| Dwayne Smith. 21st September, 2005 - 11:32 am
 The New York Jets got back on track with a hard fought 17-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins. The win marked the third straight victory for New York over Miami and put the Jets in a four-way tie atop the AFC East, with a 1-1 record. At the behest of Head Coach Herman Edwards the Jets went back to basics by shutting down the Miami running game and not committing a single turnover. Unfortunately, the cost of victory could be very high with a possibility that RB Curtis Martin may not be able to play against the powerful Jacksonville Jaguars defense.
The collective sound of 77,918 fans went quiet on the opening snap for the hometown Jets as QB Chad Pennington fumbled and lost the exchange from C Kevin Mawae. A week earlier, Pennington fumbled the ball a team record 6 times against the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York faithful were left feeling like this game would be no different. Fortunately, Miami DE Jason Taylor jumped offsides before the snap and the play was erased. Nine plays later, the Jets had a 7-0 lead and would not look back.
Although Pennington was an efficient 19 of 30 passing for the day, a few of his throws had too much arc on them early in the game. Coach Edwards credits Miami’s strong pass rush with many of Pennington’s throws not having the proper authority. “He was under duress couldn't step up and use his legs and throw the ball… Sometimes it's because there's somebody at the guy's legs, he can't step up, use his legs, throw the football. There's a couple he threw where there were guys in his way. They were on him.”
Pennington’s day would wind up being a story of peaks and valleys, with stretches where it looked like he was struggling with the new offense. Fortunately, when the Jets needed it most, he engineered a 10 play, 83 yard scoring drive in which he threw a perfect 7 of 7 to put Miami away. The drive went a long way toward Pennington easing the confidence of his coach. “We've got a lot of belief in him. I believe in him. Players believe in him... At the end when it was critical for us to score, he did it, won the game. At the end, that's what you talk about, winning the game.”
The good vibes brought about by the quarterback’s performance may be short lived as the heartbeat of the offense, Martin, may have to miss time due to a knee injury. Although Martin’s MRI on his knee came back negative, the team has yet to say whether he will need to miss time regardless. If he does, the Jets picked up the speedy Derrick Blaylock in the off-season just for this type of situation. Even if Martin is able to start, look for Blaylock to get a significant amount of carries to lessen the load imposed on the future Hall of Famer who has carried the ball 51 times in the first 2 games of the season.
The Jets will need to seriously ramp up the offensive efficiency against their next opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars who held the high flying Indianapolis Colts to 10 points and kept Peyton from throwing a touchdown pass. The part of last Sunday’s effort that can give the Jets some hope are the 146 rushing yards allowed by Jacksonville. If New York is able to keep Jacksonville’s offense under wraps, look for them to continue keeping the offense simple for their quarterback and running the ball over and over.
The Coach’s Quote of the week: When asked to clarify whether a sprain is worse than a strain, Edwards had to remind the New York Press Corps “I'm a coach, I'm not a doctor.” |
