Of course, anytime you outscore your opponent by more than 10 times and your defense limits the other team’s starting quarterback to an almost fake-looking 1.8 QB-rating (that’s what 6/19, for 59 yards and four picks equals) it would seem to be a pretty good day at the office. Yet a good second-guesser can always find plenty of things to nit-pick. To wit:
The aforementioned ground game stayed grounded for much of the contest; granted there was a decent excuse.
After Shonn Greene found openings on three consecutive plays at the end of the opening quarter totaling 25 yards, it looked like something was finally starting to click. Unfortunately the last one ended with Nick Mangold hobbling off the field and watching the final three quarters as a spectator on crutches. “Sprained ankle; x-rays are negative. We will get an MRI tomorrow,” explained Ryan.
To that point Greene had actually totaled a very-respectable 32 yards on six carries.
The two-time first-team All-Pro center Mangold was replaced by recently-signed rookie free agent Colin Baxter who was celebrating his 14-day anniversary as a Jet. Naturally, the expected drop-off was felt by the running backs. Greene's 10 carries after the switch went for 17 yards, while Tomlinson (five times for five yards) and last-week's special-teams hero Joe McKnight (14 yards on six attempts) had little success in the same time frame.
Although it's tough to blame the performance on the inexperience of the long-haired rookie it certainly played some role. Explained the joking-head-coach on putting in Baxter, “We have [Caleb] Schlauderaff, too. We like both those players. The reason we haven’t gone with Schlauderaff is because he needs to grow his hair out. If you play center for the Jets, you have got to have the long hair [laughing]. There’s where Baxter fits the mold.”
Fortunately the shorter-haired Sanchez had a good day passing, save for a couple more alarming interceptions, with his 17 of 24 for 182 yards and a pair of touchdowns performance, although the ball distribution wasn't what you'd expect with all the Jets’ pass-catching talent.
Dustin Keller received the most attention from his young signal-caller. The pass-catching tight end hauled in all six of his attempts for 101 yards and a score, clearly impressing his coach in the process. “We all know he’s a tremendous receiving tight end and he’s getting much better at blocking, so I’m really proud of the day he had.”
On the other end, Plaxico Burress did not touch the ball all day, though he was targeted twice by Sanchez. Fellow wideout Derrick Mason was also targeted just two times, hauling in one for seven yards. Even number-one receiver Santonio Holmes was thrown to just four times on the day, catching three of them including an acrobatic grab that put them on the board 7–0 on the opening drive.
All in all that's eight passes for the big-name receiver trio that Ryan employs, resulting in a total of four catches for 49 yards and a score. What happened? Here was Rex's take: “I feel bad because Plax [Burress] goes out there and he’s got no catches on the stats. He was taking double coverage a ton.That opened things up for others. Quite honestly at the end of the game, Mark got hit. That was my fault. I was trying to get Plax [Burress] a catch.”
Guess Ryan was caught up looking at the same sheet that us stat geeks study. Hey, maybe he too has what it takes to sit around and publicly highlight the down-side of every move an ultra-successful coach makes. “Either way, it was an excellent game, great team effort…I thought it was a pretty good day” said Ryan, summing up his teams' overall performance. Guess not.
