Thursday, December 29, 2011

Jets

With regards to why the Jetties blow this season, I mostly agree with Fredo. But a few other points:

1. While the issue was not the offense per se, there is no question that at least one of Sanchez and Schott is a bust. Perhaps both. Despite the poor D, if we had a top 10 QB this team would be in solid position to make the playoffs. See the Pats. Sanchez's major regression this year is IMO a sign that he's topped out, or Schott doesn't know how to run an offense. Either way, one of those two should not be with the team next year. Jets have too many skill players in positions around Sanchez to not have scored more.

2. Tannenbaum definitely deserves heat for recent offseason moves. First, too many changes in the past two years. They are ruining team chemistry and losing locker room leaders. As just one example, the idea of asking Brad Smith to "wait" until they figured out Nnamdi was insulting at best, and complete managerial incompetence at worst. Losing his skills on ST, QB and WR hurt us.

3. I never liked the Cromartie pick up. He's only good at covering one thing - a straight fly pattern. Other than that, he's always getting beat.

4. IMO Jets placed way too much importance on Santonio in the offseason. He's a great WR, but not top 5. He has hurt team chemistry with his selfishness.

5. Jets secondary is not good, with the obvious exception of Revis. They get beat a lot, and struggle to make open field tackles.

6. Jets need a true pass rushing DE. Period. They waste too many players bringing blitzes to get even moderate QB pressure, and still often fail to bring down the QB.

Bottom line, in this year's draft Jets need to focus on defensive ends and secondary. I also think it's time to switch out Schott and try another direction. Sanchez seems to perform best under two-minute drills, yet they rarely go to no huddle and try to push the tempo. I don't think Schott is properly running this offense with the personnel he has.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Harkless gets things revved for Johnnies

It's been, unsurprisingly, an erratic beginning of the year for the Johnnies.  A team that has turned over just about it's entire rotation, you'd expect them to take a while to get things working.

Their last game against Providence may have been the turning point.

Through 12/26, the Storm was 6-5, without a real quality win (all mid- and low-majors, with 3 of the wins being by single digits), and with two bad losses (at Detroit, and Northeastern at home by 14!).

But on 12/27, the Johnnies, in their first league game, drew the Friars at home.  We all know that Lavin put together a big time recruiting class for this season.  And Moe Harkless seems to be ready to contribute--immediately.  He's put up 15.7/8.5 so far this year--great numbers for a freshman.  Against Providence he absolutely exploded: 32 points on 14 of 17 shooting.

The first thing a young team needs, when they're finding their identity, is the desire to work hard, play defense, and value the ball.  Next comes developing a go-to guy.  It looks like St. John's just might have theirs.

I am infatuated with the show that is Rex Ryan...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

It's SHK grudge match weekend

Not only do we have Jets-Fins, but Duke-Penn is Sunday at 5 on ESPNU!  My predictions:

D.C. 1-0
Fredo 1-1
S.H.K.  0-2

Congratulations, SHK.  You're at the top of your pledge class.

Just in time for Jets-Fins,


Some oldies-but-goodies from the SheaHeyKids vault.  Before we get those (below the fold), I'll make my prediction that the Fins win this game.  Rex does not have this team right now, IMHO.  And I'm highly skeptical that Rex will have a tight leash/curfew on his guys for New Year's Eve.  Maybe Mark Sanchez can hook up with Duaner Sanchez for a night on the town in Miami?

Defense Rankings

Jets D Rankings by year

Yr       Rank   Pts/G    Yds/G
2009         1    14.8     252.3
2010         3    19.0     291.5
2011         7    22.9     318.9 (through 15 games)

That, my friends, is a huge difference.  Points allowed are up 50% over two seasons.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Ryan has confidence

in Sanchez and Schott.

That's cute.  Like Rex has any credibility, at this point, to be passing judgment (yay or nay) on anyone.

Jets O

Year over year stats: Yardage Ranking / PPG


2007 – 16.8 ppg
2008 – 25.3 ppg
2009 – 21.8 ppg
2010 – 22.9 ppg
2011 (15 games) – 24.0 ppg
Offense is doing less controlling the clock than in past years, and is more turnover prone.  Yet, on a PPG basis, we're actually ahead of where we were the past two seasons (with less D & ST scoring, if I had to guess).
Sanchez has regressed slightly this year, in a year where he should've improved markedly.  And yet the team has put enough weapons around him that they continue to be able to score (at least by the measure of previous seasons).

The D is primarily responsible for the downgrade in the team's performance this year.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Jets run over by Giants

From the Jets fan's perspective, let's take a look at the pros and cons of this performance. Since it was a dismal loss, I'll start with the cons:

1) The Jets defense is not the dominant unit it once was. For all the poor play of the O, it's been the fall off in the play of the D that has led to the team's declining fortunes this year. The two Bradshaw TD's, and the Cruz TD, were indicative of what's wrong with this squad: they're too enamored with their image, and not convinced they need to bring it every down. All three of those TD plays could have been stuffed. In all three cases, defenders were where they needed to be to snuff out the play, but the defenders in question got manhandled and out-willed by the ball carrier. A good football coach would be tearing a new a-hole for these guys, but Rex just tells them how good they are. This team was built to be D first, and they're good--but not great. The way this team's been constructed, they need to be great.

2) Sanchez has not been the same QB since he was repeatedly mauled by the Ravens early this season. I believe he was concussed in that game, and he's had happy feet and muddled decision making ever since. Whether Sanchez can be the Sanchise is an open question at this point. He might only get one more year to prove he can be, if his play doesn't start to improve.

3) The O-Line was horrible. Granted, the Giants have one of the better pass rushing units in the league, but there are two pro-bowlers on the Jets line, and the whole unit has garnered a lot of good press. It looks unearned after this game. The pro-bowl center gave away the football at the most crucial moment in the game, on a 3rd and goal from the Giant 1. He snapped the ball off his own leg, and ricocheted forward into the Giant endzone for a crushing turnover. A few plays later, the D managed a turnover and the Jets came down to score and make it a one possession game, but it was just a horrible play. Ferguson couldn't contain Pierre-Paul, who constantly harrassed Sanchez. The ground game was fairly ineffective after the first drive. If the young stars on the line can't perform when all chips are down, that doesn't bode well.

4) Rex gives the other team too much bulletin board material, and has his team focused on all the wrong things going into a game. His players are worried about the verbal tete-a-tete, going back and forth through the press all week, when they need to be figuring out their assignments and preparing themselves for the game. The accountability is crap. Rex defends guys making terrible plays, and what's worse, guys showing terrible judgment (think Santonio last week), while the team gets outwilled. This feeds into everything I've always feared about Rex--a players coach looks great for the first year, and then things quickly turn to crap. Well, Rex may be the ultimate players coach. Yet he managed to squeeze two great years out of his team. I think things are now on a downward trajectory. Rex has certainly earned another year, even though the Jets likely won't make the playoffs this year. That said, I'd fire him now, because I don't see anyway this team can be better than they were this year with Rex at the helm. Coughlin had his team ready to play today, despite being with the Giants for the last 10 years. People forget how hard that is. It's easy to get guys motivated when you're a new voice. When players have been hearing you for years, it's much harder. But that's what happens when you discipline your team and have them habituated to hard work. The Jets are habituated to yapping and thinking they'll win, and I don't think they work that hard.

The pros:

1) Not making the playoffs will hopefully open people's (read: Jets fans and management) eyes to the fact that the Ryan era may have to end sooner than later.

2) Revis is everything he's cracked up to be. You just had to figure he would make a huge play as the Giants kept challenging him. He kept single-handedly squelching key plays, and then finally turned in the biggest play of the day for the Jets--causing the pass to get tipped that led to the Harris INT, the play that kept the Jets in the game after the atrocious Mangold turnover. The guy's a leader.patient)

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Best News a Big East Fan Could Hear

...is right here.

That's right, a league that gets back to what the Big East was all about in the first place, and could be great at again-- basketball.

Truth be told, a league like this would have a competitive advantage against the other "power conferences" in basketball, because hoops wouldn't end up an afterthought. My theory is that great leagues spawn great programs--not the other way around. A league that makes sense geographically (e.g. teams close enough together that there are natural rivalries at play), and with commonalities like school size, private/public, relgious/sectarian, etc., makes for a great league. It doesn't need to be homogenous, but at least have a core of similarity to it.

A new league that contained the B-Ball only schools of the Big East: Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, St. John's, Marquette, DePaul and Seton Hall; and added a few new teams like Xavier, Temple, Butler, as the article above suggests, would be a 10 team league. Pretty potent.

I think, if it were me, I'd rather see it go in the direction of a Northeast league, and forget about the midwest schools. And keep it to 8-10 teams so you could play a full double-round robin schedule, the way it should be. Raid the A-10. Also, 'Nova wants to go 1A football, so they're not going to come along for the ride.

I'd go with:

Holy Cross*
Providence
SJU
Seton Hall
St. Joe's
La Salle
Georgetown
George Mason
George Washington

I'd love to find another New England team to pair off with Providence, but it's imperative this league be an ALL-SPORTS league, to avoid the nonsense that's gone on the last 20 years. That means not taking any schools that compete in Div 1 (FBS or FCS) football. Thus, that rules out schools like Mass, URI, and Holy Cross that would've otherwise been a nice fit. BU?

*EDIT:

G'Town plays FCS football.  I was unaware of that.  As recently as a few yrs ago they were D3 football.  G'Town is a Big East essential, so I guess you have to make accomodations for a team or two to play FCS football in a different conference, so long as they're Big East in all substantially all other sports.  This makes Holy Cross a natural fit, so long as they stay Patriot league for football.

The reason I'd draw the line and not take 1A programs (like Mass and soon-to-be 'Nova), is that once they go down that road, it is inevitable that football will run their decisions.  The money invested, and money to be made, is just much higher on the football side.  To keep a basketball conference focused on basketball, make the tough decision up front to forgo teams that want 1A football.

One more

from Ryan Parker. This one's great:



Funny thing is, he's STILL retired in California.

Tebowing

Just because it never gets old



Hey Merisi, this one's for you.

BTW, this story broke the same year they lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl. I'm honestly not sure, but have the Patsies won a single playoff game since this time?

ACC haters, rejoice!

For the first time in a long time, the ACC isn't just top heavy. It isn't just mediocre. It sucks.

UVA squeaking by Seattle? Clemson losing at home to UTEP by double digits? G Tech losing at home to Mercer? Florida State (nominally our 3rd best team) getting SMOKED by Florida? NC State beating St. Bonaventure by only 2? BC at 4-7, with losses to BU, Holy Cross, and St. Louis? Losing the B10-ACC challenge 8-4 (a challenge we won 10 straight times before losing the last 3)?

Yup, if you like to see the ACC get beaten up, this is the year to throw the popcorn in the microwave, pour yourself a beverage of your choosing (say, SoCo on the rocks), put your feet up, and enjoy...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

He has a point

Chauncey Billups got waived by the Knicks. Under the new CBA, teams can waive, blah blah blah, exempt blah blah blah, and blah blah blah to stay under the cap while they're singing Carmelos and Chris Pauls to max deals.

Chauncey's agent had this to say:

The way the league is structured, if you're a hot name and teams have interest in you, you have the ability to manufacture mass hysteria, and guys like Chauncey who put in years of high-level leadership, production, and service get lost.

Quite true. And this could be one case where the interest of fans, owners, and players could be brought under one umbrella.

Why not have a structure where there is no salary cap that applies to home-grown players (i.e., draftees), but only to guys who have achieved free agency? If a guy like Billups wanted to stay with the Knicks (imagining, for a moment, that New York had drafted him), and the team was pleased with Billups; and willing to pay him the millions owed on his contract, why not accomodate both parties? Why should they have to trade him just to stay within some arbitrary cap number?

The cap is designed, IMO, to keep big market teams from hording all the free agents. That goal can be attained, while still allowing fans the opportunity to enjoy watching a player for his whole career, and while allowing the players who qualify for free agency the choice to re-up with their current employer (who would not be bound by a cap to retain that players services), or go the F.A. route, in which case there would be a lot of bidders, but they'd bound by a F.A. salary cap.

How to handle trades? Not sure, but you couldn't get into the game of assigning salary differentials to F.A. cap, or you'd be undermining the whole point of this system (to allow the mid-tier player the chance to stay with a team, be well compensated, and not be a pawn in the game of getting high-value F.A.'s; also to allow fans to have stability on their teams).

One possibility: traded players who haven't gone the F.A. route would retain the cap-free designation.

Just a thought. Wish I'd had it before they just ratified the new CBA.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

I missed this earlier

The Onion on Belicheat:

Link

Monday, December 05, 2011

Reyes to Marlins

Per news reports today.

A loss of talent for the Mets. Absolutely.

Won't miss him. At all.