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How Many Ways Can Herm Lose A Game?

The following is my anti-Herm Edwards rant. I intend to write it quickly and then post it, with any grammitical mistakes kept as is.

Avid Jets fans have long known that Herm Edwards is a buffoon. Herm knows how to motivate his players but has no idea how to manage a game. Common sense eludes him.

For years, the media has blamed Herm's miscues on his assistant coaches. Even if that were warranted in the past, with Herm in his fifth year and having already fired most of his original assistant coaching staff and picked his new coaches, these days the buck must stop with Herm and he must take the blame for the Jets abysmal game management.

Here are some examples of Herm's incompetence in yesterday's game:

1. Justin Miller was awful returning punts in the preseason and awful again last week. Indeed, I wrote after last week's game:

Rookie cornerback/returner Justin Miller looked great in kickoff returns last week, but was awful returning punts yesterday. Actually, Miller did everything to avoid returning punts, usually running away from the ball like the little kid in left field who cowers from fly balls in yeshiva softball games.

Naturally, Herm's response is to put Miller right back in to return punts.

Miller fumbled the first punt that came his away, with the Jets recovering. Then he actually caught a punt at the Jets 10 yard line, ran a few yards backwards and across the field laterally, ending up with a six yard loss and pinning the Jets at their own 4.

At that point, I told the guy next to me that Miller would cost us the game by fumbling a punt. The guy was to drunk too understand, but at least I made my point.

Of course, Herm's response was indeed to send Miller out to return yet another punt, which he indeed promptly fumbled, changing the game's momentum.

2. Late in the second quarter, Jacksonville had the ball looking for a field goal. The Jets called a timeout giving the Jags more time on their 2 minute drill. Fortunately, the Jets stopped Jacksonville, who punted. The Jets started at their own 12 yard line with 38 seconds left in the half and no timeouts. The obvious thing to do was to kneel down and run out the clock, since the Jets needed to go an unrealistic 50 yards for even a 55 yard field goal attempt. Instead, Herm decided to play fast and loose with the ball. First, Curtis Martin ran for around 20 yards (padding his game stats). Then, with the clock at under 20 seconds left, Chad Pennington threw an interception. Even had the pass been completed, the clock would probably have run out since the pass was not to the sidelines.

The Jets were again fortunate that Jacksonville could not capitalize, but Herm's stupidity was on full display.

3. For four years, the Jets let Lamont Jordan languish on the bench. After Jordan left for Oakland, the Jets made Derrick Blaylock the highest paid running back in the NFL. Yet Blaylock has only carried the ball 5 times in the Jets first three games. Yesterday, despite promising all week that Blaylock would get significant playing time since Curtis Martin has an injured knee - and despite the running game's ineffectiveness - Blaylock did not even touch the ball until the 4th quarter.

4. The Jets playcalling was astonishingly predictable. They repeatedly ran up the middle at the guts of the Jaguars defense, with little success. Not only was there no creativity, even basic outside runs were never called.

5. Herm allowed Pennington to return to the game despite having no clue as to the severity of Pennington's shoulder injury. Hopefully, this did not cause further damage.

Once Pennington returned, he was not allowed to throw downfield, with almost every pass a short dump. Did Herm thinks the Jags were as stupid as he is, unable to decipher that the Jets would run most plays and otherwise limit Chad to short passes?

Either let your quarterback throw the ball, or, if he can't or you think it's too risky to let him, bring someone in who can play. Yesterday, number 3 QB Brooks Bollinger - the likely new starting QB for quite a while - was the Jets only option at quarterback but was unused.

6. With the Jets having 1st and goal late in the 4th quarter, the first two plays were predictable Martin runs up the middle. Neither got anything. Pennington's third down pass to Wayne Chrebet - which the refs ruled Chrebet failed to hang on to - was on target, and indicated that Pennington could at least throw the short pass.

As always, Herm played for the field goal instead of a winning touchdown. That's always bad, but was worse in a game in which with a seriously injured QB, the Jets would obviously have very limited opportunity to sustain a winning drive in overtime.

7. Perhaps stupidest of all, late in the 4th quarter, the Jaguars had the ball and a chance to win with a field goal. With 3rd and 2 from the Jags' 34 coming up and the clock winding down under 40 seconds, the Jets inexplicably called timeout. As though that weren't crazy enough, after that play, when the Jags gained two yards (with a measurement confirming the first down conversion), the Jets again called timeout. While the clock temporarily stops on measurements, this allowed the Jags to set up a full huddle and saved them at least 10 seconds on the game clock.

What exactly was Herm thinking? That the Jets would stop the Jags and get the ball back? In that case, why call a timeout before the measurement? In any event, the Jets were not going anywhere deep in their territory without any timeouts and with a QB who could barely lift his throwing arm.

Of course, Herm is not the only one who deserves blame. GM Terry Bradway allowed offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie to leave as a free agent, along with tight end Anthony Becht, a poor receiver but good blocker. Even with three aging starters (center Kevin Mawae - 34; guard Pete Kendall - 32; tackle Jason Fabini - 31), the Jets' only addition to the line was aging journeyman Scott Gragg, who was signed just before the season opener. Amazingly, Bradway not only did not sign any free agent offensive linemen, he did not bother to pick any in the draft.

As for Becht's purported replacement, Doug Jolley, he was billed as a pass-catching tight end, but in fact is only used in run situations as an extra blocker. So Jolley is basically being used in the same formations as Becht, even though he's a much more limited blocker.
posted on 9/26/2005