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New Jersey – A few different things to get into in our Whispers section coming out of the Jets loss to Carolina . . .
Most NFL games are decided by four or five key plays, and today’s Jets loss to Carolina is a perfect example of that.
You could make a strong argument the Jets outplayed the Panthers today, but a handful of plays did them in.
*Josh McCown’s fourth quarter fumble returned for a touchdown by Luke Kuechly
*Austin Seferian-Jenkins dropped touchdown in the first quarter.
*Third-and-11 right before the two-minute warning – Cam Newton throws an incompletion, but Mike Pennell was called for roughing the passer.
*Lach Edwards 37-yard punt right down the middle which Kaelin Clay returned for a fourth quarter touchdown.
*Fourth-and-two late in the third quarter and Jordan Jenkins jumped off-sides.
There you have it, five plays (maybe four if you want to exclude the Jenkins’ play) that turned the tide in this game.
There you go. The margin of victory is so small in these NFL games, it’s hard to win with these kind of self-inflicted wounds . . .
Pennel actually had a good game aside from that brutal penalty, finishing with seven tackles.
Pennel has a lot of talent, but he hasn’t always been the best decision-maker.
He was suspended at Arizona State for comments on Twitter and ended up at Colorado State-Pueblo. During the 2016 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, he served two different four-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The Packers moved on from him after last season.
His late hit today on Cam Newton was a very bad decision.
Bad decision-makers make bad decisions . . .
The narrative coming out of Carolina about this game is the Panthers played a sloppy game.
Reporters in the Panthers’ locker room asked a lot of questions about “winning ugly.”
After one of these questions, Panther safety Kurt Coleman said, “An ugly win is better than a pretty loss.”
Several Panthers had quotes like this, including Cam Newton.
I don’t think this was a case of Carolina “winning ugly.”
First of all, I don’t see Carolina as a better team than the Jets. Despite the records, I considered these teams pretty even entering this game.
In fact, I picked the Jets before this game.
Keep in mind, the Panthers lost to the Chicago Bears this season.
They are very beatable.
Jets should have won this game.
This wasn’t a case of the Panther “winning ugly.”
It was more a case of the Jets playing well for most of the game, but ultimately handing the Panthers the game due to four or five plays . . .
Kony Ealy talked about “revenge” early in the week, on the NFL Network, about facing his former team, the Carolina Panthers.
It doesn’t matter that somebody from the Jets got to him after that interview and he back away from that narrative the next day talking to the New York media. He already said it.
He finished with one tackle.
One tackle from an edge-rusher, and no QB pressures or sacks is an underwhelming performance.
The guys has some talent, but there is something missing, and that is probably why he’s on this third team in less than a year.
Something is missing . . .
November 26, 2017
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