Good read Con. I tend to agree with you about focusing on Jones and forcing Favre to make plays with his tired arm. Getting Crowder back might be the difference in Miami going to the playoffs or not.
If the Dolphins can shut down Jones, get us to 3rd and long, make Favre throw it under pressure, avoid Leon Washington run backs and keep Chad from throwing 2+ picks, they win. BZ
Con a personal thank you for all your columns this year. You're insight and knowledge was such a great read all season long. I'm eager to read the playoff version of keys to the game. Thanks for all your hard work this year bro.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the nice comments. I enjoy doing it, I am just happy someone actually reads them.
pfft, tons of us can't wait for them to be posted. It really is something looked for Richard, thank you very much.
Thanks Marty - that means a lot. Seriously though, I am just happy to have a forum for it. I always maintain that no way is the experience ever a one way street. I gather as much information if not more than I ever put out there. I think George (Muck), should get a good deal of credit for this each week too. He goes through it each week and adds pictures and makes sure I don't sound like a babbling idiot.
Excellent as usual Conu., so it would seem that our front three will have to stand their men up, and the OLB's will be charged with backside pursuit to shut down Thomas Jones? And what of our Db matchups with Coles and Crisi?
You mean, will the OLB's be the star of the show in terms of the run game? Maybe, yeah. A huge amount of the burden of stopping Jones will be on their shoulders. They will be responsible for setting the edge and maintaining discipline. Jones is a runner who exploits a defender over committing to certain holes. The DB's won't be as tested as by the WR's as much as many think. The action will be underneath IMO. Short routes that will test our DB's willingness to make solid tackles. But in terms of comparisons to last week, the Jets WR scare me a lot less than KC's.
That is sort of how I see the game playing out, we play for neutralizing the Jets Oline and let the Lb's make plays, but I can also see the Jets trying to sneak Washington out into screens behind the Lb's. Hmm..I'm not sure I agree with that Conu., if our front 7 is successful at shutting down T Jones, and we move and score on the Jets D, which I think is very very likely, chances are good we see 3 and 4 wide sets and Favre going down slinging the ball around the field. Apparently (thanks to a poster at GangGreen) the Jets defense is a shambles, to the point over the last 6 games they are 29th against the pass, and in the high 20's against the run. IMO, the Jets Dline is just burnt out, Kris Jenkins did not play 1 gap NT in Carolina and IMO, he is just worn down now. What do you think the chances are a safety or Nate Jones draws coverage on Dusin Keller? And what did we change last week to stop Tony Gonzo from going over 100 yds on us last week? Courtesy of the Fellas at GangGreen: Peyton Hillis went crazy against us as well...but still...
I think what happened was that we stopped being so much man to man, in your face style - which I actually called for and agreed with to disrupt the timing. The Chiefs looked like they were just going to pressure the drops of the coverage people and have Gonzalez break off of that for the short completions. I think the Dolphins switched more to an off zone in that they kept everything in front of them. They used a safety over the top of Gonzalez, and relies on letting the underneath man play with the knowledge of having help deep - therefore they could be more aggressive in their coverage. I think we also used more cover 3 with Bell taking on Gonzo deep and with help underneath. The Jets WR's don't run deep routes, they run a great deal of routes similar to our own wide outs. That doesn't bother me as much as a team that throws deep all the time, as we are in trouble there with the way we as a team play the ball in the air. Also remember what I mentioned about the difference in average plays for the Jets defense over the last month. 12 more plays a game for a month? Thats another game man - seriously.
