Content available exclusively for subscribers
They clearly got their talking points out there . . .
. . .
about the Morton firing.
You see the same narrative several media outlets.
“Members of the coaching staff also clashed with Morton, sources said,” wrote Rich Cimini.
“The decision came after Morton clashed with players, coach Todd Bowles and other assistant coaches, according to a source,” wrote Brian Costello.
“Morton’s relationships with coaches and players quickly grew frosty, and let to internal issues,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
See a theme there.
Here is another narrative they were clearly pushing.
“They expressed concern about his ability to design and execute a consistent running game,” wrote Cimini.
“His inability to establish the running game,” wrote Costello.
“Second, he was reluctant to run the ball, even when Todd Bowles’ directive was to control the clock,” wrote Breer.
They seemed to have a script they were leaking to people.
Let me start on the last quote I ran above from Breer’s story?
So “he was reluctant to run the ball, even when Todd Bowles’ directive was to control the clock.”
What kind of nonsense is that?
Where was Todd Bowles when this was supposedly going on, in the Witness Protection Program?
The head coach needs to get on the headset and demand what he wants. You are telling me that if Bowles demanded that Morton run the ball more, he would have ignored him?
And if that was the case, why did Bowles wait almost three weeks to fire him after the season? Most other teams, who fired coordinators, did it right after the season? If there was insubordination going on here, why wait?
Bottom line – Bowles needs to communicate better.
As for Morton’s inability to establish a running game. Was he the one out there blocking and running? There were several games the Jets flat-out couldn’t run the ball. Like the Denver and Atlanta games. The Falcon game, after which Matt Forte threw Morton under the bus for abandoning the run, the Jets’ run blocking was awful. Nobody could block Grady Jarrett.
The idea that you blame the offensive coordinator for the lack of a running game, when your offensive line is wildly inconsistent, with an undersized center who sometimes got pushed around by big nose tackles, is a tad unfair.
Forte stabbed Morton in the back after the Atlanta game, and the wound never healed, as you see from the leaks about the lack of a running game.
Bilal Powell is a terrific football player, but he’s not a bell-cow franchise back ala Todd Gurley or Le’veon Bell due to his size. He’s a good role player, as are Eli McGuire and Forte with his knee problems.
You know why the Jets lost in Miami – It wasn’t there offense, if was atrocious pass coverage in the fourth quarter on the side of the ball the head coach. And the big problem was a player the coach seems to have a fatal attraction too and wouldn’t pull. You know who I’m talking about.
Where are the changes on the defensive staff?
The offense built a nice lead for the Jets in that game, and the defense blew it.
As for the last three games of the season, I won’t judge Morton on those, that is on the team’s player personnel department that decided to go with two developmental quarterbacks not ready to play in the #2 and #3 spots.
Look, I’m not special-pleader for Morton, but I’m not buying some of this spin.
January 18, 2018
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Thursday.