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Jets Passing Offense Film Review – Week 14 (49ers) Petty Crimes
While Bryce Petty showed a lot of good qualities in the game against the 49ers, he was far from perfect. He had some terrible throws and decisions as well. Let’s look at the bad plays from this past Sunday:
Petty Crimes:
1) 
The very first pass from Petty, and it goes for an interception. This is a second and eight play in the first quarter, and the defense is in a two safety look. However, they are in a peculiar look because the safety to the right of the formation is very close to the sideline, which was a reason for Petty to be weary of this pass. The pass itself is a quick read pass, and in almost all instances is the correct read. The defender is playing off from Enunwa, and when Petty looks over to his side, he’s actually taking a step or two backwards. The Jets wanted to start of this game with an easy throw for Petty, but it turns out to be horrible because the defender makes a great play on this ball. In baseball, a base good base runner goes on the first move from the pitcher in an attempt to steal the base. It’s the same concept here because the defender is running towards Enunwa, even before Petty has loaded his arm to throw this pass. This is a preset pass, there is no progressive read on this play because it’s all based on the pre-snap read. Petty gets the ball, turns, and throws the pass but the defense was baiting it the entire way. The reason for the safety to be shading over to the sidelines was to protect against the pump fake go route from Enunwa. Retrospectively, Petty should have held onto the ball and thrown to an open Austin Seferian-Jenkins but this is just a great play design by the defense. They baited a young QB, and assumed correctly that the Jets would go with a safer throw to start out the game. If you notice, the defense is playing the same kind of coverage on the other side of the formation with Robby Anderson. The safety is more towards the middle, but at the snap races towards the sidelines, because if Petty looks over to that side, the defender is going to jump the lane on a short pass. They went all out on guessing the Jets would start with a short throw to the receivers. It’s a bad interception, but this is not the works of a bad read or even a bad throw, but the result of a great play design by the defense and bad pre-snap reads. However, Petty is the one that made this read, so he’s at fault. He has to learn in the future about reading defenses, especially if a safety is hovering out of place.
2) 
This is a third and four play in the first quarter, and the defense has a two safety look, although one of them has moved towards the line, while playing zone coverage. Petty makes a good initial read on this play, because the defender that bumps Charone Peake is Petty’s initial read. If the defender slants towards Peake, then Anderson will be open for the quick pass. If the defender doesn’t slant towards Peake, then the linebacker will be in the passing lane for Anderson, and Petty has to move to his second read. Since the defender slants slightly towards Peake, Petty makes the correct read to Anderson on the out route. However, this is just a bad throw from Petty as the throw goes off Anderson’s hands. It looks like Anderson may have rounded off the route a bit, but this is a throw that Petty has to make in a critical third down situation. The first down marker is at the 50 yard line, and it looks like Petty expected Anderson to cut right around the 50, when he actually makes his cut at the 52 yard line. This is a play that should get better as the receivers and Petty get to know each other’s tendencies better, although it’s still a bad throw by Petty. Unfortunately, Anderson is the most familiar with Petty so far into their young careers, so it does not bode well that they aren’t on the same page here. A very good read by Petty, but an errant throw.
3) 
This is a bad play all around for the Jets. This is another third and four play, and the defense is in a single high safety look. On this one, Petty makes the wrong read because of late movement, which shows that he hasn’t grasped reading defenses at the NFL level fully yet. This play starts off with Brandon Marshall on the right side of the formation, and three receivers on the left side. Quincy Enunwa is motioned to the right side of the formation by Petty, right before the snap. Usually, this type of move doesn’t leave the defense much time to adjust, but the 49ers are ready for it. The idea for the Enunwa movement is to have Marshall or Enunwa matched one on one, with the deep safety too far away for the short pass. However, the 49ers do a great job of switching at the last minute, with the safety coming down to pick up Enunwa, and the safety on the other end going deep. The Jets tried to get a match up where one player was matched up against a deep safety, and it backfired. As soon as the safeties switched, Petty should have looked towards the other side, where the Jets now got the match up they desired on the right side of the formation. Charone Peake is open for the first down, but Petty is locked in towards the right side of the play. To make matters worse, the offensive line lets a defender go through two blockers to hit Petty in the knees as he’s throwing this pass, which plays a part in this bad throw. Although in the end, it doesn’t matter because Enunwa is well covered on this play. Bryce Petty has to do a much better job at reading late movements with the defense, and understand the consequences of each defensive player’s movement in correlation to the routes that have been called. The other negative aspect of this play is that he doesn’t move around in the pocket to find some space and buy time, which allows the defender to all but crawl to him. This is a bad play all around for the Jets.
4) 
This is an atrocious play from Bryce Petty, because it’s a bad read along with a bad throw. This is a second and six play, following a nine yard scramble by Petty. The defense is press coverage with a two tiered safety look. At the pre-snap, Petty sees press coverage on Brandon Marshall, along with a safety near by, which he most likely interprets as double coverage with the defender going deep and safety cutting off the passing lane. Therefore, Petty’s first read is Anderson on this play, and he’s rewarded with an open Robby Anderson. On the other hand, it seems like Petty is assuming that Anderson is going to stop his route, and air mails this throw over his head. Anderson is about a yard or so ahead of his defender, and good pass may go for a TD here, but Petty just makes a terrible throw. It looks like Anderson stumbled a bit with his release, but he’s still ahead of the defender, and Petty has to adjust this throw. This might be a worse throw than the interception because Petty assumes Anderson would stop in his route, and then makes a terrible throw.
5) 
Another example of bad pre-snap reads. The defense is showing an overload blitz from the left side of the formation with only one safety towards that side (the other safety is covering a receiver on the right side) on this third down and six play. This is another example of the defense taking advantage of a young QB, because they expect him to go away from the blitz. The 49ers bring the blitz, but also send their linebackers into coverage on the right side of the formation, cutting off the quick passing lane to Charone Peake. Petty correctly presumes that Peake will get open on the one one one match up with his defender, but doesn’t account for the possibility of players dropping back into zone coverage. Once Peake is covered, Petty is waiting for Anderson to run over the top, but gets sacked before he can pass the ball. However, on the other side of the Quincy Enunwa is open for a pass, but Petty is too focused on the right side of the formation. The defense fooled Petty again into thinking that Peake would be open for a pass, when it was much more complicated than that. The defense technically only rushed five guys here, but since they overloaded the blitz, there was a free runner coming right at Petty. Powell does a good job of picking up the first defender, but the second one comes through untouched. This is a case where Petty has to move on from his first read as soon as he sees the defenders drop back, knowing that they are blitzing on this play, and look elsewhere.
6) 
This is a second and eight play late in the second quarter, and the defense is in a single high safety look playing press man coverage. Remember from last week’s article about the Baylor read? Similar situation here again. Press coverage against players, single high safety in the middle, so attack the deep route down the sideline? Petty goes for it again here. At no point in his route is Robby Anderson open, but Petty decides to take a shot, and is lucky this ball isn’t intercepted because the defender has the inside position here. The Jets employ late movement to catch opponents in bad coverage schemes, and they do it again in this case. Brandon Marshall moves across the line right before the snap on this play, which forces the safeties to switch coverage. The play didn’t work on the failed pass to Enunwa that we highlighted earlier in the article, but it works to perfection here. Unfortunately, Petty ignores this aspect of the play and goes directly for Anderson. Brandon Marshall is matched up with a safety playing off the line, and it would have been an easy conversion for the first down if Petty makes the correct read. This is a terrible pre-snap read, terrible decision, and mediocre throw by Petty.
7) 
This is a first and goal at the eight yard line, in the third quarter. The defense is playing man coverage, and they are essentially double teaming Brandon Marshall on this play. On this play action pass, Petty correctly deems that Enunwa is the target with a one on one match up, but makes a bad throw. This ball has to be throw towards the body of Enunwa, if not a back shoulder pass, but leading him was the worst throw Petty could make here because the defender is actually a step ahead of Enunwa. There is a case to be made about how this could be a holding penalty on the defense, but it’s borderline. In a one on one match, Petty has to make a better throw here and use the body of his receiver as a buffer from the defender. This is the right read for the play, but a bad throw from Petty.
8) 
This is a second down and ten play, late in the third quarter. The defense is in a two safety tiered look with press coverage across the board. This is the drive Petty became obsessed with passing to Brandon Marshall, but misses the throw here. This is a weird decision by Petty because he first looks at Quincy Enunwa, and he’s open for a big pass here, but passes it up for the short pass to Brandon Marshall. It’s a bad throw as well, although it looks like Brandon Marshall hesitates on the route and Petty throws it ahead of him. However, the biggest issue on this play is that Petty looks towards Enunwa and then decides to go to his second read, which was a terrible decision. This is the type of play many fans criticize Ryan Fitzpatrick for because he chooses the safer option over the deep pass, but Petty has the arm strength to easily make this pass. This is a major missed opportunity for Petty, who looks like he made a pre-snap read and didn’t change from it. At the snap, with press coverage and only Enunwa running the deep route on the right side, Petty seems to have assumed that the deep safety will follow Enunwa in the middle. Therefore, once the safety doesn’t commit to Marshall, Petty makes the throw to Brandon, which turns out to be a mistake. The biggest error on the play is the missed opportunity to Enunwa, with the horrible throw to Marshall being the cherry on top.
9) 
This is a first and ten play in the fourth quarter, and the defense is in a single high safety look, as the second safety is playing Eric Tomlinson. The Jets send the young TE in motion, at which the safety immediately signals for a coverage change with the other safety, and then quickly reverts back to when Tomlinson returns to his original position. This move indicates that this safety is tasked with coverage on the TE should he choose to run a route. So, it boils down to a single high safety, press coverage, and a deep sideline route. Have we seen this move before? Petty again takes the deep shot, but under throws Quincy Enunwa on this pass. Enunwa has a step of his defender, but is on the outside position so it would take a perfect pass for this completion. However, Petty doesn’t throw this pass quite far enough and Enunwa has to turn around and play defender to prevent the interception. Petty seems to have issues with throwing to Enunwa and Marshall deep because his timing with them has been erratic. This is something that will be fixed with more playing time, but right now they are not on the same page. We have been calling for the Jets to take deep shots far more often this year, so Jets fans can’t complain about these shots since the situation is a one on one match up. However, Petty has to make a better throw here, or lead his receiver a bit further down the field.
10) 
This is a third and twelve play in the final minute of the fourth quarter. The defense is in a two safety look, and Petty makes a horrible read. To start, the defense is essentially double teaming Brandon Marshall on the right side of the formation. To the left of the formation, the Jets have three receivers with only two defenders nearby. Petty has seen the linebackers drop back all afternoon, so he incorrectly assumes the middle linebackers will drop back on this play and block Enunwa’s path. However, both linebackers blitz, leaving Enunwa wide open for the pass with room to run. Petty is reading the deep safety on this play (assuming the linebackers are dropping back) so as soon as the safety leaves the area with Anderson, Petty throws it up to his most trusted receiver. This was just a horrible play all around, especially considering the situation, where any yardage would help Nick Folk. The read should have been Enunwa, then Anderson because the deep route would have taken time to develop. This is one of the biggest growing pains with young QBs because reading defenses in a two minute offense can be complicated. The Jets called a very good play here, where they should have gotten yardage, but Petty missed the read. The defense is expecting the Jets to run this ball to gain a few yards to set up Nick Folk, so Gailey caught them in a bad coverage scheme but Petty can’t make them pay.
Conclusion:
Bryce Petty had an up and down against the 49ers. He made some wonderful reads and throws, as well as some befuddling reads accompanied by atrocious throws. When most fans want to see a young QB, they expect someone to come in and set the world on fire, but in most cases, they have to go through the growing pains. Petty shows an excellent arm, decent mobility, and excellent determination on film, so there is definitely hope for the Jets moving forward. However, he has to do a better job at understanding defenses, because the 49ers were able to play mind games with him at times in this contest. He also has to develop better timing with Enunwa and Marshall, considering they are the two leading receivers for the Jets in terms of importance. Hopefully, the Jets throw Devin Smith and Jalin Marshall into the mix as well so they can form timing with their quarterback. Overall, this was an OK game for Bryce Petty, as his biggest mistake wasn’t the interception, but rather the times where he misread the plays. It will be interesting to see how the Dolphins approach this game, because the offensive line isn’t blocking very well right now, and they have a great defensive line. They could either go blitz heavy or zone heavy similar to the 49ers, so Petty has to be prepared for both looks.
Grade: C+
Forum Questions:
A) What do you think was Petty’s worst mistake from this game?
B) If you are the Dolphins, and your season rides on this game, how do you game plan against the Jets and Petty?
Thank you for reading our weekly Film Review session for Week 13. Please free to check out our articles from earlier this year in the Film Review Section.
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