Victory Monday: Jets 24-17 Titans

Edition #700

Good morning! ☕

When Will Levis threw short of the goal-line and Tyler Boyd was unable to hang on, my feeling was less jubilation and more relief.

The Jets are in the win column and the season is officially up and running. It wasn’t pretty, it was damn costly, but we needed that win in the worst possible way.

First of all a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our gameday chat on the Substack app. We’ll be back with another for Thursday Night Football. If you want to be involved, the chat is open to all paid subscribers and you can download the app by clicking below. You’ll also get an email with the game thread on Thursday 👍

🟢 We have to start on a sombre note here with the news that the Jets ‘believe’ that Pro-Bowl defensive end Jermaine Johnson has torn his Achilles which would end his season. It’s the second straight year we’re experienced a torn Achilles to a key player and if you go back a couple of years to Carl Lawson, well that particular tendon doesn’t seem to like the Jets. Johnson met with the media after the game which is very unusual and he was his usual stoic self - “I thought somebody stepped on me. Then I looked at the replay and nobody stepped on it, and I was like, 'Damn.' But, man, I'm in positive spirits. I got my crying out on the field a little bit. I'm probably going to get a little more crying in tonight. But after that, you know, 24-hour or 48-hour mourning rule for me and we'll be back to work.” This is a huge blow to the Jets and we’ll delve into that more a little later on.

⚪ C. J. Mosley exited the game in the first half with a toe injury. After the game Robert Saleh said that the team hoped that he would be able to play on Thursday Night. Now I like Mosley, his intelligence and his leadership are invaluable to a pretty young defence, but I don’t think it can be denied that the Jets defence looked better without him yesterday. They were faster to the ball and with Mosley off the field, Quincy Williams seemed to find himself again. Quincy and Jamien Sherwood were the two leading tacklers, but more than that they looked fast and decisive. The Jets defence may have bent in the second half, but outside that incredible Calvin Ridley catch it didn’t break.

🟢 Let’s take a moment to celebrate Will McDonald’s introduction to the NFL. 3 sacks and one on a pivotal late drive that backed the Titans up making it a long 4th and goal. According to Rich Cimini at ESPN, McDonald became the first Jets player with 3 sacks and a forced fumble since Muhammed Wilkerson in 2015, the first Jets defensive lineman with 3 sacks in a game since Henry Anderson in 2018 and the first Jet with 3 sacks in a game since Jamal Adams in 2019. We wanted him to step up and he did. I wrote a piece for the Jets UK site on Will McDonald this weekend so go check that out as well right HERE.

⚪ It wasn’t vintage Aaron Rodgers completing just 60% of his passes for under 200 yards. But you saw glimpses of that old magic with those touchdown drives and some of those quick throws to pick up key third downs. Last week the Jets converted 60% of their third downs, this week they completed 42%, so while it’s a downtick it’s still significantly better than last year. I still think he’s working some rust off and I think it’ll be another 2-3 games before we see him at his best, but outside the throws…his calmness in the huddle was evident, that rubs off on other players. On that game-winning touchdown drive Rodgers was 5-5 for 74 yards. That’s why you sign him.

🟢 There were plenty of key plays yesterday that helped turn the tide, we should probably thank Will Levis too, who made two big errors. One on the backwards pass that the Jets recovered and one on the throw into double coverage which was picked off by Echols. The backwards pass infuriated his head coach who had a few choice words for him. Will Levis needs to know when a play is dead, and when to accept it. His choices on that pass cost the Titans points and helped change the game momentum. But let’s also mention Irvin Charles and his blocked punt and general punt coverage, he was absolutely outstanding yesterday. He’s now the most important special teamer on the Jets.

Sometimes you just have to count your lucky stars and move on to the next one.

For the vast majority of that game yesterday it appeared as though the Jets were heading into an 0-2 hole, with the old enemy arriving on Thursday Night Football.

D. J. Reed was scratched before the game, defensive captain C. J. Mosley was ruled out in the first half and then Jermaine Johnson went down with what appears to be a season-ending Achilles injury. Same old Jets, same old Jets luck.

Then in the second-half the Jets began to turn the screw on defence, they didn’t shut the Titans down but one punt was followed by another.

The Jets continued to look weak against the run, but the banks didn’t break until Calvin Ridley pulled off a diving catch on a 40-yard bomb from Will Levis.

Sauce had great coverage on this play and Clark had a great beat on the ball, according to Next Gen Stats, Ridley’s catch probability was just 16.5% on this throw, which indicates just how good a catch it was. Sauce seemed to think the job was done, and also seemed to be distracted by Clark who was late getting over. But sometimes you tip your hat to the receiver, which is easy to do when you’ve come away with a victory. I’m sure Sauce won’t be happy and Chuck Clark shouldn’t be either.

So before we celebrate the positives, let’s just reiterate that this team has a long way to go. Not just to be a championship team, but to be a playoff team. We expected rust and we expected problems along the way, we have both. There is still a lot of season to play and a lot of opportunities to get better, but we still:

• Look very susceptible against the run. The Titans had 130 rushing yards, but the Jets did do a better job in the second half bottling up Tony Pollard who finished with 62 yards and 3.6 yards per rush.

• Finishing tackles. How many times did a Titan get hit at or near the line of scrimmage but manage to get 3-5 yards out of it. Too many arm tackles, not enough commitment to bringing the ball carrier down. I’m still not sure how Will Levis got out of that 4th quarter sack and turned it into a positive.

• Play-calling is still a big issue. The Jets started to move the ball when they stopped running on first and second down. Nathaniel Hackett’s play-calling is far too predictable. 3rd and 1 in a power formation against the beef that Tennessee have up front? We saw it coming, they saw it coming, it got stuffed. You have a HOF QB, put it in his hands, or run some misdirection.

• Safety play. I thought the defensive line improved, I thought the linebackers improved. I still think our safeties leave a lot to be desired. Tony Adams and Chuck Clark have struggle to start the season, particularly Clark who looks like a player who just had a year out with an injury. Hopefully he improves with game reps, but if I were an offensive coordinator I’d be targeting them all day.

• Penalties. Discipline. This is a common theme with a Robert Saleh led team, we must lead the league in stupid penalties over the last three years. Yesterday we were flagged for 7 penalties and 70 yards, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. You can say they were soft (they were), but this is the modern NFL. Teams know the rules, coaches know that any contact to the head if likely going to get flagged. So don’t give the zebras a chance to throw the flag. It didn’t kill us yesterday but it will if we keep giving away first downs and chunk yards.

OK. That’s everything we need to work on. But we won this game damn it, and it’s time to take a look at some of the highlights with our Touchdown View!

If yesterday was the NFL introduction of Will McDonald on defence, it was certainly the NFL introduction for Braelon Allen on offence.

⬆️ Braelon Allen has that power, we know he can run over most defenders. But his speed is so underrated and once he gets the angle you’re not going to catch him over 15-30 yards. You see the Titans defense attack the middle of that line and Morgan Moses and AVT do a great job sealing, Allen does the rest.

⬆️ Here the Jets actually work in some misdirection. At this point in the game the Jets had been feeding Breece constantly. So that play-calling probably helped in this situation. Allen’s ability to turn up field in a hurry is a real bonus, and watching him yesterday enhanced my confusion on why he wasn’t part of the gameplan against San Francisco.

⬆️ Apparently when the Jets called timeout Breece Hall went over to Aaron Rodgers and told him to throw him a go ball if when split out he was covered by a linebacker. Breece split out to the right, #56 went with him, Breece cooked him, Aaron threw him the ball, touchdown. Football can be a very simple game. If teams want to isolate a linebacker on Breece, then take that matchup every single day. Rodgers even admitted this wasn’t a great ball, but it doesn’t have to be for Breece. Rodgers did throw another very good ball that should have been a TD, but for some reason Jeremy Ruckert didn’t get the depth on his pattern.

It wasn’t a bad week for the Jets when it comes to the division. The Bills looked very good in despatching the Dolphins 31-10 , but someone had to win. The Dolphins losing Tua for an unknown period of time is a big blow. The Patriots look a lot better than we expected but lost in overtime at Gillette to the Seahawks.

Coming up this week, the Jets will host the Patriots in their home opener on Thursday Night Football, the Dolphins travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks and the Bills will host the Jacksonville Jaguars who are 0-2 to start the season.