A week ago, as the Jets evaluated their loss to the Ravens in Baltimore, Eric Mangini spoke about the truth. He spoke about the importance of each player, in his self-scouting, being honest with himself when he watches the film.
“I’ve found that most successful people are very critical of themselves, and they’re critical because they want to get the things corrected and they want to continue to improve,” Mangini said. “Another point that I made to the team is just the importance of being brutally honest with everything that you can do better in your preparation, whether it’s to your film study, meeting time, practice or about performance in the game.”
Yesterday, in the wake of their 31-28 win over the Dolphins at Giants Stadium, the 1-2 Jets’ first win of the season, there was need for perspective again.
Despite the win, the Jets must look at themselves in the film room and be brutally honest with themselves. When they do that they’ll realize that, while they played well and deserved to win the game, the Dolphins helped them along the way.
Several moments in the game sabotaged the Dolphins’ chances, beginning with the Dolphins’ ridiculous decision to squib kick their kickoffs after being spooked by Leon Washington’s 98-yard return for a touchdown. A squib kick near the end of the first half gave the Jets such good field position it helped them score a touchdown before the intermission.
Bad penalties, too, hurt the Dolphins, as did an abandonment of the running game, which was killing the Jets at the time, at one point during a drive that ended up in a field goal.
You can bet the Dolphins flew home Sunday night bewildered by how they could lose a game in which they outgained the Jets 424-256 in offensive yards, including 312-124 in passing yards.
So the Jets, who play the 0-3 Bills Sunday in Buffalo, aren’t exactly in the clear.
“We looked at the film today and talked about (the flaws in the game) and even after a win sometimes it seems like you lost,” Jets wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said.
One area of particular alarm for the Jets was their complete inability to cover the screen passes the Dolphins threw at them.
“I don’t know how many yards they made on screen passes, but it seemed like a million,” Mangini said.
One thing is for sure in the wake of the Dolphins shredding the Jets defense with the screen passes: Their opponents are going to keep throwing screens on them until they can prove they can stop them.
“The NFL is a copycat league, so if they see plays working and having success they are going to come back with it,” Jets safety Kerry Rhodes said yesterday. “I’m sure we will run 1,000 screens each practice to try and get it right.”
Mangini said he expects to see more screens against his defense.
“Each (coach) has their own philosophy, and you try to identify the fingerprint of the coordinator,” he said. “Some people are true copycat coordinators where if you get beat on a play they’re going to run exactly that same play to see whether you got the problem fixed.
“Other people will copycat in the sense that they have their playbook and their system, and they’ll get the play that’s closest to the play you got to beat on that’s in their system. Like with most issues, if you do expose something people are going to figure out whether or not you fixed it.”
Jets cornerback David Barrett said, “It’s more of everybody trying to get to the ball. We need to get more guys running to the ball to make tackles. I feel like we still have a lot to do to get to where we want to be. We still have a lot of steps to take to be the defense that we want to be.”
That’s the kind of perspective that permeated from the Jets yesterday, an honesty they hope will lead to improvement, better play and more victories.