The Numbers. Jets Perspective; It's not Hate, It's Constructive Critique!

First of all I just want to make it clear that questioning a teams direction is not indicative as a negative attitude. It's merely the fact that we all identify that there are certain areas that the team need to improve in order to reach the ultimate goal. A Superbowl Championship.

Highlighting and isolating problems, comprehending why and where changes need to be made is not throwing in the towel on a team, and it's certainly not jumping off a cliff either. We are all here for one reason, we are all Jets fans and we all want to see a Championship. Please don't misinterpret posts relating to team improvement as anything but a love for the team. Blind faith is dangerous, and besides; if we merely followed everything the team said and didn't question any decisions or personnel, this would be an extremely boring website.

Saying that! it seems to me as if either the Jets were either blowing smoke yesterday to try and get Jacksonville to take Brian (As John mentioned, this is unlikely as who would honestly take their word and not research) or they genuinely believe that Brian has done a good job with the players he was given this year. Is that a bigger indictment of Brian or the front office?

So we have been through these numbers before, but it seems as though the Jets organization don't have them at hand based on the press conference; so lets go through them again.

The Jets ranked (out of the 32 NFL teams) 25th in Yards per game, 28th in yards per play, fumbled the ball 25 times which is 7th most in the league and lost 16 of those fumbles which is the 2nd highest total in the league. Made 74 of the 213 3rd down attempts for a success percentage of 35% which is good for 22nd in the league. We made 4 of the 11 4th down attempts for a 36% success percentage which puts us 21st in the league.

We attempted 443 running play, 15 teams attempted more. We attempted 547 passing plays, 104 more passing plays than running plays. We had 3 passes over 40 yards, good for 31st in the league. We managed 3.8 yards per carry which puts us 29th in the league. We passed 173 times on first down and rushed only 92 times on first down

We gave up 40 sacks, 19 teams gave up fewer, our QB was hit 70 times, 21 teams gave up fewer hits to the signal caller.

It's not all doom and gloom though, our red zone efficiency of 66% puts us right at the top of the league, our 23.6 points per game put us middle of the pack, 13th best in the league. We scored 377 points in total, 12 teams scored more. We only had 12 negative pick ups rushing to the right which is good for 9th best, we had only 5 negative yardage pickups rushing through the middle, good for 7th best in the league and 15 going to the left where as 16 teams had more.

However we only had 14 plays of 10 yards or longer rushing to the right, 22nd in the league, 7 plays of 10 yards or longer rushing up the middle, 22nd in the league, 13 plays of 10 yards or longer rushing to the left which is 27th in the league.

You can make what you will from these stats, some are subjective, some are plain and clear. Some are on the offensive line coach, most are on the offensive coordinator. One thing is for certain, what we are built for is not what we are doing. The unwillingness to include McKnight in rushing packages limits our big play capability on the ground. Dropping back to pass too much, not rushing enough. Putting Sanchez in trouble too much, quickening his mechanics, limiting his effectiveness. Passing too much on first down with a QB who has a completion % of 55% is putting us in holes on 2nd and 3rd down. We score points but we are not consistent, we find it harder getting to the red zone than executing in the redzone.

It's not abysmal, but it's close. However looking at the numbers, I can't see how Rex and Tanny can sit there and try and preach to Jets fans that Brian is a good football coach who has performed to his contract this year. He may be a great guy and I bet he is. He seems like a top guy but this isn't a personal attack on work ethic or personality. It's a question regarding on field production and execution on the offensive side of the ball.

I wish Brian all the best in his next career move, he's not right for the Jets ground and pound, he is a west coast man. Everyone else can see this, why can't the power that be. Loyalty is one thing, blind loyalty to the detrimental effect of the team is another.