Thoughts on tonight's game

I'm going to give you my thoughts on the 3 units, then some specifics.

Offense. Obviously, horrendous. Sanchez throwing for 74 yards is not acceptable. Not all his fault, though. I think Schotty should have called for more passes downfield. Sure, the Ravens were dropping some guys into coverage, but they're not the defense they used to be. I think the coaching staff is too set in their ways with this whole ''Ground and Pound'' mentality, and didn't make the proper adjustments. I don't know what to say about Greene. We know how good he can be, but can someone please teach him to stop fumbling the ball so damn much? If he doesn't fumble the first time, we go up 9-0. LT was outstanding. Considering we only had 176 yards of total offense, he had almost half(80). So much for him being washed up. Not much to say about the WR's or TE's, but remember that when Santonio can come back, this offense will be a lot different.  The offensive line held up pretty well, aside from the 2 sacks.

Defense. Despite the Ravens converting 11-19 on 3rd downs, I thought the defense was outstanding, They only scored 10 points, even with all of those 3rd down conversions, and we forced 3 turnovers. Rice was a complete non-factor, and Mason and Houshmanzadeh had 3 or 4 catches combined. I'd like to see more than 2 sacks, but it is Week 1. Cromartie and Wilson were the only ones who did not play particularly well. Nerves for both, i'm sure.

Special teams. Weren't we all worried about Nick Folk, after we let Jay Feely go? Yeah, the first 2 FG's were gimmes, but he made a 48 yarder under pressure to set us up for the win, only needing another FG. Weatherford was magnificent in pinning the Ravens deep in their own territory, and the coverage was also excellent.

Now, here are a few evaluations on certain indivdual efforts.

Sione Pouha. Sure, we need Jenkins to stay healthy, but this guy did recover 2 fumbles, and he played quite well last year.

Nick Folk. I pretty much stated it above about him, but i'll include this: did you know that he made a 53-yard FG on a Monday Night game in Buffalo, while kicking for Dallas? And it was a game-winner, too. For those who don't remember, that was the 25-24 game, where the Cowboys came back in like the last minute or something with something like 10 or 13 points. You may not remember, because it was the same night as Game 4 of the ALDS between the Yankees and Indians, aka Joe Torre's last game as Yankees manager. I really felt if he had a chance to kick tonight to win the game, he would have made it.

LaDainian Tomlinson. Also mentioned above, but he's great on 3rd downs, and when Sanchez dumps it off to him, he can gain some serious yards. He'll also be super-motivated all season to prove people wrong about him being done.

I'd be remiss if I didn't some non-Jets in this.

T.J. Houshmanzadeh. Boy, this guy was really yuking it up after he drew 2 penalties. Hey, T.J., you just got released by SEATTLE. Calm down, and stop showing off until you do something.

Ray Lewis. They talk about us showing off, and talking and all that, yet he celebrates with that stupid dance(if you can call it that) after he makes a play. Ray, calm down. We know you're great, but we also know what you did during the Rams-Titans SB(I forget if it was before or after the game). And, also, don't call football players warriors. Not that you know or care, but look what day it was over this past weekend. Those were warriors.

The refs. What i'm about to say is not an excuse, even if it sounds like one. When there are 14 penalties, it's easy to find fault with a few, but didn't it seem like every time the Ravens missed a 3rd down play, we got called for a penalty? The only one that didn't hurt was the Wilson hold on 3rd & 28, because they turned it over on that drive. The 2 that I most have a problem with was the Edwards running into the kicker penalty, and the WIlson pass interference call in the end zone. Braylon never touched Cundiff, yet he gets flagged. Give Cundiff an Oscar for that fine acting job. It cost us 7 points. They scored their only TD of the game following that penalty to extend the drive. It was further extended after the Wilson call, which was comical. He barely touched Houshmanzadeh, yet he gets called for PI. If you can't touch or slightly(and I do mean slightly) bump a reciever, then let's play in dresses. Just ridiculous. I don't normally ask this, as I have written a lot, but i'd love to hear everyone's take on the 2 penalties I spoke of.

All in all, i'm not worried. It's 1 game, and we did beat the Patriots 16-9 at home last year. The offense will come around, and once Santonio is back, it'll be even better. Doesn't it always seem like we play New England at home early in the season? Finally, I looked at the schedule(I know this was probably discussed, but I wasn't a member at the time), and I noticed that 3 of our first 4, and 3 of our last 5 games are within the division. While the division games are always separated within the 2 halves of the season, some divisional games are closer together(the Giants and Cowboys play twice in 4 weeks). That means the middle part of the schedule is there for the taking. Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, Houston, Detroit, and Cincinnati are after the first batch of division games, and before the second batch. The tough games(GB, MIN, HOU) are at home, so you figure we'd have a chance to really put up some wins.

Thoughts?