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Some thought this would benefit the Jets, but actually it was the reverse.
The New England Patriots under Bill Belichick have a history of not having the strongest starts (by their high standards) and then getting better as the season progresses. We all know about their excellence in November and December. Example – they beat the Jets 38-3 to wrap up the 2018 regular season.
So some surmised it was good for the Jets to face the Patriots twice earlier in the season, first in Week Two, and then in Week Seven.
Well, actually, playing them in Week Three turned into a disaster.
Why?
It goes deeper than them being an excellent team and having Tom Brady at quarterback.
Another big problem was the Jets having new systems on offense and defense, and a ton of new players, and they were facing a well-oiled machine, with a lot of veteran players, who have been in their offensive and defensive systems for a long-time.
So you have a team with myriad players well-versed on what their coaches want them to do, against a team with too many players thinking instead of reacting right now as they get comfortable in their new playbook and with their new coaches.
And you saw the results of that combination on Sunday.
Two areas where the Jets growth curve/chemistry issues were apparent in Foxboro were on the offensive line and the secondary, and the Patriots took advantage of both units early and often.
The Jets’ offensive line had issues with communicating on switch-off blocks on stunts and blitz overloads.
The Patriots do a lot of sophisticated things up front, and if the opposing offensive line doesn’t communicate on a very high level, they are in trouble.
Late in the first quarter, we saw a good example of an issue with a switch-off. The Patriots ran a stunt against the Jets’ right tackle Brandon Shell and right guard Brian Winters. Shell was blocking outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, and defensive end Michael Bennett looped over to rush against Shell also. The right tackle was overwhelmed and Bennett sacked Falk. What was Shell supposed to do, block two guys? The communication on handling this stunt wasn’t handled very well.
With 9:30 left in the game, OLB Chase Winovich and Van Noy split a sack. There were a lot of issues on this play, but the thing that stood out the most was with all the chaos, was Brian Winters sitting in his gap, and picking up nobody. Granted, there was nobody rushing right at him, but perhaps he should have helped out somewhere else.
On the Jets’ last possession of the game, you saw something similar happen. Collins had a sack and on this play Kelechi Osemele, like Winters, didn’t pick up anybody. Collins looped into a gap to Osemele’s right, but the left guard didn’t touch him, and Ryan Kalil could not get over fast enough and Collins registered another sack. Osemele was preoccupied with safety Jason McCourty who pretended he was going to blitz, but then ended up dropping into coverage at the last second.
The Patriots were playing chess with their rushing schemes, and the Jets were often playing checkers trying to stop them.
Experienced well-coached unit vs. a line learning a new system that has hardly played together = a recipe for disaster.
I will get into the Jets’ coverage issues against the Patriots complex passing schemes tomorrow.
September 25, 2019
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