New York Jets Report Week 6.5

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The New York Jets are currently in between the toughest two games of their season, which are only four days apart. Stuck in a Broncos/Patriots sandwich, Rex Ryan and gang green are in the doldrums—more so than ever before in Ryan’s 5+ seasons at the helm.

As any of us would have predicted, the Jets dropped to 1-5 with a loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 6. The Jets played a competitive ballgame but the defending AFC champions proved to be too much for a much less talented team. New York’s season has all but flat-lined and the countdown to 2015 and probably Rex Ryan’s firing—is on.

This team is a train wreck and any expectations that came with this season are flushed down the toilet with this five game losing streak. Times don’t get any easier for gang green—they go to Foxboro on a short week to visit the division leading New England Patriots (4-2). A 1-6 mark and a six-game losing skid is staring the Jets in the face with no end to the plunge in sight.

The Jets are once again playing everybody’s survivor pool pick as the biggest underdogs of the week. I don’t even know what it would look like to see the Jets pull out a win in Week 7—it’s hard to do without being able to play a full sixty minutes of clean football.

There is plenty of blame to go around, starting with GM John Idzik on down to the coaches and the roster itself. As far as on the field goes a lack of execution and a lack of personnel on both sides of the ball clusters together to build the futile Jets. There are some talented individuals on both offense and defense but as a team, New York is underwhelming in all phases. That includes special teams where the Jets turned it over once again on Sunday; I guess it wasn’t only Jalen Saunders that couldn’t hold onto a punt.

Due to their many flaws, the Jets can’t be the team they want to be schematically on offense or defense. Many things hamper them but the examples I would like to mention are play calling on offense and the overcompensation strategy on defense we saw on Sunday.

Notice my focuses have nothing to do with stats but in case we needed reminders, here some of the numbers for the Jets’ inept offense:

[table id=21 /]

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We need to take a look at the man calling the plays and wonder who and what the Jets want to be as an offense. Marty Mornhinweg is hamstrung by a lack of talent at many skill positions—that isn’t his fault. There’s no deep threat, some poor offensive line play and a seemingly no capable quarterback option.

The fault on the offensive coordinator is the Jets’ lack of offensive identity. This team was supposed to commit to the run (or so we thought) behind their bruiser Chris Ivory with Chris Johnson peppered in. However in reality, the Jets don’t ground or pound and we know they aren’t a high-flying passing offense. Morhinweg’s questionable offensive strategy and play calls haven’t help the Jets overcome their deficiencies one bit.

Mornhinweg has led on for weeks that he doesn’t trust Geno Smith and all signs point to that being reasonable. Therefore, Geno isn’t given the power to call an audible like Peyton Manning would at the line of scrimmage. The issue is Ryan and Mornhinweg seem like they’re going through a charade of putting the game in the hands of a quarterback they don’t believe in.

With most of the pass plays being that of the conservative variety, Mornhinweg still had Smith throw the ball 43 times against Denver. If you don’t trust him throw the ball down the field, why abandon the run game? If he’s got to throw the ball, let him actually throw it. Find out what we have in the kid and let him sling it around a little bit. If not, run the rock.

The Jets somehow settled for 31 yards on the ground versus Denver and wouldn’t continue use the ground game. The Broncos stacked the box with eight men on nearly all of New York’s unimaginative first down rushing plays and stuffed the rush early on, so clearly they gave up. But the Jets could have used the run more on second down or called some more creative runs; they didn’t need to abort the plan altogether. Especially not against offenses you want to give fewer possessions to.

It’s clear Geno can’t carry the offensive load so why has he thrown the ball as many times as Peyton Manning and more times than Aaron Rogers? Dumbfounding. With the exception of the San Diego game (in which Geno only played a half), they were all one score affairs in which the Jets didn’t have to abort their running mission as early as they did.

The run game is what the Jets needed and still need in order to keep opposing offenses off the field and set up what little passing game they possess. What kind of quarterback do they want Geno to be? Mornhinweg is a bit inconsistent in letting us know.

On defense, things are going…well they’re going how you’d expect when only half of your defense is capable. The Jets aren’t able to be themselves in the run game due to the underwhelming secondary. That normally suffocating front seven must compensate for the weaknesses in the back, compromising their rushing attack.

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Many times in Week 6, the Jets split out their linebackers on the line of scrimmage to provide help on Denver’s dynamic receiving corps and confuse Manning. It worked for a while but Peyton made his adjustments, checking down to a run play straight up the gut on many of these occasions. Altogether the Broncos rushed for 138 yards, exploiting the Jets in a way you wouldn’t expect from them generally. The vulnerable rushing lanes were a direct result of the faulty secondary play we’ve seen all season and the bad news is that no help is on the way.

The fact that Ryan did an admirable job attempting to trip up the Broncos doesn’t matter; the point is that this situation is caused by an inept secondary that doesn’t have the talent to hold its own with a receiving corpse of any quality. It’s too bad Ryan would never get another job in this league if he stood up at the podium and told the truth about Idzik and his gross mismanagement of this roster, most notably the defense. Over a dozen adequate options came and went elsewhere with continued inaction and the head coach is paying for it now.

Rex’s defensive scheme is dependent on cornerbacks being able to handle a certain amount of man-to-man coverage. More times than not, the Jet corners aren’t all over their man until he’s already caught the ball.

Adding in the San Diego debacle in Week 5, New York has surrendered 300 yards rushing the past two weeks. That’s despicable for any defense—even more so for a defense that was expected to extinguish opponents’ attempts to run the ball.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: In Week 6, tight end Jace Amaro finally looked like the guy the Jets drafted out of Texas Tech. The second round pick found himself making catches all over the field; he finished with a team-high ten receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown. Amaro was lined up in the slot as well as out wide and looks to be a dangerous red zone threat moving forward. Amaro coming into his own and being the safety valve for the Jets QB, whoever it is, gives the offense an immeasurable boost.

He was used more like a receiver than a tight end in Lubbock, making Amaro adept offensively and ready for the NFL right away. He unsurprisingly had some troubles with blocking early on being that they ran the ball so many less times and he was often not lined up on the line of scrimmage.

We’ve seen how dominant tight ends with size like Jimmy Graham, Julius Thomas and Rob Gronkowski achieve success in this league with their size and offensive skills. While Amaro isn’t on that level, his skill set is similar even if unpolished. Another difference? Those other examples all play with elite quarterbacks. Given the opportunity to play a significant role on a capable offense, #88 can and will flourish.

BEATING THE PATS: It feels like a long shot at this point for the Jets to win any game, let alone a game in the rain at Foxboro. To be fair, the Jets generally play New England tough and the games are normally close. In order to keep this one close the Jets will need to NOT throw the ball in Darrelle Revis’ direction and find their identity on offense running the ball. Even if it fails first, Mornhinweg needs to insist on establishing the run game and wearing down the Pats’ defensive front. This will lead to more first downs, longer drives and less time for Tom Brady on the field. Not to mention it will set up the play-action pass.
On defense it’s simple: get to Brady and put him on his behind. The Jets did an alright job on the Broncos’ explosive receiving corps but they won’t get as much help from their linebackers. The pressure needs to get put on Brady before he picks the Jet secondary apart like every other elite QB has.

Even so, I say the Jets cover the spread and keep this within single digits if they don’t miraculously pull off the upset. Enjoy Thursday Night Football—hopefully gang green shows well for themselves.