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The Detroit Lions defense
is bad.
They might have supposedly improved a little recently, but let’s not forget Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins threw for 425 against them a week earlier, without his center and left tackle, and the game was in Detroit.
So for the Jets to struggle mightily, to move the ball today, against one of the NFL’s worst defenses, speaks volumes.
The Jets couldn’t run the ball, running for just 50 yards, with their leading rusher, Bam Knight, carrying 13 times for 23 yards.
The Lions were loading up the box to stop the run, challenging the Jets to pass, and the Jets, for the most part, weren’t up to the challenge. The Jets really didn’t make them pay for loading up the box.
Zach Wilson made some nice plays when he was able to play street-yard ball, and get out of the pocket, on either a broken play, or a bootleg, but his work as a pure pocket passer was substandard. He finished the game 18-35 passing. I have repeated this same mantra repeatedly over the year, told to me by a former NFL QB, that is you are completing around 50 percent passes, it’s hard to sustain drives, because essentially every other pass is hitting the ground.
It’s impossible to fix players mechanics in three weeks, so not much has changed with Wilson’s footwork since he was replaced by Mike White after the second New England game.
He missed too many makeable throws today due to accuracy issues connected to bad footwork.
Nothing has changed, and that shouldn’t be viewed as a criticism of Wilson. It’s not. He was put back in the lineup three weeks after reboot to fix his mechanics. He didn’t put himself back out in there after three weeks.
But too many easy throws went awry, after one deep crossing route that was off target in the second half, Garrett Wilson waved his arms in frustration.
Garrett Wilson said all the right things after the game about his QB after a debriefing, but he clearly wasn’t thrilled. A picture says a thousand words. That play referenced above probably is closer to how he really feels than his PC post-game comments.
If Mike White (ribs) was able to play today, more than like the Jets win, because he’s a lot more accurate than Wilson, and too many easy throws were missed today, against a lower tier pass defense.
The Lions challenged the Jets to throw today, and they couldn’t meet the challenge.
Right now, Wilson is a thrower, not a passer.
Yes, once a while he will make some streetyard throws were he runs around with his good wheels, and flicks a ball down field with his great arm, but you can’t expect that to happen all the time, and have sustained success doing that. He still needs a lot of work as a pocket passer . . .
The Jets continue to use a defensive end combination in their rotation that doesn’t make a ton of sense, and that is playing two rookies – Michael Clemons and Jermaine Johnson – at the same time. Don’t get that one, and it has nothing to do with the potential or talent of the players. It’s about the inexperience on the field at the same time. It’s almost like a line in hockey. Do you want all rookies, or do you want to mix and match. Why not put Vinnie Curry out there with one of them.
So that bring us to the Lions game-winning TD, a 51-yard reception by Detroit tight end Brock Wright, who snuck off the line on a 4th-and-1 late.
The two ends were Clemons and Johnson. It’s still a mystery to the public who should have been covering Wright.
“We were in man, so somebody was supposed to have him.” linebacker C.J. Mosley said.
Basically Wright, primarily a blocking tight end, pretended to block on the right side to start the play, and then snuck into a route on the left side, and Jared Goff hit him and he was off-to-the-races.
Johnson lined up over Wright to start the play.
I’m not going to sit here and blame Johnson for this play without having access to the Jets playbook, but all I’m saying is the rookie DE was lined up over the player who snuck out for the game-winning touchdown.
Look, I get it’s important to rotate defensive linemen in this system, but don’t roll with two rookie together, expecially late in the game, with the outcome hanging in the balance.
December 18, 2022
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