The Jets won their second game in a row, this time beating the Cleveland Browns, in Week 8. Ryan Fitzpatrick played like his usual self, making some good throws, while making some bad throws. However, the Browns are one of the worst passing defenses in the league, so take the good performance with a grain of salt. He had one of the worst performances of the season in the first half, but recovered in the second half. Let’s see some of his good plays:
If you read this article on a regular basis, you will realize that Ryan Fitzpatrick is consistently criticized for not taking advantage of the defense in situations where they are giving up positive yards. If you look at this pre-snap read, you will see that the defender on Robby Anderson is playing back, and also the defender on Brandon Bostick is about six yards off the line, so he’s bound to be open. Fitzpatrick realizes the match up, and makes the good throw, although it looks like Marshall was supposed to do a better job in making the block. This is not a major play by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s worth pointing out that Fitzpatrick does have his moments when he makes the correct read prior to the snap.
This is a 3rd and 11 play late in the quarter, and the Browns are playing with 2 deep safeties, and the man on Robby Anderson is playing deep, with everyone else on man coverage at the line of scrimmage. Fitzpatrick is looking towards the right side, and makes a very good throw to Charone Peake, because Anderson is well covered on this play. He puts the ball by Peake’s head, who makes a nice catch for the first down. This is a good throw and catch for the conversion. The only other interesting aspect of this play is to notice the safety on the side of the field pay absolutely no attention to Robby Anderson as he is running towards the middle of the field. The Browns are hedging their bet against the deep pass here because in any other situation, the safety is going to at least freeze with the receiver coming right at him.
This is the start of the second quarter with the Browns again in a two deep safety look. If you look at the pre-snap read you will see that the man on Brandon Marshall is lined up further down the field, so there is a good chance he will be open. In the end, he does turn out to be open. However, Fitzpatrick is locked in on Enunwa on this play, and he runs a great route to get open, and Fitzpatrick finds him on the outside for a significant gain. The ball is placed a bit behind him, but Enunwa makes the adjustment and runs up the field. Each week, we try to show that there are a lot of easy reads in this offense and it’s frustrating to see the QB ignore the defense over and over again, alas it’s refreshing to see Fitzpatrick take advantage every now and then.
This is just another one of those easy reads, and once again Fitzpatrick makes the right read. As you can see, Brandon Marshall’s defender is well off the line, so there is a chance he’ll be open, and the defender of Enunwa is also off the line. So one of them is going to be open based on what the middle line backer does on this play. The LB decides to go towards of Enunwa, so Fitzpatrick makes the right decision and throws to Brandon Marshall for the pass. It’s unfortunate that Marshall actually runs backwards on this play to lose yards, although it was still a first down.
Aside from the Bills game, this is probably one of the best passes thrown by Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Browns are in a single high safety to the other side of Enunwa, and Ryan Fitzpatrick takes advantage of the one on one match up. Quincy Enunwa absolutely shows off the speed on this play, which makes him a match up nightmare. He runs right by his defender down the middle, without safety help, and Fitzpatrick makes a great throw to Enunwa to hit him in stride. He has to reach for the ball a bit, slowing down his momentum, but it’s still a great throw. Defenses are throwing single high safety looks against the Jets, so it’s vital the Jets take advantage with deep passes, and they did so in this case. This is a beautiful play from the Jets.
Pre-snap reads, and again notice the players with defenders playing off the line, and if they end up open or not. Robby Anderson and Charone Peake are playing to the right of the formation, and they have space to operate, and Fitzpatrick looks at Robby Anderson for the pass across the middle. This is a good read by Fitzpatrick, seeing the advantage at the line, and reading the line backer. If the LB goes with Anderson up the middle, then Powell is open. In the end, it looks like Peake is open for a TD, but that is past the decision point for Fitzpatrick on the Anderson crossing route so he can’t be blamed for choosing Anderson on this play. If there was a better block from Powell on this play, this would have been a TD with Anderson going on the outside.
Fitzpatrick makes the wrong pre-snap read here but makes up for it with a good throw. At the line of scrimmage, you can see that the only guy with a defender playing of the line of scrimmage is Charone Peake, and he eventually becomes open down the middle of the field. However, Fitzpatrick makes a good back shoulder throw to Marshall on this play because he’s locked in on Marshall the entire way. It’s a good throw by Fitzpatrick, and a good catch by Marshall. The bigger play opportunity was there with Peake, but the Jets were being conservative at this point.
The Browns are in a single deep safety look, with man coverage at the line of scrimmage across the line. The Jets need to convert the first down here, so this is one of the tougher defensive match ups of the game. While on the previous plays, we pointed out pre-snap reads to show where the defense was weak, they are essentially going one on one here across the board. Ryan Fitzpatrick decides on Robby Anderson for this play, and makes a very good throw for the conversion. Although, it is arguable that there could be a holding penalty on this play with the defender. Nonetheless, this is a great throw with very good timing.
This is the final one for this article, and a very good read. Pre-snap read wise, this looks like a bad read because the chances are that Robby Anderson should be open but it turns out right to go away from Anderson because his defender doesn’t respect the deep route here at all. He was sitting on the curl route the entire way. Ryan Fitzpatrick is locked in on Brandon Marshall for the entire route, and he hits him in stride for a big gain. Marshall runs a great route here and ends up gaining about thirty yards on this play, as this is just a great throw.
While Fitzpatrick played horribly in the first half, he definitely picked it up in the second half. However, as you will see in the later articles, he was far from perfect. The Browns defense is notoriously horrendous against the pass, alas he took advantage of some good match ups.
Forum Questions:
A) Was this the easiest defensive match up you have seen in film reviews this year?
