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The Patriots ran for 215 yards in their win over the Jets in late November. That will not happen this time . . .
“They whooped us at the point of attack,” Jets defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers said today. “They ripped us new one. There was no doubt. From my standpoint, I felt like we should have been embarrassed, some of the runs we gave up. It was just really unacceptable.”
And I doubt that anything like that will happen this time around. The Jets’ run defense is much better now, thanks, in part, to a pair of lineup changes.
Darron Lee’s struggles stacking and shedding blocks hurt the Jets a great deal in their first game against New England.
Two examples:
*Late third, on a James White gain of 27 to the right side, Lee got taken out by pulling guard Joe Thuney.
*Early fourth, Lee was taken out by FB Joe Devlin on a Sony Michel gain of 33.
Lee was suspended by the NFL and his replacement, Neville Hewitt, is a much better 3-4 ILB run-defender.
The only way Lee would have be replaced was an injury or a league suspension, and it turned out to be a league suspension. Todd Bowles was tremendously loyal to him. Lee was beyond reproach.
The other lineup change that will help prevent this from happening again was the Jets finally pulling back on rookie defensive end Nathan Shepherd’s reps a couple of weeks ago. The rookie from tiny Fort Hays State was rushed into the starting lineup, and Henry Anderson was forced to back him up for the first 12 games. This was a significant mistake. I’m not second-guessing here. I’ve been on this since the summer. Now their roles have been reversed with Anderson playing more than Shepherd and the results are pretty obvious.
In the first Jets-New England game, there was a 31-yard run by Michel to start the second half. On this play, Patriots left tackle Trent Brown manhandled Shepherd and Michel ran into a gaping hole.
With Hewitt and Anderson now starting, it’s highly unlikely the Patriots will gash the Jets on the ground like they did in the first meeting . . .
Bill Belichick warned his team that the Jets are dangerous and could knock them off.
To me, the only way this can happen is if the Jets play more sound pass coverage.
You can’t play the way they did against Houston and Green Bay, with guys flashing wide open due to guys short-circuiting in coverage. That isn’t going to fly against Thomas Edward Brady.
The Jets had major issues on combo routes against Green Bay, like on WR Eric Kumerow’s 49-yard TD early in the second quarter. He was uncovered.
Watching this play over and over, while it looks like Jamal Adams messed up here, I don’t think that is the case, even though he was caught playing catch-up with Kumerow.
Kumerow and tight end Jimmy Graham were lined up on the right side. Graham ran a square out, and Johnson followed him leaving Kumerow to head deep. It looks like Adams expected Johnson to cover Kumerow, and he looked like he was expecting to cover Graham. This makes sense since Adams usually covers tight ends and Johnson usually covers wide receivers.
There were several other examples of blown coverage assignments against Green Bay.
If the Jets can somehow cut down on pass coverage assignment errors, they can play with the Patriots because they match-up up well in most other areas.
But this is a big “if.”
December 27, 2018
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