Florham Park – Against Chicago, the Jets’ two leading tacklers were Minkah Fitzpatrick (16) and Dane Belton (14).
This is a terrible stat for a defense.
While you tip your hat to those guys for their efforts, and both had solid games, the fact that your two starting safeties combined for 30 tackles might not reflect well on your front seven. And when your safeties lead the team in tackles, it’s not surprising the other team ran for 232 yards. Why? Because clearly many runs made it to the third level.
The Jets’ defensive line struggled against the run in Chicago, but you might want to cut linebackers Demario Davis and Jamien Sherwood a little slack regarding the run defense.
Why?
Because on several big run plays they were overwhelmed by pulling interior linemen, who are much bigger than each of them.
An example was on a 26-yard run by RB Kyle Monangai.
The defensive line got dominated on the play, and a pair of interior linemen pulled to the second level and engulfed Sherwood and Davis.
Ideally, your defensive linemen take up double teams and allow the linebackers to flow to the football. That didn’t happen much in Chicago.
But any time your two safeties combine for 30 tackles in a game, it is not a good stat for your defense.
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