Putrid Offense Downs Jets

Edition #267

Good morning!

That didn’t really go to plan. In a way the Jets and Patriots canceled each other out on Sunday, too very similar teams did what was expected, they dominated on defense and stunk up the place on offense. The Jets, however, took that stink to places I didn’t know existed.

If you’re a Zach Wilson guy, I’d advise you to stop reading now as this is not going to be pretty.

The Jets moved the ball 2 yards over the final 30 minutes of the game yesterday. That’s the fewest second-half yards in a game this season.

Zach Wilson’s 3.50 yards per attempt was the lowest of any QB in any one game this season, trailing the likes of Sam Ehlinger in week 9 and Kenny Pickett in week 6.

Here’s how Zach Wilson ranks among 33 qualified QBs this season. Passer Rating (32nd), Completion Percentage (33rd), Passing TDs to INTs (31st), and Passing touchdowns per passing attempt (31st).

The Jets attempted more punts yesterday than they had passes completed. That’s not a typo, they punted the ball more than they caught the ball.

Zach Wilson completed 4-9 passes when throwing to a receiver who had at least 3 yards of separation, I can’t even begin to explain just how absolutely awful that is. Basically, he completed less than 50% of passes to players who were college open, let alone NFL open.

Here’s how a layup works. You complete 40.9% of your passes for 77 yards, moving the ball just 103 yards over 60 minutes. You miss countless receivers both in terms of the actual passes and the inability to read a defense, you then walk into a press conference and the media ask you if you’ve let down the other side of the ball who held the opponent to 3 points all game.

Here’s how you miss a layup. You answer no to that question.

Zach Wilson’s arrogance at the podium is only matched by his putrid performances on the football field. This has been going on for weeks, arguably it’s been going on since he was drafted. He takes zero accountability for poor performance and that’s an attitude that has been cultivated by Robert Saleh’s coddling of the 2nd year player.

In no universe is a performance like yesterday acceptable. But when asked if he thought about making a change at QB to try and get things going, he said it was “the furthest thing from my mind”, that gives Zach the license and protection to play as badly as he wants to play and face absolutely no repercussions or accountability.

A couple of weeks ago Joe Flacco was demoted to the 3rd string QB with the Jets saying they ‘Wanted to see what we have with Mike White’ - If you’re not going to put him in a game where the starting QB quite literally can’t complete a 5-yard screen pass, then just cut him. If ever there was a time for the Jets to see what they had in White, yesterday was it. If the Jets get even 5% production from the position, they win the game. All they needed to do was complete a couple of passes and kick a field goal.

The NFL needs to get away from this attitude of if you pull a QB you’re basically saying he’s done. In the NHL if a goalie isn’t playing well then he’ll get pulled for the game to try something different, a lot of times it works. It’s happened to some of the best goaltenders in the league, it gives them a kick up the backside, and then the next game they’re between the pipes again. To me, it seemed as though Saleh didn’t make the change because he didn’t want to have to face the fact that the Jets are winning in spite of Zach, and not because of him. If he can stand there and say he felt in that moment in the 4th quarter that Zach gave us the best chance to win, I’d have to consider whether he’d watched his QB play this season.

Instead, we watched Zach fire a pass 10 yards over the head of Berrios, miss a wide-open Denzel Mims on a key conversion opportunity, and look petrified in the pocket. Mentally Zach wasn’t ready for that game and I’d argue that mentally, Coach Saleh was not ready to make the decisions that needed to be made. In protecting Zach and coddling him, he’s created issues. The frustration from the locker room was palpable after the game with Garrett Wilson saying: “It starts in practice. It’s got to be better, the things we see and don’t call out. It has to start getting called out. This is unacceptable. No one wants to feel like this, but that’s not enough…Hopefully, this is a wake up for some people in the facility to get their details”

It was a frustrating day for Wilson who caught just 2 passes on 3 targets for 12 yards. He called for the coaching staff to put more trust in the receiver room and questions have to be asked of Mike LaFleur who has seemingly managed to upset most of the Jets receivers within 2 years of coaching. The crux here is that I don’t think LaFleur has a lack of faith in the receivers and their ability, he has a lack of faith in Zach and his ability.

Yesterday was the perfect example. He coached scared because Zach can’t be trusted to execute a more diverse game plan. The Patriots did exactly what we thought they’d do, they focused all their efforts on stopping the running game, which they did. They forced Zach to try and beat them with his arm and he was incapable of doing that. If your QB is missing a wide-open screen, why would you trust him to push the ball down the field? Zach Wilson is holding this team hostage, and the only person who can set everyone free is Robert Saleh, but he’ll need to put the team before Wilson and I’m not sure he’s willing to do that. Saleh has tied his mast to Wilson.

The frustrating thing is the Jets have a win-now defense. For 60 minutes they bent but didn’t break. New England finished with 297 yards but failed to find the end-zone against a defense who were camped out in the Patriot backfield. The Jets sacked Jones 6 times and limited New England to 26.7% on third-down conversions. Kwon Alexader had a tough day in coverage but the defensive line feasted, they came up with a big 4th down stop and handed the ball over to Wilson and the offense, providing them an opportunity to escape with a victory…but we all know how that ended.

The Jet’s defense did everything they could do and quite honestly they were more likely to score a TD than the offense. We could have continued that game all night and I’m confident Zach wouldn’t have been able to find his way to the end zone. He spoke about it being “windy as hell” out there, yet Mac Jones completed 85.2% of his passes for 246 yards, so I don’t want to hear those excuses out of our “strong-armed” QB who fired passes he should have floated and floated passes he should have fired. The post-game excuses have me out on Wilson, a QB who shows no progress and then no accountability is never going to be able to lead an NFL locker room. None of the players will come out and say it and we’ll hear the same old BS this week about “belief” in #2, but you better believe that his comments will have upset a lot of players.

I don’t like to play revisionist history, but this stings because for me, had we drafted Justin Fields I think at worst we’re 8-2 this season. Over these last 6 games before yesterday, he has completed 63.3% of his passes with 10 passing TDs to 3 INTs with 602 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns. He just so happens to be on a poor Bears team who can’t hold a lead. Imagine him with our defense, it’s that frustrating that eats at me as I watch Zach play QB and then head to the podium with the arrogance of a Super Bowl winner.

The one thing we haven’t spoken about is the winning punt return for the Patriots. Overall the special teams unit but in a decent display but one mistake is all it takes. Braden Mann kicked too flat and the Patriots doubled Justin Hardee, who later got a block in the back for good measure. It was a bad kick by an inconsistent player that wasn’t covered very well. What are you going to do? When you can’t put points on the board, those situations happen. Some will place the blame at the special team’s door, but the blame for this defeat sits with the offense.