Week Three1. Victories by the Jets and Mets and a Phillies loss would seem to make for a great day. Yet Week 3 of the NFL season remained unsatisfying.
2. For the Jets, the positive was clearly their offense. The late 2nd quarter touchdown drive was superb, and the running game finally got going during the second half.
3. The offense does need to get Chris Baker more involved in the passing game. I focused on Baker during much of yesterday's game, and for the most part, he was used for pass protection. That's understandable in light of the poor play of the offensive line, but the Jets are wasting a talented player.
4. I was not happy with the Jets defense, nor with the coaching of defensive coordinator Bob Sutton, who again failed to blitz. After doing nothing the first two games of the season, the Dolphins offense came to life, and Ronnie Brown became the star he was supposed to be.
Yet after the Jets offense scored 17 straight points to take a 31-13 lead with 12 minutes left, instead of putting Miami away, Sutton inexplicably went into a prevent defense. The Jets were extremely fortunate that the Dolphins did not recover their onside kick.
5. When the Jets offense came onto the field for their first possession, the fans gave Chad Pennington a standing ovation. Of course that occurred during a TV timeout, so the media may deny that it happened.
6. J.P. Losman has played well against the Jets, so his knee sprain may provide a break for the Jets when they visit Buffalo next week. If Losman can't go, rookie Trent Edwards will start for the Bills. As they did most of last season, the Jets will need to beat bad opponents to at least make 2007 interesting.
7. Driving home from Giants Stadium, I had the misfortune of being stuck in terrible traffic and listening to the latest Mets bullpen collapse. Even if the Mets win the NL East, as they certainly should, it is very difficult to be optimistic that they will finally win another World Series - or even get past the NLDS.
8. I've knocked Omar Minaya quite a bit, but his signing of Moises Alou is looking good now. Alou missed half the season but has been fantastic since his return and without him the Mets would probably not win the division.
9. The Giants deserve credit for an excellent second half, but they were aided by a Herm Edwards like performance from Joe Gibbs and Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders. The Redskins' play calling and game management during their final series was abysmal. There was no reason at all to spike the ball and waste first down, and the hurry to get 4th down off even though there were 45 seconds left after 3rd down was inexcusable. Finally, the run toward the left side by Ladell Betts on 4th down - after the exact same play was stuffed on 3rd down - was a terrible call.
posted on 9/24/2007
