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After Michael Clemons’ roughing the passer on third-and-19 in the first quarter, here is what they said on the Buffalo Bills radio network:
“That is a terrible penalty on third and 19. He goes high – they are going to call that 10 out of 10 in the NFL,” said color analyst Eric Wood.
“He’s a hot-head, Eric,” said play-by-play man Chris Brown.
I want to get into what they said here – both comments were interesting.
Let’s start with Brown, a Long Island-native I’ve known for many years. Good guy.
I can totally understand why Brown made the “hot-head” comment, considering the player’s tunnel fight with Bills’ offensive tackle Dion Dawkins a couple of years ago and his fight against Miami when an official got bloodied and the DE was tossed from the game.
And of course, Clemons had been a hot-head at times, but I don’t think this play had anything to do with that.
I don’t think Clemons was hot-headed on this play. As I wrote yesterday, it’s more a lack of body control because he’s very tightly wound. He’s not a flexible athlete. Not his fault. More of a scouting issue.
And that takes me to what Wood said about him hitting him high.
Of course, he hit him high because he’s not a bender. Once again, not his fault. One of the things that makes Will McDonald such a good pass rusher is his ability to bend. Clemons can’t bend. His body won’t allow it. It’s how he’s built. Here are some blurbs from the scouting report from NFL.com when the player was coming out of school: “Too upright and stiff; tight lower body; segmented movement is tough on the eyes.”
He hit him high, partly because he has issues bending.
So I don’t think this was a case of him being a “hot-head” or making a mistake, hitting him “high.”
Once again, this is a scouting issue.
When the Jets picked Clemons in 2022, I was shocked at the pick. Remember, in Robert Saleh’s defense, they were all about smaller, quicker defensive linemen who could get upfield fast and make plays sideline to sideline.
This player, due to no fault of his own, flat out didn’t fit this philosophy.
And now the Jets are playing a similar scheme under Steve Wilks, calling for fast defensive linemen to get up the field quickly.
So he wasn’t a great fit for the old defensive playbook, and he’s not a great fit for the new one.
To me, this guy should have been moved to offensive tackle in college, or at the beginning of his NFL career.
But if he was going to play defensive line in the NFL, he’s a 3-4 end – two gapping, taking up blockers, freeing up outside linebackers and linebackers to make plays.
4-3 end? C’mon now . . .
Not only do the Jets players need to do some soul-searching after getting dominated by the Buffalo Bills, but so do their coaches, who were outschemed.
“You look completely overmatched in this game,” said Wood about the Jets during the broadcast.
Now, you could say that Wood is a Bills homer, but it’s hard to argue with what he said.
Yesterday, we discussed how Bills coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich presented pass coverage looks that seemed to baffle Justin Fields, and they were also effective with some of their run blitzes, stifling the Jets’ rushing attack, which had looked so strong in Week 1. If you take out the 27-yard scramble by Fields and a 15-yard scramble by Tyrod Taylor, the Jets ran 19 times for 58 yards – three yards a carry.
The Bills won the game of chess on Sunday.
In a game where Josh Allen really was pedestrian, going 14-25 for 148 yards, no touchdowns, and a 73.4 QB rating, it should make the Bills’ level of domination disconcerting to Jets fans.
With a 20-3 lead at the half, the Bills basically went to ground and pound in the second half.
“Bills are content churning this one out,” Wood said in the third quarter.
The Jets have a lot to clean up from this game, and with how many players struggled in this game, you wonder if Aaron Glenn will cut anyone, like he did last week with Xavier Gipson, to send a message.
September 15, 2025
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