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East Rutherford – You can point to a few different things that led the Jets’ loss to New England, but I think the number one problem was the run defense.
As Leonard Williams pointed out after the game, Brady is great anyway, but when you give him running game, he’s a two-handed monster and very hard to stop.
The Jets’ run defense was a disaster on Sunday in their loss to New England.
They gave up 215 yards.
Huge runs through huge holes.
And a lot of the problem is not coaching. Well it part of it’s coaching, and I will get to that in a minute.
I truly believe a lot of the blown gaps are related more to blown assignment or guys starting who should be backups, then actual bad X’s and O’s.
Guys are being told the right things to do, some are just not doing it.
Leonard Williams is usually very guarded with everything he says, but I think he’s fed up with the some of the nonsense going on around him.
“It’s just a matter of executing,” Williams said. “Every time we watch film we’re always like, ‘Oh guys are playing fast, guys are hitting hard, guys have that want too and desire.’ You can tell that in the way they play. But then it’s like instead of being in the ‘A’ gap they’re in the ‘B’ Gap. Instead of having that high motor and high energy over there, do it where you are supposed to. It’s just like guys are just not where they’re supposed to be.”
Bingo.
I’m telling, it’s not a lack of effort. It’s something entirely different.
And this is what I think is somewhat related to coaching.
Like Rex Ryan before him, Todd Bowles just doesn’t like benching guys. Maybe he doesn’t want to embarrass them.
Darron Lee is really hurting the Jets’ run defense. So many big runs the last couple of years were right at him, and today was no different.
He really struggles shedding blocks – stacking and shedding if you will.
Two examples from today.
Late in the third quarter, James White had a 27-yard run off right tackle. Left guard Joe Thuney pulled from left to right and took Lee out of the play, and White ran right into the hole that Thuney opened up.
Early in the fourth quarter, Sony Michel ran for 33 yards off left guard. On the play, fullback James Develin locked up Lee, and Michel ran right behind Develin.
This is a problem and it has been for three years now, and Bowles refuses to pull him. And honestly, I don’t think all of this is Lee’s fault. He’s a run-and-hit sidelined-to-sideline linebacker for a 4-3 defense, like in Dallas, Tampa Bay or Carolina, not a 3-4 ILB who has to stack-and-shed a lot.
But for goodness sake, when this stuff is happening over-and-over, how can the coach keep rolling with him – series after series? At the very least, pull him after one of these plays, or for a series or two.
Another big problem for the Jets run defense is that Nathan Shepherd was rushed into the starting lineup. This was a very raw player coming out of Fort Hays State in Kansas who needed an NFL red-shirt year. But from the spring, he was put into the starting lineup. What up with that? And like Lee, he’s been implicated in a lot of long runs into his gaps. On the Patriots first offensive play of the second half, Michel ran for 31-yards up the middle. Shepherd was manhandled by a single-blocker, could not break free, opening up a big hole. He had really bad leverage on the play.
Mike Pennel at nose tackle is too too hot-and-cold, and has also been part of the problem.
This has been going on all year, but no line-up changes.
The coach might be in trouble, but he keeps rolling with players who are hurting his job security?
I don’t get it.
Very, very strange.
It doesn’t seem to be in the his DNA to bench people.
November 25, 2018
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