I agree with you that is was legitiate, but my reasoning is something I haven't seen mentioned here yet (apologies if it was) A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but I believe, above shifted scheme, blitz packages, etc, the most important factor in our defensive was that the CS (be it Mangini or Sutton, insignificant at this point, as Mangini is sticking around, no matter how much it bothers me, and Sutton seems like his time is up) swallowed their pride a little bit, and were not hesitant to rotate in, on crucial downs, lower paid players in the place of big name, big contract guys like Ellis, K.Coleman, and Robertson. As much as people want to credit Harris with our turnaround (and he was a part of it), I think just as much credit should be given to guys like Sione Pouha and David Bowens, who came in with high motors, and, for the first time in Mangini's tenure, provided a consistent push up front on running downs, and an occasional pass rush. Pouha getting an opportunity at NT, allowed Robertson to shift over, and subsequently take on more one-on-one blocks, increasing his effectiveness exponentially. Additionally, the energy and drive that Bowens (a LB, mind you, who played many downs at DE, very effectively) brought drew a lot of attention, especially on passing downs, again opening up guys like Robertson to make plays, along with creating seams in the OL for our blitzers to exploit. After the Bye week, it was quite obvious that our D played much better when one, or both of these players were in there (not coincidentally, either of these guys being on the field, often meant that the Human Speed-Bump Kenyon Coleman was on the sideline)... I'd like to see a lot more of guys like Pouha and Bowens, who bring a new level of energy to the game, next season. One other note, and an area that I think we can, and hopefully will improve in next season in regards to the pass-rush. It seems to me that the majority of our DL/Blitzers are overcoached when it comes to maintaining their gap discipline, and not over-pursuing.... At the risk of sounding like I'm giving him verbal fellatio, this is another thing I love about David Bowens in contrast to most of our passrushers. When watching the Jets, in contrast to watching a team like Seattle, or the Giants, I've notice that pretty much everyone on our D except for Bowens (and the occasional blitzing S) shoots his assigned gap, tries to make a move on the blocker, and, if unsuccessful, tries to stand his ground and get his hands up, creating little additional pressure if the initial move is unsuccessful (which they so often are)... Teams like Seattle, and other great passrushing teams, go about it differently. The passrushers shoot their gap, and try to make a move on the blocker. If the move is unsuccessful, the players are seemingly coached to create as much pressure as possible by bull-rushing the blockers, and forcing them back towards the QB. This approach, in my opinion, can turn a team full of decent/average pass-rushers, into a very good passrushing unit. Gap discipline is great, but not at the expense of any ferocity and/or aggressiveness. There needs to be a combination of the two, but, when rushing the passer, the ultimate goal should be to create pressure, not limit his running lanes. That is just my two cents on the issue.. I'm sure most of you have noticed this before too. I'm hoping this is changed going into next season.
they were more imaginative,took more chances,perhaps becausde the opposing offenses were not as threatening. What I cannot understand is why they were content to be so conservative early on. They acted like they had big time talent on the D. Rushing 3 guys?
I agree. But the conservative thinking was not relegated to the defense. It was the offense as well. It was as if last year the coach's were playing like they had nothing to lose. Then, with the sucess of last year, they were just trying not to lose this season and went completely conservative in the early going. Once the season was lost, they started being creative again and were more successful.
The question of weahter or not Mangini took over the D will be answered the dat Sutton if fired (or not)
