AFTER Kellen Clemens, no-huddle wizard, had taken the Jets 69 yards in nine plays in 2:28 in the driving rain to cut the Cleveland lead to 17-12, and after Brad Kassell had made a remarkable dive to recover an onside kick, it came down to Eric Mangini deciding to put his faith in another onside kick instead of his kid quarterback.
Of course, after sending in Mike Nugent, on fourth-and-10 at the Cleveland 20, to successfully cut the lead to two, a third option would have been to send the kickoff deep and rely on the Jets, who had three timeouts remaining, to get another stop.
Mangini went instead for the onside kick, which was grabbed by the Browns’ Joe Jurevicius three plays before four Jets grabbed weakly at Jamal Lewis. The Browns back broke a 31-yard touchdown run that effectively put the game away, one more Nugent field goal and onside kick attempt notwithstanding.
Off a short field, instead of a long field, the Browns escaped, 24-18, because the Jets couldn’t tackle when it counted. Also because as much space as was left for second guessing, Browns linebacker Leon Williams gave Chris Baker nowhere near that room on the failed two-point conversion that would have made it 17-14 and conceivably given Nugent a chance to tie the game.
Of all of Mangini’s and Brian Schottenheimer’s calls, that was the one with which we had the problem: That fade to Baker that the Browns and a lot more persons than the drenched remaining 3,000 – destined to eventually be 300,000 if the Jets had pulled off a miracle – knew was coming.
“It was a matchup we liked,” said Clemens – no kidding because the Jets use it to death. “The ball could have been placed better.”
For most of three hours, Clemens could have placed more balls better. He went behind, high, low, and away against the NFL’s worst statistical defense, having as bleak a December day as ever suffered by a next Jets starting quarterback at the end of a lost season. Then the Jets went to the no-huddle and Clemens became Jim Kelly again, like against Baltimore, Washington, and Pittsburgh.
Of course, the Browns, who had sacked Clemens four times, were playing soft, largely in situations when the Jets needed two scores. But Clemens’ accuracy improved startlingly, raising the question: Why aren’t the Jets in any hurry to more often use the hurry?
“We do mix some of that in the course of the game,” said Mangini. “It’s always a consideration, but there are other things we like and think can be successful.”
They need to think more about using things that are working, particularly for a quarterback with six games experience.
Of course Clemens, being a team guy and not wanting to be called out in a meeting by Mangini, wouldn’t publicly volunteer to operate more often out of the no-huddle.
“That’s up to the coaches,” he said. “We just try to execute best we can.”
But despite respectable final numbers (24-for-41, 286 yards) that execution yesterday was weak, particularly during third downs (the Jets were two-for-12) and on two interceptions. One came on a fourth-quarter underthrow of Wallace Wright along the sideline, the other a result of tying to squeeze one low and away to Jerricho Cotchery into end-zone coverage, ruining a golden second-quarter opportunity set up by a Kerry Rhodes interception.
“I tried to put it low where only (Cotchery) could get it,” said Clemens. “I didn’t see the safety, a costly error on my part.”
The rest of this season is devoted to inevitable errors on Clemens’ part, otherwise Chad Pennington would be the quarterback and the Jets still would be trying to get to the playoffs.
Four years into the Giants’ Eli Manning, there remains great debate about his eventual accuracy, so six games is not much of sample. Clemens’ strength is obvious, though, so wouldn’t it help him if were used more often?