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Closer Look Pumped QB Gannon takes advantage of jumpy JetsPosted: Monday January 13, 2003 12:02 AMUpdated: Monday January 13, 2003 12:47 AM
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com OAKLAND, Calif. -- When a guy dinks and dunks himself into a reputation, when his longest passes seem to do no more than buzz the linebackers all day long … well, it's easy to get a little jumpy. It's also deadly, as the New York Jets found out Sunday. The Jets were all over Rich Gannon, the current King of Dink, for the entire first half on Sunday. They gave up a 27-yard gain on the first pass and a 20-yarder later in that drive, but after that, they mainly contained Gannon and the Oakland Raiders, who have the top-ranked offense in the NFL. For the first half, at least. The Jets and Raiders had 10 points apiece at halftime Sunday, which is a virtual win if you happen to be the visiting team in Oakland. "We were being very aggressive in the first half," said Jets cornerback Aaron Beasley. Ah, but when the Jets took that aggressiveness into the second half, it came back and burned them. At least twice, in fact. And the game turned, just like that. After the Raiders' first two possessions of the second half netted them nothing but a missed field goal and a punt, Oakland cornerback Tory James again set the table for the Raiders' offense when he picked off a Chad Pennington pass, dragging his feet on the sideline to make good on the interception. The play gave Oakland a first down on the Jets' 45-yard line. "On that play, I started up on him [Jets receiver Laveranues Coles] then bailed out," James said. "I don't know if that's what got him [Pennington] or not." Oakland immediately seized the chance to grab some momentum. Gannon dropped back and looked for veteran wideout Tim Brown on the left sideline and found him for a 16-yard gain. And that was nothing compared to the very next play. On that one, Gannon caught Beasley being a little too aggressive against receiver Jerry Porter. The league MVP pumped once, bringing Beasley up and pulling safety Damien Robinson ever so slightly toward the line of scrimmage, and when Porter turned his out route into a up route, streaking down the sideline, it was all over but the throw and catch. Gannon did his part, Porter did his, and the result -- a 29-yard Gannon-to-Porter touchdown pass -- gave the Raiders the lead for good. "We watched our game from last time [a 26-20 Oakland win on Dec. 2]," Porter said, "and saw we left a lot of yardage and a lot of good plays on the field." The Raiders weren't finished, though. After the Jets gave up the ball on downs at the Oakland 35, Gannon and Porter hooked up again. Gannon took the first snap of the possession, looked right and pumped to draw the safety to that side of the field. Then he zipped a pass to Porter on the left. The man covering Porter, safety Sam Garnes, was being a little too aggressive, and Porter got free in the middle for a 50-yard gain. Three plays later, Gannon threw a 1-yard pass to Jerry Rice in the end zone, and the Raiders walked from there to the 30-10 win. The big plays made a huge difference in the stats. In the first half, Gannon threw for only 94 yards. In the second half, he threw for 189 and the two touchdowns. Porter had one catch for 11 yards in the first half. He finished with six for 123 yards and the touchdown. And then, of course, there was the 20-0 difference on the scoreboard in the second half. "They made some good adjustments in the second half and made some plays," Beasley said. "We wanted to keep the yardage after the catch down, so we were playing pretty aggressively. "If you give a guy some time and he gets all his reads, that's what happens. He's going to get something." And the Jets got what was coming to them, too. |
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