The motor was never the problem

This has never been the issue.

Talking about the Jets’ effort.

It’s been there all season.

“We don’t have any quitters,” said WR Denzel Mims.

This team has always played hard, not always smart, even today, but always hard. They haven’t always been the best coached team, but the effort was never the problem.

And Sunday in Los Angeles, that effort, which has never been lacking, helped them secure their first win over the season, a 23-20 upset over the Rams, who were a 17-point favorite. Las Vegas sports books must have made a killing on this game. Who saw this coming?

Now this shouldn’t impact any of the big decisions the Jets need to make after the season regarding their coach or quarterback, but it was a sweet plane ride back from Los Angeles to Newark for Gang Green. Beat up bodies don’t hurt as much, and dinner tastes better after a win.

One of the keys to this Jets win was their defensive front winning in the trenches against the Rams’ offensive line.

The Jets took advantage of the Rams being without their starting left tackle, Andrew Whitworth, and really dominated the Rams center, Austin Blythe, an undersized player with very short arms for an offensive linemen, and Jared Goff rarely had a comfortable pocket. Quinnen Williams dominated and Nathan Shepherd, who I’ve been critical of due to his shedding issues, also did some good things.

To me, the Jets’ front seven, including blitzing linebackers like Frankie Luvu and Harvey Langi, and their defensive line, including former Ram John Franklin-Myers (aside from his bad off-sides penalty on fourth down), were the key to this Jets win.

Because if Goff consistently had a lot of time to throw, he probably would have carved up a Jets secondary, which is little undermanned right now.

But since Goff often didn’t have enough time to throw, it didn’t allow the high-powered Rams passing attack to dominate, aside, obviously, from the stretch in the second half, where they cut the Jets lead to 23-20, coming back from a 20-3 deficit.

This was actually one of the Adam Gase’s finest games calling offensive plays for the Jets. He consistently dialed up ideal first reads for Sam Darnold, which is enormously important with this signal-caller.

It’s funny, because it’s Sean McVay who is usually one of the best at dialing up first reads for Jared Goff, who isn’t great at reading defenses.

Remember this quote from a few weeks ago:

“The Rams are a team that requires their offensive play-caller, Sean McVay, to be on his game, each and every week,” said former scout Bucky Brooks on NFL Network on December 4. “Their quarterback doesn’t have the ability to bail him out when the plays aren’t necessarily correct against the defense.”

Gase did a better job of giving his QB ideal first reads than McVay today. He really did.

Goff is a system QB. He needs a strong running game to sell play-action and bootlegs, and he needs McVay to be brilliant every week.

Neither happened today – if you take out a 40-yard reverse to wide receiver Robert Woods, the Rams’ running game was pedestrian today.

But overall the Jets effort and hustle was outstanding, and it helped them amass their first win.

However, effort has never been the issue.

December 20, 2020

Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Monday.