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Florham Park, New Jersey – Coming to you from the heart of Jets country with notes on the Buffalo weather, the Jets’ running back situation and more . . .
The Pittsburgh Steelers released running back LeGarrette Blount on Tuesday.
Blount left the field early on Monday night in the Steelers win over the Tennessee Titans.
Blount rushed for 266 yards and two touchdowns this season. He carried the ball only five times in the Steelers’ last two games.
His immature act of leaving the field early was because he was frustrated with his role.
Where am I going with this?
The Steelers decided to go with Le’Veon Bell as their bell cow because he was running so well, and this cut into Blount’s reps. Bell is second in the league in rushing with 951 yards.
The Jets continue to try to go with a three-man running back rotation, which is very tough to execute.
“It’s tough to find your rhythm when you are one of these Jets running backs,” Rich Gannon said during the recent Jets-Steelers’ game. “They are like quarterbacks, they need to get their touches. You can’t get 2-3 carries, and then not get another carry until the end of the first half. That is a problem when you look at the Jets’ substitution patterns.”
Against the Steelers Chris Ivory ran 14 times for 51 yards. Chris Johnson ran 7 times for 51 yards.
Ivory is the kind of runner who often gets better as the game progresses, wearing a defense out.
He’s been the more effective runner for the Jets this year.
Perhaps Johnson is the better receiving back.
Gannon makes a very good point. There is a definitely a little bit of a problem with the Jets running back set-up.
It’s clear that Johnson’s icon status in recent NFL lore, is making it tough on Marty Mornhinweg and Rex Ryan to say, even if it’s just a game or two, “We are going to feed Ivory all game, and not platoon today.”
The Steelers did it with Bell, but the Jets seem to be hesitant to do that with Ivory, out of deference to Johnson.
It’s probably not just deference, but also due to his complaints, at times, about a lack of carries.
Ivory is the Jets’ Marshawn Lynch. He wears defenses out, breaks a ton of tackles, as Gannon said, “you need to wear you big boy pants,” when you try to tackle this guy.
This hasn’t been handled well.
There is no way around it.
The Steelers did the right thing. The Jets don’t seem to want to go down that road – picking one and riding him . . .
The Jets are in a wait-and-see mode with the Buffalo snow situation.
The players are expecting to play at 1 pm on Sunday. They haven’t been told anything contrary.
The league is waiting to see how much more snow Buffalo gets. Something should be decided by tomorrow.
The most likely scenario is this game moving to Monday night, since the Bills already missed a day of practice (today), and teams get three days of practice leading up to each game.
We will know more for sure on Thursday . . .
When the Jets do play the Bills, they are expecting to see the same offensive line configuration they faced in the first matchup, and this is good news for them.
The left tackle, Cordy Glenn, isn’t bad, but the rest of the line can be exploited, especially right guard Eric Pears, a converted tackle, who the Jets dominated in the first matchup. Pears is 6-8, and Sheldon Richardson did a nice job of getting under his pad level in the first meeting.
Expect complete domination by the Jets’ Front Seven.
The problem for the Gang Green, however, is the same might happen regarding the Bills’ defensive line against the Jets’ offensive line. We will get more into this tomorrow.
November 19, 2014
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