Gang Green Confronts Worst-Case Scenarios

Jerry Kramer, the Green Bay Packers’ great offensive guard of the 1960s, wrote a best selling book entitled “Instant Replay,” in which he thanked modern technology for singling out offensive linemen and making them recognizable. The New York Jets’ right offensive tackle, Adrian Jones, and right guard, Brandon Moore, can thank instant replay if they’re recognized on the street this week.Both made key plays in the Jets’ thrilling 26-20 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday. Their big plays were preceded by an exchange unprecedented in football history and unlikely to happen again: two quarterbacks from Marshall – and that’s a rarity right there – threw interceptions on successive possessions in overtime. Chad Pennington threw one that put the Jets in a huge hole, and then, with 12:30 remaining in the period, from the Jets 39-yard line, the Jags’ Byron Leftwich under threw a pass that was picked off by David Barrett at the New York 12.On first down, Curtis Martin gouged out 5 yards, but the play was wiped out on a false start by Moore, the kind of play that isn’t supposed to happen when you’re on your home field. Instead of second and 5, the Jets were faced with a first and 15 in the shadow of their own goal posts. On the next play, Pennington, in obvious pain from a bad right shoulder, found Laveranues Coles all alone at the 31 for what appeared to be a huge first down – except that Jones was caught holding.The Jets never recovered. After the two penalties, you could practically feel them sag. Following a sack of Pennington (yet another nasty hit he didn’t need to take) and an incomplete pass, Jacksonville got the ball in Jets territory on the punt and, less than a minute later, Leftwich finally got it right with a 36-yard TD strike to Jimmy Smith. And just like that, the Jets’ season and the future of head coach Herman Edwards are in doubt.It may seem unfair to pick on the Jets for losing a game because of penalties; in point of fact, one of the few areas in which the Jets have excelled under Edwards has been minimizing penalties. (They have been the eighth ranked team in penalty yards during Edwards’s five-year tenure). And, after all, there were so many other people to blame for the loss.But somehow, the back-to-back flags in such key situations seemed sooooo Jets under Edwards. It was one of those days when they made big play after big play only to have someone screw up afterward and negate them. I suppose it’s unfair to single out Jones and Moore – it was just their turns to screw up.The day’s biggest offender was rookie cornerback Justin Miller, who muffed two punts, the second of which, late in the third quarter, gave Jacksonville the ball at the Jets 16 and set up a cheap touchdown. Coming after a Jets comeback that had taken them to a 14-13 lead after being down 10-0, Miller’s fumble was a major momentum shifter.One of the two CBS commentators, Gus Johnson or Brent Jones – I don’t know which one since they sound exactly alike – offered an absurd explanation for such poor performance: “Because of the salary cap restrictions, there are a lot of young guys like Miller returning punts who probably shouldn’t be.” Teams are using bad punt returners because no one can afford good ones? What happened to all the good ones? Did they defect to the Canadian Football League or just retire?But I digress. The point is that the Jets have increasingly become a team on which players don’t step up to make big plays in big situations, but step backwards to make a lousy ones. Here’s another example: if Wayne Chrebet had dragged his feet on an end zone pass from Pennington late in the fourth quarter, the Jets would have had a touchdown (which the play was originally ruled) instead of an incompletion followed by a game-tying field goal. If Chrebet had played it like the veteran he is, overtime would not have been necessary.Yeah, yeah, I know. Woulda, coulda, if, maybe … blah, blah. Did the Jets deserve to lose even without the mistakes? And considering the mistakes the Jaguars made, did the flubs even out? Possibly, probably, I don’t know, I suppose so. After three games, however, it does appear that most of the Jets’ worst errors have been mental, unforced by their opponents – lapses in fundamentals that always come back to bite them above the rear thigh pads.What to expect next week? Right now, Pennington’s shoulder looks very bad; he threw just 17 passes in regulation, completing just nine for an abominable 76 yards. And Curtis Martin is suddenly looking very old. He ran for a mere 67 yards against the Jags – due in large part, it must be said, to the efforts of Jacksonville’s great defensive tackle, Marcus Stroud, probably the best inside run defender in the league. But Martin hasn’t had to run against Stroud every week, and so far this season he has managed an appalling 2.8 yards per carry.Next week, the Jets will have the good fortune to play the Baltimore Ravens, the team with one of the worst point differentials (18 for, 49 against) in the NFL. If they don’t win, with or without Pennington, the Jets’ season and Herman Edwards will both be on short hooks.

Gang Green Confronts Worst-Case Scenarios

Gang Green Confronts Worst-Case Scenarios

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