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Once again, it’s a 50-50 deal
The Jets’ offensive struggles in Buffalo were equally the fault of the quarterback and head coach.
The quarterback struggled with reading defenses and accuracy.
And the head coach with some of his play calling, like his obsession with screen passes, and not featuring the tight ends more. Aside from Chris Herndon being minimally involved, Ryan Griffin and Trevon Wesco were afterthoughts. Wesco flashed a lot this summer as a receiver, and obviously he’s a very good blocker. The tight ends were like Maytag repairmen in the game. Why? I have no idea. Only Gase knows.
But then there were plenty of plays, where the play call seemed fine, and Darnold was inaccurate, perhaps due to mechanics and footwork, or other plays were he forced the throw to his first read. When a first read is covered, and the QB doesn’t leave that read, and cycle through his progressions smoothly, how is that the play-caller’s fault?
The Jets’ new line, did a decent job, so there really weren’t major protection issues in this game. I thought Darnold’s biggest problem in Buffalo was going to be his new-look offensive line with a bunch of new starters, against the Buffalo front seven, but aside from a few plays here and there, it wasn’t a problem.
Darnold needs to step up, and if he doesn’t, what would prevent Gase from putting in Joe Flacco or Mike White, if he thinks he’s coaching for his job? Gase is getting absolutely destroyed today by fans on social media, and by some in the press, including a gratuitous cheap shot from ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, who said Gase isn’t qualified to coach a fifth-grade team. Is that what passes for insight these days?
I’m not special-pleader for Gase, but to me, this is a 50-50 deal, and I stand by that.
I also stand by what I wrote yesterday that some of the defensive personnel decisions are baffling and need to re-evaluated.
Yesterday, we brought how it is wrong to expect 6-6, 290-pound Henry Anderson, with his 5.0 speed, to set the edge, and not get outflanked by speedy quarterbacks or runners. Also brought up the Kabuki Theatre of benching Pierre Desir for Nate Hairston. The first part of that move was fine, but the second part was a example of not knowing your own personnel. Hairston was benched last year for a reason. His positional instincts are suspect, so why on earth would you replace Desir with him? That is wild.
Here is another questionable in-game defensive personnel decision. Remember that 17-yard touchdown pass from Josh Allen to John Brown in the second quarter, where the quarterback had an insane amount of time to throw? I timed it, it was actually seven seconds, but could have been more, but he threw the pass. There was nobody even near him at the seven second mark. The Jets rushed three and had eight in coverage. That part is fine in the red zone, but the three rushers were Nathan Shepherd, Foley Fatukasi and Kyle Phillips, basically three run-stuffers, especially the first two. If you are going to rush three and drop eight, why not have two or three good pass rushers on the line? Shepherd is a great person, but very heavy-legged and struggles getting off blocks. I’m a little surprised he’s still here. I would move him to offensive guard, like they did with Brandon Moore many moons ago. He doesn’t have any twitch.
Somebody in the building needs to have the guts to have a heart-to-heart with Gregg Williams. Not about his coaching which his outstanding, but about his player utilization at times. Some of this stuff makes very little sense. There’s some kind of disconnect.
September 14, 2020
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