Sep 15, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; New York Jets defensive end Will McDonald IV (99) tackles Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis (8) for a loss during the first half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
Since no one plays during the real pre-season, we are now in the “pre-season” phase of the regular season. This leads to a ton of uneven and outright ugly football. The NY Jets won, but there’s a ton of work to be done. A win against New England and a “mini-bye” to work on things is crucial:
– Irv Charles may never make a catch in the league, but he’ll be a Pro Bowler on special teams. His ability to alter field position by blocking and covering kicks is unique. Usually, they do one or the other.
– The run defense was improved. Including Will Levis’s scrambles (38 yards), they held TEN to 24 rushes for 92 yards. Quinnen Williams and Javon Kinlaw were decent, clogging the middle.
– Jamien Sherwood and Qunicy Williams picked up their games as CJ Mosley went down. Sherwood was tremendous with 12 Tackles, TFL and PBU. While Williams was his normal
sideline-to-sideline self with 9 Tackles and a fumble recovery. It’s amazing how the LBs look much better when the line doesn’t get pushed around.
– Brandin Echols was the best CB on the field yesterday. Generating 5 Tackles, PBU, and an acrobatic one-handed INT.
– In my eyes, it was a down game for Sauce Gardner, giving up a TD to Ridley on a pass that should’ve been intercepted or knocked down at worst.
– Solomon Thomas had a nice stat game 3 Tackles, Sack, TFL, PBU and a QB Hit. But he’s got to tighten up his tackling because he let Levis slip through his hands a couple of times.
– The defensive star of the game was Will McDonald with 4 Tackles, 3 Sacks, 3 TFL and 3 QB Hits. The most impressive part of his performance was he mixed power with his speed getting to the QB. And he was able to anchor the edge on running plays.
– It’s awful that Jermaine Johnson went down; this increases Haason Reddick’s “leverage,” but I don’t expect to see him this week. In fact I wouldn’t be shocked if Joe Douglas signs Carl Lawson as DE depth, he knows the team/scheme and his strength would provide good insurance for the edge run defense.
– Solid OLine pass protection, inconsistent run blocking. Too many tackles at or behind the line on the RBs. A fair question is, was that due to the blocking or “vanilla” running plays.
– In fact, the play calling was lacking all day. There were not enough targets for Garrett Wilson, Tyler Conklin, Allen Lazard, or Mike Williams, in my opinion.
– Breece Hall was effective with 14 rushes for 62 yards and 7 catches for 52 yards and a TD. But as stated before, he was hit in the backfield way too much.
– Braelon Allen is going to be a problem for defenses with his size and speed. Generating 7 rushes for 33 yards and a TD in the run game. And 2 catches for 23 yards and a TD in the pass game. Allen reminded me of Derrick Henry with the way he ran over people.
– It wasn’t a Hall Of Fame performance by Aaron Rodgers (18/30, 176 yards, 2 TD), in fact wasting timeouts and getting a delay of game penalty due to bad clock management was embarrassing. But his ability to “freestyle” and make plays with his receivers got the win:
* Isolating Hall on a TEN LB and hitting him for a TD to put the Jets up 14-10
* Isolating Wilson on a TEN CB to get a huge first down on the final drive of the game
* Throwing a “jump ball” to Williams to get another huge first down on the final drive
Coming off his injury, his ability to move in the pocket and actually scramble away from the rush multiple times was also encouraging.
A couple of other things:
– Pathetic “roughing the passer” call on Jermaine Johnson. He hit Levis exactly when he threw the ball and immediately backed off never taking him to the ground. Its sickening how soft this sport has become.
– Props to former Jet DB coach Dennard Wilson who is now the TEN DC. I always loved his coaching style and so far he’s doing a good job with the Titans defense.