The New York Jets vs. Maurice Jones-Drew

This upcoming Sunday, The New York Jets (4-4) face off with the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-4). Both teams are desperate for a win and are trying to poke their heads above the mediocre .500 records they have accumulated.

For the New York Jets, the winning formula this weekend is obvious, stop Maurice Jones-Drew. The Jaguars most dynamic player, leads the league in touchdowns with 11 and accounts for 66 of the team’s 157 points or 42 percent.

It sounds simple enough, but considering he’s scored six touchdowns in his past three games, it may prove difficult. MJD is fast, strong, and doesn’t shy away from contact (ask Shawne Merriman).

So how will the Jets’ 13th-ranked rushing defense stop the Jags’ scoring machine? The Jets have an advantage over most teams, because they can bring a safety closer to the line to focus on run stopping and leave Darrelle Revis on an island.

Eight men in the box and a healthy amount of run blitzing should force the Jaguars to throw the football into the teeth of the NFL’s second-ranked passing defense. Which if your a Jets fan, you want.

Still, stopping MJD may prove fruitless and if the Jets fail to make the Jags one dimensional, he will hurt them eventually.

For me, it’s difficult to envision the Jets losing this game, they’re coming off a bye week. Two weeks is more than enough for Rex Ryan to put together a scheme to stop the Jags offense and Jacksonville’s 21st-ranked rushing defense should provide plenty of opportunities for the Jets to move the ball.

Whatever the result, the vanquished will fall from the ranks of the playoff hopeful and the vanquisher will keep their January wishes alive.

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The New York Jets Have Everything but a Winning Record

The New York Jets spent their bye week away from football. That’s not surprising, a disappointing 1-4 finish to the first half of the season after starting the year 3-0, will make anyone want to forget about football. Reminiscent of the 8-3 start that collapsed into a 9-7 season a year ago.

It begs the question, why are the Jets prone to these collapses? Most Jets fans will tell you that it’s a curse or sum up the team in three simple words, “Same ol’ Jets.”

I know a Jets season ticket holder that will not even cheer for the Jets until they are up by three scores with three minutes left in the third quarter, something he calls “The rule of three.” He’s afraid that without a lead that massive, they will find a way to lose.

Despite the Jets penchant for losing and uncanny ability to find new ways to do it, this team isn’t the “Same ol’ Jets.”

Rarely in my history as a Jets fan, which started in 1990 at seven years old, have I seen a Jets defense play this well.

As of this morning, they have the number two ranked defense in the league (273.4 yards per game). The last time they were in the top ten in defense for a whole season was 2004, when they were ranked seventh. The last time they were in the top five for a season was in 1981. That’s two years before I was born. 

Along with their fantastic defense, they have the league’s best rushing attack (177.6 yards per game). Normally, the ability to run the football coupled with a stout defense equals a successful football team.

Last year’s Super Bowl champs, the Pittsburgh Steelers, had the number one ranked defense and the top five rushing teams a year ago (NYG, ATL, CAR, BAL, and MIN), all made the playoffs.

Still the Jets record speaks for itself, they are 4-4 any way you look at it. Where is the success that comes from playing great defense and running the football at will? Two of the teams losses are placed squarely on the rookie quarterback, the Saints game and the Bills game. That’s expected with a rookie at the helm.

The other two can be attributed to the wildcat and special teams. The special teams problem should be corrected by Mike Westhoff, Brad Smith’s return doesn’t hurt either, and the Jets don’t see Miami’s wildcat for the rest of the season.

The recipe for a successful second half for the Jets is simple, continue to run and play defense. Sanchez is halfway through his rookie campaign and although I’m sure we will see some more mistakes, a healthy receiving corp will make throwing the football easier. If he can eliminate those costly four or five turnover games, the Jets should be playing into January.

 

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NFL Salary Cap: How Parity Has Become Disparity In the League

This year in the NFL, one would be hard pressed to find similarities between the elite teams and the cellar dwellers. This past weekend emphasized that difference, with blowouts galore and the victorious teams outscoring their defeated brethren, 433-169. Wasn’t the NFL supposed to have parity?

The salary cap is hailed as the reason why any given Sunday the worst team in the NFL can beat the best team. A way to limit any one team from hording talent, the way the Yankees do in baseball and it has been very successful up to this point.

There is one very ominous omission from this system that tries to guarantee competition. Ownership and the front office. The NFL can ensure that your beloved franchise has only a certain amount of money to spend on players contracts, but it can’t tell the owners and GM’s where to use their money.

The Raiders are a prime example of this problem. They over spend on players (e.g. DeAngelo Hall), Draft poorly (e.g. Mike Mitchell), and get little in return when they trade (e.g. Randy Moss for a fourth round pick).

As bad as Al Davis has run that team recently, because let’s be honest he used to know what he was doing, he’s not the only owner that is abysmal at running a franchise.

The Lions, Rams and Redskins all have questionable decision making at the ownership and front office level. Whereas teams like the Patriots, Colts and Giants have used their front office talent to consistently field competitive football teams.

Still, the management disparities between teams is not the only problem with the current system. A bad contract can doom a franchise. Past success does not guarantee that it will continue in the future.

For example, the Panthers signed Jake Delhomme to a five year, 42.5 million dollar extension in the off season. After years of playing well, his QB rating this year is a horrendous 56.5 and he leads the league with 13 passes intercepted. If his less than below average play continues, the Panthers are in for a very long five years.

Luckily there is a saving grace in all of this. Next year, will more than likely be an uncapped year for the NFL. A year for the bottom feeders to regain some of that competitive edge, lost within the confines of bad management and poor talent evaluation.

They can shed some of those bad contracts and start over. Maybe under the upcoming contract negotiations, between the owners and the NFLPA, the NFL should consider having uncapped salaries every few years. To keep parity alive and kicking.

In the end, there are many reasons why competition is laking, but there is no denying that the salary cap has magnified the influence front offices have on parity within the NFL.

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The New York Jets Vs. The Wildcat

In their previous meeting with the Miami Dolphins, the Jets defense was shredded by the wildcat offense. Embarrassing the Jets defensive mastermind, Rex Ryan, and stripping the team of their swagger.

At first glance, the wildcat formation is relatively simple. An unbalanced offensive line, a presnap motion and a half back receiving the snap. It’s a running formation, but the running back has the option to throw the football. Simple, but very deadly for the Dolphins.

Personnel is the main reason. The Dolphins have a backfield that includes Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, both are premier backs, can break the big run and have good field vision. A necessity when running the formation, because the back has to see which way the defense commits and then runs to the open hole or to the cut back lane.

Normally as a defense, more down lineman, run blitzes or man coverage stop the run. Each of these for the most part don’t work against the wildcat.

If you put more men on the line, your susceptible to the running back coming across the field in the presnap motion, he get’s outside and you’re relying on your corners to hold contain against a much bigger back.

The run blitz fails, because of the ball carriers vision out of the shotgun. As the ball is snapped to the running back, he has the luxury of seeing where the blitz will be coming from and then can cut to the open hole.

Straight up man to man coverage, is a problem also, because the Dolphins use a zone blocking scheme for their wildcat formation. Zone blocking schemes create holes and lanes against a man defense, because they rely on double teams and movement, not simply on picking a guy and blocking him.

All of these create issues for a Jets defense that relies on blitzing and man coverage. Those problems were on display when they played the Dolphins in Land shark stadium a couple weeks ago.

The Dolphins ran the wildcat 16 times for 110 yards, getting first downs and scoring at will. It makes you wonder how the Jets will attempt to stop it this time around.

I’m sure Rex Ryan has had this game circled on his calendar since the loss and has a scheme that he built to stop the Dolphins from running wild, but I have some ways that I think will be successful against the wildcat as well.

With the wildcat, the primary function is to run the football, so the quarterback is flanked out wide. The Jets should assign the hardest hitting player on the team, in this case David Harris, to hit the quarterback, Chad Henne, as hard as he possibly can every time they run the formation.

Technically speaking the quarterback is a blocker in the formation and can be hit, the way a fullback gets hit by a middle linebacker when trying to create a hole for a running back.

I don’t know if the NFL would allow it, but I can’t imagine the Dolphins sending their quarterback out there to get smacked every time they run the formation and honestly who passes on a free hit to the quarterback.

Seriously though, I think the Jets will have to force the issue. Take away the decision making process from the back, so that he only has one running lane option. Simply overload the strong side of the formation with the defensive tackle and the defensive ends, blitz the weak side and force the back up the middle into the linebackers.

I don’t know if that will work and the easiest way to beat the Dolphins run game is to score early and score often, forcing them to pass and play catch up, but we have yet to see the Jets offense explode and it probably won’t this week either.

Most importantly, this Sunday the Jets defense will have the chance to regain the identity that was clawed away from them a couple weeks ago and show the world that the wildcat can be domesticated.

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