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“Defense, knock on wood, obviously playing at a high level special teams playing at a high level, and offense has got to find a way to pick it up, and obviously that always starts at the coaching level and then it goes all the way down, and just trying to find ways to move the ball and score points,” said Robert Saleh on Wednesday.

Is the defense playing at a high level?

In the opener, they were good against Buffalo and Josh Allen, no doubt, but two weeks ago in Dallas, they were substandard. Their coverage of WR CeeDee Lamb was troubling.

Then last week, they were solid against New England, but gave up an inexcusable 58-yard TD to tight end Pharaoh Brown who was wide open, getting behind both safeties.

And New England kind of took the air out of the ball, not scared of Zach Wilson beating them, punting from places they may not punt from in other games.

“This Jets defense that is supposed to be elite, that is supposed to be one of the best defenses in all of football, they rank 23rd in yards allowed rushing,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN. “Now they have seen the most rushing attempts by any team in the league. Why is that? Because the teams they’re playing don’t want to turn the football over. They feel if we run the ball and don’t turn it over, we have a chance to win the game. As long as we don’t make a mistake, we can win. The other team is playing not to lose the game.”

So perhaps it’s hard to confirm that the defense is playing at a high level right now.

This week will certainly be a litmus test for how good this Jets defense is facing the Kansas City offense.

The Jets are going from one of the weakest-armed quarterbacks in Mac Jones, to perhaps the guy with the strongest arm, Patrick Mahomes.

Quincy Williams had a very good game last week. One of the hardest hitters in the league, along with one of the league’s toughest players, against New England’s dinking and dunking, he did a great job of flying up making plays in front of him in the box, whether it was on short passes or against the run.

When Williams can play as a run and hit linebacker in the box, he’s really, really good, at making plays in front of him.

But this week, against Mahomes, all parts of the field will be threatened, and one of the greatest tight ends of all time, Travis Kelce, comes to town. Williams will not be able to just play run-and-hit in a box. He’s going to have to cover a lot more ground and play a lot more in reverse.

We know the Jets haven’t been great at covering tight ends, including their linebackers, Williams and C.J. Mosley, who has limited speed.

Heck, even in the Jets’ strong defensive performance against New England, it was a tight end touchdown that was the difference in the game. Not saying that one was on the linebackers. Don’t know who exactly to blame without knowing the playbook and assignments.

But this going to be a game where Williams and Mosley are going to have to do a lot more work outside the box than last week, and cover a lot more ground.

So we will learn a lot about this Jets defense on Sunday night and what level they are truly playing on.

September 28, 2023

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