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Premium – While the Jets are in a collective good mood right now after their big win over the Saints, they have some issues to clean up, and others that could rear their head soon . . .
While the Jets are coming off a pretty good offensive line performance against the New Orleans Saints, there are still some things to clean up.
Brian Winters is learning on the job.
There is no way around that.
And rawness of this player showed up, even in the Saints game.
In the third quarter, Brian Winters missed a block on DE Tom Johnson, and this forced Geno Smith to run, for a gain of six on third-and-ten, and the Jets punted.
In the third quarter, Winters got pushed back by LB Curtis Lofton into Bilal Powell, but the runner did a nice job of bouncing off this, to get seven yards.
Early in the fourth quarter, Powell had a 20-yard run to the right side, but it was called back because Winters held DT Broderick Bunkley (got a handful of jersey), and it brought the play back.
Winters did do some good things against the Saints, but he’s very inconsistent, which is understandable since he was a college offensive tackle.
But this could be a problem facing a team, the Buffalo Bills, that have two excellent interior defensive linemen in Kyle Williams and Marcel Dareus. You know darn well they are licking their chops to take advantage of the rookie. Let’s see what he can do . . .
Speaking of Winters, you have to wonder when he’s going to hit the rookie wall physically. This is the time of year this problem rears it’s ugly head. What will help Winters stave this off somewhat is that he didn’t start the first four game, taking over in Week Five, in Atlanta.
While on the topic of the rookie wall, this has to be a concern with Geno Smith.
First of all, on top of being a rookie, he’s needs to get bigger and stronger, some the wear and tear of NFL football has to be taking it’s toll on him. He’s an almost skinny guy.
And he’s taken a lot of hits. He’s been sacked 30 times this year, and on top of that, he’s been hit on a lot more plays than that.
There was a play against the Saints that had to really scare the Jets, and it’s illustrative of the dangers of a quarterback running a lot in the NFL.
In the third quarter, Smith ran to the right side and got rocked by safety Kenny Vaccaro and linebacker Curtis Lofton. He was slow to get up, and shook his head, almost like he was getting the cobwebs out. I thought he might have been concussed on this play, but he kept on playing.
And you know darn well that Mike Pettine’s defense is going to blitz the heck out of him.
Not only does Pettine like to blitz, but a league source told us that the Bills weren’t interested in picking Smith in the draft because they didn’t think he dealt with the blitz well. Remember, Doug Marrone, faced him a couple of times when he coached Syracuse, and had great success blitzing Smith.
Smith has thrown just one touchdown and seven interceptions in three outdoor road games this year, and in those three games, the defenses attacked him quite a bit.
Pettine is going to blitz him like crazy to make sure this trend continues.
November 13, 2013
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