thomas Jones (99 yards & two TDs) and Shon Greene each getting yardage but the story of the game was Brad Smith as we used him in numerous formations where he was the key factor on offense. We had 175 yards of rushing on the ground for the day. The play of the day; however, was Brad Smith on the Fake Punt throwing a 27 yard pass to Eric Smith to keep a drive alive. That call took a lot of balls by Rex Ryan but luckily it paid off or we would have given the Bucs some great field position. We owned the battle of field position all day and wound up with way too many field goals as Clemens was ineffective on 3rd and long.

But, the story of this game was defense. If it wasn't for a stupid penalty by Bart Scott, they could have pitched a shut out. They held the Bucs with out a first down for the first 2+ quarters until Bart Scott gave them their first down on that same stupid penalty. They finished the game getting the Bucs with nine straight three-and-outs. The defense pressured Josh Freeman all day causing three interceptions with one of them happening on the first play of the game by David Harris which set up our first of Jay Feely's four field goals. Revis and Rhodes each snagged an interception of their own. You know things were going well when James Ihedigbo was getting a sack. The Bucs finished with a paltry 124 yards of total offense and just 6 first downs. The defense was dominating and this is after the Bucs offense went for over 450 yards the prior week.

So, we get a much needed win. And now we face another must win game vs. the Falcons. If we win that, then things get much more difficult as we end up playing the Colts and Bengals. Hopefully, neither game will mean much for the opposition. So, let this ride continue and at least it's going to be an interesting December.

Notes:
1.) It was only the second time in 20 years that the Jets produced a takeaway on the first play of a game; the other time was Calvin Pace's strip sack in Week 7 at Oakland.

2.) The Jets forced the Bucs into nine three-and-outs by the defense, the defense's most since Dec. 24, 2000 against the Ravens.