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They were big underdogs in their last game, and won.
And they beat the Jets the game before in the last second.
Talking about the New England Patriots, who are now 4-5, and back in wildcard contention, coming off back-to-back wins over the Jets and Baltimore Ravens.
And let’s keep this real folks, they aren’t more talented than the Jets. Neither team has a great roster right now.
But what the Patriots did the last two game is “manufacture” wins – take the hand their dealt, even with its limitations, and figure out a way to win the games.
Phil Perry, who does a great job of covering the Patriots for NBC Sports Boston, said yesterday on his podcast with Tom E. Curran:
“If you are the Patriots, your advantages are your big brains on the sidelines – you have to leverage those,” said Perry. “You have to get creative. You have to get weird to be able to catch teams off guard and make the most of what you have from a talent perspective, because it’s not all that much. You are not scaring teams with what you have, so you have to scare them with the possibilities you are conjuring up in your brains on the sidelines.”
Like late in the second quarter of their upset of Baltimore, when wide receiver Jakobi Meyers threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to running back Rex Burkhead, giving New England a 13-10 lead with 1:02 left in the first half.
But it’s not just trick plays, it’s Josh McDaniels doing a masterful job of calling plays in Cam Newton’s wheelhouse, and highlighting his skill set.
With the Jets this year, you just aren’t seeing them winning some games based on leveraging the sidelines.
You aren’t seeing what we saw from New England the last couple of weeks, or from a team like the San Francisco 49ers. Yes, the 49ers are 4-6, but they are the most injured team in the league, so how did they manage four wins? By “manufacturing” them from the sidelines.
Same with the New York Football Giants, now with a shot to win the downtrodden NFC East.
How do the Giants have three wins, with a roster no better than the Jets, and Gang Green is winless?
For some reason, the Jets haven’t been able to “manufacture” any wins.
Perhaps one of the issues is their offensive and defensive systems area little antiquated.
Jets offensive chief Adam Gase is running a system similar to what he ran with Peyton Manning in Denver. Manning called it quits after the 2015 season. You hear the world “Omaha” yelled quite a bit by Jets quarterbacks in games.
Where are the read-options that are having so much success around the league these days? You don’t see them. The Giants are kicking butt with this play.
Gregg Williams has been coaching defense in the NFL since 1990 with the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans). Some of his concepts clearly don’t work as well as they used to.
Look, the Jets don’t have a loaded roster, but there is no way they should be 0-9.
And one reason for this is not enough innovation, like we saw from New England the last couple of weeks.
“[The Patriots] are so much better coached,” said Curran about the Jets. “The Patriots are not a talented football team.”
November 17, 2020
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