THE bold headlines highlighting this mini-turnaround for the Jets have chronicled the emergence of Chad Pennington.
Indeed, the Jets appear to have found a quarterback in Pennington, who not only set a team record with his 82.8 completion percentage in Sunday’s 20-7 win over the Vikings, but whose 79.3 completion percentage was the best by a quarterback in his first two starts since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
But at least as important as the electricity Pennington has injected into the Jets was their defense finally finding itself.
If the Jets are going to win their second straight and defeat the 3-4 Browns Sunday at Giants Stadium to get to 3-4 themselves – which I believe will happen – their defensive players must build on what they did against the Vikings, which means playing the game as if it’s the last one of their lives.
That means no more epidemics of missed tackles. The Jets missed only three on Sunday, according to coaches, after averaging about 13 over the first five games.
That means the linebackers, for whom this defense is built, must lead the way Mo Lewis did in picking off a Daunte Culpepper pass and forcing a Michael Bennett fumble.
That means no more miscommunications in the secondary. On Sunday, everyone seemed to be in the right place, on the same page, rendering Randy Moss harmless with CB Donnie Abraham and FS Damien Robinson making crucial INTs on attempted passes to him.
That means defensive linemen staying in their gaps, stuffing the run and putting pressure on the quarterback. Though the Jets didn’t record a sack against the Vikings, they did pressure Culpepper.
Cynics might snicker that Pennington’s last two performances came against the NFL’s worst two pass defenses, statistically speaking, in the 31st-ranked Chiefs and the 32d-ranked Vikings.
But there’s no argument about the kind of offense the Jets’ defense shut down on Sunday.
The Vikings entered the game with the No. 6 offense in the NFL and the Jets’ defense, deservedly maligned because of five poor performances and an overall ranking of 31st, pitched a shutout until Minnesota scored a garbage-time TD.
The Jets’ defense entered the Minnesota game having allowed 190.8 rushing yards per game. The Vikings entered with the fourth-rated rushing offense and were held to 101 yards, with Bennett gaining only 56.
The Jets’ defense faces a much less explosive group in the Browns, so there’s ample opportunity to build on this small turn-around.
“We finally looked like a defense,” said defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, who believes the bye week allowed the new players to become more familiar with the system. “There was no big, joyous celebration [after the win], just, ‘Hey, we finally played the way we were supposed to play.’ “
Cottrell joked that he didn’t want the identity of his defense to be a “sieve” defense, “which is what we were.”
The belief here is that the things the Jets did on defense against Minnesota will propel them to more solid defense, because they do have talent.
“To hold that offense to seven points is a good job. Hopefully, this will be a turning point for this team,” LB James Darling said.
“I think it helped our confidence,” CB Ray Mickens said. “We knew we could play this way. We have some of the best linebackers in the league and we think our front seven is better than last year. We just have to come together. We’re starting to believe in each other and play as a team.”
For the sake of this season remaining interesting past Thanksgiving for the Jets, hopefully they’ve not only found a quarterback, but a defense, too.
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Jets yesterday announced that the MRI on rookie S Jon McGraw’s left shoulder were negative and he is expected to return to practice today.