you know champ, GREAT THREAD. I noticed this as soon as the story broke and considered making a thread. but I was at work and said nah I'll go home. ANYWAYS, last game Crowell made his presence felt and hes quick and athletic. Theyre considering starting their 205 lb S backup in his place. Or, a rookie they drafted.its still a tough game for us, but this is definitely soemthing I hope the gameplan attacks.
I agree. Buffalo is never easy and no game at this time of year should be taken lightly. There's a good blurb in one of the articles this morning in the Star-Ledger about Mangini's preparation and what he thinks of the playoff talk. Basically, he reiterates his philosophy, which is, if you don't pay attention to the next opponent, there are no playoff hopes anyway, so it does you no good to concentrate on anything else but the Buffalo Bills.
A game against the Bills is never easy, no matter how crappy they are. In my mind the keys to the Jets winning will be: 1) Getting after Losman. Even though he is playing better, he is still new and prone to panic. If Ellis and Rhodes can get after him, get in his face, then he will panic and cause turnovers. The Jets have to blitz often and early. 2) The Bills have a good secondary. So it will be important to attack the middle of the field and medium range. Let the WRs get some YAC. So we need a good game from Baker (I would say Askew too, but that is asking alot). And then if the run game can get going some, it will force the Bills to put more people up front, which will open up the long pass. But it all starts up front this week on offense. 3) Field position is going to be real important. Graham and Nuge have to have good games. Definitely winnable. I just want to see Losman get leveled and Ellis to leave a shoe print on his forehead.
I'm hoping Ellis' injury was minor and that he's practicing at full speed this week... haven't heard anything else on him, but he was limping noticably in the 4th Q.
I would have been 2.0 6 years ago if instead of Herm they would have hired a coach then who I felt could win us a SB
Except for 2004, when their loss to the steelers on the last day of the season is what got us into the playoffs
Here are the keys: 1) Attack their linebackers- the loss of Crowell creates a huge void. 2) McGahee is not at 100%- he ran over a Jets defense that doesn't exist anymore. Face it, the Jets run D is much better. Also, its worth noting that our porous defense at the time only gave up one non-garbage time TD in that game, and it was that fluke TD to Parrish. We haven't allowed a first quarter TD in four games. 3) It's at home- this is the biggest thing IMHO. I hate playing at the Ralph. The Bills are solid but if the Jets want to be a playoff contender, this is a game they NEED to have.
We really should beat them at home, which means, if the Jets hold to form, we could blow it. Not an easy game at all. The key is to clog up the running lanes and hold McGahee in check, he usually runs for a million yards on us. We consistently disrupt Willis and Evans and make Loserman beat us, he can't do it. Jets 21-17, closer than it should be. Thats what I think.
Evans has been big a couple times this year but after we limited Driver and Andre Johnson so well, I think we can do the same thing here. I think we can limit McGahee especially if we can lead early and force Losman to throw more. But every year the Jets are good they always lose a big game in December to a lousy team (Lions, Colts, Bills, Bears in the last 15 years or so). Hopefully this is a new era.
^ I've seen that quote a couple of times now. Seriously, what was the context that was said in? Anybody?
