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The talk all week . . .
. . . has been about the bizarre decision to bench Mike White for Joe Flacco, after White, in his third NFL start, with poor pass protection, struggled against the NFL’s #1 defense.
And good luck Joe against that Dolphins defense, that shut down Lamar Jackson on Thursday Night Football, had 10 days to game plan and rest, and has perhaps the best CB tandem in football with Xavien Howard and Byron Jones. And by the way, the game before they shut down Jackson, they beat Houston, picking off Tyrod Taylor three times. I’m not saying Taylor is great, but one thing we know about him is that he doesn’t throw a lot of picks. He plays a very conservative style of football, not taking a lot of chances.
But enough about this QB decision, and time to make a bigger point. We can talk about Jets quarterbacks until we’re blue in the face, but unless this historically bad defense improves, does it matter who the QB is, unless he’s Joe Montana, in his prime who is equipped to win shootouts every week?
How bad are things with the Jets’ defense?
A reporter asked Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich on Thursday if he thought about “scrapping the whole thing.”
In other words, throw their current defensive playbook in the trash right now and do something else.
From an operational standpoint, obviously, you can’t do that in the middle of the season. There is a reason you spend all that time in the spring and summer installing the scheme and teaching the players the playbooks. Putting in a new scheme in the middle of the season is impossible.
Some players are struggling with their current scheme, which is considered somewhat simplistic. You are going to throw a new playbook at them now?
Ulbrich was a little taken aback at the question.
“No. No, I mean you tweak and you, shoot, I’ve been in the NFL a long time as a player and coach and I’ve been around struggling teams before in both capacities where you could lose, in my opinion – I don’t think that’s how you can get prolong success in this league,” Ulbrich said.
While the question might have brought up an unrealistic concept, after watching some of the recent games, like giving up 54 and 45 points and over 500 yards against New England and Indianapolis, and then 45 points, and just a tad under 500 yards against Buffalo, you can understand somebody saying, “Maybe you need a new system.”
It’s not that the Jets need an entirely new system. They clearly need to make a number of tweaks to the philosophy in the off-season, and just as important, get more instinctive players.
I’m not giving the defensive coaches a total pass. They all need to do a much better job, but there are some players out there who are devoid of instincts, so you can teach them the proper way to read a key in the classroom, but then in a game, their bad instincts take over, and they don’t do what they were taught.
So not only do the Jets need some tweaks to their playbook this off-season but need “Operation Instinct.” Whether it’s free agents or draft picks, defensive players with bad instincts can’t be even considered for jobs at One Jets Drive.
So good luck Joe Flacco facing this Miami defense, and trying to put enough points to overcome a defense that allows opposing offenses to light up the scoreboard like a pinball machine.
November 19, 2021
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