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East Rutherford, New Jersey – The Jets are in a weird spot right now. Tonight’s game was a very unusual scenario.
This was one of the more bizarre games I’ve covered.
When you run the ball was well as the Jets did, rushing for 277 yards, how does that not help the passing game?
It should open up amazing opportunities through the air.
But it didn’t.
Geno Smith was 7-13 for 65 yards and a 35.7 QB rating.
It was almost like the coaches were thumbing their nose at the General Manager.
Almost saying, “You are going to force us to play the lesser of two quarterbacks, because of your own agenda, we are just going to run the ball all night.”
There aren’t a lot of people in the building – players, coaches and so forth who think the Jets should play Smith over Mike Vick.
I went back over the Jets-Bills game with a fine tooth comb. Did Vick play well? No. But the pass protection was horrendous. He got the crap beat out of him.
To judge him by the game is so unfair. He played well in his first two starts, a loss to Kansas City and a win over Pittsburgh.
I thought Solomon Wilcots put it best early in the Buffalo game when he said, “A much different tone around this team with Vick under center. Michael Vick has brought stability to this team. They have more confidence than Geno Smith would provide.”
Once again, I know Vick didn’t play very well against Buffalo. But one bad start – is that all he gets?
Don’t you think that the way the Jets ran the ball, Vick wouild have complimented that much better than Smith did tonight?
And keep something else in mind – the Dolphins were without their second and third cornerbacks, Cortland Finnegan and Jamar Taylor. Finnegan got hurt about a month ago, was replaced in the starting lineup by Taylor, and then Taylor hurt his shoulder in Denver last week.
Think about that combo – the Jets ran the ball for 277 yards, the other team is without their second and third corners, and you can’t do anything through the air?
That is just what you are looking for as an offense to do major damage through the air.
That makes little sense.
The Jets are dysfunctional mess right now.
Most of the coaches and players clearly want Vick to start, but the GM wants to continue his QB project.
This is one of the problems when a new GM comes in and has to keep the coach.
The GM wants to build for the future, and the coach wants to win now.
John Idzik is a decent man, a great family man, but he has mishandled the team’s quarterback situation from the get-go.
And in a quarterback-driven league, you have no shot with a bad quarterback situation.
For Idzik to get his first NFL GM job, and hitch his wagon to a marginal QB prospect, a second round pick, who was a project, to say the least, was just a bad plan.
And it might end up costing Idzik and Ryan their jobs.
After the game, Ryan almost seemed like a guy who wouldn’t mind being put out of his misery right now.
December 2, 2015
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