A Win is a Win

In the NFL you take a win any way you can. Every week each opponent has an opportunity to win no matter what the line is or what analysts say. As a Jet fan, never once did I think we had the game vs. the Bengals in hand. From the opening score (Brett Favre fumble which was recovered and returned for a Bengal TD) to the final whistle the Jets did not look like a Super Bowl contender. A fine tuned team would have put this Bengal team away early and scored often. The Jets did have there opportunities to put this one away but penalties, take aways, and again bad play calling hampered those chances. The Jets can get away with that against teams that have packed it in and have no belief in there teams direction and output. Versus teams that are hitting on all cylinders the Jets will struggle. Special Teams & Defense The box score doesn't tell the entire story all the time. The Jets still need to play the field position game a whole lot better. The kick off and punt cover teams have to get better in a hurry as the season is only going to get harder. The Jets need to find ways of kicking the ball farther and or tackle better and have there opponents go 70-80 yards to score rather then 50-60 yards to score. A longer field means more opportunities to fail. More opportunities to have an INT, fumble, not making a first down and forced to punt or attempt a longer field goal. The play calling on defense will only appear to be better when the opponent has a longer field to work with vs. a short field. For some reason the Jets defensive coaches get in a prevent mode too often and too early in games. I always believe you never let up on the gas pedal in the NFL. Meaning you can not turn pressure on and off. My point is you can not ask players to play aggressive some times and preventive in other times. I still hate watching three men rush the passer and eight go back in coverage. Every time the Jets rushed four or five the QB had to react. When the Jets only rushed three the QB had time to think and make plays. Four quarters of in your face football. That is what I would like to see. Between all the first round draft picks and free agent acquisitions we have the talent to put pressure on the QB and play on there side on the line of scrimmage. Bottom line, Kerry Jenkins is a stud. You can tell when he is not on the field because the Jets get pushed off the line quite often when Jenkins is not in there. The difference in the 3-4 defense, the two gap technique hampers defensive linemen from making tackles for losses. A good two gapper will make a tackle for a two yard gain in a 3-4 scheme. I would like to see more stunts and schemes where you ask them to shoot gaps (one gap) and play on there side on the line of scrimmage. This will put oppositions in worse down and distance scenarios. Meaning you can be more creative when it is second down and twelve yards to go or third and eight situations. Too many times do I see a third down and three situations because we catch up front and get moved back for positive gains. Teams that have both a running and passing game will kill us because they will dictate and move the ball at will because of the bend but do not break mentality. I blame head coach Eric Mangini on that because he knows no other way. That is what he did in New England while he was there. Mangini better wake up fast because he has a gun slinger at QB and mistakes and turnovers will happen. Good teams score off of your mistakes and turnovers. That is why I never once believed we had this game in hand. I wish and hope for the Jet brass to address the kicking game and practice the hell out of it. They need to get better fast in this area. Look at the average staring position rather then hang time and how far the kick went. Ben Graham would either kick it very far or out of bounds twenty five or thirty yards down field where as R. Hodges has good hang time but does not kick it very far. Either or your special teams unit needs to get repetitions after repetitions to get there timing down. I know there have been some injuries but it is how you prepare that makes or breaks you. This area needs some attention to and bringing back players and having new faces only hinders your overall performance. Keep it simple stupid and stick with one punter so that the other 10 can get there timing down. And if Feeley can not kick it off very far work with the other 10 on pursuit angles and position the kick each week to the weaker returner. Does a Nascar driver take his foot off the gas pedal? Did the Giants get passive with Tom Brady in the Super Bowl or during the payoffs? Did the Patriots get passive when trying to go unbeaten and break passing records last year? The new style in the NFL is getting after the QB quickly so he has no time to think. Practice is designed to prepare you for every scenario you may see during the game so that you react quickly. My point is the Jets need to dictate the game on defense. Do not give any QB time to think and so he carves you up and makes you look like Swiss cheese. Get in his face and make him make bad decisions which means better results (INT's, fumbles, sacks, grounding, tackles for a loss etca??)