Don't get me wrong, that was a totally frustrating and lackluster performance. However, I think it looked much worse than it really was. Pennington two picks were horrifically bad, but keep in mind he didn't even throw a pass last week. So this was really his first action of the season (and he didn't look too bad on his other throws...although they were all short). So I'll cut him a little slack. Also, there was no attempt that I saw to even look downfield with the first unit in. So, I think our schemes were much more vanilla than what we will see in the regular season. Also, while Leon Washington played well, he is not the inside running runner that TJ is....so the combination of LW and Danny Ware is nowhere near the 1-2 punch of TJ and LW. The run game will get better. The o-line was awful. However, I think it is inevitable that Kendall will be the starting LG on opening day. That will make a big difference on the line. I also think the CS needs to find one more guy on the roster who can elevate their play to make the first unit (or maybe pick up a cut from somewhere else). The lines problems were compounded by playing an exceptionally good d-line. The bottom line is that our season is going to depend on this unit. It had better get better! The Defense was not good at all. Most of the first half stops were due to Vikings miscues rather than good play by us. There is enough talent in the front 7 that there are no excuses to to play well. However, you can't draw too much from this game, because we clearly weren't playing as if it were a regular season game...very little shifting and no blitzes. Our D is at its best playing to confuse and surprise the offense. We aren't going to beat anyone in a straight up fight. The other thing I took away is how much we really need Revis to make a year-one impact. He needs to work hard to get in there as CB is our most glaring weakness (keep in mind no Miller either last night). If Revis is good, it could change the entire outlook on defense. Other areas I found disappointing: NT and ILB. We need to get better up the middle. Special teams continue to be a strength. The return game will be even better when Miller returns. Kick coverage was very good (that Ventrone turned a few heads). Nuge is indeed looking stronger. Other positives found amongst the rubble: - My confidence in Clemens is growing. I think we may be OK if Chad gets hurt. - Brad Smith is gonna be even more of a weapon than last season - If we ever open up the passing game, Stuckey looks like a nice contributor - NO ONE GOT HURT! I suspect Mangini is gonna ride these guys hard this week. I'll be shocked if they don't look sharp next week. It isn't always a bad thing to have a bad pre-season game to get the team refocused. Thats all I've got. DbJ
I haven't been a great belieer in the 'slash' type player and have always thought of Brad S as being a QB. Whilst hes certainly an NFL calibre WR hes a much better QB. How long before one of the so called experts come up with the Vick comparisons? Who was at LG when Penny was having his mad 5 minutes? (this isn't a dig) IMO Kendall is still the best option , baggage included.
Agree. Take away CP's to TD's and the score was respectable even though the defense was getting run over like left and right. Agree on the O-line too. If Kendal is going to be starting, he better be doing it next week. No reason to go on with this charade if we fully intend to keep him on the roster. After last nights preformance if Brick goes down it looks like were pretty much screwed anyway. Side note, Clemens looked calm and collected in the face of a Minny blitz on the hook-up to Jmac. He made a nice throw seemingly off his back foot with enough zip to give Jmac the YAC opportunity he needed. Probably, aside of Ventrones plays on special teams, my favorite play of the night.
"Pennington two picks were horrifically bad, but keep in mind he didn't even throw a pass last week. " I'm sure he has thrown more then a few in 3+ weeks of camp.
chad will come back with a strong game next week. If we hadnt spotted them 21 points obviously we wouldve won the game. It was all on us. Mangini is going to put them through hell this week...
Honestly, I'm glad we laid an egg now during preseason. It shows where we need work and it will prevent our guys from getting too full of themselves. We still have time to fix some of the problems we have. Imagine if this had happened on opening day?
i beg to differ folks - it was as bad as it looked - at least to me..... during the game i posted a few notes on the game thread about CP and the offensive and defensive lines. ..... the big thing for me is the trenches - you just cannot compete with average talent in the trenches. no way......especially the oline. i can see the jets evolving philosophy on dline and there are some players there but the oline continues to be a work in progress - even after "rebuilding" 2/5ths of it during the 06 draft. i think the relative inactivity towards the oline during this past offseason is going to hurt this year. i wasn't so sure about it before camp but now seeing a few practices and 2 games i am convinced it will be the limiting factor in this offense - we are going to have to stockpile a couple picks for next year to draft these olineman in rounds 2-4 - OR - write a blank check and get some stud guards in here. jil
Throwing in camp against a defense you have grown up around has got to be a hell of a lot different from an actual game situation. Even the almighty Brady threw a couple of picks last night. It is only preseason so some folks around here would be wise to unknot their panties.
I am with you DBJ... I do not believe it as bad as it looked last night. I will be worried if they continue to struggle throughout the preseason, but I do not think that will happen. Gotta give the guys some time to work out some of the issues and as you said, we aren't seeing the full defense/offensive packages here.
Its the Defense Chad is Chad. His arm in average at best. Its looked no better last night then it did last year. That said, he gets a pass for last night. Its just one of those pre-season games you let go. I remember in 96, I took my family to a Jet/Raven pre-season game and they played like last night. Horrific. Maybe they are just beat from a tough week of camp. Anyway, I am really concerned about our front seven. Two weeks in a row and most of last year, the run defense sucks and no pressure without blitzing. Maybe having 21 of 22 starters retrun is not such a good thing. Lets hope lat night serves as a wake up call. I am officially concerned if the team looks like this again. Until then, watch the Yanks or Mets and look forward to Jets/Giants. I am not sweating last night.
I am not worried about one preseason game. Some people on here seem ready to call the season already. Try to look at some positives. Ellis played well. Special teams looked good again. (some nice returns, one Nugent kickoff went 4 yards deep into the endzone, Ventrone had some nice ST tackles). Leon had some nice runs, even up the middle. Jmac played well. Revis was in uniform(finally, even though he didn't play) I agree with the comments of they are just running a vanilla D and O right now. Not much shifting, basic defense, no blitzing (ok, I did see one blitz). It seems they are trying to focus a little bit on things like the shotgun and a tiny bit of hurry up offense, but not a full fledged attack. I liked when Chad called a quick snap and caught Minn. with 12 men on the field. They had a decent run game against the number one defense against the run. Leon did find some holes in there, so that was encouraging. The CP picks were just awful, don't think you will see that again. Without the turnovers, it wasn't that bad.
I did not notice that block by Leon. That was some hit and in retrospect takes care of the hit to DBrickashaw on that Chad pick.JMO. I feel better about Justin making contributions. He did look good faking out the last line before paydirt. Ventrone is a little firecracker. He is good and somehow reminds me of Papale.
I agree man, the sky is isn't falling. there are some positives. I thought leon played great, even against minnesota's fist unit. I also think we have a excellent WR Unit. Our special teams, like normal, will excell this year, and we without two of our top returners. However, the negatives are obvious. Defense and chad.
the thing is this. I think that Chad's int's were worse than Brady's. Tom's throws didn't look as bad as when Chad did it cus they were downfield throws. Chad's throws were like 5 yarder's.
