Titans/Jets: The Numbers

Edition #701

Good morning! ☕

We’re just two days away from our 3rd game in 11 days, the schedule makers have done us no favours over the first quarter of the season.

The Patriots have played a lot better than anyone thought they would and while it’s a small sample size, looking at the stats New England are a top-five unit rushing the football, averaging 177.5 yards per game on the ground. We’re going to get into that Patriots game over the next two days, but first let’s recap that Titans victory.

🤕 Unfortunately the news we all feared arrived on Monday. Jermaine Johnson has torn his Achilles ending his season before it really began. He sent out this message on Twitter: “Thank everyone for all the prayers and support! This is not a dark time for me ,although there will be dark days ahead, this is Gods way for me to not only grow as a man, person and player but to also inspire others to as well!! 11 will be back and better, BOOK IT” This is a huge blow to the Jets. It would be a huge loss even if Reddick was in the building but our starting defensive ends are now Will McDonald and Micheal Clemons with Takkarist McKinley, Jalyn Holmes, Braiden McGregor and Eric Watts as backups. With Will McDonald’s performance, the leverage was firmly in the Jets court, this has swung it back the other way. Reddick isn’t renowned for his run defence, but Jermaine Johnson was coming off a 56 pressure, 7.5 sack season. The jets don’t just need to replace his run production but also his pass-rush production.

⚪ We’ve got a quick turnaround for the game on Thursday so here is the first injury report. I would be surprised if Mosley recovered in time, and sounds as though they’re being careful with MC2 but he should be good to go. D.J Reed will be the main one to watch this week.

Let’s start with the pass protection, which I thought was exceptional. According to PFF the Jets offensive line allowed just 1 pressure and 1 sack combined (both on Tippmann), one sack was attributed to Rodgers which I agree with and two pressures were attributed to Breece Hall, again hard to argue.

We’ve come a long way with this offensive line and they’re still learning to play together. Part of the production is having a QB like Rodgers out there, a player who makes quick decisions and gets rid of the ball quickly, but part of it is bringing in proven and experienced talent.

Tyron Smith - 34 pass blocking snaps, 0 pressures, 0 sacks.
John Simpson - 34 pass blocking snaps, 0 pressures, 0 sacks.
Joe Tippmann - 34 pass blocking snaps, 1 pressure, 1 sack.
Alijah Vera-Tucker - 34 pass blocking snaps, 0 pressure, 0 sacks.
Morgan Moses - 34 pass blocking snaps, 0 pressure, 0 sacks.

That was completely pointless writing that out…but damn did it feel good. As someone who loves offensive line play, just having some talent back on that line is a breath of fresh air. We’ve still got a way to go in the run-blocking but we saw some really encouraging signs yesterday.

Breece Hall went from averaging 3.4 yards against San Fran to 4.4 yards against Tennessee. Braelon Allen averaged 4.7 yards as well. I would argue that one of the main issues with the run blocking is the predictability of the play-calling. I saw a ton of promising looks by that offensive line, especially climbing to the second level and the tackles sealing the lanes.

This line has an incredible amount of potential, let’s see how they develop with more reps together, but I’m excited.

I didn’t really talk about him enough yesterday but let’s give an incredible amount of credit to Brandin Echols who had a great game and was graded as the best coverage cornerback in the game for the Jets.