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Florham Park – The Jets pass defense played okay, but will have to play better this week. Peyton Manning was without TE Dallas Clark, WR Anthony Gonzalez, WR Austin Collie and RT Ryan Diem. Brady has more of his arsenal handy.
Antonio Cromartie was beat by Pierre Garcon, on a quick slant, for a gain of nine on the Colts’ first offensive play.
Brodney Pool ended the Colts’ first possession by stopping RB Joe Addai for a loss of two on the left side. Pool isn’t the coverage safety that Kerry Rhodes is, but he’s a better tackler. He also ended the Colts’ second possession with a nice tackle. On a third-and-one, Pool stopped WR Blair White, on a quick out to the right side, for no gain.
The Colts’ third possession ended with another incomplete pass to White, on a short out to the right side. While he didn’t break up the pass, Drew Coleman did have good coverage on this play.
Coleman was beat for a gain of 10 early in the second quarter on a quick slant to TE Jacob Tamme.
Late in the first quarter, Cromartie allowed another quick slant to Garcon. This pass, on the right side, gained 11 yards.
In the middle of the second quarter, Cro was implicated in a 57-yard touchdown pass to Garcon. He fell for an outside move, and couldn’t recover. Brodney Pool also deserves some of the blame for this play. He bit on an underneath route, and failed to cover the deep part of the zone.
Garcon beats Cro on an square in, and took it 21 yards in the middle of the fourth. Cro stopped following him, so perhaps there was a zone element to this coverage.
It seemed like the Jets were using Cro in zone at times in this game. This is a mistake. He was bad in zone coverage in San Diego, and the Jets know this.
Cro had nice coverage on Garcon, deep down the right hash mark, on an incompletion in the mid-fourth. Garcon feels he was interfered with, and he might be right, but referee Gene Steratore had a “let them play” mindset throughout this game.
The Colts first drive of the second quarter ended with the only pass thrown to WR Reggie Wayne in the game. It was on third-and-eight, and it as a one-yard throw, and Revis stopped the receiver in his tracks. That was it. He finished the game with one catch for one yard. There is no question Revis is outstanding, but Manning should have targeted his top receiver more than once, no matter who was covering him.
In the middle of the third quarter, Coleman was beat by White for a gain of 23 over the middle. On the Colts’ drive that ended in a 50-yard Adam Vinitieri field goal later, Coleman was beat by White for a gain of 12 on the right side.
Eric Smith had a terrific game. He led the team with ten tackles and had two passes defensed. Early in the third quarter, Smith had a PD on a left side out to Tamme. He also broke up a pass to Addai, a short pass on the right side, in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Smith’s only bad play of note, was in the middle of the fourth, when Tamme beat him for a gain of 15 on the short right side, on the drive that ended with a 50-yard field goal. On the next play, Tamme beat Dwight Lowery on the left side, for a gain of 11.
Emanuel Cook rocked Dominique Rhodes on an early fourth quarter kick return on the 19-yard line.
The Jets had a decent game in coverage, but they are going to have to do a lot better this week. If Coleman and Cromartie don’t tighten up their coverage, it’s going to be a long day-night in New England.
And now Cromartie has put more pressure on himself with his Brady comments. Considering how Cro played last week, and then you lump in his reckless comments about Brady, Rex better call him into his office for meeting, and make sure his head is in the right place.
As for Coleman, I can’t explain Rex and Mike Pettine’s fatal attraction.
