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While the Bengals are having a bad season, they do have some decent talent in the Front Seven, and the Jets did a pretty job blocking them, for the most part.
The Jets had one impressive run on the first series, and the key block was by TE Ben Hartsock. He locked up defensive end Mike Johnson, and LaDainian Tomlinson ran behind him off left tackle for a gain of five.
Nick Mangold had an issue with underrated defensive tackle Domata Peko, who slipped by him on the first series, to stop a Brad Smith keeper on the line.
On the Jets second possession Mangold had a tremendous block on Peko, and Shonn Greene ran behind him for a gain of seven up the middle. In the middle of the fourth quarter, Peko shed Mangold and stopped Tomlinson after just a gain of one.
Late in the first quarter, Mark Sanchez was sacked by DE Carlos Dunlap. But this sack wasn’t necessarily the fault of the person blocking Dunlap. What happened on this play was Johnson shot by Ferguson off the left edge, and Sanchez had to leave the pocket to avoid Johnson, and ran into the arms of Dunlap. So while his man didn’t give up the sack, Ferguson’s missed block caused the sack.
Brick rebounded with a very nice play in the early second quarter. On the first play of a possession, L.T. ran behind him on the left side for a gain of seven. And then he had one of the most important blocks of the game. On the Smith’s 53-yard TD run on a reverse, he had a tremendous block on LB Rey Maualuga on the left side, and the receiver ran right behind him, and was off to the races.
On the same possession, the execution on a nine-yard gain by L.T. to the left side was superb, with three Jets blockers working together extremely well. Damien Woody and Hartsock, did a tremendous job driving defenders to the left side, towards the middle of the field, and Brandon Moore pulled to the right side, to the second level, and took on another defender, and Tomlinson ran through the gaping hole between Woody-Hartsock and Moore.
Another great job of pulling by Moore was on the second possession of the second half. On a short pass to Tomlinson on the right side, Moore got in front, knocked Peko out of the way, and Tomlinson was able to get nine.
Moore had a bad play at the end of the third quarter. Dunlap got by him to sack Sanchez around the goal line, and they are lucky it wasn’t a safety.
Moore mauled Peko on a huge run by Greene for nine yards, at the two minute warning, on third-and-five, to ice the win.
Matt Slauson had a great block on Peko on a Greene gain of nine yards on the first play of a late fourth quarter drive.
Gutsy performance by right tackle Damien Woody playing four days after suffering an MCL sprain, and he held up fairly well.
Sanchez had three passes blocked at the line. While I’m sure a couple of these were the quarterbacks fault, remember, offensive linemen are taught to block linemen’s arms down, so perhaps this didn’t happen.
Once again, Greene did a terrific job of helping his lineman a great deal with his rugged running style. Two plays in a row late in the first quarter point out what I’m talking about, and they came on the first two plays of a drive. On first down, he ran up the middle, and made a likely three or four yard run into a six yard gain by carrying tacklers, and refusing to go down. On the next play, he ran off right tackle, and broke a tackle attempt by LB Dhani Jones a couple of yards into the run, and took a potential short gain, and made it into a seven-yarder.
Braylon Edwards had another illegal block in the back late in the first quarter, on an L.T. run.
One of the better blocks of the game overall was Rob Turner, on LB Rod Muckleroy, on Smith’s 89-yard kickoff return. This was a tremendous block to get the run going.