The Jets' Offense Is Worthy of Criticism

Internal complaints are neither surprising nor without merit

The surprising thing about Sunday morning's Daily News report that Rex Ryan was fielding complaints from Santonio Holmes, Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason about offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer wasn't that players would air their grievances about the offense.

No, the surprising part was that there were just three players included in the report of dissatisfied members of the offense.

We would have guessed that Ryan's office looked like the scene in Rudy when all the members of the team filed in to tell the coach that Rudy should dress in their place before the final game of his college career.

The Jets are obivously touchy about criticism of Schottenheimer's work, because they felt the need to issue a statement denying the report a couple of hours before kickoff on Sunday.

The first reaction to reading the statement was puzzlement as to why shielding Schottenheimer would be considered a priority so close to a game against the Patriots, but then we got a look at the offensive gameplan and it all made sense.

After making a lot of noise about reestablishing the running game all week, the Jets did just that on Sunday. There was a near even balance between running and passing in Sunday's 30-21 loss, which was all well and good except for the fact that he played directly into the hands of the Patriots. 

You may have heard that we are living in wondrous time when information can be communicated across long distances instantaneously which probably explains why the Patriots defense dedicated itself to stopping the run. The Jets gained 97 yards on 25 carries, good for them this season but pretty bad for a team that actually considers itself to be a threat in the ground game.

That led to seven three-and-outs, a remarkable figure when you realize the Patriots defense had forced just eight three-and-outs all season. The Jets gained just 255 total yards, a drop of 223 yards from the per-game average that the Patriots had allowed in the first four games.

The offense was predictable, it was unoriginal and it was utterly ineffective against a defense that should have been the cure for most of what's ailing the team.

The pass protection was much better than when Nick Mangold was out of the lineup, so where were the shots downfield against a mediocre Patriots secondary? The Jets have said time and again that the wraps are off Mark Sanchez, yet Schottenheimer continues to treat the quarterback like he is nothing more than a liability.

The Patriots were stuffing the middle, so where were the plays that stretched the defense on the corners, be they runs or passes? Why in the world did the Jets spend all that money on Holmes and bring in Burress and Mason if they have no intention to use them to challenge defenses on the edges?

These questions have popped up time and time again since Schottenheimer arrived in New York and there has never been anything resembling an answer. The team continues to get stuck in the same puddles, but no one seemed to notice it when there was a dominant defense on the other side of the ball.

No such defense exists in New York anymore, which means the spotlight is directly on Schottenheimer. It's just going to get hotter if he keeps trying the same old things while getting the same old results.

And that line heading into Ryan's offense is going to keep getting longer while the Jets' attempts to claim that all is well will keep sounding less believable.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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