Jet pair sez practice far from perfect
Bradley McDougald and Avery Williamson delivered a stinging indictment on Adam Gase and his staff amid the Jets’ nightmarish start to the season.
The veterans made it clear that Gang Green’s issues stem from lackluster practices, which is mind boggling on myriad levels. The Jets, who have been non-competitive in losses to the Bills and 49ers, have looked lost to this point.
McDougald, who started for playoff teams in Seattle the past two seasons, admitted that the team’s preparation has been subpar.
It’s the head coach’s responsibility to ensure that his team is sharp during the week.
It’s Coaching 101.
“It all goes back to practice,” McDougald said on SNY after the Jets were embarrassed by the injury-ravaged 49ers on Sunday. “We had some slow practices… It correlates to the game. We need to have a complete full week of just great practices. And I don’t think we’ve had that yet. The sooner we realize that and hone in on to how important practice is and coming out and winning in practice, then it will translate to the games on Sunday.”
“But we’ve yet to have one complete dominating week of practice,” the starting safety continued. “Until we can dominate in practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… Sunday is going to be a toss-up.”
At this point, the Jets should take a toss-up since they’ve been out-coached and out-played from the outset of both games. The Bills buried the Jets before halftime. San Francisco needed a grand total of 17 seconds to jump on Gase’s club.
Gase’s offense is circling the drain in virtually every meaningful statistical category. Gang Green ranks 30th, 31st or 32nd in total yards (31), passing yards (30), rushing yards (31), first downs (32), yards per play (30) and plays per
game (31).
The defense isn’t immune to criticism either with a litany of missed tackles that have contributed to the early-season woes.
McDougald, who saw first-hand the past couple years how winning teams operate, was supported by Williamson.
“I can agree with him at times,” Williamson said on WFAN radio of his teammate’s assessment. “At times, in practice guys are missing tackles or we aren’t doing things right. I feel like we haven’t been as crisp as we should be at times. Or starting fast. He’s definitely…correct on that.”
“Because at times,” the linebacker said. “We come out and we don’t start fast at practice. We didn’t start fast the last two weeks, so that’s something that we have to fix for ourselves. Because you can’t come out sluggish in games and expect to win…. Yeah, I got to agree with him on that.”
Gase said Wednesday that Williamson later texted him in an attempt to clarify his remarks. But the points from McDougald and Williamson were obvious.
So, how does Gase think that he’s prepared a team that has dig a 21-3 hole each of the first two games?
“Nobody said anything during the week,” Gase said. “I felt like we had really good tempo to practice. Sometimes, an individual guy, if he wants to change something, we talk about it every week. It’s not like it’s not an open forum. If somebody doesn’t like the way something’s going, we can easily speak up.”
All-Pro Jamal Adams told the Daily News days before he was traded that he didn’t think Gase would ever turn the Jets into champions.
“I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land,” Adams said this summer before he was shipped off to Seattle. “As a leader, what really bothers me is that he doesn’t have a relationship with everybody in the building. At the end of the day, he doesn’t address the team.”