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New Jersey – The Jets have a big advantage on the injury front entering their encounter with the Chicago Bears on Monday night . . .
While the Jets are dealing with the Dee Milliner injury, aside from that, they are pretty healthy, in fact much healthier than the Chicago Bears, who are a mess.
Two defensive linemen didn’t practice today – Jared Allen and Trevor Scott. The status for each is unknown. Outside linebacker Shea McClellin is also hurt.
They have two starting offensive linemen who didn’t play last week, and are long shots for this week – center Roberto Garza and guard Matt Slauson.
And keep in mind Garza’s backup is Brian de la Puente, who started for the New Orleans Saints last year, and the Jets dominated him in their upset win last year.
Mo Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson are highly-motivated for this upcoming game, beyond their normal motivation which is significant.
They are both coming off embarrassments and want to redeem themselves. Wilkerson was tossed from the Packers’ game in the third quarter for a fight, and Richardson was involved in that timeout that negated a key touchdown.
It would be shocking if the Jets don’t dominate up front in this game . . .
Last week the Jets did put a lot of pressure on Aaron Rodgers, but his pocket presence and field vision are both so amazing, he still got the job done. He’s just an amazing player.
While Jay Cutler is a good quarterback, his pocket presence isn’t nearly as good as Rodgers. So with the Bears’ lines issues, combined with the Jets’ talent up front, and the blitzing chicanery Rex Ryan dials up, Cutler is going to issues, and will throw some passes up for grabs.
Plus the Jets are at home, and should have a pretty fired up crowd on Monday Night Football which will make it tough to Cutler to communicate.
Expect the Jets to make Cutler’s life miserable . . .
It’s unclear whether Eric Decker (hamstring) is going to play on Monday night.
Some in the media are making this into a dire scenario for the Jets.
Decker was asked yesterday, “What will it mean for the passing game if you can’t play?”
“I think we’ll be fine either way,” Decker said.
I agree with him. He’s a solid player, but not the type of talent who is irreplaceable.
Honesty, watching these guys every day, I don’t see a bit dropoff from Decker to David Nelson, Greg Salas or Jeremy Kerley.
The Jets can get by without him.
And Kerley could be the x-factor here, He’s playing really well, and the Bears are so thin at corner, it’s really impacting their nickel spot.
I don’t mean this to be disrespectful at all, but if Decker can’t play, the Jets can survive . . .
It’s clear Dee Milliner played too many snaps against the Green Bay Packers, and is paying the price this week. Rex admitted today that he’s not 100 percent. I know that is obvious, but it means something when the super-positive Ryan says something like that.
The Jets should learn a big lesson from last week. Don’t play a cornerback a month removed from a high ankle sprain, 40 snaps in his first game back. He was fine for like the first 20-25, and then the ankle stiffened up. So 20-25 is the way to go this week . . .
September 18, 2014
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