Friday Night Whispers

Morris County, New Jersey – Maybe he shouldn’t have said, it be he said. Maybe it needed to be said.

“Maybe a little tighter coverage and we get those sacks,” Mo Wilkerson said on Thursday when asked about the Jets’ pedestrian pass rush.

I guess you aren’t supposed to call out teammates publicly, but perhaps Mo is tired of non-stop questions about the pass rush.

I agree with him.

So often this season receivers have flashed open so quickly, that it’s been pretty hard for the pass rushers to get to quarterbacks.

Darrelle Revis has lost a step. It happens to all of us. And this often allows wide receivers to cut away from him quickly. Another issue is Revis often gives receivers a lot of cushion, often 7, 8 yard routes in front of him are there for the taking. You aren’t going to get to the quarterback on plays where your #1 cornerback is allowing this kind of cushion.

But there is another issue at work here.

“Since their seven-sack opener, the Jets have managed just 13, not nearly good enough for the amount of talent on the defensive line,” wrote ESPN’s Rich Cimini.

To a degree this is true, but like I’ve brought up myriad times, in the 3-4, you need game-wrecking pass rushers coming off the edge from the outside linebacker positions, like Justin Houston, Dee Ford, Von Miller, Chandler Jones. You get the idea.

Think back to one of the great 3-4 defenses in history that Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick coached with the great Giants teams. You had Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks at outside linebacker.

On Monday, the Jets had Jordan Jenkins and Mike Catapano at outside linebacker. Both are good run defenders and give you everything they’ve got, but neither is good at taking the edge. Both have some hip stiffness; good players, but not quick-twitchy pass rushers.

I’m not ripping Jenkins and Catapano. They are both hard-nosed players with great character and great motors, but neither is a dynamic edge-rusher.

Why the Jets won’t use Josh Martin is beyond me. I asked Todd Bowles and he said Jenkins and Catapano are bigger guys and more heavy-handed. They might be heavy-handed, but the Jets edge pass rush on Monday was virtually non-existent

Mauldin is out against this week, so it could be another long day. The only hope for the Jets two outside linebackers is the fact that the 49ers’ talented left tackle Joe Staley is out. He will be replaced by John Theus, a rookie fifth round pick out of Georgia. He actually played with Jenkins for four year for the Bulldogs. So they practiced a lot against each other. We will see if that gives either an advantage.

The Jets better finally address this in the off-season. Alabama’s Tim Williams would help a great deal . . .

The Jets certainly have a physical challenge this week. They played on Monday Night Football, and then had to fly cross-country a few days later.

This is another part of the NFL scheduling process that needs to change. If you play on Monday Night Football, your next game shouldn’t be cross-country.

December 9, 2016

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