The pressure we put on the quarterback won the first 3 games for us. Putting Matt Schaub, Tom Brady, and Kerry Collins on the ground made our defense dominant and had people talking us up as Super Bowl contenders and possibly the best team in the NFL. We lost to the Saints, yes, but our pressure on Drew Brees made him look like an average quarterback rather than a man who threw for 5,000 yards last season. The stats don’t reflect our pressure because of our low number of sacks, but that is only because of the ability and intelligence of the opposing quarterbacks to get the ball out quickly. This past Sunday against the Dolphins, our defense got lit up. I didn’t see many plays on defense where we attempted to confuse the quarterback and the offensive coordinator.

Chad Henne isn’t the caliber of the other 4 quarterbacks we have faced, but his 130.4 passer rating made him look like Dan Marino. I saw too many defensive setups with 4 down lineman and zero movement and chaos at the line of scrimmage. I also saw too many plays where they brought a 4-man rush with those same 4 down lineman. It was the most predictable defense I have seen from the Jets since Mangini. We don’t have the talent on defensive line to pressure the quarterback with those kinds of rushes.

Now I love Rex Ryan at head coach and I love this defense, but that was not Rex Ryan’s style of coaching and that was not this defense’s style of play. If we stuck to the game plan we used the past 4 games, we could’ve recorded a huge number of sacks against the Dolphins and probably won the game. A quarterback in his second career start wouldn’t have had the ability to get rid of the ball like Schaub, Brady, Collins, or Brees. Regardless of who we are playing or what quarterback we are facing, the defensive approach should be the same. We need to get to the quarterback.

Through the first 3 games of the season, there’s little to complain about with how the Jets have played. You couldn’t ask for a better three game start than the one we have. We have been playing dominate football against 3 very worthy opponents and we are looking like a team in contention for the Super Bowl. But as an always pessimistic Jets fan, I have found something to lose sleep over, the completely ineffective running game.

Continue reading this post »

Is everyone completely ignoring the other potentially destructive weakness on the Jets roster other than the lack of depth at wide receiver? It seems to me that the lack of depth and elderliness of our defensive ends has gone unnoticed by fans, writers, analysts, and most unfortunately the Jets front office. If not mended, I feel this problem could lead to yet another year of average football by a seemingly promising 2009 Jets football team.

Continue reading this post »