Green Rewind December 6, 2015

  The Jets are playing hungry and right now look like a playoff team. They shook off a number of negative plays against the Giants to come back with 13 unanswered points to win an exciting overtime game 23-20. For three quarters all Jet fans thought the season might end on this beautiful clear December day. Muhammad Wilkerson gets benched for the first quarter-later described as punishment for being late for a meeting. The Giants return a punt for a touchdown confirming that the Jets have one of the worse special teams units in the NFL (Mike Westoff-where are you?).  But it was the Giants that made the mistakes down the stretch. It was Tom Coughlin who made the decision to go for it on fourth down with under 9 minutes to go in the fourth quarter and up by 10 points and came up short. It was Eli Manning who threw the interception in the Red Zone to Rontez Miles. It was the Giants’ Josh Brown who missed a 48-yard field goal field goal with 6:33 left in the extra session, his first miss in 26 attempts this season to end the game.   

  For the Jets, week in and week out I have said that Ryan Fitzpatrick is an over achiever, limited in talent and is not an elite quarterback. The problem is Fitz is not buying my analysis. He only throws for 390 yards, 2 touchdown passes, and goes 36-50 (a cool 72%). On top of that he continues to look great leaving the pocket getting yardage by himself on the ground when it counts.  Brady has the field vision, Newton has the athleticism and Palmer has the arm but in the last two weeks no one has been as clutch as Ryan Fitzpatrick. He continues to do well and hopefully he has saved his best for this playoff run.

  Much of Fitzpatrick’s success has been the result of the play of Brandon Marshall. There are times that this passing combination makes it look easy. We can only hope that Marshall is over with the dropsies. Marshall became the first Jets receiver to catch for over 1,000 yards since Jericho Cotchery (good game today Cotch) did it in 2007.   Right now Marshall is tied for second in the NFL with 10 touchdowns for receivers. Today he had 12 catches (targeted 13 times) for 131 yards. As I have said before, when he is focused and comes to play, it is tough to stop him.

  Credit has also got to be given to Eric Decker and Bilal Powell. Both players played very well. When Powell gets going on the screen pass, whether it is on the side or in the middle, he knows how to follow his blockers and get maximum yardage. His touchdown reception was a middle screen that worked just the way the Jets practiced it during the week. Decker was solid with 8 receptions for 101 yards. Make no mistake, Decker is getting walloped on those catches he makes over the middle. He is quietly having a solid year with 51 receptions, 700 yards and 8 TDs.   

  Considering the Giants offense with Eli and Beckham, I thought the Jets played well. The two big plays-the punt return and the Beckham TD totaled 152 yards out of the Giants 355 total net yards. This wasn’t great but it wasn’t awful either. The Giants were held scoreless after the first half. This is good Jets defense! And Mo Wilkerson, after missing the first quarter, recorded his 9^th sack of the season.  This gives him 33 ½ total sacks in 71games started in his career. Not bad. Sign him Mike!   Leonard Williams had a good game with a sack and 2 quarterback hits. He also had 5 tackles.

  Fitz was getting smacked around in the first quarter. I thought the Jets made some good in-game adjustments to calm down the Giants “D.”  Coughlin will take a lot of the blame for the loss but give the Jets coaching staff credit for keeping the game within reach and having the Jets make plays when they had to. The season has taken a turn for the better the last two weeks. Let’s have fun with it!  

Green Tidbits:

If Mo gets punished for a quarter for being late to a team meeting, Willie Colon shouldn’t be aloud on the field the rest of the season after his 15-yard penalty.

Beckham’s one-handed catch was another beauty from this stud. His kicking the ball in the 4^th quarter for a penalty was stupid.

Quigley’s low punt didn’t help on that TD return.

Pats second loss in a row should have been three if the Giants came through against them. Next for Pats: At Houston. AFC East first place may be in reach! It can get interesting!

Dee Milliner must really be in the doghouse.

Still waiting for a trick play of offense!

Wide Receiver Quincy Enunwa continues to do some good things.

When do we start talking about a new contract for Ryan Fitzpatrick?

@GreenRewind              For up to the minute Jet stuff!

Your comments are welcome below.