Jets LB Corps Needs To Step Up For “Bend-But-Don’t-Break” D To Stifle Dink-And-Dunk Pats
Not that any week is a good week for linebacker C.J. Mosley to miss, but the Jets will sorely feel the pain should their defensive bandleader’s ailing hamstring indeed sideline him for Sunday’s rematch in New England.
Mosley said he got hurt on the second-to-last play of the Jets’ 27-20 loss to Atlanta in England two Sundays ago, the team’s last game before the bye week. He has not practiced this week but will be a game-time decision on Sunday, per Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh.
After playing three healthy quarters in 2019, his first season In New York following his signing a mega free agent contract, due to a groin injury, Mosley took the COVID-19 option to sit out the entire 2020 campaign. As important as Mosley is to Gang Green’s defense, especially against New England’s dink-and-dunk attack in the short zones, it would be foolish to rush him back and risk losing him for a more extended period, like they did two years ago when Mosley limped through a half in a midseason game in New England and then was done for the season.
With Mosley playing well, the Patriots still manhandled the Jets in a 25-6 Week 2 rout in which the main story was rookie Gang Green quarterback Zach Wilson’s four interceptions. However, as it has been for much of New York’s 1-4 start, their defense in that contest only appeared bright when compared to the disastrous offense.
Look, I know there’s this consensus that the defense hasn’t been half bad--and you can credit them for their adjustments after the halftime breaks this season--but understand that it’s easier to do when the opponent is always up by multiple scores and prioritizing running out the clock without risking turnovers.
In an earlier column, I mused how Jets defense’s performances in first halves paint a far less rosy picture--and those stats only got worse after the Falcons loss. Overall, New York is ranked 18th in the league in points allowed and 22nd in yards allowed—not all that atrocious. Doubling their first-half results, however, would place them 31st and 28th, respectively.
When you go through the games, you can see that with the exception of their sole victory over Tennessee, every time the Jets needed a defensive stop, they’ve rolled over. The first New England game was basically decided early in the third quarter when the Patriots capitalized on a short field following Wilson’s final pick, with running back Damien Harris breaking about six tackles in a 26-yard touchdown run. It should also be noted that as New England built up a 13-3 halftime lead, only one of their possessions started beyond their own 31-yard line despite three takeaways.
Against the Jets’ bend-but-don’t break defense, New England’s own rookie QB Mac Jones found it easy pickings for his dump-off game, completing passes to seven different receivers as he rolled up 142 yards through the air before intermission.
Of the Jets’ defenders that week, Mosley earned the highest coverage grade from ProFootballFocus.com, allowing three receptions on four targets for a mere 17 yards with one pass breakup and no missed tackles. Fellow linebacker Quincy Williams had all kinds of difficulties with James White coming out of the Patriots’ backfield, and though White is out for the season and Williams has since made quite a few highlight-reel tackles, you can expect the Patriots to target all their receivers on underneath routes against a depleted Jets’ linebacking crew that has also been without free agent acquisition Jarrad Davis all season due to a left ankle injury.
Jones feasts on those plays, ranking fourth in the league in completion percentage at 71.1%, mostly because he gets rid of the ball fast (2.64 seconds on average, sixth-quickest in the league, per NFL NextGen Stats) and not too far (5.3 air yards per completion, 27th among 33 qualified QBs).
He is not, however, all that mobile, with just three scrambles all season that have gained a total of 21 yards. Whatever success the Jets had in the first meeting came when they could generate a pass rush. Unfortunately, PFF counted only seven times that occurred on 33 Jones dropbacks. It resulted in three sacks, three misfired passes, and a loss of a yard on the one completion.
That’s just not nearly enough pressure . New York blitzed only six times that day, by far their lowest blitz percentage in any game this season (only 10 teams have blitzed more often than the Jets 27% rate this season, per ProFootballReference.com). If defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich thinks he can have his team sit back and play coverage again on Sunday, someone needs to teach him about Einstein’s definition of insanity.
If Mosley can’t go, the next man up for New York is rookie fifth-round pick Jamien Sherwood, who was a safety at Auburn. He was inactive for the first Patriots game with a bum ankle and has played only 85 snaps all season. My suggestion: Send him—and other blitzers—on the pass rush often. Have the secondary creep up to force Jones to beat them over the top. His NFL passer rating among QBs drops from 20th overall to 26th among QBs with at least 10 throws that travelled at least 20 yards downfield.
I’m not expecting much from this team on Sunday, especially if their linebacker crew is decimated, but it would be nice if the game could be competitive in the fourth quarter.
Prediction: Patriots 27 Jets 9