Winning one for Hack
Edition #494
Good morning.
You don’t always have to win pretty, especially when you’re entering a game 1-3. I headed to London yesterday to watch the Bills lose to the Jaguars and then returned home to watch the Jets pick up a game on Buffalo by beating Denver.
After 5 weeks of the season, here’s how we stand. The Dolphins have got off to a strong start and based on what we’ve seen so far, you have to make them the favourites for the division. But the Bills showed how beatable they are, and considering we’ve already beaten the Bills, the 2023 season is all to play for in the AFC East, well not if you’re the Patriots. How we lost to them is a mystery, they are absolutely abysmal getting blown out by New Orleans.
AVT will have an MRI today on a calf injury. When teams talk about calf injuries and there being “concern”, it usually means an Achilles injury. I really hope I’m wrong here, but I’m fearing that may be season-ending, which would be a huge blow for the Jets and for AVT who suffered a season-ending triceps injury last year in Denver.
Joe Tippmann left the game as well, but Saleh confirmed that he could have finished, so he should be fine to go next week which is a big relief considering how good he’s been.
Bryce Huff played a career-high 47% of snaps yesterday, it’s clear that he’s earning the trust of the coaching staff. With Carl Lawson being inactive (and likely on the trade block), it’s going to be interesting to see what the Jets do with Huff, who needs a new contract if the Jets hope to keep a hold of him.
On Lawson, that re-structure of his contract now looks like a mistake. The Jets could have cut ties with him without much penalty this pre-season, as soon as McDonald was the choice in the 1st round of the draft, they probably should have done that. It’s hindsight of course, but Lawson has been invisible this year.
Talking about bad decisions, Dalvin Cook played just 16% of the offensive snaps, good decision to sit him but a bad decision to sign him. I wouldn’t be surprised
Apparently, Brant Boyer has been begging Saleh to call up Irvin Charles for special teams and he finally got his wish and Charles created a turnover straight away. There’s a reason Boyer has survived multiple coaching changes.
“It was gritty, it wasn’t pretty” - Coach Saleh
Have no truer words ever been spoken about a game. But, unless the NFL has changed its scoring system, I don’t think you get style points.
There are a lot of things you can point to which will concern Jets fans this week.
The Jets were 0/5 in the red zone against statistically the worst defence in football.
We converted just 25% of our third downs, again against the worst defence in football.
Penalties absolutely killed us. After being one of the most disciplined teams in football coming in, the Jets got called for 9 penalties for 71 yards.
The Jets had 4 fumbles and were fortunate to only lose one of them. Gipson and Wilson were the two culprits.
Game management was an issue. Clock management as the first half ran out was poor and then Zach threw that INT late in the 4th quarter, although it was very unfortunate and Garett is probably the first to say he should have had it.
The running game was humming, but we still became too predictable in terms of play-calling. When we did run a little PA on first down we hit Garrett for that big game
I could probably go on and on. In truth, this is a game we should have put up 50 points. When you put up 30 points and go 0-5 in the red zone you know you’ve left a lot of opportunities to make a bigger statement against Sean Payton and his big mouth.
But.
There is also a ton of positives and defensively you have to give Saleh, Ulbrich and the players credit for coming out and adapting on the fly. The Jet’s defence came out and shut down Russell Wilson and the Broncos in the second half, mainly by employing a contain spy system to keep him in the pocket resulting in a number of 3-and-outs.
Offensively the gameplan started and ended with Breece Hall. After four weeks of snap management, the shackles were taken off and Hall was allowed to be what he was drafted to be, the feature back. I don’t blame the Jets for keeping him under wraps to build his strength and endurance, now he’s ready to be unleashed and boy was he unleashed.
It still shocks me that announcers still push this whole narrative that Breece isn’t “fast”, he’s just “sneaky” quick. He ran a sub 4.4 forty at his size. How many times do we need to see Hall run away from defenders until we just admit he’s fast?
Tyler Conklin said afterwards, "It's just so weird watching Breece run because it looks like he's not trying.", maybe it’s the effortless nature that makes commentators underestimate his speed.
It’s also worth noting the blocking job on this run, in particular the work of Laken Tomlinson who’s pulling and Joe Tippmann who pancakes his man inside. The pancake is great, but the technique to pin him inside is even better.
The line had a real up-and-down day yesterday, the pass-protection early was non-existent and that caused some real issues in the first half. But once they got going in the ground game, they started opening some real holes.
Hall finished yesterday with 22 carries, 177 yards and a touchdown. He now has 26 carries for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Broncos over his career, if it wasn’t for the devastating injury he suffered last year in Denver, I’d imagine he’d have very fond memories.
He also had his coaches back in his post-game interview with a dig at Payton - "We wanted to come in and get a win today for him and we did that. The better coach, the better team won."
The Jets as an offence gained over 400 yards, and that’s the first time the Jets offence have gained over 400 yards with Zach running the show.
He completed 73% of his passes and made some big plays, there were some throws left on the field but the game-plan went to the ground where we were finding success.
He does need to work on his ball security, but this wasn’t a bad game for Zach. I’m sure he’ll be asked to do a lot more next week against Philadelphia.
I thought the defense started a little sluggish and looked slow to start the game, but they got stronger and stronger as the game went on and that combination of Huff and Johnson is electric when it comes to 3rd down situations.
Tackling-wise, there is plenty to work on. Adams, Carter and a few others were guilty of missing tackles that led to big gains. There was also a miscommunication on the backend that led to Adam Trautman’s easy touchdown.
So far this year Jermaine hasn’t had the rub of the green, he’s also been held a lot. Last night I thought he was outstanding. He had the sack on Wilson and then this was a huge play in a one-possession game in the 4th quarter. We saw Johnson chase down Allen last year and his closing speed is evident here, just look at the last 2-3 steps.
Talking of speed…
After the game, Quincy said he was the fastest linebacker in the NFL, and when you watch him in full flow, it’s hard to disagree with that statement.
Quincy made a number of impact plays, but none was more important than this sack, forced fumble with the game on the line and Denver closing on field goal range.
You also have to feel good for Bryce Hall, who performed well in his first start since 2021 and was rewarded with a scoop and score. Hall has been the epitome of a teammate and professional since being demoted from his starting role. He’s embraced his role, and as a result, he got an opportunity and took it with both hands.
In total, it was a good team effort. Al Woods with the safety, Quinton Jefferson recovered the fumble, and Laken Tomlinson fell on a Zach fumble to recover the ball. Little things all add up.
We’ll need to play better against the Eagles next week and we’ll need to have that QB spy in from the start. But we’re 2-3 having played the Bills, Chiefs and Cowboys, and we really should be 3-3 considering how bad the Patriots are.
I wrote this last night. I wanted to rant before reading David’s synopsis of the game.
Not trying to be a Debbie Downer but for the Jets to have any shot at the playoffs, they need to fix a few things.
It seems as if the Jets are playing two different defenses every game.
To win in this league, you can’t open up every game by letting teams score and go up and down the field in the first half.
I understand adjustments are made half time but you would think after 4 games the Jets would be better prepared for screens and quick passes that their opponents are using to slow the pass rush.
The Paul Hackett offense was back in the red zone yesterday. How can a team be in the red zone 5 times and never attempt one pass into the endzone. That is offensive malpractice. Denver going into the game had the 31st worst pass defense and the 32 worst run defense. Unfortunately as good as Breece Hall was yesterday, you can’t expect him to break one every play.
The distances on 4 of Zuerlein’s fgs were 30, 26,27 and 22 yards not exactly moon shots. You don’t win championships playing for fgs.
On Denver first sack, #52, hit Zach’s helmet and racked his hand over Zach’s face mask. The Jets have not been the recipient of a quarterback roughing call since 11/28/21, going on two years. Russell Wilson was a recipient of a roughing call today by the Jets. His looked like a love tap compared to Zach’s. It seems the roughing calls are made at the most inappropriate time of the game for the Jets. Sort of like a 12th man.
It’s getting to the point, that teams can mug Jermaine Johnson without any fear of retribution from the refs.
Someone in the Jet organization has to publicly address the roughing issue and the holding issue, it’s a joke it’s so noticeable.
Lastly, usually when you constantly hear an offensive linemen or a defensive backs name during a telecast, it means that they are getting beaten by their opponent. You never hear heard Bryce Hall’s name until he was caught holding on the two point conversion and then when he recovered the fumble. Evidently, the Broncos never attacked him or if they did, they were unsuccessful in trying.
Kudos to him to go from starter to benchwarmer to game winner.
As football fans, we have heard over the years about what a great coach, and offensive genius Sean Payton is. My question about him, “ When has he ever won anything without Drew Brees as his starting quarterback.
We beat a 1-3 team in a very sloppy ugly game. The defense made some adjustments in the second half that made the difference. Red Zone offense was horrendous, penalties in the Red Zone killed us. Special Teams, Zuerlein 5 for 5, Morested averaged 52 yards on 3 punts and then their is the Wolf. I was a big supporter of Bryce Hall for a long time, but he didn’t have a good summer, buried deep on the depth , I wanted him gone, very surprised that he made the 53, once again I was so wrong. Bryce was strong in coverage, was a consistent tackler, and scooped that ball up like a shortstop to put the game away ( that never happens). The Jets Defensive Line Rotation worked well in the Mile High City without Lawson, that front four was outstanding in the Fourth Quarter. Quincy on the Blitz is orgasmic , Offensive Coordinators burning the midnight oil trying to adjust to the Williams Brothers.. Jets need to get better, Zack needs to get a little more consistent, but he got more passing yards than the other Wilson, and I thought he ran the ball well. Nice to see Conklin and Hall flourishing. In petty news, Bill Belichek and Sean Payton are 1-4, couldn’t happen to nicer guys, let the dumpster fires continue.