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Florham Park – Dan breaks down the offensive line’s performance against the Minnesota Vikings. Details, details and more details . . .
The pass protection was okay considering the opponent.
The run blocking was awfully impressive considering the opponent.
D’Brickashaw Ferguson was outstanding against DE Jared Allen, who finished with no sacks and six tackles.
On the Jets second possession, Brick had a great block on Allen on the left side, and LT ran behind the left tackle for a gain of 17 yards. Also on the possession, LT ran left for a gain of 12. Matt Slauson did a terrific job driving a Viking defender to the right, opening up a big hole.
On Jets first possession, LB Chad Greenway blitzed up the middle, got by Nick Mangold, and hit Mark Sanchez as he threw, and the quarterback threw an incompletion on the play. This was the play that Edwards was charged with offensive pass interference.
On the Jets third series, Damien Woody was beat soundly for a sack by DE Ray Edwards. The underrated Edwards got off the ball so quickly, this was over from the get-go.
There was some brilliant run blocking on a gain of 16 by LT on the third series. Mangold had a great block on DT Jimmy Kennedy (from Yonkers) and Brandon Moore pulled like a madman to the second level and leveled LB Kenny Onatolu, and LT ran for 16 yards right up the middle behind them.
On the first play of the second quarter, LB E.J. Henderson went unblocked off the left side, and hit Sanchez as he threw, causing an incompletion.
While the offensive line did some brilliant run blocking, LT, with his amazingly quick feet, can be a lineman’s best friend, and we saw this on a five-yard gain in the early second quarter. LT was about to get hit in the backfield, and with a little hop-step to the left, he avoided the defender, and made it into a five-yard gain.
A Tomlinson 17-yard run, in the middle of the second quarter, was called back because Tony Richardson held LB Ben Leber. On the next play, LT gained just two yards, and the problem on this play was something we’ve seen before. Matt Slauson was pulling to the right, and LT tripped on his feet. Slauson has been doing fairly well, but he just doesn’t pull to the right as effectively as Alan Faneca. At least not yet.
Late in the first half, Tomlinson was stopped for a loss of two by DT Latroy Guion, who beat Moore on this play. Guion is a reserve who Moore didn’t face much, and it looked like the kid’s quickness surprised him on this play.
Early in the third quarter, Mark Sanchez was sacked by Edwards, but it’s hard to blame Woody on this play. The Jets ran a play-action fake, and Sanchez ran a bootleg right, and Edwards didn’t bite for one second, and slammed the quarterback to the ground. Sanchez was shaken up on this play. He was hit very hard. Perhaps this was a by-product of the Jets running the bootleg right too often.
On the play following this sack, Mangold was beat by DT Pat Williams, and stopped LT on the line. This disastrous possession ended with LT losing three on a screen to the right, that Leber read all the way, and was unblocked.
On the Jets next possession, Greene had a nine-yard run up the middle. The key block on this play was by Slauson on DT Kevin Williams (who thinks Slauson held on the play). On the next play, Greene ran for eight yards off right tackle behind Dustin Keller.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, LT had a 16-yard run to the left side (the one he fumbled out of bounds). There were a number of great blocks on this play. Woody had an outstanding block on Kevin Williams and Mangold on Henderson.
Woody also had a outstanding block on Edwards on Greene’s 23-yard touchdown run. Ben Hartsock had a superb block on Leber on this play as well. Green ran between them on the right side and was off to the races.
One last block on note – John Connor had the key block on Brad Smith’s 86-yard kickoff return.
