After the Jets got pushed around by Miami on Monday night football, there were a lot of complaints coming out of the Jets locker room. Head Coach Rex Ryan said that the Wildcat was “gimmicky”. Jets outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who returned from a 4-game suspension for getting performance enhancing drugs, said that there was no place for the Wildcat offense in professional football.
I have loved the swagger and confidence that Rex Ryan has brought to this Jets team with his brash talk, and the ability to back it up. But this infectious whining is not garnering any respect around the league. The Dolphins are 2-3, so clearly there are teams who are able to deal with the wildcat offense. And I wouldn’t call it a gimmick either, seeing as you have at least a thousand plays on tape of this offense. They can’t do anything out of this formation that you haven’t seen before (except for maybe a fumblerooski).
Calvin Pace definitely has no room to complain. I would be more inclined to blame missing four weeks of live football on my poor performance than another team’s offensive strategy. I figured his MMA training would have taught him how to lose with honor. And everyone played high school football at some point, right? Didn’t we all have to stop the Wing-T offense? If Booker T. Washington high school (anywhere in America) can stop a run based offense, then clearly an 11-man squad of “professionals” can get off blocks and make tackles to stop this “gimmick” offense, right?
Give credit where credit is due, guys. The Dolphins didn’t win because of the Wildcat. They only ran for 13 more yards than the Jets. They won because they were better on 3rd down. The Dolphins converted 9-14 3rd downs compared to the jets 4-11. That was a result of better play calling and better quarterbacking. Chad Henne was 20-26 for 241 yards and 2 TDs. Mark Sanchez was 12-24 for 172 and a touch. Although both quarterbacks played well enough for their teams to win, Chad Henne took his game to the next level against a supposedly dominant defense.
I can’t wait to see how Rex and the boys respond to their first real taste of adversity. Hopefully all the talk won’t take away from their exciting play. I also can’t wait to see how Chad Henne continues to progress. I’ve been high on this guy since he came out of Michigan and I’m looking forward to him leading Miami to the playoffs (you heard it here first).
