by Joe Grinwis
Quarterback D
Pennington – 23-40, 300 yards, TD, INT, Fumble
Yes, Chad threw for 300 yards but 77 of those came on one pass play. If it weren’t for Cotchery it would have went 15 yards and about 100 more of those yards came in garbage time.
Running Back D
Washington – 11 carries, 50 yards; 2 receptions, 25 yards
Leon Washington had a good day on the stat sheet but his yards came on basically 3 plays. Nothing spectacular from Leon but we shouldn’t expect it because the guy is not a starting NFL calibar running back. Period.
Wide Receiver C-
Cotchery – 4 receptions, 100 yards, TD
Coles – 5 receptions, 45 yards
LC was quiet much of the day and Cotchery made 77 of his 100 on one play as well. However it was the Jets’ only touchdown so I’ll boost this grade up to a C even though I probably shouldn’t.
Tight End D
Where is Chris Baker in the passing game? I understand a lot of it has to do with the play calls but come on Chris, you MUST be doing something wrong. And not a strong day blocking for him either.
Offensive Line D
Chad was sacked 3 times (D’Brickashaw Ferguson did not have a good game at all) and was pressured the rest of the day. As usual the running game did not get going.
Defensive Line D
Dewayne Roberston was pushed around, Shaun Ellis and Kimo von Oelhoffen did not get any pressure and the two headed backfield of New England had no trouble getting yards all game long.
Linebackers D
Jonathan Vilma needs to either be moved to the outside in the 3-4 or traded away. There is no room for this guy in the 3-4 at ILB, he is not going to do well there. Where was Bryan Thomas yesterday? No pressure.
Secondary C
Minus Andre Dyson for all but one series and having to deal with the front 7 not getting any pressure to help them out I’m going to have to give the secondary a C. It was hard though because even Kerry Rhodes had a shaky day.
Special Teams B
Mike Nugent hit all 3 of his field goal attempts, making it 21 in a row. For the second week in a row, his kickoffs fell well short of the goaline. Ben Graham punted well and Justin Miller in his first playoff game did not have any dazzling returns.
Coaching D
Maybe it was great coaching by Belichick and his staff but I don’t know this team just got shut down by the Patriots’ defense. On offense the play calling wasn’t my favorite from what we’ve seen from Schottenheimer all season.