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Premium – It’s time for some Monday Whispers and Nuggets, looking back and looking ahead . . .
When you hit December, and you play defense, and it’s cold out, and your team is out of it, the last thing you want to deal with is a running back like Chris Ivory.
I can assure you of that.
He runs so darn hard, and some of these players are just looking to get out of the game healthy.
So it should come as no surprise that on his touchdown run in the fourth quarter, he broke five tackles.
The Raiders defenders wanted nothing to do with his running style late in this game.
And that was pretty apparent on this play.
The man is a beast . . .
It’s official – Antonio Cromartie has a concussion, so his status for the Jets-Panthers game is up in the air.
And honestly, the way he’s playing, perhaps due to injury issues, it would not a big dropoff, in any, to Darren Walls.
Against the Raiders, in the second quarter, he was beat for a gain of 40, by Andre Holmes, an undrafted free agent out of Hillsdale College.
In the fourth quarter, he was called for a 21-yard pass interference penalty when he didn’t turn around on a pass down field to Holmes.
Also, he’s not much a help in run support these days, perhaps due to the hip.
He had just one tackle against the Raiders, and was a liability against the run against Miami.
Walls is a big corner who is ready, willing and able to throw his body around. He shows that on special teams.
I know some people will act like it’s the end of the world if Cromartie can’t play, but it’s probably not.
Some people might say, “Hey, they need him to cover Steve Smith.”
Actually, Cromartie on Smith isn’t a good match-up.
Cromartie against short, quick receivers, who are great at changing directions, isn’t his strength. He’s better against tall lanky wideouts. Because “Cro” has long legs, he struggles changing directions with small, shifty wideouts . . .
If the Jets can keep the turnovers to a minimum, I think the Jets-Panthers is going to be a close game that could go either way.
First of all, the Panthers generally don’t score a lot of points.
They often win close, low-scoring games.
Also, Rex Ryan is very good against quarterbacks like Cam Newton who don’t read defenses that well. Rex can trick him into making some bad plays by disguising the coverages.
I definitely think the Jets hang around in this game . . .
A big concern in this game for the Jets is defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, who is having a terrific rookie year, against Brian Winters, who continues to be wildly inconsistent as he learns on the job.
He was very up-and-down against the Raiders. One concern for the Jets has to be that he continues to make similar mistakes over and over again . . .
Calvin Pace is quietly having a very good season. He has eight sacks and has done a decent job in pass coverage. I know he’s going to be 34 next October, but the Jets have to seriously consider bringing him back. There is no sign of slippage at all.
He had an impressive sack against the Raiders, using really good technique to shed right tackle Tony Pashos to get to the quarterback . . .
December 9, 2013
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