Sloppy In The Snow ❄️

Edition #282

Good morning ☀️

The Jets locker room is full of competitors, so it says a lot when you hear the beat reporters say that the mood inside was a positive and optimistic one, despite suffering their second defeat in a row. I'll admit I'm feeling very optimistic as well, and although we probably need to win 3 of our remaining 4 games to make the playoffs, I feel we're better than the Lions, Jaguars and Seahawks.

There was a lot to like yesterday, but some simple mistakes doomed the Jets against the Bills who largely played mistake free football. There are 2 reasons we lost that game yesterday in my opinion.

1. Too many mistakes at key points.

2. Offensive line play

When Mike White returned to the huddle after being knocked out the game for the second time, I had a feeling the Jets were going to pull out the win, despite turning the ball over multiple times, we got it down to a one score game. I don't know what the analytics say, but I would have gone for it on 4th and 1 to try and get the touchdown first, even if it was just for the phycological boost to the team. But it wasn't to be.

The Jets now sit at 7-6, I think 10-7 may get us into the playoffs but there are a ton of time break scenarios we'd need to be wary of, so it may be that we need to win out from here on out. Is it likely? Probably not. Is it possible? Absolutely. The Lions are streaking but they're defensively vulnerable and I back our defense against anyone. Same with the Jaguars and Seahawks and then Miami is a 50/50.

Let's have a look at a few guys who helped their stock yesterday.

⬆️ Mike White

As White was heading to a local hospital to get some scans to ensure his rib injury was just that and nothing else, Coach Saleh confirmed that he was the starting QB “For Sure” against Detroit next weekend.

Josh Allen completed 59% of his passes for 147 yards at home, which shows how difficult it was out there, considering the Bills and Jets’ defense are similar levels, White didn't have the TDs but he completed 61% of his passes for 250+ yards. Buffalo completed just 15.4% of third downs and the Jets were up at 47.1%, despite finding themselves in third and long more often than not.

But White’s performance went beyond the statistics. Tomorrow we’ll look at the pressure numbers, but at one point I believe he had been pressured on nearly 75% of his dropbacks. He got absolutely drilled on a perfectly thrown 25-yard pass to Moore and was forced to miss some plays. He came back in and took another absolutely brutal shot to the ribs which forced him to the locker room, but came back out and finished the game.

After the game, White was taken to a local hospital as a precaution to check on that rib injury, but the fact he came back into the game and stuck in there, driving the team down the field on multiple occasions in the fourth quarter. That’s my quarterback right there.

“He’s a fucking soldier.” - Michael Carter
“He’s a dog, man. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. That’s what every guy in this locker room, if they aren’t that way, they need to be that way. I believe everybody is that way. Today, Mike was unfortunately an example of that. Guys are willing to do whatever it takes to get the Jets to the playoffs and beyond” - Connor McGovern
"He's got a lot of heart and he's gonna lay it on the line for his boys. I would do the same for him." - Garrett Wilson

I know people want to see videogame numbers, hell I do too. But you can tell a lot about a player in a position of adversity and I think we learned a hell of a lot about Mike White yesterday.

⬆️ Bam Knight

At this point there is absolutely no reason for Bam to come out of the game, he is head and shoulders the best running back on the roster (well healthy running back). The Jets gained 76 yards on the ground against the Bills and Knight picked up 71 of them. He has a real knack for finding the holes and he has the combination of power and explosion that suits this one-cut system.

Knight and Hall would make one fearsome combination and I can’t wait to see that next year. I thought Mike LaFleur went away from the ground game a little too quickly, I know you can pick up chunk yards through the air but the Jets got a little predictable and Bam was going at 4.2 yards a rush.

Knight also picked up 2 receptions and he’s showing himself to be a reliable target out of the backfield.

⬇️ Offensive Line

What can you say about the performance of the offensive line? According to ESPN, Mike White was hit 7 times, sacked 3 and pressured 21 times. I don’t think anyone had a good game in there but the Bills targeted the A gaps and they exploited them all night. Tomlinson, McGovern and Herbig will need to watch that back and I don’t think they’re going to enjoy it.

No game this year has highlighted how much we miss AVT like the game yesterday. When the pressure got intense, the interior crumbled. Grandpa Joe was sacked and fumbled the ball away which killed any momentum we had, but the tackle got beat like a drum, and while Flacco can no longer manoeuvre the pocket when your tackles get beat so easily a lot of QBs would have gone down, it’s just a shame the ball came out.

I think at some point this week we’ll look at that Laken Tomlinson signing, as he’s certainly not been the level of player I thought we were getting when we handed him that contract in the off-season.

⬇️⬆️ CJ Mosley

Where to put CJ Mosley in here? A little bit of up and down in there, actually it was 90% up and 10% down. Unfortunately, that 10% down was a 4th and 1 encroachment penalty that turned a potential Buffalo punt into a touchdown to Knox. All indications pointed to the Bills punting there, but when the clock is winding down to halftime and you still have timeouts, you try and draw the opposition offside. Mosley bit, and bit hard.

However, for the rest of the game, I thought he was phenomenal. He had a key pass defense where he really stuck with his man, he led the team with 9 tackles and stopped Josh Allen on a key third down.

⬇️ Braxton Berrios

Berrios had 3 targets and caught one very nice ball down the sideline for 25 yards, but overall I’m putting him in the down column because in those conditions you need to give your offense as much help as possible. On numerous occasions he let punts bounce and as a result, the Offense was backed up 15-20 yards. That just can’t happen, you need to come up and made a play on that ball.

⬆️🏆 Garrett Wilson

What’s been overshadowed in the defeat is that Garrett Wilson broke the single-season receiving record for a rookie yesterday with his 6-catch 78-yard performance. Wilson now has 868 yards and surpassed the 844 yards that Keyshawn Johnson put up in his rookie season. I think it’s pretty clear that Wilson will become the first Jets rookie receiver to put up over 1000 yards, that’s an incredible achievement considering the inconsistency at QB and having to play with three different signal-callers. Congratulations to Wilson.

⬆️ Quinnen Williams

During the game, I tweeted that Quinnen was a phenomenal talent that the Jets needed to lock up ASAP. Yesterday he missed most of the game with a calf injury (which is apparently minor and the hope is he’ll play on Sunday), but before he left he had already dominated the interior of the Bills line to the tune of two sacks. He now has 11 sacks on the season and is quickly becoming one of the premier defensive tackles in the league, in fact he already is, but he’s coming for the title of the best defensive tackle in the league. Remember he’s only 24 crazy.

⬆️ Defense

I wanted to give a quick shoutout to the defense as a whole. They held the Bills to just 232 yards, held Allen to less than 150 yards passing and limited Buffalo to 20 points. I think Sauce gave up a single catch, and Diggs was held to his lowest receiving total of the year at 37 yards. As mentioned above, we held the Bills to a 15.4% completion on third down and really stifled one of the best offenses in the league. It was difficult conditions for the offense, but the Jets managed over 300 yards again. What we showed yesterday is that we can play with anyone.

⬇️ Michael Carter

I have so much time for Michael Carter, he’s a great locker room guy and he flashed some real talent last year. But his yards per attempt have falled 0.6 yards on his 4.3 last year and considering he had 5 rushes for 5 yards yesterday, it’s about to fall even further. I’m not sure what it is, but there is some hesitancy to his game this year and he’s not making people miss like he was last year. Obviously Bam had 17 carries to his 5, so the Jets are seeing it as well.

That’s all before we get to a killer fumble in the 4th quarter. The Jets were driving and picking up chunks of yards and then Carter fumbles the ball away. Just consider this, we lost this game by a single score (8 points) and we had two very costly turnovers. You can’t make mistakes when you play good opponents, it just can’t happen.

⬇️ Joe Flacco

If the Jets want to keep Wilson inactive to avoid any controversy, then they need to make Streveller the backup QB. Joe’s had a fine career, but I think it’s time to probably hang up those cleats and enjoy some family time.

⬆️⬆️ Overall

We absolutely need to keep this in perspective. We went into tough conditions in Buffalo against many people’s Super Bowl favourites and we stood toe to toe with them throughout. People will be upset with the loss, I’m upset with the loss, but this team has come a long way. We lost 45-17 and 27-10 to Buffalo last year, this year we’ve beaten them and lost by one score. We are absolutely improving in every area. I haven’t spoken about Bryce Huff here and how many times he got held, or the late hit on Wilson when he was out of bounds, the Jets aren’t going to get those calls, so there’s little point us talking about it. Buffalo defense played a great game, but this is a playoff roster as it’s currently constructed and if we can add and tweak next year, I think this is a Super Bowl-contending team and that’s why I’m positive. Maybe I’m just drinking too much of that green kool-aid this holiday season. 😉