Film and Felt

Great win for the Jets to start the year, but of course, the big football news of the day (and it’s certainly related to the Jets) is Tom Brady’s knee injury, which appears likely to sideline him for the season; an MRI tomorrow appears to be a formality at this point.  It’s hard to overstate how devastating this is for the Patriots and their fans, and we’ll get the greatest test yet of Bill Belichick’s coaching genius.  He’s made his name mixing and matching random variables—before last year’s attack squadron, remember, he’d won with scrubs like Antowain Smith, David Patten, and Daniel Graham playing enormous roles.  But all that was due to Tom Brady’s extraordinary abilities; he always seemed to find the open man no matter who it was.  How else could Mike Vrabel have multiple TD receptions to his credit?  Without Brady, the AFC is blown wide open.  New England still has lots of weapons and should be a contender if Matt Cassel is adequate, but can they be anything more than slightly above average now?  We’ll see.

As for the Jets, it was a strong Week 1 performance.  It’s important to remember that this is not the same Miami team that went 1-15.  As critical as I’ve been about Chad Pennington in the past (and I maintain he’s not a championship QB), he’s light years better than the utter dreck the Dolphins trotted out there last year, and adds an aura of legitimacy to the team.  So, I expect Miami to win somewhere between four and six games this year, and be a weak-but-not-historically-bad team, and there was no reason to expect a blowout on the road while the new additions are still gelling.  All that said, the plusses and minuses from today:

Positives:

1. The run defense was worlds better than us suffering Jets fans are accustomed to.  Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown were swarmed everytime they touched the ball, and there were zero big plays.  Miami doesn’t have a first-rate offensive line, but it was a very encouraging start.

2. DWIGHT LOWERY!  The rookie 4th-rounder was fantastic playing opposite Darrelle Revis at CB, batting down at least three passes and showing strong tackling skills.  If he’s legit—and his College nickname, Dwight Swipe, indicates the skillset is there—then the pass defense receives a major boost.  Having two ballhawk cornerbacks can’t be underestimated in today’s pass-happy NFL, and it’s something the Jets haven’t had in years, if not decades. 

3. While the offensive line’s pass-blocking wasn’t perfect, the run-blocking looked in midseason form.  Thomas Jones had holes that simply weren’t there last year, and took advantage of them. 

4. Given that Favre is just getting comfortable in the offense and with his WR’s, it was impressive how much he looked like…Brett Favre.  The stupid fumble was classic Favre, but so was the nutty 4th-and-13 scrambling TD. 

Negatives:

1. There wasn’t the overall consistency I’d like to see going forward, and Vernon Gholston’s name wasn’t mentioned.

2. Coles was barely targeted, and seemed to have trouble separating.  I hope that’s not a long-term issue, because we really need him opposite Cotchery.

3. Nugent better be healthy, cuz I don’t want to see Kellen Clemens kicking on the sideline ever again.  If he’s at all banged up, I’d rather sign a stopgap for a week than take the chance of a defunct kicking game against the Patriots.

Coming Friday: a preview of Week 2’s Jets/Pats game.