Observers of the league knew this would be an ugly, defensive and low-scoring\u00a0game. If the Jets were going to win, they would have to overcome an\u00a0excellent DEN defense and altitude. But who knew they would also have to\u00a0overcome losing four offensive starters: Elijah Moore (pouting), Corey Davis\u00a0(knee), Breece Hall (knee), and Alijah Vera-Tucker (elbow). With all that\u00a0adversity, it would’ve been easy for the “Same Old Jets” to re-appear, but a new\u00a0day seems to be dawning as they gutted out a 16-9 win:<\/p>\n
Special Teams<\/p>\n
– Greg Zuerlein was the difference in this game as he was perfect (3\/3 FGs, 1\/1\u00a0XP) generating 10 of the team’s 16 points. While Brandon McManus of DEN left 4\u00a0points on the field with a missed FG and XP. Those 4 points made a HUGE difference\u00a0at the end of the game; protecting a 16-9 lead is easier than a 16-13 lead.<\/p>\n
– Braden Mann was excellent with a 54.8 average but he’s got to eliminate the\u00a0“shanks”.<\/p>\n
– No opportunities for Braxton Berrios on punts (fair catches) or KOs.<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
– Solid effort by the defense but DEN offense has been garbage so it must be graded\u00a0on a curve. Particularly with Russell Wilson out and Brett Rypien making the start.\u00a0But only giving up 9 points on the road against a team with weapons like Jerry Jeudy,\u00a0Courtland Sutton, KJ Hamler and Melvin Gordon can’t be “sneezed at”.<\/p>\n
– The “front seven” was solid in controlling the DEN running game (105 yards), which kept\u00a0Rypien out of easy down and distances. But I was surprised at the DLine only generating\u00a0one sack, with Rypien attempting 46 passes.<\/p>\n
– Quinnen Williams followed up his “Hall Of Fame” GB game with a solid effort (4 Tackles,\u00a02 QB Hits)<\/p>\n
– But the stars of the defense was the secondary:<\/p>\n
* Ahmad Gardner was a beast with 10 Tackles and 3 Passes Defensed. And I apologize to\u00a0him for being critical of his tackling; he’s improved dramatically during the season.\u00a0Gardner has also earned respect from the officials in only seven games; they are\u00a0letting him get away with “chicken fighting” WRs without calling pass interference\u00a0penalties. His battles with Sutton on the last drive were very physical, but\u00a0no flags. And here’s an amazing stat, Gardner has 12 Passes Defensed in only seven games\u00a0he’s on pace for 30 Passes Defensed over a full season; that’s crazy!!!<\/p>\n
* DJ Reed had 8 Tackles with 3 Passes Defensed and I thought he put Jeudy out of the game\u00a0with the tackle he laid on him. What a free agent pickup (3 years \/ $33 million), and to
\nthink JC Jackson (5 years \/ 82.5 million) is being benched by the LAC.<\/p>\n
* The safety tandem continues their solid play. Jordan Whitehead had 4 Tackles and a Pass\u00a0Defensed while Lamarcus Joyner had a Pass Defensed and a big INT that set the offense up\u00a0for a FG. And most importantly, on deep passes, both of them are providing excellent support\u00a0to the CBs. Nice to see “busted coverages” disappearing.<\/p>\n
* Michael Carter and Brandin Echols both deserve credit for their contributions. They rotate\u00a0in, and there is no visible drop-off in production when the starters take a break.<\/p>\n
* CJ Mosley (8 Tackles) and Quincy Williams (5 Tackles) have been physical with an excellent range\u00a0as the starters at LB. But Kwon Alexander and Marcell Harris have been valuable as backups,\u00a0providing excellent speed off the bench.<\/p>\n
Offense<\/p>\n
– The best thing that could be said is the offense didn’t turn the ball over and was able to\u00a0provide one explosive play. Other than that, it wasn’t a good effort, particularly as they shot
\nthemselves repeatedly with 11 penalties for 85 yards.<\/p>\n
– Breece Hall was terrific, with 4 Rushes for 72 yards and a TD before getting hurt. And most of\u00a0the rushing offense that was generated (24 Rushes \/ 155 Yards) came off of Hall’s legs.<\/p>\n
– With Hall out, Michael Carter and a RB committee will have to carry the load. I wouldn’t mind\u00a0if Joe Douglas sent a pick to CLE for Kareem Hunt. We need a RB with the power to balance out Carter\u00a0and Ty Johnson. If Hunt isn’t an option, keep your eye out for Tevin Coleman being brought back.<\/p>\n
– I like the creativity that Mike LaFleur brings to the offense but he has to be better in short-yardage\u00a0situations. We shouldn’t have to be passing the ball on 3rd & 1 or 3rd & 2<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
– The best things to say about Zach Wilson are he’s 4-0 since coming back, he didn’t turn the ball\u00a0over, and he was able to escape pressure. Other than that going 16\/26 for 121 yards isn’t good, and\u00a0he MUST SHOW better awareness when escaping the pocket. He was lucky he didn’t give up a “scoop &\u00a0score” on that STUPID double “spin-a-rama”. Other than the 4th quarter of the PIT game, we have not\u00a0seen much out of Wilson in terms of flashing “franchise QB” ability. I understand the MIA, GB, and\u00a0DEN games focused on the ground game, and the NE & BUF games won’t be easy. But I’m definitely\u00a0looking for that “franchise QB” ability to appear and remain before his second season is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Observers of the league knew this would be an ugly, defensive and low-scoring\u00a0game. If the Jets were going to win, they would have to overcome an\u00a0excellent DEN defense and altitude. But who knew they would also have to\u00a0overcome losing four offensive starters: Elijah Moore (pouting), Corey Davis\u00a0(knee), Breece Hall (knee), and Alijah Vera-Tucker (elbow). With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":60934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-60933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/breece-hall-nyjets-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-fQN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60937,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933\/revisions\/60937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}