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It’s very easy to just blame the
Jets offensive line for the team’s myriad protection issues in their week one loss to the Carolina Panthers.
And while they didn’t play great, and I will get into some of the reasons in a minute, the blocking of the Jets’ tight ends and running backs wasn’t much better.
Things didn’t start out very good for the Jets’ tight ends right out of the gate, with Daniel Brown and Tyler Kroft committing special team’s penalties in the first quarter.
But the blocking on the unit was wildly inconsistent and led to some of the protection issues, like in the third quarter, when DE Brian Burns beat TE Ryan Griffin to get to Zach Wilson, who spun away, but was wrapped up by two other defenders for a sack.
In the second quarter, DE Yatur Gross-Matus got by Griffin who stopped running back Tevin Coleman for a loss of one on fourth-and-one.
Griffin is usually a very good blocker. You have to wonder if his hamstring is still a problem. He missed a couple of weeks of practices recently with a pulled hamstring.
Tight end Trevon Wesco, who is usually a road-grading blocker, didn’t have much of an impact in this game.
And an example of a running back blocking issue was in the second quarter, when Coleman did a poor job with a blitz pickup leading to a QB pressure and an incomplete pass from Wilson to Kroft.
As for the offensive line, this might sound like excuse-making by center Connor McGovern, but it’s the truth, as to what the biggest problem was.
“You know it is early in the season and especially with a young quarterback they are going to eat you up. It is nothing we didn’t prepare for, but when the team in blitzing you every snap it might be a little softer than normal. It is kind of what we expected and prepared for, just got to execute better.
“He added: “When you are with a younger quarterback, until you beat them on those hot throws and really make those big plays, which we were starting to get towards the end of the game, that will start slowing people down. It is what you expect. Every team in the NFL, you are probably going to get a little bit higher percentage than against someone like Drew Brees.”
The Panthers loaded the box consistently and presented scenarios where there weren’t enough blocks for the amount of rushers.
And aside from getting overwhelmed with 8 and 9 in the box, the Jets did an awful job on switch-off blocks to deal with stunts and twists.
One guy who struggled with this was Alijah Vera-Tucker, which is totally understandable since he essentially missed the entire summer with an arm injury. He’s a 22-year-old rookie who needed the work. Dealing with switch-off blocks takes a lot of work on the practice field, and he just didn’t get it.
And Mekhi Becton also missed practice time with a concussion, which didn’t help matters. Before he got hurt, he had an up-and-down game.
Becton gave up a sack to DE Marquis Haynes, and AVT surrendered a late sack to DT Derrick Brown.
So every sack or pressure has its own story. Some were the fault of lineman, some tight ends,l some running backs and some the quarterback not finding a hot read when there was one too many rusher to block.
The Jets have a lot of clean up this week as they prepare for another team that uses a lot of tricking stunts up front, the New England Patriots.
September 13, 2021
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