Sunday Morning Preview: An All-22 look at the New York Jets through two weeks

The New York Jets come to Foxborough today to take on a New England Patriots team that is coming off two straight blowout wins to start the year. New England will be without Antonio Brown from here on out, but the team is in good shape for Week 3 playing the Jets. New York has shown flashes this year, but ultimately their quarterback troubles and offensive line play is keeping them from winning any games so far.

Let’s take a look at the coaches film to see how the Jets have started the year 0-2.

Jets Offense

Ground Game

The Jets have run the ball 44 times through two weeks for a grand total of 161 yards. That’s already down at 25th in the NFL, and it honestly should be even lower. Le’Veon Bell is a freak of nature and can turn nothing into something with ease. Unfortunately, he has to do that a lot in this offense.

The Jets like to run Bell’s favorite runs: inside zone, counter, and duo. Unfortunately, they can’t block any of these consistently. Bell is constantly stuffed in the backfield quickly. The Jets receivers don’t make this any better as they rarely block the safeties, so there’s always a second level defender running free, and sometimes there’s multiple. Bell somehow gets back to the line of scrimmage and even gains positive yardage on some of these runs, but it rarely looks pretty.

The Patriots should be able to contain the run, but they must also wrap up and get Bell to the ground because having good gap control is only part of the equation when facing this runner.

Here are some runs against Buffalo:

And some more runs against Cleveland:

I’m sure Belichick will have plans to take Bell out of the game because they can’t let him do stuff like this today.

Pass Protection

The Jets’ offensive line woes continue in the passing game as well. The pocket has collapsed so quickly through the first two weeks, giving the three quarterbacks that have played little time to find the open man. The O-line has also let in many free rushers even when the defense only sends five. The Patriots should attack this aspect of the Jets offense, especially on third downs when they go to their dime package and use all kinds of stunts.

Passing vs Cover 1

Since the Patriots love to run their cover 1 defense, I added clips of the Jets passing the ball against cover 1 from the Bills and Browns (two solid man coverage teams like the Patriots). There was very little separation in both games from the Jets’ receivers.

On top of this, Jets receiver, Robby Anderson, made the smart decision to call out Stephon Gilmore for getting away with lots of holding...

Jets Defense

Run Defense

The Jets’ run defense has been solid through two weeks, giving up 198 yards on 46 carries. The unit can be vulnerable to the outside, however, specifically against pin and pull sweep runs.

Football Concepts

The Patriots are certainly no stranger to these type of runs to the perimeter, so look for these today.

Disguise in pass defense

The Jets like to disguise their coverages under defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. A good disguise on defense is a solid strategy when attempting to slow down Tom Brady and the Pats offense. The Jets specifically like this cover 2 wrinkle where they send a defensive back down the deep middle of the field rather than a linebacker. Here’s what it looks like:

The Jets run this wrinkle a lot and also do some other cool disguises. Overall though, they’re keeping their deep middle defender down at the line of scrimmage pre snap a lot, which means there are opportunities to take some shots downfield for the Patriots if they continue to play this defense today. Either way, it should be a great matchup between Brady and Williams’ disguise defense.

The Patriots are huge favorites yet again (-21.5), and they should be. The Jets have Luke Falk at quarterback, their offensive line is playing poorly, and it doesn’t help that they’re on a short week. New England should be able to run the ball effectively on the Jets like they have against Pittsburgh and Miami and take it to the perimeter with pulling linemen.

Gregg Williams will probably throw a lot at Brady, and there should be some opportunities for some deep shots against this defense. On the other side of the ball, Le’Veon Bell must be the top priority, as the Patriots have to not only stop the run but get Bell to the ground, as well as take him away in the passing game. And I expect third downs to be ugly for the Jets, as their pass protection has been weak so far and they can’t seem to separate against man coverage.