Dolphins vs. Jets: Final Report Card, Player Grades for New York Jets

The New York Jets completed their storm preparation this week by locking their special teams and offense in a bunker before the game today.

After spending the week talking trash, they were thoroughly trounced by a mediocre Dolphins squad 30-9. The fact that the Jets were playing at home against their most hated opponent on a day when they retired Dennis Byrd's number meant nothing whatsoever to this team.

The Jets were begging for the bye week to get here before the first quarter was even over, while the Dolphins looked refreshed coming off of their bye.

People like to say that the Jets love controversy.  

They better, because that's all that's going to surround this team over the next two weeks.

Not everybody mailed in their performance today, but a majority of them did.  

The Jets organization begged fans to come out to today's game and even asked them to be in their seats early in order to do a hokey sing-a-long of the national anthem.  

The fans who heeded the organization's requests have to feel like complete suckers at this point.

Here are the awful grades for this putrid performance.

Quarterbacks

Mark Sanchez: F

How many synonyms for "awful" do you know?  Chances are, you don't know enough to describe this performance.  He finished 28-for-53 for 283 yards, which isn't a totally brutal stat line, but don't be fooled.  Much of Sanchez's stats came in garbage time.

While the game was still up for grabs, Sanchez was inaccurate, skittish and scared.

The Dolphins defense knew what was coming and was able to jump routes consistently all game.

That says that Sanchez was zoning in on his first option and not making his reads.  That's what he did throughout his entire rookie season.  

Sanchez is at his worst when he reverts back to that, which he did against the Dolphins.

Running Backs

Shonn Greene: C

The highlight for Green was that he broke off a 36-yard run, which was the longest of his career.  It says a lot about his lack of game-breaking ability that it took him so long to reel off a run of more than 35 yards.

Greene was bottled up by a good run defense for most of the day.  It's up for debate whether the lack of a run game was Greene's fault or if it fell more to the offensive line.

He finished with 15 rushes for 17 yards and caught two passes for 29 yards.

Wide Receivers

Clyde Gates: A-

Gates had the best game of his young Jets career, catching seven passes for 82 yards against his former team.  Some of Gates' production came when the game was already decided, but he did the job when the ball was thrown his way.  He had some opportunities to gain some more yards after the catch, but fell to the ground to secure the ball a couple of times.  Still, though, this was a solid performance.

Stephen Hill: D-

Another game, another big play that fell through Hill's hands.  Hill had a potential touchdown fall through his hands on a nice touch pass from Mark Sanchez.  It would have been a tough play to make, but one that a good NFL receiver will complete.  He's a project to be certain.

Jeremy Kerley: B-

Kerley was conspicuously absent for much of the game, finishing with five catches for 43 yards.  He didn't have an impact on the game positively or negatively.  Kerley has to be involved in the offense if the Jets want it to work.

Chaz Schilens: B+

Schilens caught four passes for 29 yards and had the Jets' only touchdown all day.  He played his role as a possession receiver well, but the playmakers around him did nothing.

Tight Ends

Dustin Keller: C

After a smashing return last week, Keller's production fell off this week.  Keller finished with seven catches for 67 yards, but wasn't able to make the clutch plays when needed.

The Dolphins zeroed in on Keller and effectively removed him from the game plan.  

The biggest play involving Keller came in the second half inside the 10-yard line when he was knocked off his route, helping to cause a Mark Sanchez pass to be intercepted.

Keller also had one drop and failed to hook up with Sanchez on a two-point conversion. 

Offensive Line

Austin Howard and Brandon Moore: F

The Dolphins put a ton of pressure on Mark Sanchez all game, with much of it coming from the right side.  Howard completely whiffed on a block on an early sack on Sanchez and allowed pressure consistently all day.  Karlos Dansby was playing with an arm injury, but still had tremendous production against Moore and Howard.  The Jets also found no running room whatsoever on the right side.  

D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Vladimir Ducasse and Matt Slauson: D

The left side of the line played only slightly better than the right side, which isn't saying much.  Sanchez was under duress all day, and the fact that this crew could not protect his blindside led to a lot of skittish play from the quarterback.  Shonn Greene did have a little more consistent production on the left side than he did the right.

Nick Mangold: B

The line as a unit didn't play well at all, but Mangold did another fine job on Pro Bowl defensive tackle Paul Soliai.  He held Soliai to just two solo tackles.

Defensive Line

Muhammad Wilkerson: B-

The Jets defensive line had a pretty decent game all things considered.  Wilkerson had five tackles and helped contribute in holding the Dolphins to less than 100 yards rushing.  Wilkerson had a batted pass on a 3rd-and-1 in the middle of the second quarter to force a punt.

Wilkerson did miss a tackle on Daniel Thomas' touchdown run, however.

Quinton Coples: C-

Coples was a non-factor yet again.  He registered just two assisted tackles and generated no pressure on the quarterback.

Mike DeVito: C 

DeVito has just one tackle and one assisted tackle on the afternoon.  The Dolphins are more of an outside running team, so DeVito wasn't likely to have a big statistical game anyway.

Daniel Muir: C-

Muir showed everybody he was actually playing in the game in the fourth quarter when he got in a shoving match with the Dolphins offensive line.  He had two assisted tackles on the afternoon besides that.

Linebackers

Calvin Pace: B

Pace looked to have one of the big plays early in the game when he sacked Ryan Tannehill and knocked him out of the game.  Instead of suffering, though, Matt Moore picked apart the Jets defense methodically and made big passes when called on to do so.  Pace finished with four tackles.

Bryan Thomas: B-

Thomas had an identical stat line to Pace with four tackles and a sack.  It was one of his more active games of the season.  Like Pace, Thomas escaped the coverage problems that have plagued the Jets linebackers this season.

David Harris: B

Harris led the Jets with eight total tackles and was credited with a forced fumble.  The Jets did a good job limiting a good Dolphins running attack, and Harris was at the forefront in doing so.  Harris did blow coverage on Brian Hartline in the second quarter, allowing a 17-yard pass to the Jets' 2-yard line to set up a Daniel Thomas touchdown.

DeMario Davis: B

Davis continued to learn on the job as he replaced Bart Scott, who sat this one out with an injury.  His total of five tackles was third behind Harris and LaRon Landry.  He had an active presence and looks to be a player for the future.

Secondary

LaRon Landry: B

Landry was a big participant in this week's trash talking, but did little to impact the game to back it up.  He did have six tackles, but failed to make the big impact play that could change the game.  Landry was involved in a mix-up with Kyle Wilson to allow a 30-yard reception by Jabar Gaffney.  It was a pedestrian performance by someone who should do better.

Yeremiah Bell: B+

Bell accounted for the Jets' only turnover as he scooped up a Reggie Bush fumble in the second half.  His four solo tackles were tied for the most on the team.

Antonio Cromartie: A-

The Dolphins wide receivers were mostly absent, and Cromartie was a big part of that. Matt Moore stayed away from Cromartie for the most part, as most of his completions came at the expense of Kyle Wilson or somewhere in the middle of the field.

Kyle Wilson: D

Wilson wasn't picked on by any means, but he did give up the two biggest plays in the Dolphins passing game on the day.  Wilson allowed a 30-yard reception to Gaffney and a 37-yard reception to Marlon Moore, who came into the game with nine catches in his three-year career.  

Isaiah Trufant: B   

Trufant had his second straight solid game and played a big part in holding Davone Bess to four catches for 28 yards.  

Special Teams

Nick Folk: B

Folk had a kick blocked, but that wasn't his fault.  He converted a 38-yard field goal and did well on his kickoffs.  Folk wasn't a factor because of the nature of this game.

Robert Malone: B

Malone punted well, averaging 45.7 yards on six punts.  He booted the Jets out of poor field position on more than one occasion.  Like Folk, Malone had a punt blocked due to poor blocking on the line.

Clyde Gates: B

With Joe McKnight out, Gates took over kick return duties and averaged 31.5 yards on two returns.  His 47-yard return to start the second half could have gone for a touchdown if he didn't run into Demario Davis as he turned upfield around the 50-yard line.  

Coaching

Rex Ryan: F

When a team fails to show up for a game, that falls on the head coach.  The Jets had every reason to come out for this game with guns blazing, but instead, they came out and laid a big fat egg right on the 50- yard line.  Their play on offense was uninspired and their special teams were a mess.  

The game got out of hand early, and Ryan and the coaching staff could do nothing to get it back.  Ryan and his staff have a lot of questions to answer over the next two weeks.

Tony Sparano: F

This was a horrific display by Sparano.  Last week against the Patriots, there were individual calls that drew huge question in an otherwise solid game plan.  However, this game plan was doomed from the start.

Sparano was conservative from the start and clearly looked scared to take any chances whatsoever until it was too late.  This game was the complete opposite of their game against the Texans where they pulled out every bit of creativity in order to try to win.  

The game plan was dominated by runs into the line and attempts at quick outs and slants. There was no creativity, no risk-taking and no adjustments.

Sparano's offense plodded along all day and showed no urgency until it was much too late in the game. 

Sparano was either too scared of the windy conditions or too scared to give Sanchez a chance to make plays down the field.  

Mike Westhoff: F

A blocked kick for a touchdown, a blocked punt and big returns allowed in the return game made for a total mismatch in the special teams department.  It's up to the players to execute, but a performance like this falls to the coach as well.