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Zach Wilson hasn’t thrown a TD pass in three of the last four games, and that is something that might need to change moving forward.
He has four touchdown passes in the Jets’ six games.
Upcoming opponent, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, has 13 touchdowns in six games.
Another upcoming opponent, LA Charger signal-caller Justin Herbert, who wasn’t great on Monday Night Football, has nine touchdown passes in five games.
The NFL has turned into a passing league, with all the rules set up to favor the passing game, like hypersensitive rules related to pass interference and hitting the QB.
So with all the Jets weapons in their pass game, like Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, Randall, Cobb, Mecole Hardman, Tyler Conklin and so forth, four touchdown passes in six games, is a little bit surprising.
The Jets probably need a get in the end zone through the air more moving forward if they want to take the next step as an offense.
“We talked about it in the showers even,” Jets receiver Garrett Wilson said after the Jets’ beat Philadelphia on Sunday. “It’s seemingly like these dudes, they don’t think too highly of us as far as the offense. … It seems like they mentality we’re getting from the defense is: ‘Let’s make them throw the ball and let’s see if they can do it’.
And this was an Eagles team without their best cornerback, Darius Slay, their nickel back Avonte Maddox and starting safety Justin Evans . . .
The Jets deserve a ton of credit for their awfully impressive upset win over the Philadephia Eagles. For the Jets to beat one of the NFL’s top offensive teams, with Gang Green missing their top three corners – Sauce Gardner, D.J. Reed and Brandon Echols – is off-the-charts impressive.
But on the flip side, the Eagles’ offensive brain trust, are getting destroyed in the media and on talk radio in Philly, for their gameplan and play-calling in this game.
Reporters and fans alike are evisorating Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, and head coach Nick Sirianni (a former offensive coordinator who is very involved in Philly’s offense), for being so pass-happy against a Jets team that entered the game 29th in the NFL against the run.
The Eagles ran 22 times and ran 45 times, and keep in mind, this game was close from beginning to end, so it’s not like they were pass-happy down a lot of points trying to play catch-up.
Johnson and Sirianni felt, that with Gardner and Reed out, they get a lot done through the air against backup corners.
It obviously didn’t work out.
One issue was that the Eagles lost right tackle Lane Johnson, perhaps a future Hall-of-Famer, in the first half to an ankle injury, and they entered this game without their starting right guard Cam Jurgens.
So the Eagles had two backups playing on the right side of their offensive line for most of this game.
And in the NFL, any coach will tell you, that it’s much easier for backup offensive linemen, especially those entering in the middle of a game, to run block.
Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich did a great job of overloading the right side of the Eagles line with pressure packages after the Johnson injury, and it was very effective.
The Jets deserve a ton of credit for their defensive performance against the Eagles, but quite honestly, Philly’s run-pass ratio made little sense.