There are not nearly as many secrets in the NFL as the culture of paranoid coaches and front office executives would lead you to believe. One thing about the Jets that has become no secret two games into the season is this: Geno Smith, their rookie quarterback, is not yet quite ready for prime time.
The quickest way to protect Smith and allow him to flourish while reducing the risk of making too many game-changing mistakes (see his three interceptions in last Thursday’s loss to the Patriots) is to play good defense and run the ball effectively.
This is where the Jets, as they prepare to play the 1-1 Bills Sunday at MetLife Stadium, are conflicted. Their new offensive coordinator, Marty Mornhinweg, wants to pass, pass and pass some more.
This is a complete reversal of the philosophy Jets coach Rex Ryan successfully employed in 2009 when he carried mistake-prone rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez along for the ride to the AFC Championship.
Remember that successful combo platter of “ground and pound’’ and great defense, Jets fans?
Those weren’t bad times, where they?
Those times, though, seem like a decade or more ago, not the mere three or four years we’re removed from them.
Listening to Ryan talk now, though, makes you wonder if he even remembers “ground and pound’’ — a phrase he wore out like a badly overplayed hit song on the radio in 2009 and 2010.
“Do I expect us to run more than pass? Not really,’’ Ryan said. “The way the game is played now … I like to attack down the field.’’
Ryan hinted Friday he doesn’t have the horses on the roster to rely on the running game.
“When we were ground-and-pound, that was based on our personnel,” he said. “We had three great tail backs with Thomas Jones, with Shonn Greene and Leon Washington [and fullback] Tony Richardson.’’
The Jets will play the Bills on Sunday, still in search of an offensive identity. They’ve scored a total of 28 points in two games and were lucky to win one game.
“I don’t think we’ve played enough games together yet to say what our identity is on offense,’’ guard Willie Colon said Friday. “It’s only Week 3. It’s going to take a couple more dog fights for us to find out if we’re a pass or a run team. I think we have the personnel to do both at a high level.’’
The Jets might have beaten the Patriots on Sept. 12 had Mornhinweg not run away from the running game too often. There were a couple of times in the game, a close game because of the Patriots’ ineptitude on offense, when it looked as if the New England defense could not stop the Jets’ running game.
Jets running back Chris Ivory had consecutive runs of 11, 4 and 15 yards and was never allowed to get back into a rhythm again.
What happened to staying with the hot hand? Why not keep giving a running back the ball until the defense shows it can stop him? Sometimes in this over-thinking world of rosters filled with role players, coaches outcoach themselves.
“Any back likes to get into a rhythm,’’ Ivory said Friday. “But that’s the coaches’ call. I’m not mad about anything. I’m just rolling with the play calls.’’
Through two games, the Jets have passed the ball 73 times (turning it over six times in the passing game, with four interceptions and two lost fumbles) and run it 61 times. Mornhinweg wants to pass the ball while his quarterback would benefit from a more consistent commitment to the running game.
“Look, this is more than I’ve ever run the ball,’’ Mornhinweg said Thursday. “We want to be aggressive, aggressive, aggressive.’’
Aggressive is great as long as the quarterback is not turning the ball over five times in two games and completing only 53.4-percent of his passes.
The 1-1 Jets bring the No. 2 ranked defense to the field on Sunday. Good defense alone is going to keep the offense in the game. Add a larger portion of ground-and-pound to it and sprinkle in some passing game and that will give the Jets their best chance of getting to 2-1 by day’s end.