The Stat Pack

Edition #220

Good morning.

Now that we’ve had 24 hours to digest the result from Sunday, I’m starting to feel slightly more positive. There are obvious flaws that need to be cleaned up, but when watching the game back with emotion removed, there were a lot of positives to take from the performance. That’s not for one second justifying yet another loss in September, which I believe is Joe Douglas’s 10th in a row as General Manager, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

First, I’m going to use the quick throws section to highlight some rookie performances of players who were spoken about as Jets targets in the draft.

• Ikem Ekwonu had a rough start to his NFL career allowing two sacks and four pressures against the Cleveland Browns. PFF awarded him a 17.6 overall defensive grade and a 90.9 pass blocking efficiency…that’s very rough.

• Derek Stingley Jr allowed 6 completions for 81 yards on 9 targets in his Texans debut, he didn’t allow a touchdown and was credited with a PBU, he received a 62.2 PFF grade overall.

• Evan Neal was on the winning side with the Giants but he was awarded just a 29.8 run-blocking grade and a 40.1 grade overall, he allowed 2 pressures on a pass-blocking efficiency of 96.6.

• Drake London caught 5 of his 7 targets for 74 yards including his only contested catch. Unfortunately for Drake that wasn’t enough as the Falcons lost to a comeback effort by Jameis Winston and the New Orleans Saints 27-26.

• Talking of the Saints, Chris Olave caught 100% of his targets (3-3) for 41 yards.

• Kyle Hamilton played 40 coverage snaps for the Ravens and gave up 4 catches on 4 targets to the Jets. He was only culpable for 31 yards but was credited with 2 missed tackles.

• Keeping with the Ravens, Tyler Linderbaum allowed 2 pressures in his debut with a 91.1 pass-blocking efficiency, he was awarded a 73.4 run-block grade which was the highest of all Baltimore linemen.

• Cole Strange had a perfect pass-protection day for New England, with 0 pressures allowed on 29 pass-blocking snaps for a team-high grade of 87.2. He wasn’t quite as good in the run game with PFF awarding him a grade of 57.0.

• A couple of notes on other players, Nakobe Dean only had 3 snaps for the Eagles and Chad Muma only had 8 snaps for Jacksonville so that’s why they’re not included in the above.

Right, that’s enough about everyone else, it’s time to concentrate on the Jets. I’m going to split it up into three sections, offense, defense, and special teams and while I won’t include all stats, I’ll include the key ones with my thoughts attached to each.

Offense

Offensive Line

There’s only one place to start on offense and that’s with the offensive line. Joe Flacco had 62 dropbacks which is a huge amount, so keep that in mind when looking at the below. It may explain some numbers but certainly won’t absolve the lineman from the harsh reality that they were a key reason the Jets walked away from the home opener with a loss.

George Fant - 1 sack, 4 pressures, 96.0 PB efficiency, 1 penalty, run grade = 60.7
Laken Tomlinson - 0 sacks, 8 pressures, 93.5 PB efficiency, run grade = 36.8
Connor McGovern - 0 sacks, 2 pressures, 98.4 PB efficiency, run grade = 54.6
Alijah Vera-Tucker - 0 sacks, 3 pressures, 97.6 PB efficiency, run grade = 91.1
Max Mitchell - 1 sack, 3 pressures, 96.8 PB efficiency, run grade = 42.7

Positives - Alijah Vera-Tucker looked outstanding even with the three pressures allowed. You want that efficiency higher but his run-blocking was at the elite level on Sunday and it’s a shame we had to go away from the run game. McGovern was steady as he so usually is, the Ravens loaded the A-gaps so it’s a tough one to grade in terms of responsibility. Mitchell allowed a sack and he wasn’t especially good in the run game but for a 4th round rookie making his first start, the stat line isn’t bad.

Negatives - The left side was a bit of a mess and that can be somewhat expected with so little practice time, but both Fant and Tomlinson are veterans and allowing 12 pressures between them really is terrible, Tomlinson didn’t allow more than 4 pressures in any one game for San Francisco last year and in his first start with the Jets, he doubles it. I think this will be the exception to the rule, but we need to see the ultimate bounce back next week against Cleveland, and it’s another stern test against a very good defensive line.

Receivers

Overall I thought the receivers did a fine job, but the offensive line didn’t give Joe time to find them, and when they did…Joe missed them.

Corey Davis - 9 targets, 6 receptions, 77 yards, 1 drop, 1-1 on contested catches
Garrett Wilson - 8 targets, 4 receptions, 52 yards, 0 drops, 0-2 on contested catches
Elijah Moore - 7 targets, 5 receptions, 49 yards, 0 drops, 1-2 on contested catches
Braxton Berrios - 5 targets, 5 receptions, 37 yards, 0 drops, 1-1 on contested catches
Lawrence Cager - 1 target, 0 receptions, 0 yards, 0 drops, 0-0 on contested catches
Tyler Conklin - 5 targets, 4 receptions, 16 yards, 1 TD, 1 drop, 1-1 on contested catches
Micheal Carter - 8 targets, 9 receptions, 40 yards, 1 drop, 0-0 on contested catches
Breece Hall - 8 targets, 6 catches, 38 yards, 1 drop, 0-0 on contested catches

Robert Saleh said in his press conference that the Jets’ gameplan was to get the tight ends involved heavily in the first half which led to Garrett Wilson getting 6 snaps and Uzomah getting 0 targets, which is a bit of a failure on the gameplan side of things.

We didn’t see the kind of dominating performance that you’d want from any of the receivers but Wilson, Moore, and Davis all flashed and Corey looked great after his initial drop, hopefully, he’s just getting that out of the way.

I don’t think the gameplan would have been set for our RBs to get 16 targets in the game, but when the line is crumbling the check-down becomes more and more attractive.

Running Game

The Jets have the makings of an outstanding run game, the issue on Sunday was that due to the deficit we had to move away from it far too early. If we’re asking Joe Flacco to drop back 60 times a game, chances are we’re going to lose that game.

Micheal Carter - 10 carries, 60 yds, 6.0 avg, 33 yards after contact, 3 missed tackles forced
Breece Hall - 6 carries, 23 yds, 3.8 avg, 24 yards after contact, 1 missed tackle forced

Breece Hall’s numbers don’t look great but he flashed some real potential, his fumble was unfortunate but what I loved was Micheal Carter heading straight over to him as soon as he came back to the bench to talk to him about it. Carter looked outstanding and it’s a shame he dropped the TD, as that would have been a fitting end.

The Jets rushed three times behind AVT and those three carries went for 20 yards or 6.7 yards per carry, I hope they rush behind him a little more frequently come Sunday.

Defense

Pass Rush

With the Ravens down to their 3rd string left tackle halfway through the game on Sunday you’d assume that Carl Lawson would have a field day, but in his first action since tearing his Achilles, the former Bengal had a relatively quiet debut. The Jets did a great job stuffing the run but how did they perform against Lamar and the Baltimore offensive line?

PRP: A formula that combines sacks, hits, and hurries relative to how many times they rush the passer

Quinnen Williams - 3 pressures, 6.8 PRP, 18.2% win percentage, 91.9 PFF pass-rush grade.
JFM - 3 pressures, 9.4 PRP, 37.5% win percentage, 79.1 PFF pass-rush grade
Carl Lawson - 3 pressures, 7.5 PRP, 20.0% win percentage, 61.2 pass-rush grade
Nathan Shepherd - 0 pressures, 0.0 PRP, 9.1% win percentage, 59.7 pass-rush grade.
Jermaine Johnson - 1 pressure, 1 sack, 10.0 PRP, 10% win percentage, 59.6 Pass-rush grade
Solomon Thomas - 0 pressure, 0 PRP, 9.1% win percentage, 58.8 pass-rush grade
Micheal Clemons - 0 pressure, 0 PRP, 0.0% win percentage, 50.1 pass-rush grade
Sheldon Rankins - 1 pressure, 2.8 PRP, 5.6% win percentage, 49.9 pass-rush grade
Jacob Martin - 3 pressures, 1 sack, 13.3 PRP, 20.0% win percentage, 47.2 pass-rush grade

A lot of numbers there but it was a good start for Martin despite the grade, 3 pressures and a sack in your first game with a new team are notable. It’s a shame that Johnson only got in for 10 pass-rushing snaps but he got his sack.

Before the season started we wondered about the pass-rush rotation. Here are the pass-rush snaps for the main rushers: Lawson (20), JFM (17), Jacob Martin (15), Micheal Clemons (14), Jermaine Johnson (10).

Run Defense

One of the main positives to come from Sunday was the run defense. The Jets were one of the worst teams against the run last season and there was real fear that would continue into 2022 after the team decided against adding a marquee name at defensive tackle. Instead, we limited a dangerous rushing attach to 63 yards on the ground and a 3.0 average per carry. We have to consider the Ravens did have to shuffle their line mid-game and were down to their third-string RB, but any time you keep Lamar Jackson to just 17 yards rushing, you’ve done a good job. Here are the run defense grades for every player who appeared in 10+ run defense plays:

DJ Reed - 77.7
Kwon Alexander - 73.5
Quinnen Williams - 72.3
Micheal Clemons - 71.6
Jordan Whitehead - 66.7
Sauce Gardner - 66.5
JFM - 62.4
LaMarcus Joyner - 62.4
Sheldon Rankins - 59.7
C.J Mosley - 56.4
Quincy Williams - 32.5

Interestingly nobody had a dominating game according to PFF, but a lot of players had good games, and as a collective the Jets were able to limit the Ravens. A lot of the improvement can be seen on the 2nd and 3rd levels with 4 of the top 6 rated players either linebackers, corners or safeties. Clemons is notable considering it was his first game.

One key stat in terms of run defense is the missed tackles, the Jets only had one and that was credited to Nathan Shepherd who was only in for 7 run defense snaps. When your clean with your tackling, good things happen. I’ve heard that the new additions, most notably Jordan Whitehead hold his teammates to a high standard in terms of tackling, and that’s what you need.

Coverage

Whenever you start two brand new corners in the secondary, there is an element of trepidation about how they’ll perform when the lights come on. The Jets got an outstanding performance from both outside corners and overall they did a good job. There was a little miscommunication on the Bateman touchdown which has been attributed to Joyner and I don’t love Whitehead being matched up against Duvernay as that’s a mismatch in coverage. The third TD was on Bryce Hall, but I thought his coverage was excellent and sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the receiver.

DJ Reed Jr. - 6 targets, 0 receptions, 1 PBU, 1 INT, 90.0 coverage grade
MC II - 5 targets, 3 receptions, 30 yards, 14 YAC, 47.3 coverage grade
C.J Mosley - 5 targets, 4 receptions, 38 yards, 26 YAC, 56.8 coverage grade
Jordan Whitehead - 4 targets, 4 receptions, 37 yards, 11 YAC, 1 TD, 42.4 coverage grade
Sauce Gardner - 3 targets, 1 reception, 8 yards, 5 YAC, 1 PBU, 72.5 coverage grade
Kwon Alexander - 2 targets, 2 receptions, 9 yards, 6 YAC, 68.1 coverage grade
Quincy Williams - 1 target, 1 reception, 11 yards, 2 YAC, 63.0 coverage grade
Bryce Hall - 1 target, 1 reception, 25 yards, 1 TD, 46.1 coverage grade
LaMarcus Joyner - 1 target, 1 reception, 55 yards, 5 YAC, 1 TD, 29.6 coverage grade

You’ve probably heard by now that just before taking the field DJ Reed found out that his father had passed away, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard that must have been to carry on, and he’d have been well within his right to ask not to play. Instead, he put together a dominating performance and then celebrated his INT with a tribute to his dad.

Sauce Gardner was as good as advertised allowing just 8 yards in his debut. The pairing of Sauce and DJ has the potential to be the best combo since Revis and Cromartie for the Jets.

Special Teams

Punting

I’m going to sound like a broken record but I was shocked that the Jets did not bring in competition for Braden Mann. Thomas Morestead out-kicked him last year but the Jets cut Morestead in favor of Mann and I can only presume it was due to age. On Sunday Mann’s shanked kick of 20 yards set the Ravens up in positive field position which led to 7 points.

On one hand the Jets offense needs to do a better job so we’re not punting as much (6 times on Sunday), on the other the punter just has to do a better job.

Every Monday I check out Puntalytics who put together a chart of the performance of punters and it didn’t make for happy reading for the Jets:

According to this chart, Mann was the 2nd worst punter in football this weekend, not only was he 2nd to last in epa/punt, but he was dead last in terms of hang time. His 4.04 was significantly worse than the average which was around 4.4-4.5 and significantly down on the best punters who were at or around 5.0.

Add this to the fact our new kicker missed an extra point and 45-yard field goal, and it was a day to forget for the special teams unit.