Jets focusing on Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew
Photo credit: AP | Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew runs for a touchdown against the Chiefs on Nov. 8, 2009, in Jacksonville, Fla.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Calvin Pace almost ran out of compliments while describing Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jaguars' 5-7, 208-pound bowling ball who quickly has elevated himself into one of the top running backs in the league.
"They call him Pocket Hercules for a reason," the Jets linebacker said Thursday. "If you really want to look at a back that has everything - vision, speed, power - he's basically a prototype. He just isn't that tall. But he's got everything; he can catch. So stopping him will be a focal point for this game."
Jones-Drew is flourishing in his first season as a starter after supplanting Fred Taylor. He proved the Jaguars had an idea what they were doing when they released Taylor in April and gave Jones-Drew the keys to their run game and a four-year, $31-million deal with $17.5 million guaranteed. He's sixth in the league with 737 rushing yards, leads in rushing touchdowns with 11 and averages 5.1 yards per carry.
Jones once was thought of as a third-down, change-of-pace back who also returned kicks, a task he no longer has to worry about since he's the every-down guy. Trying to tackle him is about as easy as shooting free throws with a medicine ball.
"You've got to get him at the line of scrimmage and you've got to wrap him," Rex Ryan said. "This has got to be a huge week in tackling. Every week it's important to tackle, but this one is critical. We've got to swarm the pile and we've got to get him down. Sometimes you'll think you have him and then he'll squirt out of there and bounce out of there.
"Don't assume one guy's going to get him down because that hardly ever happens to this kid."
The Jets have been using 5-9, 195-pound Danny Woodhead to simulate Jones-Drew's running style during practice. Still, there's no duplicating his skills and his seemingly always churning tree-trunk legs that 6-2, 290-pound Jets defensive end Marques Douglas says are as big as his. Getting taken down by the first guy going for the tackle strikes a nerve in the former UCLA standout.
"If everybody is working that hard to create space for me to run, I feel like I'm letting them down by letting the first guy tackle me, and I really don't want to do that," he said. "My part is to make one guy miss, and that's what I try to do."
Said Douglas: "He's making plays, but also a lot of his plays are coming off missed tackles. So for us to be effective we've got to tackle and just try to limit his production."
Douglas recalled how Jones-Drew gained 78 yards on 23 carries in last year's finale against Baltimore despite a knee injury. Douglas said he gained serious respect for him because "no matter how hard we hit him, he never quit."
But that doesn't mean you can't expect some friendly chatter between the trash-talking Jones-Drew and the Jets' defense come Sunday.
"He's going to have to shut his mouth against us because we are not going to let him run," said Douglas, a trash talker himself. "I don't believe in 100-yard running backs."
