With the focus turning to Atlanta now, I don’t want to belabor the point too much about Aaron Glenn’s decision to go for it about the Aaron Glenn’s decision to go for it on fourth and two from his own 42 against Baltimore, down just 10-7 in a third, which failed and the Ravens proceeded to score on a six-play, 42-yard drive to go up 17-7.
“That decision kind of flipped this game,” said Jason McCourty.
“Understand it based on their record, but now how the game is being played today,” said Charles Davis.
“There is a fine line between being aggressive and dumb, and that was just dumb,” said Willie Colon on SNY, a Jets media partner.
So before we more on, I want to let you see what Coach Glenn said, in his one and only question about the topic, on Sunday, after the game.
“At that point, just thinking about the defense and how I thought the defense was playing really, really well at that point,” Glenn said. “The reason that they scored was because they got that third-and-15 on that. I thought our offense was doing a solid job. I thought Tyrod [Taylor] was doing a solid job. I wanted to be aggressive; I wanted to be able to go on that, and we didn’t make it. That’s just what it was. I trust our guys to go make those. That was a situation where I wanted our guys to not blink and get ready to go, and we didn’t make it.”
There were no follow-up questions. Probably would have been 10-15 years ago around here. Not now.
If you really think this is a tough team to play for because of the New York media, you need to update your research.
With all due to respect to the coach, not sure that answer really gets to the heart of the matter.
“Those are the decisions and the plays after them that bring your opponents alive,” Davis said.
Time to move on . . .
I don’t like criticizing this player because he has a great motor, gives you everything he’s got on is playing in the wrong system, but considering how much Michael Clemons plays, his stats are a tad alarming. In 11 games, playing extensively, he has six solo tackles and no sacks.
Clemons is a 3-4 end playing in a 4-3 system. He should be two-gapping, not trying to set the edge against backs he doesn’t have the speed to chase down if they take the corner, and he doesn’t have the speed and flexibility to bend the edge against offensive tackles.
He is absolutely miscast as a 4-3 end, but the bottom line, in a bottom line business, is the production has been a little underwhelming.
And one of the reason for the Jets alarming turnover stats, and there are several, is the lack of a consistent pass rush.
We all know that there is a symbiotic relationship between the cover guys and the pass rushers. Teams with consistent pass rushers will often force quarterbacks into hurried, poor throws that lead to interceptions, or sacks that led to QB fumbles.
In their loss to Baltimore the Jets had one sack, by defensive tackle Jawan Briggs. Their defensive end rotation had none, Will McDonald had no stats listed on the official stat sheet distributed in the press box after the game.
In the Jets loss to New England, they also only had one sack, and that was Jermaine Johnson beating at tight end, not a tackle. In the game, the Jets got very little pass rush from pillar to post, and it often looked like Patriots QB Drake Maye was conducting a 7-on-7 drill in practice.
On the season, McDonald has seven sacks, but four came against Cleveland, playing a backup left tackle, and two more against Pittsburgh, playing a developmental tackle, Broderick Jones, who is not having a good year.
It just seems like McDonald too often beats up on overmatched tackles but when facing a bonafide answer at tackle, he has issues getting off blocks.
With his slender build, it’s a challenging matchup for him against many of these tackles who sometimes outweigh him by 100 pounds.
Johnson has three sacks on the season in eight games.
As we mentioned before, the top backup at end, Clemons, who plays a lot has no sacks in 11 games.
The Jets are going have decisions to make on the contracts of their three main defensive ends. Some would argue they should move on from Clemons and let him go to a 3-4 teams, and as for Johnson/McDonald, they should probably not spend like druken sailors.
They are good, but perhaps not great defense ends.
With all the premium draft capital they have moving forward, and game-wrecking pass rusher should probably be on the check list.
“He’ll be just fine.”
“Our protection needs to be one point.”
Jets o-line was not good last week.
“Man they have bought into everything I’ve talked about.”
He wasn’t good last week.
Michael Clemons has no sacks and six solo tackles.
Look, we all know Aaron Glenn is a riverboat gambler who doesn’t coach in fear, but his decision to go for it on fourth and two from his own 42, down just 10-7, turned out to be a dubious decision.
The Ravens proceeded to score on a six-play, 42-yard drive to go up 17-7.
“That decision kind of flipped this game,” said CBS analyst Jason McCourty, who was providing color commentary on the game with Charles Davis.
Davis nailed it when he said about the decision, “Understand it based on their record, but now how the game is being played today.”
What Davis was essentially saying was that when a team is 2-8, he understands taking risks like that, but not in a 10-7 game that was a defensive battle, a field-position game up to that point.
