New York Jets Breakdown Week 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Photo via New York Jets Twitter.
The Good:
Unfortunately, there is not going to be too much in this section. Pretty rough game today.
Sam Darnold: Sam Darnold has almost nothing to work with. A completely depleted receiving core, Bell out, and poor effort from tight ends. He has every excuse to be terrible and given the pressure from the NY media, and the 49ers defense, I kind of expected it. However, he played well today. Stepped into throws, didn't make mistakes, and ran the ball for once. Sam needs to continue to run the ball himself when opportunities arise and throw the ball away when the pass isn’t there. This tweet from the Jets Twitter sums it up nicely.
The O-Line: Minus a complete blow tackle from McGovern on a crucial 4th and 1, the O-Line is playing well. Becton continues to impress and the line seems to be gelling.
Berrios: As we continue to be ravaged by injuries, our secondary lineup gets some chances in the spotlight. Berrios has a ton of heart, and that is something the Jets are in desperate need of. He comes back to the ball and clearly has a passion for the game. He seems like a good dude and I hope he continues to develop.
Q: Quinnen Williams played well today, had a forced fumble, 2 sacks, 4 tackles, and 3 assists. He is very young and the 49ers line is stacked, so if he can build off this game, it will go a long way for us.
The Bad:
Defense: Bad day for the defense. Usually, Greg Williams has his team ready but that was not the case today. An 80-yard running touchdown on the first play is atrocious, but what is worse is a conversion of a 3rd and 31 on a run. The defense seemed sluggish all day and got picked apart by a gimpy Garoppolo and a backup. I know we have injuries, but it's the lack of effort that worries me.
Herndon: It pains me to my core to put Herdon on this list. He had one catch for 5 yards and dropped a great pass from Sam for a touchdown. He seems to be missing his burst from his rookie year and isn't getting enough separation. He has a chance to become great, but he is missing his opportunity right now.
The Ugly:
Injuries: At this rate, the Jets will need to pull from the Reddit to get a full 53 man roster by week 6. I don’t know if it's our training staff or just unlucky, but we are completely ravaged by injuries. Mims, Crowder, Perriman, and Bell to name just a few on offense.
The Play Calling:
Sweet mother of god, if I see one more WR screen on a 3rd and long situation I'm gonna scream. Darnold throws a great downfield ball (when he has time), but we don't throw more than 20 yards downfield. This allows the defense to try different defensive schemes that completely lock us down. We ran it way too much today with little results and with the 49ers main pass rushers out, we should have been throwing from the shotgun.
What Needs To Happen:
There is only one thing that can help the Jets at this point. Fire Adam Gase. There is no need to wait, we know what he will call when he will call it and what the results will be. He is doing a massive disservice to Sammy D. Christopher Johnson doesn't want to admit his mistake, but continuing to allow awfulness to persist is a show of bad judgment and hubris. The Jets will not be able to get anything meaningful out of this season if we continue to allow Adam Gase to ground us. If we fire Adam Gase before Sunday, there is a chance at a win against the colts, if not I doubt we get past 17 points.
New York Jets Breakdown Week 1: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Photo via New York Jets Twitter
The Good:
The whole team got punched in the lip in the first half minus the last 2 minutes. We were in preseason mode, and Buffalo was not. HOWEVER, we did manage to stick around. There were plenty of missed opportunities but certain players, Maye, Bless, and Darnold stuck around and played hard.
Run Defense: We held the running backs to 41 yards, Singletary had 30 and Moss had 11. We needed to do better with QB containers as Allen had 54 yards. We had two forced fumbles but got gashed on some plays.
Maye and Bless: These two balled out today. While there were some issues with coverage for Bless, he read the run extremely well and hit hard. The next steps for him will be working on his confidence so he can play closer man to man. Maye played great today, 2 passes, 1 forced fumble, 2 sacks, 10 tackles. I’m sure he is not happy, but he played well. He made some great adjustments after the half.
Darnold: This will be controversial, but I think Darnold played better than he should have all things considered. 21-35, 60% passing, 215 yards, average 6.1 yards, 1 TD, and 1 awful pick. Early on the line looked rough, slightly better than last year, but largely the same had pressure in his face the whole game. The pick was a Sam Darnold staple pick, trying to do too much and should have run it. However, hit after hit he got up and tried to get us back in the game.
Gregg Williams: The one true consistent for the NY Jets, Greg Williams will have the defense ready to play. We got good pressure (couldn't capitalize on this due to missed tackles), great run defense, forced fumbles. He was given very little to work with, but he did well.
The Bad:
Offense Line: For and ⅗ of the game the line looked bad, a couple of holding calls, no real holes for running, and no time for Sammy D. They started to click a bit more towards the end which is a good sign, but they still need a lot of work. Van Roten seems to be the weakest link, but let me know what you think!
Missed tackles: These were all over the place for us this game. Missed Allen a bunch, some wide receivers slipped by, and generally just some poor effort.
Curl Routes: Sweet mother of pearl these plays were the bane of the Jets this week. At least 3 or 4 times a drive Allen would easily hit these. This is a result of the Jets not having enough confidence and playmakers to play man to man.
The Ugly:
By far in a way, the Jets wide receivers were horrendous today. They didn't get separation, did not come back to the ball, and dropped open/contested catches. Crowder showed great effort, but everyone else is a huge letdown. Chris Hogan looked awful and ran routes slower than Jason Witten. If he is going to play like that, use Crowder and Berrios, at least Berrios has speed. Griffin was a no show and Herdon was outright disappointing. He looked sluggish and stopped all momentum for the Jets with that awful, AWFUL fumble. Hopefully it first game jitters, but off to a shaky start to say the least. With the injuries to our WR, we need to sign Thomas or trade for someone else. Mims won’t play until midseason mostly likely and Sam has to develop chemistry with someone other than Crowder.
Injuries: Seriously, what the hell is up with these injuries? Do we need to reevaluate our training staff? Cashman went out which is brutal for us as we are very thin at Linebacker. And the most brutal punch of the day is the injury to Bell, not sure how long he will be out, just a complete punch in the gut. He was playing well, only had 6 runs but was finding some holes, and was a factor in the passing game. He was open for a TD on the injury play but got caught up with a Bills player. If that play goes different, then the rest of the game might look different as well. If Bell is out long term, with Perine out already we will need to sign another back. BRING BACK POWELL!
The 21-0 start was horrific, but we didn't lay down and got much better as the game went on. Next week we face the 49ers at home. As they are an away team from the west coast, the timezones will be a factor, and if the Jets can continue to play well against the run, we may have a shot. BUT that will completely depend on whether or not the Jets O-Line can stop a stack pass rush. Hopefully, LB's can get healthy quickly, otherwise Kittle will have a big day. That being said I think the Jets lose next week by a similar score. I'll say Jets 20 - 49ers 28. While an 0-2 start is bad, I think we win 4 of the next games. Colts, Broncos, Cardinals, and Chargers. I think we have some favorable matchups here especially on defense, but this will completely depend on injuries and development. If the Jets are well below .500 next time we see the Bills, it will be time to move on from Gase.
I am an optimist so take what I say lightly, I know the Jets don't encourage optimism.