Jets grades
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Heath Miller (83) makes a catch past New York Jets strong safety Yeremiah Bell (37) in the third quarter of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh. The Steelers won 27-10. (Sept. 16, 2012) Credit: AP
OFFENSE: D
Their 48-point output in Week 1 makes their 10-point effort yesterday look even more depressing. The Jets insisted the Steelers did nothing different defensively, so that leaves only one team to blame, no? After their opening touchdown drive, the offense was never the same. Mark Sanchez seemed to overthrow the ball at times and underthrow at others. But his wide receivers did him a huge disservice as well. The drops -- especially by veteran Santonio Holmes -- were downright killers. Not to mention Stephen Hill was a no-show this week.
DEFENSE: D
Darrelle Revis' absence can't be blamed for this. The Jets talked all week about preventing Ben Roethlisberger from extending plays. So what happened? They allowed him to join Terry Bradshaw as the only Pittsburgh quarterbacks to surpass 27,000 passing yards. Roethlisberger finished 24-for-31 for 275 yards and a 125.1 passer rating. The Jets sacked him three times, but it didn't slow Big Ben down.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
A few days after being named AFC special teams player of the week, Jeremy Kerley muffed a punt that was recovered by the Steelers. Special-teamer Isaiah Trufant also was flagged for a 5-yard penalty for an illegal touch on a kickoff and fell into the end zone while trying to down a punt near the 1-yard line. Punter Robert Malone had a 45.3 average (38.2 net). His longest punt was 58 yards.
COACHING: C
There will be plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking as fans and pundits inevitably begin to question Rex Ryan's decision not to use more Tim Tebow, especially with the injury to Shonn Greene. Whether the Wildcat would have saved the Jets is debatable, but one thing is not: Ryan's players had no answer for Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh's passing game or the Steelers' wide receivers. Ryan did, however, make the right move when he challenged a forward-progress call on a 5-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders in the third quarter. After the ball was re-spotted, the Steelers were forced to punt.
