After getting blown out in Jacksonville, the New York Jets head back home to face the Denver Broncos. Denver is coming off a tough loss at home on Monday night to the Chiefs, led by second-year phenom Patrick Mahomes. Denver will be on a short week, so it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

In their loss to Jacksonville, the Jets offense was held to 178 yards. Sam Darnold was under pressure all game, getting sacked three times. He managed to finish the game with one touchdown to no interceptions, but a few easy picks were dropped.

The defense was arguably worse. Much of this could be attributed to the amount of time spent on the field due to a sputtering offense. However, most of this should be put on the game plan and execution. The Jets were consistently beaten by the shallow cross. Dede Westbrook burned them for 9 catches and 130 yards.

The Jets did not appear to adjust at all, constantly passing off coverage while in their loose zone defense. Without a consistent pass rusher, Blake Bortles had plenty of time to go through his reads and check down to the open guy.

Overall it was an extremely sloppy game. The Jets offensive line might as well have taken the day off. This week they will face the two headed monster of edge rushers Von Miller and rookie Bradley Chubb. How they stop them will be a focus in these top three keys to a Jets victory.

3. Establish the run early

The Jets must slow down the Broncos pass rush if they are going to have any success on offense. They clearly lack the talent on the offensive line to protect their young quarterback traditionally, so they will need to get the run game going early to keep Denver off balance.

Last week, the Jets running backs were held to just 36 yards on 12 carries. Whether it was bad playcalling by new offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates or just poor execution by the offensive line, they can’t repeat the same mistake this time around.

The Jets need to establish the run early in this Week 5 matchup and continue to feed the rock to both Isaiah Crowell and Bilal Powell. Both are talented running backs that can get the job done but must be trusted enough by Bates to deliver.

Against Denver, they need to get both of their backs involved early to take the pressure off of Darnold and the Jets offensive line. This leads us to our next key.