Thoughts and observations from the New York Jets opening week loss to the Buffalo Bills.
The New York Jets opened the 2017 campaign with a battle against the division rival Buffalo Bills. They were in the game for a while, but in the end they couldn’t keep up and fell by the score of 21-12. Here are our thoughts and initial observations:
- The defense is going to keep the Jets in games. Not much is expected of the offense, but the defense has the ability to slow teams down. For three quarters of the game, the Jets defense did just that.
- We had talked about the key being the ability to run the football, and the Jets simply couldn’t do it. Bilal Powell led the way with 22 yards on seven carries. That is not going to carry the day ever.
- However, Josh McCown did have an effective day, especially on moderate passes. For the game he went 26-39 for 187 yards and two late interceptions. It wasn’t flashy but until late he was keeping the team moving and staying out of the way.
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- On defense, Josh Martin continued his solid play from the preseason, at times seeming all over the field. His stats reflected 3.5 tackles and .5 sacks, and he provided pressure on many other plays.
- The pass defense gave up too many plays through the air. The Bills were 8-17 on third down for a conversion rate of 47%. If they are going to put the offense into a good position, they have to get off the field on third down. The Jets defense didn’t do that enough.
- No matter the regime, speedy running backs give the Jets fits. LeSean McCoy did it again, putting up 110 yards on the ground and 49 through the air. It never changes.
Next: OBJ hopeful to play on Sunday night
A lot of this is what we expected out of this team. We knew that the offense was going to have difficulty. If the Jets were going to win any games at all, the defense had to make the difference. It did for most of the day but the offense couldn’t keep them off the field long enough. The offense just isn’t good enough.