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Granted the Minnesota Vikings lost their top running back Aaron Jones early in the game, but the Jets run defense did a hell of job today, their best performance of the season.
Jamien Sherwood was outstanding, finishing with 12 tackles.
Give credit where credit is do. I’ve been very hard on the Jets’ run defense last year, and three of the first four games this year, but they played their cans off, and to the credit of Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich, they made some adjustments.
Solomon Thomas played some end today, and they used Leonard Taylor more inside.
Thomas has a great motor, but at times he’s a little undersized at DT. Taylor is a full-sized DT at 303 pounds.
One of the issues last week against Denver was having two undersized DTs inside together and the Broncos took advantage of this with some big runs up the middle.
The Vikings have a good offensive line and they are healthy, so this wasn’t like the Jets run defense against New England’s awful offensive line.
The Jets’ run defense in London held the Vikings to 82 yards on 30 carries for a 2.7 average.
And if you take out the Vikings’ long run of the day, a 10-yard scamper by Sam Darnold, it was a 2.4 average on the rest of Minnesota’s 29 runs.
If the Jets can bottle this run defense moving forward, this will help their chances to perhaps grab a wildcard spot.
At 2-3, in the AFC, they are certainly not out of wildcard contention.
Their run defense was a big reason for their other two losses to San Francisco and Denver.
It’s hard to win in the NFL if you can’t stop the run.
Today was so much better . . .
Obviously the amount of hits Aaron Rodgers is taking is an unsustainable formula.
Now that we have seen two blitz-heavy teams in a row beat up on Rodgers, clearly there is a disconnect between Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett and offensive line coach Keith Carter, who were put together in a shotgun marriage. They are not on the same page, or at least not to the degree they need to be.
Last week Rodgers was sacked five times and hit a total of 15.
Center Joe Tippmann told the New York Post a few days after that game that it “wasn’t us.” In other words, it was out of character.
But after a game with three sacks and 11 more hits against Minnesota, it’s starting to look like “us.”
There is something amiss with the communication on this line. Perhaps it’s related to not playing together in the preseason.
Maybe they need a line-up change on the interior.
This is getting ridiculous.
How much longer do you expect a 40-year-old QB to hold up taking this many hits?
He hurt his knee last week, but kept playing.
He hurt his ankle today, but kept playing.
Next time, they might not be as lucky . . .
One thing I don’t get, and never will, is using a player like Will McDonald on the goalline defense.
This is nothing against McDonald, who did some good things today, including amassing his sixth sack on the season, but to use a 237-pound defensive end on the goalline defense makes no sense.
In the second quarter, Vikings fullback C.J. Ham had a two-yard TD run and McDonald was on the field. Not blaming him for the TD, but whatever happened to using a “jumbo” package on the goalline?
It’s bad situational football to use a 237-pound edge-rusher on first-and-goal from the two-yard-line . . .
Speaking of bad situational football, the Jets had third-and-three from the Vikings’ 27 and ran Braelon Allen up the middle for one-yard, and then on fourth-and-two, they ran him up the middle for no gain.
So they didn’t even get three points out of this.
It’s almost like a Jets offensive coach was trying to silence the critics who were after him for using Breece Hall instead of Braelon Allen on short-yardage situations.
But this wasn’t the time and place for it.
Rodgers was pissed after these two plays
And as Kurt Warner said on NFL Network, speaking for Aaron Rodgers – “Give me two shots, I will get you a first down.”
I know I have been pounding the drum for Allen to be used more on short-yardage runs, but this wasn’t the time, especially two plays in row, especially with the interior line struggling.
Third-and-one, yes, fourth-and-one, yes, but not third-and-three and fourth-and-two.
October 6, 2024
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