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M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore – It’s time for some Website Whispers from Baltimore, Maryland in the aftermath of the Jets loss to the Ravens . . .
Stephen Hill had his playing time cut back today.
He wasn’t on the field nearly as much as he usually is.
And for all those people that were blaming him for the Jets’ passing game woes, I have news for you, benching him, if that is what you want to call it, made no difference.
Keep in mind, people were ripping Hill for having no catches against Buffalo.
But while he was targeted seven times, he had no drops. The passes to him in Ralph Wilson Stadium were either uncatchable or broken up.
Look, I’m not putting Hill in Canton, but he isn’t the problem.
This is a quarterback-driven league.
And any top-shelf talent evaluator will tell you, “Quarterbacks make receivers, receivers don’t make quarterbacks.”
Peyton Manning has made Eric Decker into Steve Largent in Denver.
I’m not saying the Jets have great talent at receiver, but if they had a quarterback who could read defenses better, made quicker decision and was more accurate, you would pretty amazed how much better their current targets would look.
And I want to make it clear. I’m not blaming Geno Smith for his struggles.
They aren’t his fault.
When decision-makers force players into the lineup before they are ready, it’s the decision-makers fault for the struggles, not the player. I truly believe that . . .
Rex Ryan seemed baffled why the Jets couldn’t run better today.
But actually, they weren’t terrible, considering how stout the Ravens are upfront.
They finished with 28 carries for 102 yards.
However, the reason they struggled running the rock at times was pretty simple. The Ravens had no fear of the Jets’ passing game, and had eight men in the box all day . . .
In his post-game press conference, Rex Ryan kept blaming the drops for the passing game woes.
“He was overselling that,” said one writer in attendance.
What were there, two blatant drops?
And neither was on a particularly long pass.
The way Rex kept pushing the drops, one writer felt that somebody told to say that, told him to spin it that way.
I can’t prove that, but Rex took forever to come into his post-game presser. It seemed like he was huddling with somebody from the organization for a while before coming in.
While today’s offensive performance wasn’t all Geno fault, few people watching the game would consider drops the big problem in Baltimore . . .
Being around the team, I sensed the Jets were going to go with a heavy dose of Josh Cribbs and the Wildcat this week.
And they did just that, and had mixed results.
The reason for running it clearly was to take some pressure off Geno Smith.
However, here is the problem.
You can’t consistently win in this league trying to minimize the quarterback position. You can’t play around the quarterback in a quarterback-driven league. You can’t try and make the position disappear.
You just can’t do it.
And if the Jets think they can contend for a Wildcard spot doing that, they are kidding themselves . . .
Though I do think playing Geno Smith this year helps Rex Ryan’s job security more than it hurts him.
Geno Smith is John Idzik’s quarterback much more than Rex Ryan’s quarterbacks.
And Rex Ryan kept this team competitive with a quarterback who wasn’t ready.
That is a feather in his cap.
If you have issues with Geno Smith starting all year, and playing like, well . . . a raw rookie – that is Idzik’s fault.
Not Rex Ryan’s . . .
November 24, 2013
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