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Dan takes a look back at the deep patrol’s work in Pittsburgh, and looks ahead to their challenge in Chicago.
Brodney Pool had his second solid game in a row.
First off, he had a touchdown-saving stop on a long kickoff return by Antonio Brown in the first quarter.
Pool came up to make a terrific stop on Rashad Mendenhall after a short gain on the first series.
On the second series, Pool had a PD on a crossing route to TE David Johnson.
The last couple of weeks, the Jets have played Pool closer to the line, and the results have been excellent.
On the second series, there was major confusion on defense, and Darrelle Revis needed to call timeout, and he was ticked off. It seemed there was a lot of confusion about where guys were supposed to line up.
Also on the Steelers second series, in a span of three plays, Pittsburgh ran two deep passes to speedy Mike Wallace down the right sideline. The first one was almost a disaster for the Jets because Antonio Cromartie fell down, but it was overthrown. On the second one, Cro had good coverage. For some strange reason, there are teams that go after Cro like he’s a weak link, and I think they are mistaken. He’s a #2 corner, with a lot of #1 corner skills.
Cro did have a couple of bad plays on the Steelers late in the second quarter. He was called for holding, and then was beat on a 16-yard reception by Wallace. On the reception Wallace pretended he was going deep, but then cut it off quickly, in front of Cro, for the 16-yard gain.
Cro showed excellent awareness let in the first half when he didn’t fall for a fake spike attempt by Roethlisberger, and stayed with Wallace on a fade down the right sideline.
Early in the second quarter, Ward caught an 18-yard reception in front of Brodney Pool. On this play, Cromartie blitzed off the corner (which shocked the Steelers because he almost never blitzes), had a chance to sack Big Ben, but couldn’t do it, and this left the Jets short-handed in the secondary. The issue with Cro blitzing Roethlisberger, is that he’s not a great tackler, so the chances of him bringing down this 6-5, 250-pound block of granite, is unlikely.
Early in the second quarter, Dwight Lowery was beat on a 16-yard left side comeback route by Hines Ward.
I’ve said it many times, and I will say it again, Drew Coleman is a very unusual corner – outstanding at many things, except coverage.
On the Steelers long, early second quarter drive, he gave up a pair of completions to WR Emanuel Sanders in a short span, for 12 and 13 yards. Late in the second quarter, Sanchez beat Coleman over the middle, but dropped the ball. Late in the third quarter, Wallace beat Coleman on a crossing route for a gain of 17. On the Steelers last possession, Sanders beat Coleman for a gain of 11 on the left side.
But in the same game, he led the Jets in tackles (10), had two sacks, and forced two fumbles. He also did a terrific job in kick coverage. He didn’t have a special team’s tackle, but on two occasions, he got down field fast, and forced the returner into somebody else’s hands.
Wallace did a good job finding a hole in the Jets zone, and caught an early third quarter pass between Dwight Lowery and David Harris, for a gain of 23, in the middle of the field.
The Steelers stayed away from Revis for the most part. On the Steelers last possession, Revis had a tremendous PD, on a pass over the deep middle to Sanders. Also on this drive, on a disastrous play for the Jets, Sanders had a gain of 29, on third-and-24, both Revis and Lowery missed tackles. James “Dig” Ihedigbo saved the day with an open field tackle in the middle of the field.
And of course, Marquice Cole, had the PD in the end zone to wrap up the win.
Looking ahead to the coverage challenge in Chicago, the Bears have the NFL’s 26th ranked passing offense. They have pulled back a great deal from their early season gunslinger approach because of bad pass protection. They are playing a rookie seventh round left tackle, who is as raw as molasses dripping from a tree. Cutler has been sacked 44 times this year. They are more of a running team now.
But with that being said, they do have a very good tight end, New Jersey’s Greg Olson, a former first round pick out of Miami of Florida. We all know the Jets have major issues covering the tight ends, and that includes backups (Joel Dreessen and Matt Speath) and starters. So Olson, who runs under 4.6, could pose a problem for them.
However, considering the weather, and the Bears line issues, and the fact that they are in the playoffs already, expect them to mainly run the football. They don’t want to risk a Cutler injury.