Tag: Baltimore Ravens

NFL Week 15 Picks

Posted on by trevozza

As Lil Wayne eloquently said back in 2008, “I ain’t kinda hot, I’m sauna. I sweat money and the bank is my shower.” I’ve gone 4-2 in consecutive weeks to bring my season total to 25-14-3. It still isn’t too late to hop on the gravy train.

 

To review my Week 14 picks:

Washington Redskins (-2) @ Philadelphia Eagles WIN

Minnesota Vikings (-3) @ Jacksonville Jaguars WIN

Cincinnati Bengals (-5.5) @ Cleveland Browns WIN

Denver Broncos (+1.5) @ Tennessee Titans LOSS

Seattle Seahawks @ Green Bay Packers (+3) WIN

Dallas Cowboys (-3.5) @ New York Giants LOSS

Here’s what I learned last week:

  1. Again, you live by the Eli, you die by the Eli. Also, I’m not NFL coach but to beat the Giants I think that all you have to do is eliminate the Odell Beckham Jr slant route. Play an inside position on him and make Eli dump it down the sidelines instead of giving him the easy completion across the middle.
  2. Either the Denver Broncos are sneaky bad, or the Tennessee Titans are sneaky good. Take that as you will.
  3. If there’s some sort of storm in the forecast and it shares a name with a starting quarterback, you bet the rent on that guy’s team.
  4. DeSean Jackson will score a long touchdown and walk into the end zone backwards in every single game he plays against the Philadelphia Eagles for the rest of his career.

 

Now onto this week’s picks.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Baltimore Ravens (-5.5)

After last week’s loss to the New England Patriots:

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After this week’s game vs the Philadelphia Eagles:

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The Ravens lost a tough one in New England last Monday night, and are now on the outside looking in on the playoff hunt. They are only one game behind the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North race, and they square off in Week 16 on Christmas Day. This is a must win for the Ravens, and I think Joe Flacco breaks the Flaccometer by throwing for 4 TDs. The Ravens have found a stud in rookie RB Kenneth Dixon, and his versatility was brought to light in last week’s primetime game. Steve Smith Sr is healthy, Mike Wallace is bound to burn some poor Philly CB, and Dennis Pitta is always a threat to go off with his pal Joe.

The Eagles lost a big one at home last week to the Washington Redskins and are virtually out of playoff contention. WR Jordan Matthews returned from his injury, but it is too little, too late for an Eagles team that has massive voids all over the field. They will also be without RBs Darren Sproles and Wendell Smallwood, leaving injury prone Ryan Mathews as their lone threat at RB. The Eagles secondary has been a liability all year, and I think that Joe Flacco picks them apart through the air.

Green Pay Packers (-5.5) @ Chicago Bears

Green Bay is going to be packin’ heat this Sunday in Chicago. The high is supposed to be ZERO degrees Fahrenheit. Green Bay has been on a roll during their three game winning streak, winning by 14, 8, and 28 against good teams in the Eagles, Texans, and Seahawks. While the weather may take a toll on the pace of pay and the amount of points (hint: take the under around 40ish), I think that the Packers will keep up their streak on the backs of Ty Montgomery, Jordy Nelson, and Davante Adams. I also don’t think that the cold will be too much of a factor, given the Packers’ breakthrough tent technology they’ve brought onto the sidelines:

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In Chicago Bears news, WR Alshon Jeffery is returning from his 4 game suspension but without Jay Cutler throwing the ball to him I donnnnnttttt caaaaaaarrrrreeee. Green Bay’s defense has been getting healthier and better, and I think that they keep an injured Chicago team in check. Packers might win this game 17-7 or some nonsense like that.

Indianapolis Colts @ Minnesota Vikings (-4.5)

Guess who’s back, back again. AP’s back, tell a friend.

I was all over this pick before this news broke. The Vikings had a big bounce back win last week at Jacksonville after consecutive losses by a combined 5 points. The Colts lost a tough game in Houston. Indianapolis will be without WR Donte Moncrief, and his backup, Phillip Dorsett is listed as questionable. This will allow the great Minnesota corners to keep an eye on star WR TY Hilton the entire game and force less talented receivers to beat them. With Adrian Peterson back in the equation, I think that the Colts’ defense has trouble containing him, Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, and Kyle Rudolph all at once.

Tennessee Titans @ Kansas City Chiefs (-5.5)

The Tennessee Titans give up a lottttt of yards through the air. Although Chiefs QB Alex Smith doesn’t really air it out deep where Tennessee is most vulnerable, he has some of the most dynamic weapons in the league. TE Travis Kelce and WR Tyreek Hill have been the go to guys for Kansas City this year while Jeremy Maclin has battled through some injuries. Kelce has had 4 straight games of 100+ yards receiving, and Hill is so fast, he makes fast players look….not fast.

*Nailed it*

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The Titans are good, but I don’t think that their defense is capable of stopping this Chiefs team. They allow 292 passing yards per game, and Alex Smith doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes. He has only thrown 5 interceptions this year and is the master of the ‘game manager’ role. With the speedy Tyreek Hill and the brute strength of Travis Kelce, Alex Smith’s short pass game turns into long gains in the blink of an eye.

Cleveland Browns @ Buffalo Bills (-10)

In what should already be a bloodbath, Bills’ Sammy Watkins is now 100% healthy. The Browns have only covered the spread twice this season. The Bills still have an outside chance of making the playoffs, and Rex Ryan is reportedly on the hot seat, so I don’t think they let this game get close. Shady should have himself a day running the ball, and as long as Mike Gillislee doesn’t vulture some goal line touches, he could go for 150+ yards and 2+ TDs.

 

There it is. Five picks. Five wins. Call me DJ Khaled because you’re about to ride with me through the journey of more success.

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Monday Morning Quarterback: Geno 911!

Posted on by trevozza

Who would’ve guessed that for the 2nd season in a row, an injury to Geno Smith was the spark plug that the Jets needed to start winning.

For the 7th time this year, the New York Jets played a ‘must win’ game.

They are now 2-5 in aforementioned ‘must win’ games.

Eugene Cyril Smith III made his first start for the New York Jets since Week 17 of the 2014 season at Miami where he threw 358 yards and 3 TDs en route to a 37-14 win. Geno started off the game throwing short passes to get his groove back and it was evident that Todd Bowles and the Jets wanted to establish the running game early to alleviate the pressure away from Smith. On the Jets first drive, Geno connected with Robby Anderson for 8 yards and Matt Forte picked up a first down. That’s all they could do, but compared to the majority of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s drives, Geno Smith looked like Broadway Joe out there.

Then, of course, came this masterpiece of a play by Punter Lachlan Edwards:

The 7th round pick from Sam Houston State University has actually had himself a good season, but this gaffe will be his claim to fame for awhile. A general rule of thumb for punters is to fly under the radar, because nobody knows who the punter is until they mess up.

After a successful Jets punt on the ensuing possession *cheers*, Joe Flacco and the Ravens quickly showed the Jets that they spent some time scouting in the film room. Their first play from scrimmage was a 53 yard bomb to Mike Wallace:

That drive ended with a 50-yard FG by Justin Tucker and the Baltimore Ravens quickly took a 10-0 lead.

Despite only being 8 minutes into the game, all signs were pointing towards another ugly game by the Jets. Soon after a 7-yard scramble by Geno to get a 1st down, the Jets were hit with a False Start penalty on Brandon Marshall (inexcusable) and then lost 3 yards on a sack. On 2nd and 18, Geno hit Quincy Enunwa on a short curl route and the unthinkable happened:

Quincy Enunwa added ‘game-breaking speed’ to his repertoire and took the short pass 69 yards to the house (nice). He had a comment about his play after the game:

I said last week that the Ravens were beatable via the big play, but I had concerns that the Jets had a player capable of making an OBJ-esk play. Quincy Enunwa-ah-ah-ah proved that he was down with the Fitzness (s/o PFT).

After hoping and praying for anybody other than Ryan Fitzpatrick to play QB and FINALLY getting my prayers answered with Geno, it was all taken away in the blink of an eye. Geno Smith took a sack on 3rd and 8 after trying to make a play out of nothing. One knock on Geno throughout his ‘tenure’ with the Jets was his football IQ. On a play that 95% of Quarterbacks throw away, Geno tried to extend the play and his ACL paid the price.

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At the time, the injury didn’t seem to be severe at all. Geno hobbled off the field and was talking to trainers while Fitzpatrick overlooked. He didn’t appear to be in a lot of pain but he was brought through the tunnel nonetheless. Geno reappeared on the sidelines in street clothes in the 2nd half, much to the dismay of Jets HOFer Joe Namath:

Turns out its a torn ACL for Geno Smith, and he’s headed to IR. The silver lining of this move is that the Jets now only have 3 roster spots taken up by Quarterbacks, opening up a slot for a player in another position that they Jets need immediate help in (OLine, LBs, DBs, Tight End).

Anyways, Ryan Fitzpatrick entered the game and the Jets continued the game plan that they used with Geno. Forte worked his way for a few yards while Enunwa and Marshall caught a couple short passes to move the chains. When the Jets KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), they are a good football team. It’s what they did last year, and it’s what they did years ago with Mark Sanchez. They did add in this wrinkle with rookie Robby Anderson, however:

Anderson’s 30-yard run was the longest that the Jets have recorded this year. That play set up a 13-yard TD from Fitz to Matt Forte and the New York Jets had themselves a lead.

Naturally, the Jets allowed the Ravens to march down the field to kick a FG before the half to take a 16-14 lead, but dammit the Jets were in it.

The second half of this game was the exact opposite of what had happened for the Jets all year. Joe Flacco started to force throws down the field a la Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets secondary was capitalizing on those throws a la every opponent the Jets have played this year.

First we had Buster Skrine returning an INT to the Ravens’ 3 yard line:

The Jets lost a yard on their next play and then Ryan Fitzpatrick was flagged for DELAY OF GAME from the 4 yard line. From his vantage point on the field, the play clock is so close to him that he could practically reach his hand out and high five it before snapping the ball. The Jets got a Field Goal to take a 17-16 lead but you have to cash in on goal-to-go opportunities.

We then had a Marcus Gilchrist interception on the Ravens’ very next drive:

This drive led to as much, if not more fuckery than the one before. After 3 consecutive carries for 18 yards, Forte took another carry from the Ravens’ 6 yard line and Ravens DT Timmy Jernigan ripped the ball away from him. Jernigan watched too many Jamal Lewis highlights the night before and tried to give a little shake & bake to Brandon Marshall. Marshall went right for the ball and forced the fumble while recovering it as well. That was Marshall’s 4th forced fumble and 2nd fumble recovery in 23 games as a Jet, which is just an absurd statistic for a receiver.

Forte redeemed himself with a 1-yard plunge 2 plays later to record his 2nd TD of the game.

The Jets took a 24-16 lead and didn’t look back.

Baltimore Ravens 16 @ New York Jets 24

 

With the outrageously difficult part of the season over for the Jets, they are paired up with the 0-7 Cleveland Browns next week. If the Jets have any playoff aspirations, this is where they have to pick it up. Here’s what’s up next for them:

@ Cleveland Browns (0-7)

@ Miami Dolphins (3-4)

vs. Los Angeles Rams (3-4)

vs. New England Patriots (6-1)

vs. Indianapolis Colts (3-4)

@ San Francisco 49ers (1-6)

vs. Miami Dolphins (3-4)

One of those teams are not like the others. However, these next 3 weeks are incredibly important if the Jets want to make any kind of playoff run this season. It certainly is possible, but I’ve seen them do worse against even lesser opponents.

 

The Cleveland Browns are a mess. They point to the Jets and say, “Wow, they’ve got it all figured out.” They’ve had six quarterbacks take snaps this year. This week, we could see Josh McCown, Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan, or even Terrelle Pryor. The Browns also claimed QB Joe Callahan off of waivers Monday, so maybe he’ll get in, too.

The Browns were a lot scarier when 1st round pick Corey Coleman was healthy. He’s a tremendous wideout, but it seems unlikely that he will play this week due to a broken hand. The Browns best weapons are Terrelle Pryor (35-431-3 receiving, 8-21-1 rushing, 41 yards passing), TE Gary Barnidge (30-361-0), and RB Isaiah Crowell (495-4 TDs rushing, 12-107-0 receiving). The key to shutting down the Browns has been stopping Terrelle Pryor. The former QB from Ohio State can run, pass, catch, and probably kick with the rest of ’em. Their defense has been shredded through the air for 2080 yards and 18 TDs, so this could be a huge spot for Bryce Petty Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brandon Marshall, Quincy Enunwa, and company.

Prediction: New York Jets 27 @ Cleveland Browns 13

 

Now on to the awards:

 

The GOAT:

Sheldon Richardson (8 tackles, 3.5 TFL, 1 sack, 2 QB hits)

Sheldon must’ve been reading my past few posts because he was playing angry on Sunday. Even with the absence of Mohammad Wilkerson, Richardson was all over the field, rushing the QB, blowing up screen plays, and completely eliminating the Baltimore run game. After some mediocre games, Sheldon finally showed us the All-Pro defensive lineman that we all know he is capable of being.

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The Jets as a whole only allowed 6 rushing yards, which is a new franchise best for them. Here’s LaDainian Tomlinson to help show you how far 6 yards is:

Honorable GOATs:

Matt Forte (30-100-1 rushing, 5-54-1 receiving)

This was Matt Forte’s best game since his 3 TD performance against the Bengals in Week One. Given Ryan Fitzpatrick’s struggles, opposing defensives have stacked the box to force Fitz to pass more often, but Forte was able to wiggle out of some tackles and had an integral role in the passing game. Forte has been money on screens, and he joined an exclusive club during last week’s contest.

Robby Anderson (3-41-0 receiving, 1-30-0 rushing)

Preseason favorite Robby Anderson is finally getting some action. Anderson provides some spark and speed that the Jets haven’t had in years. As he gets a feel of the game and learns from one of the best in Brandon Marshall, Robby Anderson could become a household name in a couple of years. His 30 yard rush was the Jets’ longest run of the season, and he went up and caught a pass on 3rd down that previous Jets receivers wouldn’t even think about going up for (@ Stephen Hill, Braylon Edwards, Dustin Keller, Jeremy Kerley, Santonio Holmes, the list goes on). This guy is fun to watch:

The WOAT:

Ryan Fitzpatrick (9/14, 120 Yards, 1 TD)

Yes, Ryan Fitzpatrick came in for an injured Geno Smith and helped win the game. Yes, he didn’t throw an interception. For once this year, his on-field product was halfway decent. But, there are two things that he did that make him the WOAT.

First was the delay of game penalty from the Ravens’ 4 yard line. This is Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 11th year in the NFL, and he’s been playing competitively since 1997 at the VERY least (counting high school and college). So for at least 19 years, Fitz has played Quarterback with a play clock. It is inexcusable for a delay of game penalty to be called in that situation. The seconds are literally ticking down in front of your face. The play before was a short run, it wasn’t even some long play down the field that the linemen are trying to catch up and get to the line in time. That five yard difference for the Jets proved to be too much, and they could only get a Field Goal on that drive. In a tight game like that, you have to get as many points as possible. A gift-wrapped interception bringing you the ball on the opponent’s 3 yard line is as good as is gets.

The second issue I have with Ryan Fitzpatrick is his jackass comments after the game:

Hey, Ryan Fitzpatrick, you sucked more than a vampire with emphysema. You threw 11 interceptions in 5 games, while only throwing 5 TDs. You threw 6 interceptions IN ONE GAME. You can’t be in your right Harvard educated mind and think that it was a crazy move to replace you at Quarterback. This man is lucky he doesn’t have a social media presence because he gets roasted by anybody with a keyboard. Even Ari Gold has a message for him:

Ryan Fitzpatrick continued the game plan that Geno Smith was doing more than fine in and won a very winnable game. Everybody gave up on you because you are playing historically horrendous football. Geno Smith was beating up the Ravens because he was spreading the ball around and had established the run early. Fitz has stared at Brandon Marshall on 75% of his snaps and either sidearms it to him or throws a nauseating shovel pass to nobody.

Usually soft-spoken, Todd Bowles had a laugh out loud comment regarding Fitz’s tantrum:

Dishonorable WOAT:

Lachlan Edwards

The Australian-born 7th round pick does have a solid boot, but that fumbled snap was ridiculous. MetLife Stadium is usually pretty windy, but that’s his home field and it truly is an inexcusable play. It was an ugly start to the game, but luckily, it was the Ravens’ only Touchdown of the day.

 

T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-thats all folks. Until next week, here’s a video of some guys bein’ dudes:

NFL Week 7 Picks

Posted on by trevozza

After a two week hiatus in which I was doing doing hood rat stuff with my friends, its time to make some money back. I went 1-2-1 in Week 4, so I’m bound for a big bounce back week. To recap:

Buffalo Bills @ New England Patriots (-6.5) LOSS

Seattle Seahawks (-2.5) @ New York Jets WIN

Los Angeles Rams @ Arizona Cardinals (-8) LOSS

Detroit Lions (-3) @ Chicago Bears PUSH

 

After a mediocre Week 4 I am 10-6-1 on the year. Good enough to be up a few units, but not good enough to be retired on the beach by the end of the season. Here we go:

Thursday Night Football

Chicago Bears (+7.5) @ Green Bay Packers

Some sportsbooks have the Bears at +8.5, which I don’t think is necessary. A major storyline over the past couple of weeks has been Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers’ regression this season. Fingers are being pointed everywhere from Josh Sitton’s release, Rodgers not aging well, spending to much time with girlfriend Olivia Munn, and even some speculation that Deflategate has a role:

No matter what your angle is, it certainly is offsetting seeing Aaron Rodgers’ performance this year, especially given the return of WR Jordy Nelson from injury. There are other causes for concern for the Packers in this game as well. Seven players have been ruled out for this game, including RBs Eddie Lacy and James Starks, and CBs Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, and Sam Shields who is on Injured Reserve. The Packers are now expected to have WR Ty Montgomery carry the bulk of the workload at running back, while newly acquired RB Knile Davis and rookie Don Jackson back him up. Montgomery has 6 rushing yards this season, Davis has -2, and Jackson has never had an NFL carry.

For the Bears, they have lost consecutive heartbreakers to the Colts and the Jaguars. With QB Jay Cutler being injured, Brian Hoyer has stepped up and had 4 consecutive games with 300+ passing yards. Hoyer has found a connection with Alshon Jeffery (who has yet to score, that will change), TE Zach Miller, and little-known WR Cameron Mederith to put up stats that Bears fans haven’t seen from their QB in years. Hoyer has been playing so well that analysts have begun to compare him to Aaron Rodgers:

The Packers were a 5.5 point favorite over Dallas last week at home and lost by 14. It also was the same day that they retired Brett Favre’s number. They didn’t look very good last week at home, so on short rest with a banged up roster, this may be deja vu all over again.

Baltimore Ravens (+2) @ New York Jets

The New York Jets are terrible. They’re a mess. Their secondary lets receivers blow by them, their defensive line can’t get to the quarterback, their offensive line can’t create holes for their running backs, and the two headed monster of Ryan Fitztragic and Genocide Smith is putrid. If the Jets play a flawless game, they can maybe keep up with Joe Flacco and his arsenal of WRs, but anybody that has watched even a quarter of a Jets game knows that all they do is make mistakes.

The Ravens have been successful running the ball with RB Terrence West, and elite Joe Flacco has had the pleasure of picking and choosing between Mike Wallace, Steve Smith Sr., Breshad Perriman, and Dennis Pitta to throw the ball to. The Jets have been especially susceptible to Tight Ends and speedy wideouts, so Pitta, Wallace, and Perriman should have themselves a good day.

The Jets only hope is that Brandon Marshall takes a page out of Odell Beckham Jr’s playbook and explodes this week. However, Odell possesses the game breaking speed that Marshall doesn’t quite have. With Eric Decker’s absence, opposing teams have put all of their focus on slowing down Brandon Marshall. Ryan Fitzpatrick still forced the ball in his direction, resulting in way too many red zone interceptions. Hopefully Geno Smith doesn’t follow suit this week. *scoffs*

Oakland Raiders (+1) @ Jacksonville Jaguars

I think this is a big bounce back opportunity for the Oakland Raiders. They played a dud of a game last week in a monsoon against the Chiefs. They were unable to stop the run, and were unable to get their passing game going in the slippery conditions. Jaguars rookie CB Jalen Ramsey has done well this year, but all of the other defensive backs have been a liability. Luckily for the Raiders, they have two great receivers in Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree. I would look for whoever Jalen Ramsey isn’t covering to be the go-to guy for QB Derek Carr.

The Raiders will most likely have lead running back Latavius Murray back this week too, after a two week absence with a toe injury. Before last week’s loss, the Raiders had won three close games in a row, so they are a much more trustworthy team in a game which is essentially a pick ’em.

The Jaguars have a one dimensional offense as they’ve only accumulated 355 rushing yards through 5 games. The way to beat the Raiders is by establishing the run, and TJ Yeldon and company have been unable to at all this season. If the Jaguars play a shootout style game, I think the 3rd pick in the 2014 NFL Draft in Blake Bortles will make more mistakes than 36th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft in Derek Carr will.

New England Patriots (-7) @ Pittsburgh Steelers

I’m gonna spell this game out as simple as possible. Ben Roethlisberger is out for an extended period of time. This man is now playing Quarterback for the Steelers:

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Tom Brady is back and looks as good and as angry as he has ever been. Rob Gronkowski is also back, as he and Martellus Bennett are matchup nightmares. The Steelers have two of the best offensive weapons in the game in Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, but I am concerned that Landry Jones won’t be able to get them the ball as much as they need in order to win. I can see Gronk getting on the board early and the Patriots riding LeGarrette Blount to a big victory in Pittsburgh.

 

That’s all for this week. Call me Nas because you’re about to Find Ya Wealth.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Jets Fold in the House of Cards

Posted on by trevozza

What we all just saw in the Arizona desert was not a mirage, it was an actual football game played by the New York Jets. After a 31-13 dismantling in Pittsburgh last week, the Jets had their 6th straight ‘must win’ game to start the season in a nationally televised Monday Night game.

The Jets’ defense played as if David Johnson had a communicable disease. He said it himself.

The Jets ‘staunch’ run defense surrendered 171 rushing yards to the Cardinals, including 111 and 3 TDs to David Johnson. DJ added 3 receptions for 27 yards. He got things going early in the 1st quarter with a 58 yard touchdown in which NOBODY on the Jets even got a fingernail on him:

I guess the Jets were missing ILB David Harris more than anybody would’ve guessed. Harris suffered a hamstring injury and ended his consecutive games streak at 121, which is unheard of for a starting linebacker. Rookie LB Darron Lee couldn’t quite fill Harris’ shoes, and he eventually went out with an ankle injury. These are two guys that the Jets definitely need to keep healthy if they want to compete for the rest of the season.

I rant about this every week but the Jets carry 4 Quarterbacks every week and keep 2 inactive.

The Jets had extended absences from LB Darron Lee, CB Buster Skrine, RT Brent Qvale, LG James Carpenter, and WR Charone Peake during this game. The Jets sacrificing 2 roster spots every week by sitting Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg is hurting their on-field production all across the board. Also, its pretty head-scratching that TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins sat out this game. After debuting for the Jets last week with 2 receptions, I was looking forward to him having a larger role in the passing game this week. Newly acquired CB Nick Marshall could’ve been valuable in this game as well.

It took 2 3/4 games for Todd Bowles to finally take QB Ryan Fitzpatrick out of the game. Fitz didn’t look as bad as he had in previous weeks (he only threw 1 pick instead of 6), until he threw another gut wrenching red zone interception in the 3rd quarter. Fitzpatrick himself admitted that he had to stop forcing the ball to Brandon Marshall, but, sure enough, that’s exactly what he did on the Jets’ most crucial drive of the game. Also, he made himself false start.

Down 28-3, Todd Bowles finally replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick with another QB, albeit it being Geno Smith. Geno looked good against a soft defense, starting 4-5 for 31 yards, until he finally threw an INT to Tyrann Mathieu. It was good to see the Jets coaching staff finally sit the QB formerly known as Ryan Fitzpatrick for somebody else. Hopefully next time it’ll be Bryce Petty at the helm.

Jon Gruden mentioned the absolute mismatch that was 7th round draft pick Charone Peake against All-Pro Safety Tyrann Mathieu. Peake led the Jets with 10 targets, and only ended up with 5 receptions for 43 yards. Also, Fitz almost got the guy murdered:

New York Jets 3 @ Arizona Cardinals 28

Once again, the New York Jets looked terrible. The offense couldn’t sustain a good drive, the defense was discombobulated, and the quarterback play was atrocious. They have lost their last 4 games, while being outscored 110-36. The Jets have scored 3 touchdowns in their past 4 games, one of them being Charone Peake’s heads up fumble recovery against Seattle.

The Jets are traveling back home to take on the 3-3 Baltimore Ravens next week. Both teams are trending downward, as Baltimore has lost their past three games, so this game is extremely important for both parties. The Ravens have ridden the reemergences of RB Terrence West (473 yards from scrimmage, 3 TDs) and WR Mike Wallace (25-370-3), while getting strong contributions from veterans TE Dennis Pitta (34-295-0) and WR Steve Smith Sr (27-310-1). The Ravens have a multitude of options in the passing game that can pose a threat to the Jets secondary, which will have to be their main focus during the week. Baltimore’s defense has allowed 12 passing touchdowns this season, so the Jets will need competent Quarterback play to stay in the game. New York Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. put on a clinic against the Ravens last week, so Brandon Marshall must be licking his chops thinking about giving them the ole New York 1-2 punch.

 

 

Now on to the awards.

 

The GOAT:

Brandon Marshall (3-70-0)

For the third week in a row, WR Brandon Marshall wins GOAT of the week. Although he posted a rather pedestrian stat line, he was the lone offensive spark plug for a Jets team that looked terrible all night. Marshall was shadowed by All-Pro CB Patrick Peterson all game, and he brought in 3 out of the 6 targets thrown his way, which included this spectacular grab:

Despite his strongest efforts, B Marsh was left in tears at the end of the game. Its crazy how he hasn’t been in a playoff game yet in his illustrious career.

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Honorable GOAT:

Darrelle Revis (3 tackles)

This is kind of crazy, but hear me out. Revis was matched up with Larry Fitzgerald (6-49-0, 9 targets) for the majority of the game and did a pretty decent job on him. Besides a few references to Revis and Fitzgerald sharing an alma mater of the University of Pittsburgh, there were very few mentions of Darrelle. Some of the best cornerbacks are the ones you don’t see or hear about, because they lock down their receiver and don’t accumulate many stats. If its not a negative play, its a positive play. It was good to see Revis come back after sitting last week out and not get exploited. Maybe he was just banged up and he’ll look like the #24 we’ve known and loved from here on out.

The WOAT:

Defensive Line (0 Sacks, 3 Tackles For a Loss, 3 QB Hits, 1 Pass Defended)

Another quiet week from the Jets defensive line. The Cardinals were missing their starting LG and RG, and the Jets bad boys up front did nothing to make them pay. They only got the running back in the backfield 3 times out of the Cardinals 35 rush attempts. Mohammad Wilkerson was able to bat down one single pass. However, this unit was supposed to be the reincarnation of the New York Sack Exchange. These guys putting up a 0 in the sack column against a depleted Arizona O-Line is evidence enough that the NYSE title will remain with these gentlemen:

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Dishonorable WOATs:

Running Game (14 carries, 33 yards)

The Jets are quickly becoming a one-dimensional team given their difficultly running the ball. After coming out strong in Weeks 1 and 2, the Jets have fallen apart in the running game. Opposing defenses have realized that Fitzpatrick cannot play Quarterback, and the Jets keep playing from behind. Matt Forte had 9 carries for 19 yards and Bilal Powell had 3 carries for 10 yards. No player on the Jets had a carry longer than 8 yards. The Jets have a couple speedsters on their roster that could run some jet sweeps and keep the defense honest, while setting up a big play-action pass play.

Defensive Pass Interference:

I can’t find how many DPIs were called against the Jets, but some of the calls in this game were unbelievable. The NFL has to figure out a system to review PI calls, or they need to be consistent in what is called a penalty and what is not. Buster Skrine was called for pass interference on a couple plays in which the offensive player initiated all of the contact. Another call that blew my mind was on a pass to John Brown down the left sideline that he didn’t even know was thrown to him. After the blatant no-flag at the end of this week’s Atlanta Falcons-Seattle Seahawks, there is speculation about whether or not the NFL will make these penalties reviewable or even challengeable. In a blowout like this, a couple questionable calls don’t matter, but in a close game an unwarranted penalty can completely change the outcome of a game.

 

Once again, I leave you with this: