JETS TAKE SCHOTTS AT GAME PLAN Posted: 3:37 am October 29, 2008 THE Jets locker room is generally a pretty harmonious place. Considering the influx of new talent brought in during the offseason, there's a pretty good chemistry beginning to develop. There is, however, a small crack developing in the foundation of some players' trust in the offensive play calling that needs to be addressed before the fissure widens. It is something that's been slowly building since the Jets put up 56 points on the Cardinals a month ago and it seemed like the offense was about to take launch. But as the offense has grown more inconsistent, players have become frustrated. In Oakland two weeks ago, there were some players who were frustrated the Jets ran the ball so much in overtime against eight-man fronts and seemed to eschew the play-action pass on a day when they were running all over the Raiders' defense. That vibe of frustration hit a low in Sunday's underwhelming win over the Chiefs when they seemingly refused to establish the running game against a Kansas City defense that was ranked dead last in the NFL against the run, allowing more than 207 yards per game. Now there are players in the locker room who are privately questioning the way offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is calling the games, offering little opportunity for the skill players to get into a rhythm. Schottenheimer seems married more to the art of deception than he is to playing to his team's strength and dialing up the plays that are working - such as riding Thomas Jones, particularly against a Chiefs team that had shown no evidence that it was able to stop the run. Yes, tight end Chris Baker's last-second scratch on Sunday affected the play calling, but the Jets didn't need deception to run the ball effectively. They could have rammed Jones down the throat of the Kansas City defense and dominated the game. By not running the ball, the Jets played right into the hands of the Chiefs and kept them in the game. Running Jones five times in the first half the week after he dropped 159 yards on the Raiders was as inexplicable as it was inexcusable. If Jones wasn't such a classy, team-first guy, he might have been inclined to walk into Schottenheimer's office on Monday after watching the film, taken him by the lapels and shaken him while screaming, "What in the world were you thinking?" It seemed that after every time Jones ran the ball, he was immediately taken out of the game, giving way for another package of players. How can a feature back get into any kind of rhythm doing that? The other element here that has gotten lost in the shuffle of Schottenheimer's high-wire-act offensive play calling is its effect on Brett Favre. The entire world knew going into Sunday's game that Favre's right shoulder was sore. So, instead of protecting Favre's physical well-being and perhaps giving him somewhat of a rest by establishing the run against the porous Kansas City defense, Schottenheimer called for passes on 17 of 26 first-half plays. It made no sense whatsoever, and the questionable strategy was not lost on the Jets' offensive players. Afraid of repercussions, no one lashed out publicly, but there were more than a few who privately grumbled and seemed genuinely bewildered by what's going on. "I'm seeing the same thing you're seeing," one player said. "It's hard to get into any kind of rhythm the way the plays are being called," another said. If the Jets are going to get themselves together offensively, Schottenheimer needs to listen to his players and stick more to common sense than becoming so seduced by trickery. He's a bright young mind who often has some terrific stuff up his sleeve. His use of Brad Smith in Oakland was great. His use of Leon Washington against the Chiefs was solid. He's just a bit out of sorts at the moment and he needs to find a proper balance - particularly with the meat of the schedule upon the Jets, beginning with Sunday's AFC East showdown with the division-leading 5-2 Bills in Buffalo. * The Jets yesterday placed RB Jesse Chatman and QB Erik Ainge on IR, ending their seasons. Chatman suffered a left knee injury on Sunday and Ainge was listed with a right foot injury. The moves leave the Jets with two open roster spots. mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com
I just got done reading this on SI.com. Then I come here and its posted. Gotta love TGG. Good work KJ. The Fat Man makes good points for once. And this: says it all. The players themselves think that its absurd that a bipolar offense is being called. Keep it simple, stupid. I guarantee the team will look like an elite team if the playcalling is kept simple and has a foundation of physicality.
"The entire world knew going into Sunday's game that Favre's right shoulder was sore. So, instead of protecting Favre's physical well-being and perhaps giving him somewhat of a rest by establishing the run against the porous Kansas City defense, Schottenheimer called for passes on 17 of 26 first-half plays. It made no sense whatsoever, and the questionable strategy was not lost on the Jets' offensive players. " Playing mind reader doesn't often work, but maybe Stupidheimer was trying to recreate the success of the Arizona game so he could get some positive attention. In the game against ARI their secondary was filled with inexperienced players and we torched them. KC also had a young secondary. Maybe BS1 is so simple minded he thot he could do the same thing again.
Schotty has been awful all season with the way the offense has been run. The player quoted was correct, there is no rhythm to the offense. While not predicatble like the days of Paul Hackett, the timing of his calls has been a head scratcher.
We ran for over 130 yards at over 5 YPC Sunday...more bitching just to bitch...but at least these guys are paid to do it. I do think the play action coulda/shoulda been used more against Oakland. Still, we were a non-trip away from the win, and we went and used the playaction and screens a bunch this week. But no one pays attention to that...just keep rolling out the complaints and keep your eyes closed to the fact that we're 4-3 despite the sub-optimal play from the offense...which is still putting up points for the most part. But the pessimists will always find a crack...crying about Favre's shoulder...yet when we don't/didn't pass its ZOMG get the ball in the future HOFers hands...it's like they have no idea wtf they really want or they just started watching football.
The problem I had with the KC game was clearly they did not establish the Running game. I hate to bring up Belichick and NE, but does anyone here feel Belichick would have gone into the KC game feeling the need to try and tick Herm and the Chiefs?! He would have just rammed it down their throats knowing there was no way that they could stop him. It would have been 20+ straight runs in a row. Why in the world would we need to trick KC. And even if that was a good idea, at least make it look like you might run the football. Enough with the shotgun formation no RBs lineup.
Kerry Rhodes made a back-handed criticism of the Jets defense earlier on in the season. He said something to the effect of "we're a gameplan defense. We have a different scheme for every team we play." I think that mentality goes beyond the defense, though. From one week to the next, Mangini tries to alter the team's identity according to the current opponent. Favre also sorta seconded that opinion earlier on as well. He said something like "the offense should be simplified so that the players can concentrate on reacting and using their skills to beat the defenders." (Sorry for the pseudo-quotes). You hear this quote from Ray Lewis a lot: "Whatever happens, we play OUR game." What he means by that is, no matter what opponent you face, you don't let their play-calling shake your identity. The Ravens might get beat a few games on defense, but it's not because they unveiled some fancy scheme that the players were unfamiliar with. They play their game, week in, week out. We don't have an identity on either side of the ball. We don't play our game, we play "their" game. It means not being able to predict what the Jets are going to do on offense or defense, sure, but it also means we play down to inferior opponents (i.e. Raiders, Bengals, Chiefs). We need identity. We need to find our game, whatever that game might be.
^ Defensively it's becoming a joke. How many 1st year QB's or QB's getting their first ever start, or quite frankly terrible QB's do we need to make look like future HOF's. We made Matt Cassel look every bit as good as Tom Brady. Thigpen completed his first 13 passes? Last year Trent Edwards got his first ever start against us and lit us up. The list goes on and on. Jamarcus Russell??!?! AYFKM! Offensively we need to stop trying to have 20+ yard pass plays on every passing down. Favre has made his living thru the years as a quick pass QB who can throw it downfield. We are getting away from his strengths. We have 3 capable pass catching TE's. Let's use them inside the 5 and on 3rd and short. We signed Alan Faneca for a reason lets pound the rock. I'm not totally understanding the amount of use of the shotgun and/or 4 wide receiver sets, or no RB in the backfield formations. There seems to be too many "we're trying to trick them" plays and formations. I'm okay with that at times, but I'm not okay with it being the main focus of our offense.
The worst play in my opinion in the Chiefs game was the third and 1 bomb into double coverage. We needed to get a first down at that point in the game to give the defense a rest. Terrible call.
Our run game is a joke. every time TR is in the game, we run. We should dump him a screen once a game or give him one or two carries himself. We should throw some play action. I think every team in the league knows when we will run and where we are going. For all of his so-called deception, I do not see a ton of variety.
AS far as the D is concerned, the Jets do not have low yards against rushing because they are way ahead of teams. They have legitimately stopped the run this year. When you do that, and when you sack the passer like they have, the secondary should naturally be in a better position to succeed. They have not. Offensively, the way you run is the way you run. I understand that.You establish your rhythm in preseason. But maybe we needed a greater variety of plays. JUst throwing in some Brad Smith handoffs and end arounds is not what I am talking about. I don't think Schott knows how to run the ball. Maybe Callahan should have more input here.
Most of those yards came from one big run from Leon. They passed 2x as much as they ran the ball when they should have been able to AT LEAST have a 1:1 ratio and beat on there defense. If we run the ball a lot more often, especially in some key situations the Chiefs don't have a schott in that game.
That's actually a great explanation of why the Jets play down to their opponents. Nice work. :up: Exactly. It's not about complaining for complaining's sake. This team is predictable with "trick plays." How the hell do you manage that!?! What's really bad is how often I can ID the play from the formation, and I'm sitting in my living room! On passing plays, Favre has a big bullseye on his chest. Of course the guy is going to be sore. I have often rode Sutton hard for calling poor defensive games late, but I'm starting to think my anger may have been misdirected all along. Not that I think Sutton has done a good job, but it's hard to squeeze more out of a defense when they spend so much time trying make up for offensive shortcomings. Schottenheimer's playcalling is predictable at best, terrible at worst. It's time for Mangini to either change the mentality, or it's time for Tannenbaum to tell Mangini "It's been interesting, but not fun, see ya!"
1. Isn't Leon on the team? So whats the complaint? 2. If we stop making excuses for our QB and he doesn't throw 3 INTs...this game is a walk in the park. Personally, I think this board over analyzes without actually analyzing all that much. And this obsession with hindsight...
Wasn't Schott a decent offensive coordinator in the 2006 season? I dont remember that season all that well, what did he do then cus whatever he's doing now isn't working...
I told you what the complaint was, you chose to ignore it. We should have been running the ball more than passing it. It's great that Leon had the big run, but it doesn't change the fact that we didn't run enough. True but we should have been running the ball more often thus lowering the probability of INT's. When you play to a teams strength rather than there weakness you tend to increase the probability of them making more plays. Give me a break, half the world was wondering the entire game why we weren't running the ball more often. That's not hindsight. Everyone who knew anything about this game was expecting a heavy dose of Thomas Jones and Leon Washington Sunday.
If we run the ball consistently against the league's worst run defense, our QB doesn't ever throw 3 INTs. Personally, I think you have an obsession with calling everyone else wrong. Yes, and it was due to the same basic gameplan. Tickery. Lots of it. The problem being, when 3 of every 4 plays is meant to fool the opposition, and they're always the same formation and route, it's not going to work. Sometimes you have to just put the ball into your players' hands and let them make something happen. Of course, when Jones or Washington do that, they get pulled. I'm starting to wonder why I was so afraid of him running to go be the HC in Miami.
1. We won. 2. We ran for over 130 yards. 3. We ran for over 5 YPC. 4. How exactly did we not run enough? Most teams would kill for a running day like that. Or we could have executed and no one would be complaining. This is why there is no winning with Jets fans. Just the fact that those INTs made the game closer would suggest we need to pass. And they got a lot of Leon...seriously because "everyone" expected the team to run more they should have run more? Thats how this works?
To quote 130 yards rushing as a good day when 60 came on a single run, against the worst rush defense is a shame. The offense could have had their way with them all day if they chose to just give TJ the ball, and instead the Jets chose to pass and get Favre hammered. It would have kept our defense rested, kept the ball out of the air (and the defenders hands), and established a sense of authority over the Chiefs rather than letting them believe they could actually win that game. With a normal amount of carries we would have been well over 200 yards, no doubt. And when you are running for 5 yards a clip (a 1st down every 2 rushes) why pass at all? A balanced offense, not necessarily run heavy, would be much more effective than going shotgun 5 wide all the time. There are times it's nice, but not every other play.
