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Ogunquit – There were so many interesting notes and nuggets from the Jets loss in New England. Let’s get into some of them . . .
It was a rough game on special teams for linebacker Garrett McIntyre.
First, he couldn’t get off a block on Devin McCourty’s 104-yard kick returner, and the cornerback ran right by him, and was off to the races . . .
Then, in overtime, after New England kicked a field goal, the Jets took over with poor field position, on the 15-yard line.
On Joe McKnight’s return, Julian Edelman got by a McIntyre block attempt, and stopped McKnight before he could get going. So the Jets started in a hole . . .
Rex Ryan on Stephen Hill’s bad drop against New England – “He’s get on the JUGS machine. I know one thing about Stephen Hill; he’s a hard-working kid. He’s only going to get better.”
There is no question he’s a hard-worker, and a good kid, but he had an eerily similar play in the preseason on a pass from Tim Tebow.
And he had issues with drops in college.
So it’s unclear whether hard-work is going to fix this problem.
It’s pretty apparent that Hill is much better at making difficult catches than easy ones. When he is wide open, and has to wait a second or two for the ball to get there, he seems to think too much, and this leads to occasional drops . . .
You can clearly see why the Jets moved on from John Connor, and are forging ahead with Lex Hilliard at fullback. Hilliard is a much better athlete than Connor, a lot more flexiblility. Connor is very tightly-wound. Hilliard is also a bigger contributor on special teams (he forced the Devin McCourty fumble.)
Hilliard had a nine-yard run off left tackle. He showed good quicks for a big guy on this play.
This was a terrific pick-up by the Jets. Expect him to play like man possessed against his former team – Miami – on Sunday . . .
While Sanchez did some good things in New England, there is a lot of room for improvement.
A drive in the middle of the second quarter is a perfect example.
On the third play of this possession, Sanchez threw a pass down the right seam to Jeremy Kerley. It was nearly picked off, but Kerley played defense, tipped the ball away, and ended up catching it out of the air.
A few plays later, there was a third-and-10, and Sanchez hit Keller on the short right side, way short of the first down, but Keller broke a tackle attempt by CB Ras-I Dowling, and went on to gain 11.
Two plays later, Sanchez threw the ball real late to down the deep right side to Stephen Hill, and it was picked by Alphonso Dennard.
This was just a really poor drive for the quarterback. He threw a pass that should have been picked that Kerley saved the day on, threw way short of the first down to Keller, and he saved him by breaking a tackle and getting a first down, then he threw that pick to Dennard.
While some people are raving about Sanchez’s performance in New England, he still has a lot of work to do.
He was facing a secondary with BOTH safeties out, and that has been getting weak cornerback play this year.
The Jets had to settle for four field goals in this game.
Sanchez was okay, but some are embellishing his day a little bit.
October 22, 2012
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