Week Two Report Card
By Joe Griwinis
It was two different games, that’s for sure. The Jet comeback was great but not enough in the end. So this week we are giving out two grades. Everyone gets an F for the first half. Here are the second half grades:
Quarterback: B-
Pennington (22-37, 306yds, 2 TDs, INT)
Pennington hit Coles and Cotchery in the 2nd half with both taking 10-15 yard passes and extending them into 56 and 73 yard touchdown plays. The final drive was crucial with the 1st incompletion not Pennington’s fault. The last throw of the game however was either a bad route ran by McCareins or a poorly thrown ball by Pennington.
Running Back: F
Barlow – 14 carries, 42 yards
Blaylock – 6 carries, 7 yards
Both backs once again for the most part (aside from a couple of decent Barlow carries late) struggled and the running game could not get going. You can’t do that against the good teams in the NFL.
Wide Receivers:Â B+
Cotchery – 6 receptions, 121 yards, TD
Coles – 6 receptions, 100 yards, TD
McCareins – 4 receptions, 51 yards
Coles and Cotchery basically made their touchdowns by catching 10-15 yarders then broke numerous tackles and taking them into the endzone.
Tight Ends:Â D-
Baker & Ryan both had a catch each. There was very little in the way of run blocking.
Offensive Line:Â C+
Pass protection was good for the most part but once again there were no holes to run through. Not much more to say then that.
Defensinve Line:Â F
No pressure at all from the DLine all day as Tom Brady was barely touched. They couldn’t stop Dillon or Maroney as well, both had good days against a defense that just cannot stop the run.
Linebackers:Â C
Eric Barton and Jonathan Vilma had big days both getting 5 solo tackles as well as being in on a lot of assisted tackles. If it weren’t for the LB core, Maroney and Dillon would’ve had a lot more then 4 and 5 yard carries.
Secondary:Â B-
Kerry Rhodes was all over the place. 10 solo tackles along with a forced fumble on Brady which helped sway the momentum towards the Jets in the second half. David Barrett had a pick as well. But, the coverage in the 1st half was poor, but you can’t blame it all on the secondary when the front seven can’t get a pass rush.
Special Teams:Â C+
Nugent was 3-3 on PATs & 1-1 on his lone Field Goal attempt (42 yards) and hopefully this shows that his Week 1 struggles are behind him. Ben Graham had his worst punt as a Jet and Justin Miller wasn’t able to get a real good return all afternoon.
Coaching:Â C
1st half was an F, 2nd half an A. Somehow, someway, Eric Mangini & Co. made an extreme turnaround in the 2nd half and got the team within 50 yards of tieing the game after being down 24-0. The only mistake late was with 15 seconds remaining chucking it down field. Stupid call.
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