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I don’t want to take anything away from Zach Wilson’s performance against the Kansas City Chiefs, it was one of his better ones, but I thought Nathaniel Hackett’s play-calling was brilliant.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. When the offensive coordinator dials up great first reads, Wilson is golden, because he has a great arm and can make all the throws.
Hackett delivered great first reads all night, and Wilson delivered.
That is what Wilson needs is the offensive coordinator to dial up great first reads, and that is what Hackett did on Monday night.
“Schematically they did a great job of giving him quick, rhythm throws,” said Chiefs LB Drue Tranquill.
Like a lot of young quarterbacks, Wilson is not that great at progressions. He generally wants to go to that first read as much as possible, and Hackett made that possible for him tonight.
The problem is, it’s hard for the OC to do this every week, like you saw against New England and Dallas.
But when the the OC hits on myriad great first-read opportunities, and Wilson can mix in a few street-yard plays, with scrambling and broken play passes, Wilson can win games.
It seemed like after that Jets TD drive early in the third quarter, to make it 20-20 until the end of the game, the Chiefs did a better job of taking away the first reads, and the Jets didn’t score the rest of the game . . .
Michael Clemons continues to struggle setting the edge against the run.
On the 48-yard TD run by running back Isiah Pacheco off left tackle, Clemons went inside the left tackle, leaving the outside wide open, and Pacheco was off the races to the left side.
Clemons needs to work on this. It’s very important for defensive ends to set the edge and funnel runs inside to where there are plenty of potential tacklers . . .
Speaking of the Jets’ run defense, it wasn’t very good for the third straight week. The Chiefs finished with 204 yards rushing.
In a game the Jets did a pretty good job dealing with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ high-powered passing attack, their run defense failed them.
There is a lot of blame to go around, but when I wrote in the off-season the Jets needed to perhaps not go too profligate on the Quinnen Williams contract, and perhaps stay in the $21-22 million range, it was based on his run defense, which once again, has been average.
There is no doubt he’s a superb interior pass rusher, but run defense is a big part of the job as well.
If you want to be talked about in the same light at the 1985 Chicago Bears and “The Legion of Boom” in Seattle, you need to play the run defense a heck of a lot better than the Jets have the last three games . . .
The Chiefs figured out a way to win this game, but it’s pretty clear watching them tonight that Mahomes doesn’t have much trust in his receiving corps aside from Travis Kelce.
But you also have to give the Jets pass defense credit. They did a very good job on a number of plays playing tight coverage, where Mahomes clearly had nobody open.
October 1, 2023
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