Week 13 Jets Report Card

Dec 2, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets running back Shonn Greene (23) runs with the ball while being chased by Arizona Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett (90) during the second half at MetLife Stadium. The Jets defeated the Cardinals 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE

The grades are in, from a very interesting 7-6 win by the Jets yesterday.

QUARTERBACKS:C+ Overall, the grade for the QB’s is a C+, but obviously this game was the story of two different quarterbacks. Mark Sanchez had an awful performance, going 10-21, 97 yards, and 3 first half INT’s. Mark certainly welcomed back Kerry Rhodes, even throwing to him as if he was still a Jets teammate, as Rhodes recorded 2 of the 3 INT’s. Then Greg McElroy came into the game and saved the day, leading the Jets on a 10 play, 69 yard drive that ended in the game-winning TD pass from McElroy to Jeff Cumberland. Overall, he wasn’t spectacular, going 5-7 for 29 yards and the 1 TD, but he gave the offense a spark that Sanchez just wasn’t giving them. But overall, it’s an average day for the quarterbacks.

RUNNING BACKS:B+ Under the rader was the fact that the running backs had an excellent football game. I know I didn’t realize it at the time, but Shonn Greene ran for over 100 yards yesterday, carrying the ball 24 times for 104 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. Behind him, Bilal Powell had a solid day as well, running it 12 times for 58 yards. Overall, the Jets did a good job on the ground, ending with 177 net rushing yards, and a 4.1 average per rush. Good job from the running game yesterday.

WIDE RECEIVERS AND TIGHT ENDS:C- The wide receivers were OK. Stephen Hill had a decent bounceback game, leading the team with 5 catches for 40 yards. Jeremy Kerley had one particularly pretty catch during the game from McElroy, and finished with 3 catches for 37 yards. Nobody had more than 50 yards receiving, so it is hard to give the receivers more than a C. Jeff Cumberland did catch the game-winning TD, and Keller caught 2 passes, before coming out of the game with an ankle injury. None of them were terrible, but nobody did anything particularly exciting either.

OFFENSIVE LINE:B- Any time that Shonn Greene runs for 100 yards, you have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line. Without help, Greene’s running is typically pretty offensive, and he actually had holes yesterday, so the offensive line did a nice job. He even cut back on a play, which was particularly impressive to see. I had to pull it back from being an A because they did give up three sacks. But the line wasn’t too shabby at all.

Turn the page for special teams and defense.

Dec. 2, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Arizona Cardinals running back Beanie Wells (26) is tackled by New York Jets defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson (96) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

DEFENSIVE LINE:B- Everbody on the defense gets a pretty good grade when the defense holds the other team to a mere 137 net yards. The Cardinals’ offense never got in a rhythm at any point, all day long. The only decent rush that the Cardinals executed was a 40 yard run by Rashad Johnson on a fake punt. Without that play, the Cardinals ran it 20 times for 41 yards. Awesome job. It only comes down below an A because they didn’t get a lot of pressure on the QB. The Jets recorded only 2 sacks, and Mo Wilkerson recorded .5 sacks. But all in all it was a good day for the Jets defensive line all in all.

LINEBACKERS:B Again, 137 net yards says a lot about how a defense performed. These guys were all over the field. As I said above, the running backs did nothing. Even Bart Scott and David Harris got into the act in the back field, with 1.5 sacks between them. They gave young quarterback Ryan Lindley different looks all game long, and he was confused and baffled all game long. It only came down to a B because there wasn’t CONSISTENT pressure on the quarterback.

DEFENSIVE BACKS:A Excellent job by the defensive backs yesterday. Larry Fitzgerald recorded 1 catch for 23 yards. A lot of that was the poor play of the quarterback, but you can’t take credit away from the Jets defensive backs either. The quarterback was 10-31 on the game, a lot of credit goes to the coverage down field. LaRon Landry added an INT, putting an exclamation point on a terrific game played by the defensive backs.

SPECIAL TEAMS:D Another game, another bad day for Mike Westhoff’s group. I said during the game that maybe Mike Westhoff retired and he forgot to tell anyone, and it really does seem that way. They gave up a fake punt that went for big yardage, and there were two missed field goals. Bad day for that group.

A win is a win. We will see later in the week who the quarterback is going to be.