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The Jets blockers, had a strange game against New England – there was some very good run blocking, but they had no answer for Andre Carter.
On the Jets first possession, the pass protection was superb, and Mark Sanchez was able to hit three passes on the first four plays for gains of 16, 11 and 27.
The Jets second drive really didn’t amount to much, but there was a terrific run on second down. Shonn Greene ran for seven yards up the middle behind Brandon Moore who locked up linebacker Tracy White. But then on the next play, Moore had one of his few bad plays of the game when Vince Wilfork was able to get by him, blowing up a run in the backfield, and LT was stopped after a gain of two. Two plays later, the possession ended when TE Mathew Mulligan was beat for a blindside sack by DE Andre Carter.
While we are talking about Mulligan, I want to fast-foward to a play in the third quarter (two plays before Rob Ninkovich’s first pick). Shonn Greene ran a sweep to the left side, and was stopped for a loss of one. On the play, Mulligan didn’t sustain his block very long on Ninkovich, and this contributed to play not working.
I have a theory on what was going on here. Remember, in the Buffalo game, Mulligan had those two penalties on one drive. He’s leads the team in penalties.
I think he was so concerned with committing a penalty against New England, so he was being very careful, and wasn’t his normal tenacious self.
Let’s now go back to the Jets third possession of the game.
This drive started off well. On first down, Greene ran for a gain of six on the right side – one of the key blocks on this play was Matt Slauson locking up NT Ron Brace. On second down, Greene ran for eight yards off right guard behind Moore, who had a great block on Vince Wilfork. On the third play of the drive, Wayne Hunter pancaked Wilfork on a Greene gain of four up the middle.
Then on 2nd-and-six, there was a mental breakdown by the offensive line. Carter went entirely unblocked on Sanchez’s blindside, and sacked Sanchez. D’Brickshaw Ferguson picked up a blitzing LB Jerod Mayo, and there was nobody on the left side to pick up Carter. This possession fizzled, ending two plays later.
On the fourth possession, on the third play, Hunter pancaked Shaun Ellis and Green ran for six yards off right tackle. On the next play, Mulligan had a nice block on Ellis, and Greene ran for six yards off right tackle again (we didn’t see too much of Ellis on the field after these two plays).
This drive that looked so promising came apart at the seams.
On the second to last play of the drive, Carter got by D’Brickashaw Ferguson with an inside move, and this forced Sanchez to throw it away, and was called for intentional grounding.
In the middle of the next drive, Sanchez was sacked – it was split by Carter and Mark Anderson. Anderson really created this with a great spin move on Hunter.
Late in the first half, LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 15 yards up the middle. The run blocking on this play was textbook. Nick Mangold manhandled White, Moore handled Wilfork, and Slauson took care of DE Brandon Dederick, and it was clear sailing for LT up the middle.
On the Sanchez scramble for a touchdown late in the first half, the Jets right side did an awesome job – Hunter on Anderson and Moore on Wilfork, and Sanchez had the space he needed to get into the end zone.
The Jets started the third quarter with two three-and-outs.
The offensive line did a great job on a late third quarter, early fourth quarter drive that resulted in a touchdown; it was a nice mix of run and pass that ended with a fade to Plaxico Burress for a touchdown.
On the next drive, that ended with a Pick Six by Ninkovich, on first down, Hunter was called for illegal use of the hands.
On the Jets next possession, Ferguson was beat for sacks on consecutive plays by Carter, setting up a fourth-and-23 that didn’t work out.
Strange game for the offensive line – there was so much good run blocking, but made Carter look like a Hall-of-Famer. This was a game Ferguson would like to forget.
