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The Jets’ run defense the last couple of weeks
hasn’t been great.
Last week, the Chicago Bears, rushed 29 times for 127 yards.
They were a little better against New England, with the Patriots rushing 26 times for 99 yards, but Damien Harris ran 8 times for 65 yards. Also in the New England game, the Patriots did some damage throwing to their backs out of the backfield, like Rhamondre Stevenson catching a pair of short passes and taking them 17 and 18 yards.
And facing one of the NFL’s best running backs this week, Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook, they better step up their run defense.
The Bears don’t have a great offensive line, and they actually lost their right tackle early in the game, and while the Jets ended up blowing them out, their run defense could have been better in this game.
Not to nitpick, and he’s obviously one of the Jets’ best players, but Quinnen Williams didn’t have one of his better games against Chicago, finishing with one tackle, and had some issues against the run.
Hey, it didn’t really matter, considering how dominant the Jets were in this game, but the Jets need Williams, one of the stars of their defense, to wreck the game in Minnesota . . .
On November 20, the Dallas Cowboys blew out the Minnesota Vikings, 40-3. The Dallas defense shutdown Viking QB Kirk Cousins, who went 12 for 23 for 105 yards, and Minnesota’s star receiver Justin Jefferson, had just 33 yards on three catches.
While it’s hard to see the Jets dominating the Vikings’ offense to this degree, keep in mind, they play a very similar scheme to Dallas. Remember Cowboys DC Dan Quinn came from the Pete Carroll coaching tree like Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich, who run the Jets defense.
So a lot of concepts are the same, and clearly this approach gave Cousins problems.
This is a front-driven defensive scheme, so the biggest thing the Jets need, is defensive line domination, something the Cowboys got in their blowout win . . .
Home field advantages are what they used to be at many NFL stadiums, but one place that continues to be a huge challenge is U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
It’s still a very loud, challenging environment for opposing offenses.
It will be interesting how Mike White deals with this. Playing at USF and Western Kentucky, it’s not like he had a lot of experience playing in loud road stadiums, like a QB out of the Big Ten or SEC . . .
Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins looks like he is close to returning.
He coming off an elbow injury, and today at practice, he was doing drills with blocking sleds and tackling dummies, where he was engaging with the injured elbow.
So don’t be shocked if he returns this week.
And the Jets did miss him. He’s their second-best DT behind Quinnen Williams, and as we mentioned, the run defense was average the last two weeks . . .
An underrated signing by the Jets was linebacker Kwon Alexander, who has done a nice job as a rotating linebacker for the Jets.
He is a really tough cat who plays with an edge that rubs off on other players.
Alexander has had a few highlight film hits this year, including one against Chicago on Sunday, when he lit up tight end Cole Kmet. who is 6-6, 260, causing a fumble, that the Bears’ recovered. The LSU product is an unflinching hitter.
And the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, San Francisco 49er and New Orleans Saint, has played in a lot of big games, and the Jets have one this Sunday, so his leadership will come in handy this week.
November 30, 2022
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