Kicked out of San Francisco

Edition #696

Good morning!

The Jets got a reality check last night with a humbling defeat at the hands of last season’s NFC Champions. We wanted the NFL season back and we got it with a thud.

But the season was never going to be won or lost on opening night, and to be handed a road trip to the west coast was the most difficult start possible.

So while I’m disappointed this morning, I’m not deflated. I still think we’ll win around 10-12 games this season, I still think we’re going to the playoffs and I still think we have the pieces to be a championship team, but a lot of improvement is needed.

We now have Tennessee on the road next Sunday before our home opener on TNF against the Patriots, who were surprise winners in week one.

I’ve had too straight nights with barely any sleep, so please forgive me for any errors, mistakes or rambling that you may experience in today’s newsletter. Also, from next week there will be a live chat for all paid subscribers during the game (thanks for the idea Steve), so keep your eye out for that.

Where do we start here?

We lost this game for many reasons, but the first one is to give credit to San Francisco who were outstanding throughout. That’s a championship team over there and hopefully we get another crack at them in New Orleans, but they controlled that game through the majority of the contest and sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say you were beaten by the better team.

“That’s a championship outfit, and they introduced us to some championship football,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said.

The one stat that probably jumps off the page is time of possession. The Jets had the ball for just 21 minutes, 20 seconds. According to ESPN, that’s the lowest share of possession for an Aaron Rodgers led team in his career, and that career has spanned 225 starts, which shows you just what we were up against last night.

The Jets scored on just 1-7 drives to open the game, and those seven drives went all the way up to late in the third quarter. We had that deflected Rodgers pass that was intercepted and Breece Hall’s fumble too, and we just couldn’t sustain the drives for long enough.

“I can play better,” Rodgers said. “I missed a couple of throws. ... I felt overall I got the ball out pretty good but there were some opportunities I’d like to have back.”

What was clear to me was how rusty we were as a unit. I thought Aaron did a nice job but there were certainly a few throws that you’d expect him to make, including that 4th and 1 to Garrett Wilson which not only should have been converted, but likely goes for a big play if he actually leads him.

A lot of people were quick to jump on the lack of pressure generated by the Jets without Haason Reddick, but that narrative makes absolutely no sense to me. First of all the Jets had 3 sacks to San Francisco’s 1, and while both came from defensive backs they all count. But more importantly, Purdy was getting the ball out instantly and with how San Fran were running the ball (even without CMC), the edge defenders were pegged back anyway. Had we had Haason Reddick last night, it wouldn’t have made a single big of difference to the outcome.

“We expect greatness when we step on the field,” Rodgers said. “There were moments, moments that felt pretty good but not sustained. I felt like if we could just get a first down we’d be rolling. But we had those three and outs which hurt us. I think a lot of stuff is correctable.”

The issue was related to the lack of offensive output, and the inability to get a stop on third down, even when we did get a stop, we got a penalty (Jermaine Johnson). When you allow 8 consecutive scoring drives (first time that’s happened for the Jets since records began per ESPN) you’re not going to win the game.

This defense is a top-5 unit, you can bookmark that for the end of the season. But it was so stop/start last night. Sauce Gardner having to miss 9 plays for a breather (not sure what that’s about) and C.J. Mosley missing time through an injury. Mosley is the leader, the captain and the organiser on that side of the ball, as soon as he was out you started seeing some confusion. Is it worrying that one player holds so much influence on one side of the ball to a point where his absence is felt so drastically? Perhaps.

I know the offence is going to be better.
I know the pass defence will be absolutely fine.
I know the protection will be OK going forward
I know we’ll pass the ball better
I know we’ll run the ball better
I know our 3rd downs on both sides will be better.

My concern is in that run defence. It’s not really about Jordan Mason, who finished with 147 yards, running at 5.2 yards per carry. The concern is how easily our defensive line got pushed around. 94 of Mason’s 147 yards came before contact, which means the San Francisco offensive line were absolutely manhandling our defensive line. Those are proud players up front and I can guarantee they’ll have their heads in their hands as they review that tape tonight. Mason getting 3-4 yards consistently before being touched is unacceptable from a defense that prides itself on being tough and physical.

"They played keep away," Saleh added. "I felt like our offense never had a chance to get into rhythm. The first drive had a chance to extend it and I thought Allen had a really good game minus the first third down and then we had the fumble on the second drive. Then we had the really nice drive and then from there it felt like forever before our offense held the ball again. I feel like offensively we did a lot of really nice things especially for Aaron in his first game back."

I think you can largely chalk this up to one of those games. Offence couldn’t get in rhythm because the defence couldn’t get a top, no need to panic, no need to worry. Hopefully the Jets can get Mike Williams into the gameplan next week with another full week of practice under his belt, the former Charger was held without a catch or target and I don’t actually remember seeing him much.

Let’s take a look at the stats.

The only one that really jumps off the page is the rushing yards. Our protection was good, our yards per play was comparable, we had fewer penalties and our 3rd down efficiency was better too. But, we got completely dominated on the ground and had two turnovers. These are the things that make a difference.

C. J. Mosley left the game but he returned, so we’ll see how that evolves over the coming days.

The only real concern was Michael Carter II coming out of the game. He battled an ankle injury through camp and he did seem to be grabbing his lower leg. Having just signed his new deal, this is a huge blow if he’s out for any extended period of time.

Although we’re walking out of the Bay with an L on our record, we did have three touchdowns to celebrate. So let’s take a look at all of them, starting with the Allen Lazard catch from Aaron Rodgers on the free play.

That ball still explodes out of the hand and that’s a really nice job by Lazard as well. Now let’s move on to Breece’s which capped a really nice drive for the Jets, and gave us our only lead of the night. This drive is what I expect to see from the Jets a little more going forward.

Finally we have the third TD, again Lazard does a really nice job and I will say it’s good to see a backup come in and perform. I also didn’t hate removing Rodgers and giving Tyrod some tread, another player who didn’t really see the field in the pre-season.