Alright so this is something new that I am going to be trying, were gonna call it big dogs breakdowns and it’s gonna be where I break down the Jets game from the previous week. I will include some GIFs that I make showing some highlights and some low lights(mostly low lights). As time goes on I will get better about making sure all the analysis is in chronological order and I will include some more specific time stamps from the game when referencing plays but overall it will just be what I see looking back on the previous weeks game film.

I wanted to start this breakdown off on a positive note, this is the only play I deemed worthy from the first half to get a highlight designation.

I love watching Jamal Adams blitzing from the second level against the run. It seems every game he is coming off the edge and chasing down the ball carrier for a tackle for a loss. Here the Jags are running a trap to the right side of the formation, Adams recognizes this and replaces the pulling guard Norwell allowing him a clean shot on Fournette. I mean I could just watch that clip all day, it almost makes you forget the Jets got blown out.

Watching the game it was clear the Jags defensive front was going to be too much for the Jets to deal with. This was especially evident in the running game. The Jets were only able to muster 34 yards on the ground on 14 carries for an abysmal 2.4 yards per carry. One big thing that was jumping out to me is the penetration the interior defensive linemen were able to get against the Jets. With the Jets trying to run more of an outside zone running scheme, penetration is killer. Below is a prime example of what the Jags consistent penetration was able to do to disrupt the Jets running attack.

Now there is a lot wrong with the above play, but the first thing that jumps off the screen is Brian Winters getting blown off the ball. Now this is a tough block for Winters to make, you’re basically asking him to reach block Malik Jackson who is lined up on his outside shoulder. In an ideal scenario, you have Snell and Winters combo Jackson up to the linebacker Myles Jack, but with the Jags lining Dareus on the outer shoulder of Snell that isn’t possible. However even if the pressure doesn’t ruin the play from the start you still were going to have Myles Jack unblocked in the hole. Because Snell thinks he is going to be blocking the guy lined up on him, he doesn’t get to the second level, even after Dareus leaves on a stunt. There was another play in the second quarter which went for a Crowell 2 yard loss where Spencer long was the one who allowed early pressure disrupting the play. The Jets offensive line needs to do a better job of combo blocking to the next level to try and help avoid the early penetration on running plays.

Another thing the offensive line has done poorly in the recent weeks is deal with defensive line stunts, as seen below.

We are going to ignore Snell getting put in the spin cycle and just focus on Winters and Long, because the Jets ability to deal with stunts is something that is more concerning to me. So on the above play you have Winters(67) and Long(61) to block Campbell(93) and Jackson(97). So here if the Jags rush how they are lined up, Long would be 1-1 with Campbell and Winters would be 1-1 with Jackson. Jackson fakes up field like he is going to stay in the rush lane that he is lined up in, but then loops around to the A gap for an untouched sack. Winters and Long do a good job of securing Campbell, however Long has got to disengage with and be there to meet the looping Jackson.

It always seems the Jets commit the most back breaking penalties. Chris Herndon had an incredible juggling catch on the side line and it was negated by a dumb holding penalty. Also I’m not sure if I imagined this but I’m pretty sure I saw during the telecast that the Jets have the most accepted penalties this year which is just atrocious. Speaking of Herndon, he had a nice over the shoulder catch along the sideline and I think he has played well so far this year. I only have two gripes from what I’ve seen from him so far, one, you gotta get in the end zone against the Dolphins, obviously it was a difficult play but you gotta get in there. Second, on his crossing routes, he tends to drift up field and it allows defenders to cover him and any one behind him. I saw it against Cleveland and I saw it again against the Jags, he’s still a raw talent but I like what I’ve seen thus far.

Last note on the offense’s first half performance before moving onto Defense. I forgot the two misses to Powell and Enunwa on wheel routes were both in the first half, I thought they were later in the game. Also Darnold has to make one of those throws, I know touch passes like them aren’t the easiest but you have to make one. He’s still young but those are the plays I want to see him starting to make, those are the plays that give fan bases confidence.

Alright now onto the defensive side of the ball, watching the game real time I couldn’t believe how open some of the Jags receivers were. I mean the Jets made Bortles look like Joe Montana, and it was on just simple route concepts that were killing the Jets. Watching the game back, Lee and Williamson were doing poor jobs of passing the crossing routes off between zones, this allowed for the receivers to catch the ball in stride and left the Jets to chase.

The play above doesn’t necessarily show what I mentioned above but it does show how open some of these receivers were all day. On this play the Jets seem to running one high safety, rushing 5 with Darron Lee either waiting for a running back to slip out of the back field or as a spy on Bortles. Secondary appears to be in Man to Man but yet Westbrook is allowed to run buck naked across the entire defense. More than likely Buster Skrine was meant to be in man coverage, and there was some sort of miscommunication. The Jags ran this exact same play later in the game for the exact same result.

What concerns me is the defense seems to be trending in the wrong direction. Against the Lions they said they knew what the Lions were running and then against the Jags there were many times were players were left uncovered.

The big play in the second half was the TJ Yeldon TD, but 2 plays before that the Jags converted on a 3rd-14. On the 3rd and -14, the Jets were in zone, it was a play action which allowed O’Shaughnessy to get in between the backers and the safety’s for an easy catch. However Jamal Adams had a one on one tackle to stop O’Shaughnessy short of the line to gain and he missed the tackle, allowing the Jags to gain the 1st. Below is the TJ Yeldon Touchdown.

Darron Lee, trying to knock the receiver off his crossing route as he crosses in front of his face. In doing so he gets his body completely turned away from where he is supposed to be in zone. This allows Yeldon and Bortles one of the easiest throws and catches you will see. Johnson gets blocked out of the play and Maye lunges at a crossing route which allows Yeldon to get the angle to the end zone. Terrible job all around on this play.

Second Half:

Second half starts and the defense allows a first down on the very first play and I’m thinking it’s more of the same. Jamal Adams goes on to make 3 consecutive tackles to force a punt. One of the plays he makes includes the one below, which is similar to the play shown at the beginning of the breakdown.

Adams ability to come off the edge has been great to start the season. He showed flashes of this last year but wasn’t able to put it all together over a whole season but through the first 4 games he looks to have improved since last year.

When the Jets got the ball on their 2 yard line I didn’t have high hopes for the drive, but what I didn’t expect was for the game to end right there. Being down 16 to 0 after 1 half is bad, but I thought some adjustments at half and maybe we could at least make the game competitive. Instead the Jets immediately gave up a safety, as shown below.

This is a shit job done by the entire offensive line here. It looks to be a simple power run play out of the I formation, with a lead blocker. Beachums job is to block Calais Campbell, instead he lets Campbell cross his face barely touched and have a free shot on Crowell. On the other side, Dareus, crosses Brian Winters face and is able to meet Campbell at the ball carrier for the safety. This is just a poor job by the Jets O-Line of not communicating and allowing a simple defensive line slant to generate 2 free runners. As I said earlier, the offensive line communication has to get better if the Jets want to be competitive.

Speaking of communication, I saw a report today saying the Jets were going to start having players defensive meetings every Friday to go over communication to ensure the communication is better. The communication in the secondary was terrible in this game and is a main reason the Jags were able to have so many open receivers.

Todd Bowles continues to be the most conservative coach in the history of football. He consistently punts in 4th and short around midfield when the Jets are down multiple scores, grow some balls for me one time Todd.

In the third quarter the Jets were able to get their first of three turnovers in the game which lead to their first points of the game in the way of a field goal. But when you want to win games you have to put the ball in the end zone, starting from the other teams 23, has to be scenario where you come away with a TD.

The Jets trade for Henry Anderson has been one of the better moves made this off season. He has been able to generate pressures, has 2.5 sacks thus far and shown an ability to get his hands in passing lanes batting 4 passes so far this year.

One play Trumaine Johnson would like to forget is the TD to Donte Moncrief, shown below.

Johnson allows Moncrief a free release off the line at which point it just turns into a foot race where he gets burnt. Johnson likes to get his hands on you early and disrupt the timing of the routes, and when he isn’t able to he’s susceptible to getting beat deep.

It’s not a secret that Quincy is Darnolds favorite target as he is currently pacing the Jets with 37 targets. I would like to have Darnold spread the ball around some more as I think it would give our offense a different dynamic, but it is great to have Quincy back. Just take a look at the play below.

His ability to gain yards after the catch is huge for the Jets, and there was another play just like the one above that went for 39 yards that got negated by a holding call. Also Darnolds ability to move out of the pocket and deliver a strike on the run is fun to watch.

One thing I noticed when watching the game in real time was I felt that the Jags dropped some easy interceptions. I know Ramsey dropped one in the end zone, and it lead me to do some research where I found an unsettling statistic. Sam Darnold leads the NFL in turnover worthy throws. Coming out of USC that was the big knock on him that he was turnover prone, and it’s something he need to clean up going forward to have a productive career. Another area he needs to improve is his deep throw accuracy, if the Jets want to utilize Robby Andersons skill set Darnold needs to be able to get him the ball down the field more consistently.

A positive note I had on Darnold was on the TD pass to Leggertt, he showed nice touch to get it over 2 leaping defenders and dropped it into the receivers bread basket. He has had his ups and downs this year but there are encouraging signs.

As I’ve stated the drag routes killed the Jets all game as did the running backs slipping out of the back field. To many times running backs are able to slip out and be open in the flat for long gains, see Frank Gore on 3-18 against Miami. The linebackers need to be more disciplined and not rush too soon. Below is an example of one of the many buck naked drag routes the Jags utilized on the Jets. This is the same play that was shown above.

Jets are in man defense across the board with one deep safety like they were before. They are bringing a blitz which forces Bortles to throw early, only problem is before the Blitz can get the sack, Westbrook comes open underneath. Skrine is the man in coverage and he gets knocked 5 yards off his man by a TE running up field. This is a legal play by the Jags, Skrine just needs better awareness as to not get knocked off his path this much. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Skrine did force and recover a fumble the following play.

Watching the Jamal Adams unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in real time I thought it was a bull shit call and again watching it after the fact I still think it was horse shit. Neither of the two closest officials threw a flag when it happened, and you can see Westbrook trying to break free from the tackle up until the end. I couldn’t hear the whistle real time and replay doesn’t have sound so maybe that affects it but I don’t like the call.

Below is another example of the O-Line getting beat on a stunt… again.

Overall this was a bad performance by the Jets, there is no sugar coating a 32-12 beating. The Jets had a +3 turnover margin and had plenty of chances to get back into the game and the offense couldn’t capitalize. The line needs to do better to establish the run and protect Darnold. Darnold need to do a better job of not throwing the ball late into trouble, and the coaches need to do a better job calling route concepts that will utilize the receivers skill sets.

On defense the biggest thing is communication, you can’t have as many coverage break downs as the Jets did and expect to win in the NFL. Forcing 3 turnovers is a game you’d expect your team to win. Going in I thought this was a good match up for the defense, going against a sub par passing attack and a hurt Fournette I thought they had a chance to win us one and instead they shit the bed.

Next week the Jets take on the Broncos and if you don’t think they will try and do the same things as the Jags your nuts. The Broncos defensive line is no joke and they are the only team this year to hold KC to under 30. The Broncos will try and isolate Von Miller on both tackles who have struggled at times, and have Bradley Chubb and Shane Ray stunt to get some free rushes at Darnold. Case Keenum hasn’t looked sharp this year but Demaryius Thomas and Emmanual Sanders are two established receivers who can both do damage after the catch. Royce Freeman and Lindsey have formed a solid 1-2 punch and the Jets will need to stop them first to try and force Keenum to beat them.

We will have more picks coming this Saturday/Sunday, as I refuse to bet on the Patriots games out of principle.

-Big Dog

Also shout out me for making all these fire GIFs.