BY NICK ST. DENIS
The New York Jets' secondary isn't very good.
Antonio Cromartie and Dee Milliner -- Gang Green's veteran-rookie starting cornerback tandem -- have been burned on the regular all season long. Sunday against the Miami Dolphins was more of the same.
Milliner was benched for the third time this year after getting consistently abused by receiver Brian Hartline, with the last straw being a missed tackle on receiver Mike Wallace that turned into a score.
Milliner wasn't the only offender, however. Former All-World safety Ed Reed has proven over the past few weeks that time does in fact march on. Reed couldn't tackle a lick Sunday, and Cromartie was clearly moving gingerly on his ailing hip. The linebacker corps pitched in with a few errors of its own, as well.
Giving up a big reception is one thing, but failing to salvage the play with missed tackles after the catch is another. The Jets have been terrible at the former and even worse at the latter.
"That was the biggest disappointment, without question," Jets coach Rex Ryan said, via NewYorkJets.com, of the team's poor tackling. ". . .Your job is to prevent them from scoring and even if you give up a play, get the guy on the ground and that was unfortunate.
"We had on the first slant pass, they run a slant for 50 yards. You think again, there’s three guys have got a shot at him and that was certainly disappointing. And we missed another one, so the tackling was poor. I think that was without question my biggest disappointment."
The Dolphins' receiver-receiver-tight end tandem of Hartline-Mike Wallace-Charles Clay caught 23 of Ryan Tannehill's 28 passes for close to 300 yards, finding the end zone twice in the process.
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