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This is officially . . .
. . . a dumpster fire.
Where do I start?
Can you believe this is how the Jets played coming off a bye-week?
This performance was two weeks in the works.
And against a team with tons of injuries at cornerback.
This offensive game-plan, two weeks in the making, began with two Le’Veon Bell runs up the middle to start the game that gained a combined one yard, and then Luke Falk getting sacked by Brandon Graham, who beat Brian Winters. Graham looping inside on a guard should not surprise anyway. The Eagles won the freakin Super Bowl with this play when he did this to Tom Brady, causing a fumble.
The Jets passed for 120 yards and no touchdowns against cornerbacks like Craig James and Orlando Scandrick.
I know Luke Falk isn’t great, but there are so many other things wrong.
So many questions by reporters after that game were about whether Sam Darnold can change what is going on when he returns, like he’s a messiah.
Maybe a little bit, but it’s so much deeper than that.
Obviously the line is a problem.
Changing the center in the middle of training camp was a colossal error. Maybe the team’s brass was reading the newspapers too much. Some writers were obsessed with center being a need. Jon Harrison is fine and worked with the line all off-season and the first few weeks of camp. The Jets should trade Kalil to a contender.
And also, Gase should not have have made the change at right tackle. Chuma Edoga gave up two sacks today. You already had a new left guard in Alex Lewis with Kelechi Osemele out, so why change two positions? And why would you bench Brandon Shell and have a rookie right tackle make his first NFL start on the road in a ruckus environment? Gase said Edoga was practicing well. The heck with practice. Practice is not tackle football. Foolish move to start Edoga in Philly, especially since you had to also had replace another position. Too many changes, and it probably made the communication issues even worse than they were before.
Once again, the Jets were basically playing without a receiving tight end. Ryan Griffin is a blocking tight end. Why not let mobile Daniel Brown play and stretch the field a little bit? He looked great in the off-season and summer with Jets defenders having a hard time covering him.
Why is Demaryius Thomas on this team with two repaired achilles tendons and a hamstring injury? Makes no sense.
But Gase had to have him.
Just like Gase had to have Falk, a player he had in Miami, so he bounced Brandon Silvers, who the Jets had signed after a strong showing in the Alliance of American Football. Silvers is better than Falk and has a stronger arm, but didn’t play for the Dolphins.
Jets GM Joe Douglas needs to listen to Gase less on personnel moves.
Gase was bad at personnel in Miami, and bad with the Jets.
And I don’t care what his apologists in the media say; Gase has done a poor job coaching the Jets so far.
I don’t want to hear the excuses about the injuries. Every team has injuries. The Eagles have injuries. Bottom line – the Jets weren’t prepared properly to start an NFL season.
If this embarrassing play continues much longer, an in-season coaching change shouldn’t be off the table. These NFL teams make so much TV money, eating coaching contracts isn’t a big deal.
Gregg Williams is on the staff, and he did a nice job last year taking over the Browns in-season after Hue Jackson was fired.
Why didn’t Gase challenge whether Orlando Scandrick stepped out of bounds on his 44-yard fumble return in the fourth quarter. It looked like he stepped on the line. Had Gase given up on the game?
You get the sense that Gase feels like a victim here – perhaps due to injuries and the roster left behind by the old GM.
Maybe some of you agree with him.
But he also deserves plenty of blame himself.
October 6, 2019
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