Beatdown by Baltimore

Edition #219

🫣 Good morning!

You know the football season is back when you wake up on a Monday morning with that sense of pure dejection, not unique to Jets fans but certainly more familiar to us than any other franchise.

I started to write this post last night, but I'll be honest I was extremely frustrated with what we'd seen and emotional writing is rarely a good idea. I decided to sleep on it in the hope that a fresh mind would offer a better perspective on a team who lost a game that most people expected them to lose.

I haven't had a chance to watch the game back yet, so we'll get into more detailed breakdowns tomorrow and Wednesday before previewing Cleveland on Thursday and Friday.

Today we're going to look at both negatives and positives as there were plenty of both. We’ll get into that after the quick throws which will be used on Mondays for post-game quotes.

🌟 "We're hopeful that we get him back. We'll see how this rehab stint goes for him." - Coach Saleh on Duane Brown and whether we'll see him this year. Doesn't sound overly optimistic when you believe it's a 3-4 week injury and the head coach says he hopes he plays this year.

🌟 "It's very frustrating. I'm not used to it, I don't usually do it, I don't accept it...It's gonna hurt, but I have to move on and have amnesia." - Breece Hall on losing a fumble, he only had 3 fumbles on 800 touches during his college career. That's just one of those things that happens, I don't think anyone should be concerned.

🌟 “I know everybody is thinking ‘same old shit’. But it’s not the same old shit. We’ve got a good team. Everybody could feel it. The defense played really really well today. The offense, we’ve got to be better.” - Tyler Conklin who had a costly fumble. In principle I absolutely agree, I don't think this is the same but it sure felt like it for 60 minutes. The Jets being able to put together complementary football on both sides of the ball is very much the same, but Tyler is new around here 😉

🌟 "We would get right around midfield on a couple of drives. We should've had some energy going behind us and we just kind of, 'Oh, yeah, let's go. Let's go up to the ball.' We never turned the corner.” - Joe Flacco on the offense. This was a quote that frustrated me, you're a young team driving down the field against a good team in a home opener and you can't generate some energy? Seriously? That is a damming indictment on that unit and summed up yesterday perfectly.

I'm going to do a little complimentary sandwich 🥪 here. First, we’re going to get into a few positives, then some of the negatives, and then finish with some more positives. Bringing my real-world work into my part-time work 👨‍💼

Positives

DJ Reed/Sauce Gardner

The detailed statistics aren't available at the minute but according to ESPN Reed didn't allow a single catch all night and Sauce gave up 19 yards. Baltimore doesn't have the kind of receivers that will really test you but Reed brought down his first INT as a Jet on a very athletic play, Sauce had a PBU on a would-be touchdown to Mark Andrews and gave up very little across the board.

The pass coverage issues came from the safety position, but if Reed and Sauce can play as well as they did last night throughout the season, we're going to be a tough team to pass on…as long as we get some improvement from the free safety position.

Jermaine Johnson

When you're a rookie and you sack someone like Lamar Jackson in your first professional game, it's notable. Johnson showed that dip around the edge and then the acceleration to get bring Jackson down from behind. It was a good pass rush snap and I'm not 100% sure but I believe it was the first snap he was in on.

I need to watch him closer to see how he did throughout, but I do remember him bearing his man cleanly later in the game but Lamar had already vacated the pocket. Had the Jets been facing Joe Flacco they would have a few more sacks to celebrate today.

Run Defense

The Jets held the Ravens to 63 rushing yards and just 3.0 yards per carry. That's outstanding. The whole defense as a unit contributed to the run defense success, but it was led by the defensive tackles, an area of concern going into the season. Starters Quinnen Williams and Solomon Thomas set the tone and we really never let up. The linebackers flowed to the ball faster and with more discipline than we saw last year, Jordan Whitehead was good against the run, and the corners were physical.

Negatives

Offensive Line

The offensive line looked as though they hadn’t played together before and that wasn’t far from the truth. George Fant had a particularly bad evening moving back to left tackle, after moving to right tackle after being named the starting left tackle, it’s been that kind of off-season. No team in football is spending more than the Jets on their offensive line, if this is what $47 million gets you then it’s time to grab a refund. Obviously, I’m jesting, offensive line play takes time to gel, but offensive line coach John Benton needs to get into the ears of all five this morning. Flacco was constantly under pressure and on first viewing, it looked like our rookie 4th round tackle was the best lineman in the unit, that’s a worry.

Mike LaFleur

The Jets offensive coordinator generated some very good grace with Jets fans last year after a slow start, and it looks as if history may repeat itself. The Jets were restricted by the performance of the offensive line but I didn’t see much of a gameplan from MLF, the Jets ran up the gut into the teeth of a good run defense too much, when they stretched it they had success. Wilson looked like one of the best receivers on the field and he was limited to 6 plays in the first half, that’s extremely hard to understand. There was no creativity, the Jets struggled to get their TEs involved enough and as Flacco mentioned there was a lack of energy within the offensive unit, MLF did nothing to try and change this like going up-tempo no-huddle, this all ties together and it’s something MLF will need to address in a big way throughout the week.

LaMarcus Joyner

I was half tempted to leave Joyner off the negatives because he hasn’t played a full game at safety since 2018. But at the end of the day he’s getting paid to do a job and he gave up a big touchdown to Bateman after not picking him up, I’m not sure if that’s a busted play but it looked as though the Jets were in zone coverage and Joyner thought they were in man. Most of the success the Ravens had through the air came against the safety duo. Baltimore only passed for 213 yards on the night, but they were able to complete 38.5% of their third downs. By comparison the Jets completed 14.3% of theirs and didn’t have their first 3rd down completion until the 4th quarter, that’s obviously not on Joyner but just a point that there were some issues in pass coverage for the Jets, and it wasn’t the corners.

Braden Mann

I was shocked through the pre-season when the Jets failed to bring in competition for Mann and I’m even more shocked now, unfortunately, I’m not shocked by his actual performance. Mann’s 20-yard shanked punt led to Baltimore gaining possession within Jets territory, a handful of plays later and they’ve scored 7. Mann is capable of hitting some good punts, but he’s always liable to shank one and that inconsistency should lead to you being questioned. Not that it mattered but his onside kick was also awful, I take it he’s the designated onside kicker…I wouldn’t bet on the Jets recovering one this year if that’s the case.

Greg Zuerlein

He may have beat out steady Eddy but Greg had a horror start missing a 45-yard field goal and an extra point in his Jets debut. When a kicker misses both in the same game, you really don’t have to say anymore. He’s a veteran and I back him to bounce back, but the Jet’s special teams didn’t have the best day at the office.

Positives

Garrett Wilson

At halftime, Wilson had just 6 snaps to his name, only 3 more than Jeff Smith. That’s really poor management and personnel groupings by MLF. Fortunately, he was involved more in the 2nd half and he managed to bring down 4 catches for 52 yards. We’d need to look at the All-22 but it seemed as though he got open a few times with Flacco either not having the time to find him or not looking his way. Wilson is a very dangerous player and the Jets need to do a better job of getting their playmakers the ball, the offensive line didn’t help and that’s why our top two receivers were Michael Carter (7 catches) and Breece Hall (6 catches).

Micheal Carter

Breece Hall looked good in moments but a fumble won’t get you on the positive list. Micheal Carter was excellent throughout and it’s a shame the Jets had to/chose to go away from the run. He had 10 attempts for 60 yards (6 yards per carry) and 7 catches for 40 yards. He looked fast and strong, his hands looked better and although he gave up some pressures, I’m not going to blame a RB for not being able to handle a 300+lb defensive tackle on his own, that’s asking too much. Carter and Hall will be a dangerous duo when the offensive line gets its act together.

Final thoughts

I thought the linebackers looked relatively good and Kwon was a very welcome addition, Quincy also played more disciplined which was great to see. Corey Davis would have been on the positive list had he not had that drop to start the game. Elijah Moore looked good, but we absolutely have to get him involved more. There was a period of about 20 minutes of gametime when we rarely saw him, he’s got star potential but he needs the touches. Completing 14.3% of your third downs is a quick track to defeat. Lets just chalk that up to a rusty start and move on.