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A few things to touch on tonight . . .
Sam Darnold isn’t a great down-the-field thrower, so that has kind of taken Robby Anderson out of the loop. I know he had that TD in Detroit, but he was wide open. Both Troy Aikman and Phil Simms have said this in recent weeks – Darnold’s got a good arm, not a great arm.
This isn’t to say he can’t be a very good quarterback for the Jets, just saying he doesn’t have a great deep arm . . .
Darron Lee is a good player as long as he is free to make a plays- “uncovered” if you will, but when he has to shed blocks, he’s in a lot of trouble.
I’m sorry, You can’t have Darron Lee out there full time anymore, because he’s not good at shedding blocks in run support. He is hurting their run defense with his struggles shedding blocks. You can’t have an inside linebacker, out there, full-time, who can’t shed blocks. The 3-4 defense can’t work that way. On the game-winning rushing TD – Browns left guard Joel Bitonio pulled right and took Lee out of the play. This scenario happens way too much.
I will repeat what I wrote in a tweet in late August after Bart Scott criticized Lee’s run defense and called him “plush” which is another word for “soft.”
“Darron Lee isn’t soft, just a little miscast being asked to stack-and-shed linemen who outweigh him by 100 pounds. Not the best fit for 3-4 ILB. He doesn’t have the body armor for the role. He’s a run-and-hit LB, not a stack-and-shed LB. Better fit in Tampa, Dallas systems.”
You saw how the 3-4 ILB position needs to be played by Avery Williamson tonight in terms of stacking and shedding in run support. Williamson had 14 tackles tonight.
If they are going to keep rolling with Lee in run support, they are going to get gashed. The Browns were running right at him quite a bit. This isn’t personal, just the reality of the situation . . .
Speaking of making tackles, I thought this might have been a clerical error, but according to the stat sheet from the Browns, Leonard Williams had no tackles.
On one Carlos Hyde touchdown run, Williams and Jerry Attachu were dragged into the end zone.
Williams is a good player, but great players get it done every week. Williams needs to be more consistent . . .
The Jets’ coach needs to instill a little more fear in his players. That dynamic is clearly lacking right now. In a short period of time in the first half, you saw RB Isaiah Crowell draw a 15-yard penalty for throwing the ball into the stands after a touchdown. Then shortly after that, Trumaine Johnson, after an incompletion on the sideline, flipped the ball at Jarvis Landry, drawing a taunting penalty.
Do you think players in New England are doing this stuff? They know, if they do stuff like this, they are going to be in a heap of trouble with the head coach.
Jets need the coach to do what Dennard Wilson did tonight. He screamed at cornerback Parry Nickerson, early third, when he got into a tussle with Jarvis Landry. When the rookie came back to the sideline, Wilson pulled him by the jersey and screamed at him. When does coach ever do this?
When you see two plays like that close together, you have a team that might not fear their coach . . .
Jets could be 3-0 with Josh McCown, and I’m not putting him in Canton. The Jets got too little from the QB spot in the last two games, which were both winnable. Let’s be honest, this situation is very close to the point where you can say “they’re writing off the season to develop a young quarterback.” It’s not totally there yet, but it’s getting close.
September 20, 2018
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