The Jets lost in embarrassing fashion to the Patriots, as the team fell apart in many ways. The defense was deplorable, and the offense was horrible. We will be looking at Bryce Petty’s plays, and then highlight a few young players in the game. Since there is dearth of interest in Fitzpatrick, and he most likely won’t be back next year, there is no point in breaking down film.
1)
This is an almost impossible play for any QB. The defense is in a two deep safety look, with press man coverage across the board. At pre-snap, Petty sees press coverage on Marshall to the left of the formation, with safety help over the top. He correctly surmises that, the best place to find an open receiver is to the right side of the formation, so his first progression read is to the right side. Unfortunately, there just isn’t an open receiver in the area. The Patriots have this play covered extremely well, at which point Petty tries to run with the ball, but runs into his own tackle, and gets sacked. This looks like a coverage sack, there just isn’t an open option in the time frame for him to pull the trigger.
2)
Identical situations, although there is a chance for a risky throw here. The defense again shows two deep safety with press coverage, but switch to zone coverage on this one. Marshall is again double teamed here with the CB playing underneath routes, with safety help over the top. Petty, again, looks to the right of the formation to see an open receiver, although the Patriots are baiting Petty for a throw to the Enunwa. The defender on Enunwa has outside coverage, and falls off, allowing Enunwa to be open, but there is middle linebacker coming in from the middle to intercept a pass. Petty’s best option is to target Brandon Bostick behind Enunwa, but it’s too late, as the rush is near him. He tries to squeeze between defenders in moving up in the pocket and gets tripped. The secondary read (Bostick) only develops after he gets behind Enunwa (most likely read is Enunwa then Bostick) but there isn’t enough time to complete this read. The worst culprit on this play is Brandon Shell, who decides to completely abandon the defensive end lined up right across from him, instead choosing to double team a defensive tackle. The decision is made even worse by the fact that the defense is showing blitz from that same side, meaning he allows two free runners at the QB so he can double the defensive tackle. Either Shell just can’t grasp the blocking scheme, is utterly ill prepared, or Petty failed to set protection. As we broke down last week’s film, Shell made similar plays as well. The only thing that saves Petty from a Cameron Wake type take down is Bilal Powell trying to swipe the legs of the defender, which causes him to jump up, and prevent him from destroying Petty as he runs to the side. The Jets paid a heavy price for Brandon Shell, but he has not looked good at all lately in terms of protection, as he seems to have a penchant for allowing free runners. It could also be a function of an inexperienced offensive line that just doesn’t communicate well, which is a black mark for coaching.
3)
The Patriots are showing single high safety, but the second safety backs up at the last moment, with press zone coverage. Petty’s first read is Brandon Marshall on this play, but he doesn’t pull the trigger. Marshall is briefly open on this play, as his defender is playing the underneath route, so there is an opening for a deep pass. However, Petty looks towards Marshall and decides to take the safer pass to Powell, and fails. It’s just a terrible throw by Petty, most likely caused by the rain, but he can’t have excuses for plays like this.
4)
Right read, bad throw. The defense is in a two deep safety look, and Petty tries to make a back shoulder pass to Anderson and makes another bad throw in the rain. As the second example shows, the ball slipped out of his hand and essentially floated towards Anderson. Maybe Petty should invest in some gloves. This is another bad throw, as he has to learn to make throws in the rain, especially playing in an open air stadium. It’s a great play by Malcolm Butler to come up with the interception, but all of the fault for this throw goes to Petty.
5)
Another bad play by Petty. The defense is in a single high safety look, with press man coverage on this play. The pre-snap read is good by Petty because he realizes the defender on Enunwa is the furthest away from any receiver and he just needs short yardage, thus he’s the most likely to be open. Enunwa is open on this play, while Petty is staring right at him, but doesn’t make the throw. Petty even takes a page out of the Fitzpatrick play book, by running towards a defender while trying to make a throw. It’s a horrible play all around by Petty.
1)
Austin Seferain-Jenkins. Please ignore the rest of the play, this one focuses just on Austin Seferian-Jenkins. The TE is lined up in the slot facing a linebacker, who is shading him to the inside. This indicates that the defense is willing to let Jenkins run outside, and defend the slant route to the middle of the field. However, Jenkins shows his ability to get open on this play by the move he makes near the defender. Watch the slight stutter step when approaching the defender, as he needs the linebacker to think he’s going on an out route. Jenkins first moves inside, then outside, which causes the defender to turn towards the outside, as Jenkins runs by him up the field. The part that makes the play is the hips of the linebacker, because if the defender turns to the inside as he runs up field (as he’s not worried about the out route) this is most likely an interception. However, Jenkins makes the play by the slight move, which causes the hips to change directions, allowing him to be open on this play.
2)
Austin Seferian-Jenkins. On this play, Jenkins is lined up against a safety, and watch how he attacks the safety down the seam. Jenkins runs right at the safety, causing indecision on the part of the defender as he backs up. He even gives him a hint of a curl route near the first down marker, which causes the safety to flinch forward as Jenkins gains inside leverage on this play. He does everything well on this play, but just doesn’t catch the pass. This is a pass that has to be caught, and shows the ups and downs with this young TE.
3)
Charone Peake. When we did the scouting report on Charone Peake, we concluded that he’s a more refined (slightly less athletic) version of Stephen Hill, and he does a good job of reminding fans of the former Jet on this play. Peake is lined up in the slot on this play, and he uses his speed to run across the middle and create separation. Peake is open for this pass, and Fitzpatrick throws a good pass, but it is flat out dropped by the receiver. Peake shows great athletic ability, because if he catches this ball, he’s one missed tackle away from a touchdown, but he also shows the issues that plagued him in college with drops.
4)
Robby Anderson. The speedy receiver is lined up on the outside in press coverage, and gets by his defender with a slight move at the line of scrimmage. The defender is shading him to the outside, and Anderson does a slight move at the line of scrimmage to freeze the defender before running down the field. This is a very slight move, and it doesn’t gain that much of an advantage but it does help him gain a yard of separation. Keep this move in mind, because it’s going to come up again later in the game. Getting off the line in press coverage, especially if you are slightly built like Anderson requires a bit of skill, and he shows some skills to gain an advantage over the defender.
5)
Robby Anderson and Devin Smith. There are two players to note here, with the first one being Devin Smith. He is lined up to the right of the formation, facing zone coverage and quickly finds a seam in the coverage. The plays shows some respect to his speed, because once the initial defender hands him off, it’s the safety’s responsibility to handle Smith, but the safety stays back. While Smith hasn’t been great for the Jets, defenders have to respect his speed in this case. If this was a TE running the same route, the safety would engage him much quicker. Smith also does a good job of “sitting in” the zone to provide a good target for the QB. The other aspect of this play is Robby Anderson on the outside to the left of the formation. Anderson is facing zone coverage, but he gets around his defender to the outside, which allows him room down the sideline. The defender is trying to funnel him to the inside but Anderson makes a good move to the outside, getting around his defender. In this zone coverage, the outside defenders want to take receivers on inside routes (as with Devin Smith) so they are running towards the safeties, but Anderson works around it.
6)
Charone Peake. The rookie WR is lined up in the slot to the left of the formation, and his defender is coming on a blitz with this play. Peake is the hot read on this play, and he catches the ball and shows off his ability by running after the catch. This one is to actually show good situational awareness by Peake, because notice how soon he turns around for the pass from Fitzpatrick. Peake realizes he is the hot read and open, so he wants to be ready for a pass if Fitzpatrick needs to unload the pass quickly, and he keeps his eyes towards the QB as he is running up the field. This is very good awareness from the rookie as we have seen far too often receivers running designed routes lacking awareness about them being the hot read (Kellen Davis for example) in the past.
7)
Devin Smith. Remember the move by Anderson at the line? Well this is the opposite, and what happens when the receiver doesn’t try to make a move. Devin Smith is lined up to the outside, left of the formation facing press man coverage with the safety on the other side of the field. For all it’s worth, this is a one on one match up for Smith and the defender, but the young receiver utterly fails to get open on this play. Smith makes no moves whatsoever, instead relying on a shoulder dip to try and create separation, which doesn’t work. Smith missed most of the year to an injury, and it may have hindered his development, but he has to do a better job of releasing off the line. The dipped shoulder move won’t work nearly as often in the NFL as it did in college, and he could learn a few things from Robby Anderson. Smith has good potential, but he seems to lack some basic moves when facing press coverage.
An utterly horrible game for the Jets. Bryce Petty didn’t play well at all, and then got injured trying to make a tackle. The Jets do have a good receiver core in place, which should bode well for the QB next year. Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, Quincy Enunwa, Robby Anderson, Charone Peake, Devin Smith, and Jalin Marshall all showed potential through out the year. It’ll be interesting to see if the Jets move on from Marshall because they have very good depth behind him (albeit inexperienced) and could allocate resources to other areas of the team. Austin Seferian-Jenkins also shows promise, showing a decent ability to get open.
Forum Questions:
A) Would you play Hackenberg in the final game (Bowles already has Fitzpatrick starting) but what is your take?
B) How would you fix the offensive line?
Side note: While breaking down this film, I ventured to look at some of the defensive looks, and it’s shocking to see how bad this defense plays. Brady could have thrown for about 200 more yards because the defense can’t stop the pass at all. I’m wondering if people are interested in some defensive breakdowns in the off-season. I want to wait until the off-season to find out the coaching situation, because if the coaching staff is fired, then there isn’t a point in breaking down considerable film. However, if the coaching staff is retained, how many people would like some breakdowns on defense?
