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Florham Park – The Jets Front Seven is having a good season, but one thing they need to work on his closing the deal on sacks. There have been a lot of close, but not cigar situations . . .
On Detroit’s third possession, Mike DeVito beat Lions left tackle Jeff Backus and the defensive tackle stopped Jahvid Best for a loss of two.
Also the third series, Sione Pouha dropped into a coverage on a zone blitz and nearly picked off Mathew Stafford. Late in the first half, Pouha drew an off-sides penalty on C Dom Raiola. The center moved the ball, and Pouha jumped to draw the call, and Detroit had to punt. Early in the fourth quarter, Pouha stopped RB Kevin Smith for a loss of one, on the two-yard line.
Early in the second quarter, Shaun Ellis for called for a 15-yard personal foul penalty for hitting Stafford out of bounds. It wasn’t a great call because Stafford was basically still on the sideline when Ellis hit him.
Late in the first half, Ellis slipped into the backfield, and had Stafford dead in his tracks, but he couldn’t close the deal, and Stafford ended running for nine yards. Ellis had a QB pressure early the fourth. Also in that quarter, he jumped over a cut block attempt by RT Gosder Cherilus, and stopped Best for a loss of two.
Bart Scott was a man possessed in his hometown, and this showed from the get-go. On Best’s first run, Scott had a great shed and stop on the line. On the first play of the Lion’s second drive, Scott blitzed up the middle, and sacked the quarterback for a loss of 10. He shed Best easily to get to the quarterback. This once again displays the problem with rookie tailbacks, most of them can’t block.
Late in the third quarter, Scott almost stopped FB Jerome Felton in the end zone, but the runner was able to just avoid a safety by getting over the goal line. On the next play, Scott blitzed up the middle, and forced Stafford to throw the football away.
Scott was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty on the first series of the game. Cherilus jumped on the pile and speared David Harris, and Scott pulled him off.
Early in the second quarter, Scott and David Harris combined to stop Kevin Smith on the line. Harris was very active in run support (like when he and Jason Taylor stopped Best for no gain late second quarter), but also had a real nice play in pass coverage. In the middle of the fourth, he stopped TE Brandon Pettigrew for no gain on a reception to end a drive.
Harris did have a couple of bad plays in coverage like when he was beat for a gain of 27 over the middle by RB Kevin Smith on the first series. And on the first drive of the second half, Best beat Harris on a short pass in the right flat, and the Harris overran the play, and it turned into a 15-yard gain.
Cal Pace did a great job of not biting on a bootleg on the most important play of the game, Drew Stanton’s incomplete pass at the two-minute warning that allowed the Jets to get the ball back, and tie the game. He didn’t bite on the play-action fake, and was in Stanton’s face as he threw the incompletion.
Pace stopped Best for a loss of three on the first series. He went unblocked on the play because Cherilus went down to chop Ellis low, and ignored Pace on the edge.
Bryan Thomas had sack early in the second. He blitzed and got to the quarterback, but couldn’t wrap him up, and he ran to the right, and Thomas got him by the sideline (and Ellis was called for a late hit). B.T. also stopped Stafford on a keeper late, but this could have been a sack in the end zone, but Thomas couldn’t wrap up. This is the play that might have ended Stafford’s season due to a shoulder injury.
Vernon Gholston had a QB pressure on an incompletion to Pettigrew in end zone early in the third, and the Lions had to settle for a field goal (which resulted in a roughing the kicker call on Trevor Pryce).
Josh Mauga made the stop on the opening kicking. This is why he was promoted, to make plays like this on kickoff, something Kenwin Cummings wasn’t doing.