Patriots @ Jets ~ Report Card

by Patrick Stanton
JetNation Senior Columnist

QUARTERBACK
Brooks Bollinger (11/19, 100 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 Fumble) C+ He wasn’t exactly electric for the Jets tonight, but when you watch the opposing team go 31 plays before getting a chance to sniff the ball again, what can you expect? Add to that a pocket that was collapsing faster then the French defending Paris and Johnny Unitas himself would have problems. Unfortunately for Bollinger and us, he’s no Unitas. Nice touch on the fade pass to Coles though.

Vinny Testaverde (3/7, 63, 1 TD) F Congratulations on your meaningless record. Now disappear and never come back.

RUNNING BACK
Cedric Houston (5 rushes, 14 yards) / Derrick Blaylock (3 rushes, 20 yards): Incomplete How pathetic was the offense tonight? Subtract the rushes by Bollinger and the Jets had 8 rushing attempts for 34 yards. 8 attempts as a team for an entire game? When you take into account that the Patriots held onto the ball for 43:21 of the 60 minutes, what do you want?

WIDE RECEIVERS
McCareins (4/51) B- ; Coles (5/71, 2 TD) A- Coles made a nice play on the jump ball from Vinny and since this weekend has been another chance for us to revisit the Coles-Moss trade, it was plays like this that caused the Jets to bring him back.

TIGHT END: Incomplete
Doug Jolley (0/0) If a tree fell in the woods and no one was around to hear it would it make a sound?

OFFENSIVE LINE: F
If anyone was upset by the recent discontinuation of the MTA strike in New York City it was these guys. Rumor has it they had all lined up jobs as replacement subway turnstiles had the city decided to go with scab workers. Typically the QB buys his offensive line dinner for protecting him. In the case of the Jets OL, they owe Brooks Bollinger dinner from now until roughly 2009.

DEFENSIVE LINE: D
Congratulations to the Jets DL for helping the Patriots get their running game established before heading into the playoffs. Don’t be mislead by their 2 ½ sacks by the DL, most of them were in garbage time or results of decent coverage by the DBs. In addition to not getting much pressure on Brady, they contributed to Dillon rumbling for 77 yards and 2 scores. On a better note, Bryan Thomas had a halfway decent game against the run although he was nowhere to be found in the pass rush. It’s this simple, when your season at defensive line has fallen on the shoulders of Trevor Johnson, Sione Pouha, Dave Ball and Matt McChesney, it’s time to start watching hockey or basketball.

LINEBACKERS: C
Another one man show back there and it wasn’t much of a show this week. Vilma was over pursuing on numerous plays, a byproduct of his aggressive nature and desire to make something happen. As much as that was a detractor at times, the man still ended the game with 17 tackles, 13 of which were solos and ½ sack. I’ll take that any day of the week. As a group, they were getting picked off left and right while trying to get to the point of attack and weren’t exactly stout defending the pass underneath. Just ask Doug Vrabel about that one. One thing I noticed tonight was that having a LB defending NE TE Ben Watson isn’t the answer. The Patriots have themselves a nice player there should they ever decide to make him a main player in the offense.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: C+ (Ty Law B+)
Ty Law’s nice read and interception return aside, it was a rough night for select members of the Jets secondary. The Patriots went out of their way to get Miller and Barrett isolated and when they did, it usually paid off. Justin Miller has yet to make a single play on a pass while one has to wonder if David Barrett’s smoked visor best be changed to clear during night games. Stats wise, the Jets secondary didn’t do that bad of a job, but had the Patriots not had such free reign of the ground game, it might have been a different story. Nice play by Ty Law on the INT.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D- With apparent hurricane winds inside the stadium, you’re telling me that not a single coach told the KR team to fair catch the kickoff if it got caught up in the wind? That’s basic high school level stuff here folks. I know that you are all screaming “Fair Catch� just like I was yet apparently the Jets didn’t get that memo. As for Nugent and his strong leg we’ve hear oh so much about, he couldn’t even get it into the end zone with a 40 mph tail wind.

COACHING: D
The defense had the ball shoved right up their rear ends on numerous occasions over long stretches of time, the offense had 2 less rushing attempts (8) as overall first downs (10) and the Jets didn’t get their first down until the 3rd quarter. They had a linebacker score not once but twice on them and watched Tom Brady and his offense rattle off 31 straight plays before Bollinger got the ball back. It was an ugly night in every aspect of the game for the Jets, right up to the coaching. I’m still trying to figure out how putting Vinny Testaverde into the game to obtain a meaningless record is in keeping with Coach Edwards’ “You play to win the game� mentality?

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