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Football could be covered so much better.
Baseball is covered better. The good reporters in that sport seem to really understand what they are looking at.
Football is too complicated with too many moving parts, and plus, people are so busy tweeting during games and practices, they are missing some things when their heads are down.
Things have been dumbed down. I’m not just talking about one market, but all over.
You Google a certain team, and the results you get are mind-numbing, article after article on nonsense.
The absurdity of the Aaron Rodgers coverage is a perfect example.
I’ve been covering the Jets for a quarter century, and even though the Jets are 3-7, this season I’ve seen some of the finest QB play over that time period.
Of course there are some plays he’d want back, but man, some of these throws, and some of these quick decisions – wow.
Anybody with a clue knows he’s the least of their problems.
So yesterday, when asked if he thinks he’s going to play next year, he responded, “I think so, yeah.”
The Jets and their fans should throw a party to celebrate.
The stupidity of people who think this is foolish because he can’t play anymore aren’t paying attention.
The Jets just lost 31-6 to Arizona, and people think that is further proof Rodgers should hang it up.
Were they watching the game?
The Jets lost in Arizona because their defense is broken and they keep rolling with players who are killing them. The run defense is as bad as I’ve seen. They also lost because of their veteran offensive tackles made pedestrian edge-rushers look like Maxx Crosby, like on their first possession of the second half, when the Jets drove down the field, and went for it on fourth-and-three down on the Arizona three, and Xavier Thomas sacked Aaron Rodgers.
I’m not going to lie, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but I’ve never heard of Xavier Thomas.
I looked him up – he’s a fifth-round rookie out of Clemson.
Also, the Jets left tackle Tyron Smith was beaten for a sack by Jesse Luketa, a 7th-round pick in 2022, and nobody at Penn State was compared him to Micah Parsons.
Thomas and Luketa are not Gastineau and Klecko.
Anybody who looks at this score and blames Rodgers is an idiot.
The first two drives of the game Rodgers drove them down the field and they kicked field goals. The problem was every time Arizona got the ball, they scored touchdowns because of the Jets’ atrocious defense. The Jets defense couldn’t get off the field. The time of possession on the stat sheet is a little misleading because of that long drive the Jets had in the fourth quarter, down 31-6, that went 16 plays and almost seven minutes in garbage time.
The first three quarters, Arizona dominated the time of possession because of the Jets’ defensive issues.
Did these people bashing Rodgers, perhaps some of it personal, watch the second half against Houston? Rodgers was elite.
Look, I’m not a Rodgers apologist. I hardly know the guy. I’m in press conferences, but there is no relationship.
As Parcells liked to say, “I just go by what I see fellas.”
The Jets and their fans should be doing a conga line that he wants to play next year.
He’s not their problem.
This run defense is sucking the life out of this team, and no disrespect to Jeff Ulbrich who did a tackling presentation yesterday and is going extra tackling drills, but not sure how much it’s going to help.
The Robert Saleh system he’s running is outdated – too static and predictable, and some really bad personnel defensive personnel decisions are contributing to this defensive disaster. It seems no matter how many times certain guys continue to screw up, they continue to roll with them.
What do they say about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Well that theory applies to the Jets’ defense.
Some of these players they should have moved on from last off-season, but the former coach’s love affair with the people, perhaps kept them around. You can’t let sentimentality impact personnel decisions, and the former coach was guilty of that, the former coach who some reporters are now making into Vince Lombardi.
Good football cultures don’t keep guys around who keep messing up, but the Jets do on defense. This has to change.
And they keep telling us about how better technique will fix it.
Not with some of these guys.
Better techniques won’t fix unsophisticated eyes that don’t diagnose properly.
Better technique won’t help a defensive lineman’s balance issues.
So anybody watching the product, thinking Rodgers is the problem, I have some swamp land to sell you in the Meadowlands.
November 14, 2024
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tackling presentation
