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Early on, it looked like Nick Mangold’s injured right shoulder was going to hurt his ability to perform on a high level.
On LaDainian Tomlinson’s first carry, massive nose tackle Paul Soliai, manhandled Mangold and the runner lost one yard. On the first run of the second possession by Shonn Greene, the same thing happened, and Soliai stopped the runner after a gain of one.
But Mangold got into a groove after that, and played okay. Perhaps he was a little rusty early on since he hardly practiced that week. On the final play of the second possession, Mangold had a terrific block on nose tackle Lionel Dotson on a nine-yard draw by Greene.
On the first series, Mark Sanchez short-armed a pass to John Connor that fell incomplete, and the reason for this bad pass was that Damien Woody gave up a pressure and the defender hit Sanchez as he threw. Woody also had a holding call on the second series. Not only did Woody hold on this play, but Cameron Wake was still able to get a QB pressure on the play.
Woody had an outstanding block early in the second quarter. He sealed the right edge by locking up linebacker Tim Dobbins, and Tomlinson ran for 21 yards behind him. Braylon Edwards had another key block on this play on Moses, that helped add some additional yards at the end of the run.
On the Jets second series, Brandon Moore was called for a false start. Moore did a good job of preventing a pick late in the third quarter. Wake tipped a Sanchez pass, and the ball was in the air, up from grabs, and Moore slammed it to the ground. Wake had an easy block attempt because he knocked Woody to the ground, so he had nobody in front of him. On the last play of the third quarter, Moore didn’t get out in front in time, on a Tomlinson screen, so he couldn’t block linebacker Karlos Dansby, and the play didn’t realize it’s potential.
On the play after the blocked punt, Moore and Woody opened up a gapbing hole on the right side for Green to gain seven yards.
D’Brickashaw Ferguson for the most part had a solid game. His only bad play of note was late in the third quarter when Wake shed him, and stopped Tomlinson for a loss of two. One of Brick’s better blocks was on the Jets first series. He did an outstanding job sustaining his block on defensive tackle Randy Starks, and Brad Smith, on a Wildcat, ran for nine yards behind him. Brick also had a tremendous run block late in the game. Ferguson locked up Dotson with a picture perfect block, and LT ran behind him for 18 yards off left tackle. Mangold also was a big help on this play by sustaining his block on Soliai.
Moore and Matt Slauson helped open up a big hole for LT at the end of the first quarter. Moore locked up linebacker Quentin Moses, and Slauson manhandled linebacker Tim Dobbins, and LT ran up the middle for ten yards. But Slauson is very inconsistent right now, and on the very next play, he had a false start. He had a holding call late in the third, on Starks, that brought back an 11-yard pass to Edwards into the red zone. Then a few plays later, his holding call, brought back a Sanchez scramble for a touchdown. This wasn’t a good call. So in my mind, he had two penalties, and I give him credit on the Sanchez TD scramble for a very good block.
The line had plenty of terrific plays in this game, but it wildly inconsistent right now.
