I was wondering how much people think the OL has dropped off, and how much that might be a factor in the O's woes. Woody is having problems, so there's that. But while I won't say Slauson and Vlad are this year's Bender and Clarke, it does give me a deja vu feeling of the whole Kendall debacle. I know Faneca was not noted for his pass protection, but call me crazy I have this notion the OL might look better if he were still on the team.
OH.. I'M IN FULL PANIC MODE...... 3/4 New Secondary with the best Pass Rusher out a while = PANIC. Then again, I never ran around claiming SUPERBOWL or anything, I said 0-3 was a reality even if Revis signed and the offseason went perfectly But, yeah, if I were a Fin fan I'd be LOVING this right now...
I think a combination of Taylor and Westerman can do alright to replace Pace's production for a few weeks. Westerman flies to the ball, and Taylor still has his moves and has a ton of experience. He's probably as good as Pace in coverage, not that it's saying much. And if Calvin Pace is our best pass rusher, we're in trouble. He's balanced, but he lacks the speed in the backfield that we need off the edge to really put this defense on a dominant level. It'll be nice to see what we have in Westerman. I think he may surprise a lot of people. The uncertainty of the Revis situation puts a cloud over what was looking to be a really promising season, but Rex knows how to pull the stops when he needs to. The D won't be anywhere close to as efficient, but they'll overachieve.
Good post, man. I'd love to see Westerman come in and make an impact as an OLB, but I think we're going to see a lot more four man fronts early on - mostly the 46 formation. An end rotation of Jason Taylor, Jamaal Westerman, Bryan Thomas, and Shaun Ellis isn't bad at all...hell, Gholston might make some plays with his hand in the ground. Matt Kroul, Kris Jenkins, Mike DeVito, and Sione Pouha rotating at the interior line spots. Bart Scott and David Harris at linebacker. Then, we have the ability to bring Jimmy Leonhard, James Ihedigbo, and Brodney Pool into the box. That's a pretty nasty front six or seven without Calvin Pace. I'm not worried about this at all.
If I remember correctly, the Oline wasn't too impressive last year running this vanilla pre-season offense either. I remember because I recall being worried about the running game at the time. Can't tell shit about an offensive unit in the pre-season.. ...well anything other than that D Woody is slow as shit so far......he looks like his cleats are made of lead.
I think Gholston could be decent if we play alot of 4/3... Then Westerman on the 3/4 side..... With that Taylor should be just fine
Comparing last year's pre-season team to this year's SHOULD be a case of apples and oranges. Last year was Sanchez's rookie year, and opponents knew the Jets were going to rely on the run. And keyed their sets accordingly. This year, they SHOULD have to be more concerned about the passing attack. Different animal. Or it should be.
The defense will suffer a little without Pace, but not as much as the gloom and doomers would hope. The Jets will still field a good defense out there this year. The season still rides on the arm (and brain) of Sanchez. This team goes where he leads it, good or bad. Having Revis and Pace would just make it a little easier.
The thing about Pace that bothers me is not the actual effect in terms of the drop off as it is the latest in a series of adverse developments. It also is a reminder that the Jets have lately been relatively free from injuries to key players. I have to admit that when I realized Pace was out, my reaction was there's another reason they are not going to the SB, but it's more in terms of forcing one to add up all those factors, and still see reason for optimism. It gets harder and harder to do that with things like Pace's injury. Maybe something positive will happen. I find amusing the implication some seem to be making here that the O will suddenly be clicking on all cylinders in the regular season games. So, they are playing badly on purpose? I doubt it. And it's not the playcalling, either. If the Jets O were in fact dominant, they should be able to be productive even with vanilla playcalling. Not happening.
I assume by 'lately' you mean this offseason. I was waiting for the first key injury to happen this year, but I think we are actually lucky it happened on the defensive side of the ball. If we had lost a key offensive line player or skill player (knock on soxxx's skull) we'd be in far worse shape than the loss of Pace. Mostly due to coaching on that side of the ball. I have faith in Rex to overcome adversity. And no faith in Schotty.
I thought it was time to panic last year when we lost Big Jenks... but we managed through that crisis a lot better than I would have expected. I'm gonna give this some time before freaking the F*ck out...
Sanchez still not reading defenses that well is cause for concern. His confidence might be greater than is skill. That is my concern.
As much as I hate saying it, Bil Belichick's quote about uncertainties during the preseason is dead-on correct: "I think every coach feels like that. I can't imagine that you wouldn't. Regular season and preseason are two different things. Teams start game planning against you. Then you find out a little bit more about where you're really at on some things. Preseason, you're running your plays. They're running their plays. Sometimes they match up. Sometimes they don't. You're playing a lot of people. There are a lot of different matchups. "It's hard to get a read on it. Once you get to the regular season, nobody holds back. You get their best game plan. You get your toughest matchups. You try to create [tough matchups] for them. Your weaknesses get exposed. You try to get to your strengths, but they don't let you get to them as easily. And you're doing the same. "It's a whole different game. Until that happens, I don't think you are really sure where exactly everything is. It's different in the regular season." http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/17175/words-of-wisdom-from-bill-belichick
