PLAY OF THE GAME
Eric Mangini got creative for no apparent reason early in the first quarter, and it cost him. He lined up Brad Smith in the shotgun formation at their own 39 to take the direct snap. Smith rolled to his right faking an option look with Leon Washington, and then flipped the ball to Jerricho Cotchery who was running left on a reverse.
MORE: Jets Come Down With Bronc-itis
MORE: Bronco’s Injuries Hurt Jets
MORE: Cutler Gets The Best of Elam, DBs
Cotchery bobbled the ball, and it bounced down to the 23 where Cotchery jumped on it, but the ball popped loose when Wesley Woodyard hit him. Vernon Fox scooped it up and went 23 yards for the score.
The play made it evident that this was not the crisp Jets team we had seen the last few weeks. It also was a bizarre play call by Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. The game was played in a downpour, making the field and ball slick. Smith does not touch the ball a ton and having him make the pitch in those conditions was an odd request.
Mangini defended the call:
“I didn’t feel like it affected their ball handling very much. They didn’t put the ball on the ground. They seemed to catch it pretty cleanly every time they had an opportunity.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
After several injuries to Broncos slowed the game down, the Jets fans grew restless and voiced their displeasure with the injured players. The Broncos did not take kindly to that.
“We thank the Jets fans for booing when our guys were down,” Broncos WR Brandon Marshall said. “We took it personal.”
BREAKDOWN
The Jets fell off Cloud 9 yesterday. After two big wins in Foxborough and Nashville had people talking Super Bowl, the Broncos made those discussions look extremely premature.
Denver outplayed the Jets in every phase of the game, and Mike Shanahan coached circles around Eric Mangini. The Broncos clearly saw something that made them think they’d be able to hit their tight ends, and they were right. Jay Cutler went to his tight ends 13 times for 149 yards.
The Jets could not stop the run, and other than Thomas Jones, the offense struggled to get anything going.
“I think they are simple things, the fundamentals of the game,” Favre said, “throwing, catching, blocking, tackling, all those things. They did those better than us tonight. Yes, it’s disappointing but the season’s not over yet.”
UP NEXT
The Jets take their third West Coast road trip of the season, this one to San Francisco to face the 49ers. The Jets lost in San Diego and Oakland, so expect a lot of talk about the effects of travel.
The 49ers beat Buffalo yesterday and have won two out of their previous three ganes. Tight End Vernon Davis is probably licking his chops after what Denver’s tight ends did yesterday.
For the Jets, this week is about rebounding and regaining the swagger that was nowhere to be seen yesterday.