More Questions
Edition #229
⛈️ Good morning
As the Jets tend to play in the 1pm EST slot, once the game is over I tend to sit down and write this newsletter while taking in the late games. Last night I couldn't muster the energy, I wanted to get away from football as soon as the Bengals took that knee. So instead of flipping on Red Zone, I watched a little Soprano's and a little Seinfeld while checking in on the Mets.
The Jets had once again ruined a good Sunday. You know I like to stay positive as much as possible, but with more questions than answers coming from yesterday's game, I'm finding that hard right now. But for as bad as it was, at the end of the day the Jets are 1-2 and getting their starting QB back next week (hopefully). Today we're going to have a short recap and then we'll look at some of those questions and some potential solutions.
⌚ The Jets have led a football game for just 22 seconds through the first three weeks of the season.
📅 We are now 2-14 in games played in September since the start of the 2018 season. There is starting slow, and then there are the Jets.
🔛 Garrett Wilson gained more separation at an average of 3.83 yards than any other wide receiver in the game, more than Chase (3.32), Boyd (2.88), and Moore (1.79).
IN SHORT - The Jets shot themselves in the foot with a bad drive extending penalty on JFM and a bad missed tackle by Whitehead, and while the score stayed close for much of the game, the Bengals were never in danger of losing the game. The offensive line continued to struggle as Joe Flacco reverted to what we expect him to be and the defense failed to turn pressures into sacks.
Positives
Sauce Gardner - Passed the first real test of his young career often lining up against Chase. He did give up a long one where Higgins just made a great play but he also had 2 PBU and kept Chase quiet. He had an outstanding PBU on a long play to Chase just short of the end zone and the touchdown was on Joyner who was supposed to take Chase if he broke inside. Gardner is showing that he truly belongs, and this is just the start. He even had some chirping with Chase which I love, corners need attitude.
Max Mitchell - The offensive line as a whole is a bit of a joke at the moment, we’ll come to that in a minute. Mitchell however had his best game as a pro allowing just one pressure and zero sacks in 56 pass-blocking snaps. That shows up when using Next Gen Stats. Sam Hubbard who often lined up on Mitchell’s side was on average 4.79 yards away from Flacco when he released the ball, compare that to Hendrickson on the other side (3.54 yards) and the league average (4.53) and you’ll see that Mitchell had a fine game.
Greg Zuerlein - The Jets kicker made field goals of 50, 40, 52 and 43 yards, I mean if you don’t get on the positive list with a perfect field goal day, you never will. It seems as though the Jets have found a decent kicker and at some point down the line that’s going to be key.
Garrett Wilson - I know he had a drop but that was a very difficult catch as Bates got in front and Wilson was unsighted. Despite missing some time thanks to taking a bit hit to the ribs, Wilson returned to be the leading wide receiver again, 6 catches for 60 yards and more separation than any other receiver.
Tyler Conklin - Led the team with 8 catches and 84 yards, a lot of it is check downs, but that’s not on Conklin. I don’t love how the Jets are using Tyler but he’s a reliable receiver and has some YAC wiggle/power. Conklin needs to run some deeper patterns to stress the linebackers, right now he’s being underutilized despite the numbers.
Negatives
Offensive line - Outside of Mitchell I thought the line was very poor yet again. Fant left the game with a knee injury, Fant has been limited all summer with the knee and it seems obvious to me that he’s been playing hurt. He was getting beaten like a drum all game and then Connor McDermott came in and he got beat with ease too. Laken seemed to get no push in the run game, AVT allowed 4 pressures and as a whole they looked unprepared. In total the Jets QB was pressured 23 times, hit seven, and sacked four… we’ll get into the stats tomorrow in the stat pack - It’s not going to be pretty.
Coaching - I have a lot of issues here with both sides of the ball. Offensively the Jets made so many errors, they failed to properly incorporate Elijah Moore, he may have got 10 targets but a lot of those were 50/50 low probability jump balls, that made no sense. The coaching staff needs to get him the ball in space, let him work over the middle of the field. Right now they are targeting his weakness (jump balls on the sideline) and ignoring his strengths, route running and YAC over the middle.
When Connor McDermott came in the coaching staff failed to help him against Hendrickson, they left an RB in to chip on occasions but on a key 4th down play they spread the field and left McDermott on an island with the Bengal’s best pass-rusher…the result? A strip-sack…as any armchair coach probably could have guessed.
On the defensive side of the ball, there is constant miscommunication. Three weeks in a row the Jets have allowed a TD which can be attributed to defensive players not knowing the call and working as a unit. We can point to the players responsible which I often do, but when it happens every week it’s on the coaches. DJ Reed said that the defense and the defensive coaches need to have a meeting as it’s unacceptable, and considering Reed has been outstanding so far that shows good leadership by the new corner.
Quinnen Williams and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton got into a heated argument on the sideline which had to be broken up by coach Saleh. Apparently, Williams was upset with the 7-man blitz on the Boyd touchdown and was asking the DL coach to trust that a 4-man rush would get home. That was the drive with the JFM roughing the passer penalty on 3rd down which extended the drive, so tensions were high.
The 7-man rush didn’t quite get home and Whitehead missed a tackle which turned into a 56-yard touchdown, but I’d argue the 4-man rush wasn’t doing a lot either. It was the first 7-man rush the Jets had called this year and it was the only one in the game yesterday so that all seemed a bit unnecessary to me.
Safeties - Heading into week three the Jets had two of the lowest graded safeties in football, and that’s not going to change after a poor week 3 showing. Whitehead went for a big hit on Boyd and that turned into a 56-yard TD, Joyner was a step late to most completions, appeared to be responsible for the touchdown to Chase, and had a helmet-to-helmet hit on Higgins which cost the Jets 15 yards…It was an awful performance and the Jets can only stick with this combination for so long. I believe Whitehead will improve, but he needs someone better than Joyner next to him. We all wanted a safety this off-season and we’re starting to see why.
Tight Ends - Although I’m saying tight ends, this is really about the use of the tight ends. The Jets spent good money on the position this off-season signing Conklin, Uzomah, and drafting Ruckert. Conklin is a reliable target but the Jets are using him as a dump-off target most of the time and both Uzomah and Ruckert have been MIA so far. Both have dealt with injuries but right now it doesn’t look as though the Jets have a clear idea how they’re going to use their tight ends and how they fit into the offensive philosophy with so many mouths to feed.
Pass Rush - Every week we suggest that the pass-rush is about to break out and every week they really underwhelm. Yesterday they were facing a Bengals team who had one of the worst pass-blocking offensive lines in football through two weeks, again they generated a little pressure but they were unable to close. The Jets registered 2 sacks as opposed to the 4 that the Bengals had and the pass-rush failed to take over the game as we hoped they would. I think it’s fair to be concerned about Carl Lawson now, Achilles injuries are difficult to come back from, and right now he doesn’t look the dominating force we thought he would be.
Joe Flacco - It’s hard to blame a 37-year-old quarterback who was getting absolutely hammered from the blindside, but when Flacco did have the time he didn’t make the best choice, and he threw more than one hospital pass that led to big hits on the receivers. I remember Wilson and Corey Davis taking two huge ones and that won’t endear you to your teammates. There was also a 4th & 1 where Flacco tried to fire in a slant but he had Corey Davis on the boundary with 6+ yards of cushion (for some reason). Instead of moving the chains on a simple pitch and catch, the Jets turned it over on downs.
Last week some suggested Flacco stay the starter when Zach is back, but that idea went out the window yesterday. It’s hard to win in the NFL with a static QB, it’s even harder to win in the league with a static QB and a dodgy offensive line, we need Zach’s ability to play off platform…especially if McDermott is going to start.
I could extend that negative list considerably, but I imagine if you’re reading this post you probably watched the game, so you don’t need me to go through all the negatives.
Right now the focus needs to be on how to improve. I came out of last night with a whole host of questions.
What’s happened to the pass rush?
How do we fix this offensive line?
Why if injured have we been playing Fant?
How long until we question the coaches and their inability to fix mistakes?
Why does MLF seem to struggle at the start of the year with play-calling?
Why are we not putting Elijah Moore in a position to succeed?
Why did we sign tight ends if we don’t intend to use them properly?
When do I start worrying that the offensive line doesn’t generate lanes for the RB?
Who can we turn to for safety?
Are we putting too much pressure on Zach’s return?
That last point is key, right now it seems as though the hope of the franchise rests entirely on the shoulders of Zach. Saleh said that Wilson has yet to be cleared but they are hoping that will happen next week and Zach will return to action against Pittsburgh next week. Then the question becomes how will he look in his own week one? How does the game plan change? A lot of questions surround this team right now.
With all that being said it’s important to keep some perspective. The Bengals may have been 0-2, but they are still a very good team and have talent at all levels of their offensive and defense. The Jets are 1-2, the same record as the Bengals, Chargers, 49’ers, Cardinals etc. We’re heading to face a team who has their own questions and we should be getting our starting QB back, and even in yesterday’s game there were some real positives.
Great synopsis of this weeks debacle. For me there were 3 or 4 glaring things that led to this loss. Three unsportsmanlike penalties are inexcusable! Two them (Joyner’s shot to Higgins head and JFM’s ridiculous shove on Burrow well after the ball was gone we’re clear examples of poor decision making and a lack of discipline. And with the ball inside the Cincy 10 and the opportunity for a late score what the heck was Cory Davis thinking? The next question is how our defenders seem to not understand their assignments! It seems like Joyner is constantly out of position. Probably why he is most often seen trotting into the picture as the receiver has either scored or made a critical reception. It does seem that nearly every miscommunication involves Joyner? And lastly, the curios game plan that appeared to focus on forcing the ball to Elijah Moore. Apparently Cincinnati picked up on that early as they had a lot better plan on how to stop him than we had as to how to best utilize him. As you mentioned, Moore is a lot more effective being utilized in the short to intermediate areas of the field. At 5’9 180 he’s tough to find deep along the boundaries. Crossing routes,digs, slants, quick outs, screens, that’s his game. If you run him that way you can set him up to run double moves to get deep!
Great job David. I think your analysis and perspective are spot on, you mentioned most of the things that trouble me.
My priorities:
Starting D Line should be: JJohnson, JFM, QW, Clemmons. JFM's stats bear out he gets more pressure from the inside. JJ plays the run better than any other DE and gets pressure on pass plays. Clemmons is flat out better than Lawson. Rotate as necessary, but let these guys play together for the majority.
Replace Joyner. Even if the options are not better, at least they will be young w/ a higher ceiling.
I watched the 49ers game. Even w/ all the talent they have lost that defense is still fast, aggressive and dominating. It's the system Saleh came from. Ullrich needs to give up the reins to Saleh. It's not unheard of to have a HC also take on coordinator duties (see LaFleur in GB).
OLine; we must put help at LT on most plays, esp w/ Zach returning. Conklin is the better blocker so he's the logical choice. LaFleur is not running the West Coast offense. I understand the line and QB limitations, but the WC is a zone run, waggle heavy, misdirection, short passing based system. The use of E Moore yesterday was incomprehensible; he's small and Flacco cannot throw outside the hashes. Infuriating.
I am still a huge supporter of both HC and GM, but patience is thinning, not on a game to game level though. We have to remember, we are at least a year away, stay the course. Constant change in HC and GM achieve nothing. And yes, my family owned season tix at Shea Stadium, so I'm not a fresh faced newbie to the situation.