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Florham Park – You could tell this might not be a great day for the secondary, when their best player for beat for a gain of 14 on the Chicago Bears first pass attempt.
On the first series, WR Devin Hester caught a 14-yard comeback route on the right side on Darrelle Revis. In slight defense of Revis, this was kind of a broken play. Jay Cutler was flushed out of the pocket, rolled right, and Hester did a good job coming back to the ball.
Revis had an impressive PD, on a crossing route, in the second quarter, on a pass to Bennett, to end a drive.
Brodney Pool did a nice job of tackling at the end of the first series to force a field goal. It was third-and-seven, and Cutler dumped the ball to Forte on the right side, and Pool came up and limited the runner to a gain of four.
Early in the second quarter, Pool had a real nice PD down the right hash mark on TE Greg Olson.
Pool had nice coverage on Knox on a crossing route in the middle third. Early in the fourth, he had a terrific PD in the end zone, coming over at the last minute to knock away a pass to Olson, forcing a field goal. This was a big-time play.
Pool has really come on in recent weeks. The light bulb has gone on. He’s finally feeling comfortable in the system.
On the second series, the Jets pass defense was the victim of bad luck. Dwight Lowery had a PD on a pass to TE Greg Olson, but the tipped pass ended up being caught by WR Johnny Knox for a gain of 13.
A few plays after this lucky completion for the Bears, Forte had a 22-yard touchdown run. Towards the end of this run, Lowery missed a tackle attempt at the five-yard line.
Early in the second quarter, Lowery had a Pick Six. Jay Cutler threw an ill-advised pass into double coverage, and the safety picked it off, and ran it in from 20 yards. However, while it looked like double coverage, Drew Coleman actually slipped, so if Lowery didn’t jump the route, Earl Bennett might have had a big play.
Lowery was beat for an early third quarter, 40-yard touchdown, by Knox, down the deep right side. While Lowery’s footwork wasn’t great on this play, it was a mismatch of biblical proportions. Knox runs 4.3, and Lowery runs 4.6.
Coleman had an effective blitz up the middle in the second quarter, that forced Cutler to throw the ball away.
On a 25-yard touchdown pass to Hester, Coleman showed poor awareness. Hester was leaning like he was going inside, but Cutler threw it to his backside, and he turned around and caught it. This was predetermined, and Coleman fell for the gimmick.
Antonio Cromartie had a real nice PD on a deep pass, down the right side, to the speedy Hester, early in the fourth quarter.
Cro had a couple of rough play in a row in the middle of the third quarter. First, he was beat for a gain of 13 by Knox on the short left side. And in a way, it was a setup, for the next play. Knox pretended to run a similar route, and then took over down the left sideline, leaving Cro in his tracks, and caught a 26-yard touchdown pass.
Marquice Cole had an effective blitz, on third down, with about five minutes left, to force an incompletion and end a drive.
Cole stopped a scrambling Cutler, with blindside pursuit and hustle, after a gain of three to end the first half. What you saw on this play was Cole’s world class speed. He made up a lot of ground to catch the scrambling Cutler.
Before re-injuring his bad knee, James Ihedigbo was a force on special teams, making nice stops on first and second quarter kick returns.
We need to throw one caveat into the evaluation of the secondary. As you know, the field at Soldier Field is terrible, and it’s hard on defensive backs. The receiver knows where he is going, and the defensive back, attempting to cut, and follow, often slips. Also, the bad field hurts the pass rushers, and this makes the defensive backs cover longer.
As for the defensive back’s challenge this week, while the Bills have put up some big numbers in the passing game, they will be playing without two of their big contributors, wide receiver Lee Evans and David Nelson, so the Jets should be able to contain this passing attack.
