Stillers-Jets AFCC Preview
The Stillers
host the surprising Jest (sic), who graciously upset the Patriots to enable the
Stillers to host the AFCC.
Keys for
this game:
Keys when the Stillers have the
ball:
- Contain Shaun Ellis.
Last week, I begged for the Stillers to contain Suggs. Obviously, that failed,
as Arians gave Scott and Essex no more help than lobbing an anvil to a drowning
man. This week, it�s Ellis, who is a manster -- half man,
half monster. For a
DE, he�s a beast, every bit as powerful and rangy as Strahan
and Freeney were in their prime. He must be accounted for on every single
play, and someone (or some two) must get a hat and a pair of hands on him on
every play.
- Get Ben on a designed move once in
a while. Almost unbelievably, the Stillers ran zero
boots, waggles, or rollouts the entire game last week.
Sure, if you have a boot-footed QB like Brady
or Trent Dilfer, this might be acceptable. But Ben
is mobile, agile, and is well capable of reading the LBs
to determine if he should keep or throw. I�m not advocating 12 of these kinds of plays,
but 1 or 2 sprinkled in here and there would help immensely in keeping the Jets
defense from simply teeing off at a stationary target.
- That said,
ensure Ben understands that he can run ad-hoc with the ball.
Last week, Tom Lady basically shackled himself in the pocket, and never
once took off out of the pocket when his first 2 or 3 reads were covered
and he was feeling the pressure. Brady
usually gets the ball out in 3 ticks or less. But, the Jets were content to solo the outside
WRs, rush 3 guys, and clog the middle profusely. Brady obviously isn�t a fluid
runner, but the Jets� sit-back scheme was all but begging him to scamper ahead
for 5 or 6 yards.
Ben and Arians MUST see this on the film, and
Ben must be prepared to dash forward or diagonally and take the 6 yards, and
with Ben�s decent mobility and craftiness, he�s often bound to gain 10+ yards
on a scramble.
- Get the RBs involved in the passing
game. Last week, Mendy caught the lone RB pass,
that for 13 yards on a screen. Not once did this sporadic offense try a checkdown, a valve-dump, or a designed 2nd-option swing pass
to a back in space. If the Jets are going to man up on the outside
WRs and drop back, these short passes to the RB�s should
be quite effective, and they�ll keep Ben from taking the sack that sets up
the constant 2nd & 17�s that we�ve been bogged down with.
- Have someone other than Heath
Miller pass-block in the backfield. There is a
vast array of choices here. Rashard Mendenhall.
Mewelde Moore. Isaac
Redman. David Johnson. Doug Legursky. I want our quick, athletic, tall, big,
strong, sure-handed fellow named Miller out in pass patterns and moving the
chains, not doing the equivalent of janitorial work back in the pocket. Plus, on valve dumpoffs,
all 3 RBs are better RAC runners that close to the line of scrimmage, than is
Miller. And remember, in Jets1, backup TE Matt Spaeth,
who started for an injured Miller, was THE focal point of the offense, targeted
on 9 (nine) passes, the 2nd-to-last of which he dropped on a cake-easy
reception in the end zone late in the game.
If Spaeth, a total, lumbering stiff, can be targeted with a maddening
array of passes, then Heath Miller can and should as well.
- Throw the post to Wally on Revis. The superb former Pitt star is
at his best when pinning a WR along the sidelines. He legally squeezes many WRs by use of the
sideline chalk. As my esteemed
colleague PalmerSucks noted, however, Revis is less stellar on the deep post, where he loses the
chalk as his friend. As good as Revis is, I believe you�ve got to take a shot with Wally
downtown, and that shot needs to be on a post, rather than a sideline
route.
- Be prepared to endure the slow
start by Ben and the Offense. Ben and the �O�
have a penchant for starting slowly and stumbling thru most of the 1H. It�s be nice to
reverse this trend. If not, the key is
to avoid ghastly turnovers like the 2 that plagued the Stillers last week in
the 1st half. Most playoff games are won
or lost in the 2H, and Ben and the O must be up to the
task after halftime.
Keys when the Trippers have the ball:
- Contain Shonn
Green. Both Greenie & Tomlinson had solid success in Jets1, with Green
getting 40 yards on 12 rushes and Tommy 49 on 11. The Pats got a lot of rush yards in garbage
time in their beating of the Stillers in Nov, so this Jets loss was, by far,
the worst rush defense of the season. Sure,
Pola did not play, but the ground defense was extremely soft n� cheesy that
day. Green concerns me more than Tommy,
as Green (at 226 lbs.) is bigger and seems to run better in cold weather than
the playoff-meek Tomlinson does. Plus,
Green runs better on poor footing than Tommy, and Heinz Field should be pretty
raggedy come Sunday.
- Bottle Braylon.
Of all the Jets WRs, Braylon caused the most
problems in Jets1, grabbing 8 for 100 yards.
Most often an enigma in his NFL career, Edwards has had a terrific playoffs thus far. I believe Ike Taylor will be locked up on
Tonio Holmes. Edwards will probably be
matched against McFadden, or if Fadden cannot go, then Will Gay. This is the kind of matchup
that keeps me awake at night and causes me to stockpile large jars of
Rolaids.
- Get something out of LaMarr Woodley. By something, I
mean ANYTHING even semi productive. Big
LaMarr finished the div. playoff game vs. Balt with (hold your laughter) a whopping 1 (one) solo
stop, which came on a slop sack in which the Ravens went with an unbalanced
line to the left, and brought in backup tackle Tony Moll as a tackle-legible to
play RT. Moll moved extremely LATE
at the snap, and barely grazed Big LaMarr, who got a
cake-easy Dong Sack. That was it
from the big he-man. He applied very
little other heat, and obviously finished with no other solos.
Last week, Dick got some value out of Big LaMarr in underneath
flat coverage versus Balt, which helped to take away
some slants and slot-outs. LaMarr rushed only 20 times during the entire game, versus 18
times dropping into coverage.
Obviously, if the guy is totally worthless as a rusher, he might as well
take up some space in coverage, slow as he is, with his long body and long
arms. The Stiller defense has 2 glaring weak spots
-- Woodley and Clark. They got some
nice contributions from
- Allow Timmons to make plays.
Timmons had a very strong, almost un-noticed effort last week. He�ll be extremely instrumental in both
stuffing the run as well as bottling the short passes to Tomlinson and Keller. This man should never, ever leave the field
this Sunday unless suffering from injury.
- Attack and pressure Mark Sanchez.
Last week, James Harrison was
held BACK in near-constant pass coverage the entire 1H, covering on 12 pass
plays while rushing on only 10. Of
course, while totally unfettered, Joe Jacco enjoyed a
comfy, near-flawless 1st half. It�s no coincidence
that, as
You saw Sanchez and his deer-in-a-headlights
look last week as he struggled vs. NE.
This dude is ripe to be pressured, harassed, and harried. The Jest (sic) have
recently been lured into a sense of offensive competence, having beaten not 1,
but 2 weak-assed defenses in Indy and N.E.
The Patsie defense was a well-known joke, and
the Colt defense, while sporting a good 1-2 punch by their pass-rushing DEs, has nowhere near the depth, ability, and versatility
of the Stiller defense. That said, I believe it is prudent to rampage and pillage Sanchez
from the very first series. Let him
know this ain�t Indy. Let him know he�s
in for a long day. Let him realize he�s
going to be hounded and attacked on nearly every single play.
- Ensure Dick LeBeau is awoken after
halftime. In Jets1, the Jets offense sat,
in real time, well over 35 minutes, beginning late in the 2Q, thru halftime,
and well into the 3Q, before finally getting the ball midway thru the 3Q. At that point, the Stillers had just scored
a TD to take a seemingly-commanding 17-10 lead. Just 1 problem - - no one bothered to wake
up Def. Coord Dick LeBeau.
Facing a
struggling, inept offense that hadn�t scored a TD since Thanksgiving, here is
what Dick's vaunted defense did after the Steelers took a 17-10 lead in the 3Q
and seemed to have ALL of the momentum on their side --
- 8 plays, 66 yard drive, TD
- 13 plays, 50-yard drive, CHIPPIE FG.
- With the Stillers down by 3 with
only 7 minutes remaining in the game and desperate to get the ball back, the
Jets marched 10 plays, 4:24 clock was
CHEWED, and after the punt, the field was FLIPPED from the NY 24 to the PIT 3. Most folks remember the safety, but they
forget that the safety would have never occurred in the first place if Dick
hadn�t been sound asleep and if he�d put a STOP to this long, laborious
march.
Four 2nd-half drives, and the defense failed (using any common sense
pass-fail analysis) on 3 of those drives. 75% failure rate! The Jets offense dashed up and down the
field more than the Grambling marching band.
Add to that, the total
bamboozlement on the 4th & 1 TD run, which occurred AFTER an official
timeout to measure, which gave Dick a FREE timeout to get his defense straight.
Playing
at home, with the fan frenzy and the crown noise, this is where the Stiller defense (supposedly �#1 in the NFL�) should have
stepped up, kicked ass, and dominated the living piss out of the struggling Jet
offense. In fact, it was during this horrific, feeble-fuk
half of football that I became enraged with Dick The
Dullard and have been stewing and pissed off ever since. Dick could actually earn some of his deified status if, this time, he simply shows up after
halftime in a coherent, lucid state of mind.
Spec teams.
The Stiller
coverage teams started to leak badly the final quarter of the season, with a
low point being the game-opening KO return by Brad Smith for a TD versus the NY
Trippers. The coverage tightened up
considerably in the final 2 reg season games, although both opponents were
uninspired and disinterested. The
coverage last week was rather sub-par, especially on KO returns. The Trippers have the league�s leading kick
returner in Brad Smith, who sat out last week�s game but will presumably play
this Sunday. Even if Smith can�t make a
go of it, Cromartie is no chopped liver as a KO
returner. I also wouldn�t be surprised
if Rex Ryan decides to insert Tonio Holmes in as a punt returner on a couple
occasions, in hopes of creating a spark.
Suisham looked extremely
shaky and erratic last week, hooking a FG badly and nearly hooking a PAT. The snaps weren�t perfect, but were more
than good enough, as were the holds. The
Jets� kicker, Nick Folk, is no supreme kicker, and he missed his lone FG
attempt last week in
In Jets1, you saw a real NFL punter
(Weatherford) on the other team, who had a SUPERB game. Krapinos,
meanwhile, sucked monkey cock. He�s
improved slightly since that ghastly day, and he�ll need to punt a shit-pot
better in order to help the Stillers win the battle of FP. Krapinos has an
incredibly poor ability to land pooch punts inside the 10.....he either gets
them to the 20, or rockets them into the EZ for a touchback. With the crowd noise, it�d be awesome if Krapinos could get just one good pooch punt and pin the
Jest down on their 2-yard line, which would then allow
Summary:
This is a game, at home, that the Stillers should win, and frankly, should
dominate against a mediocre Jets team.
The Trippers barely beat an injury-riddled Dolts team 2 weeks ago. Yes, the Jets beat the Stillers on Dec 19th,
although, playing without Miller and Pola, the Stillers still would have won
this game had Matt Spaeth not allowed a routine, simple TD pass to zip right
thru his brittle hands late in the game.
Yes, the Jets beat the Patriots, but that was a personal, bitter, revenge
game for the Jets, and the Pats were obviously over-confident and lax. Plus, in the case of the Pats, their
horrendous defense finally caught up to them.
The Stillers have a vastly superior QB,
are playing at home, and pound for pound, have a better overall defense. Those 3 factors are unbelievable huge come
playoff time.
As long as Dick LeBeau, the supreme
almighty lord deity of defensive football, can prevent the Jets from marching
up and down the field like the Grambling marching band the way they did back on
Dec. 19th (esp. in the 2nd half), the Steelers should win this game. Should.
(Still Mill
and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the