Analysis of Pats @Jets: TheJetsBlog

WhiteShoeWillis · Sep 23, 2010

Disclaimer: All analysis was taken from the TV coverage, so at times it may have been hard to identify players or what was happening, because I was limited by their footage. However, I have tried to be as accurate as possible and apologize for any inaccuracies or omissions (which I am happy to correct).

I’m going to repeat the format from last week and give an extended breakdown of Sunday’s action. If you have anything else you’d like me to comment upon, please leave your requests in the comments and I’ll do a follow-up post tonight.

After the jump, catch my analysis of Monday night’s game, including – but not limited to – comments on Matt Slauson, Mark Sanchez and Antonio Cromartie.

Playcalling

I don’t intend to talk about playcalling every week, but something obviously changed between last week and this week. Here’s what I said last week:

As for the two-plays-in-the-huddle thing, it was pretty clear this was causing confusion at the line and so this, along with the pre-snap movement, should perhaps be simplified.

…and, that’s pretty much what happened. It also helps when you reduce the number of dropped passes from five to two and don’t have any big plays called back by penalties. Perhaps there is a drop-off from Baltimore’s defense to New England’s too. It remains to be seen what animal we see against Miami.

Quarterback

It was a career-best game from Mark Sanchez in terms of completions and touchdown passes. He still wasn’t perfect, holding onto the ball a shade too long throughout the first half (but not during the second half) and getting away with a few dicey throws. For example, his throw to Keller down the middle on the first play was slightly overthrown, almost leading to an interception and his final touchdown pass saw him look off a wide open Wayne Hunter in favor of throwing back across his body to the more-tightly covered Dustin Keller.

On the whole, it was an extremely solid performance from Sanchez, who seemed to grow in confidence as the game went on. If he can grow in confidence as the season goes on, then we might see even better displays than this one.

Offensive Line

It wasn’t a dominating performance from the offensive line for the second straight week. They ran the ball reasonably well, but New England had two safeties deep more often than not, especially in the first half, so the Jets weren’t facing the usual “eight men in the box” very often. Matt Slauson was actually the only offensive lineman to get a positive grade for run-blocking from PFF, while Brandon Moore struggled.

In terms of pass protection, the Jets’ line didn’t give up as much pressure as the Patriots’ line did (1 sack, 1 hit, 14 pressures), but Sanchez didn’t get rid of the ball as efficiently as Tom Brady, surrendering 3 sacks and 8 pressures. D’Brickashaw Ferguson was the problem here, giving up sacks to Gerard Warren, who got inside leverage on him and Tully Banta Cain, who beat him to the outside. The other sack was credited to Matt Slauson, as Warren drove him back and sacked Sanchez, who couldn’t step up because Ferguson had been beaten again. All three of those sacks might have been avoided by a quarterback with better pocket presence (which Sanchez himself displayed after halftime).

It’s worth noting that Ferguson did not give up a single pressure other than those three plays, so he did not grade out too badly, despite being given little help. Slauson only gave up one other pressure and did a solid job for the mostpart, with the Jets averaging 5.6 yards per carry over left guard. If you’re interested, Alan Faneca had an extremely difficult game against Atlanta’s Jonathan Babineaux, giving up a total of 4 pressures, a hit and a sack and grading out extremely poorly.

Credit must also go to Rob Turner, who filled in for Nick Mangold at Center for eight plays as the Jets drove for the go-ahead touchdown.

Running Backs

Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson combined for 160 all-purpose yards on 31 touches. It was a much better performance from Greene, even though he averaged less than 4 yards per carry and Tomlinson continues to seem to be much more dynamic than the guy who averaged just 3.3 yards per carry last season.

Tomlinson has broken/avoided five tackles in two games, after just having nine all season last year. He also showed good hands, leaping ability and again displayed the kind of burst that made him successful when he was younger. After being ranked amongst the worst backs in the league by both PFF and Football Outsiders last year, he is currently in the middle of the pack.

For Greene, it was a step in the right direction. He touched the ball 16 times and did not fumble. Also, although he only stayed in to block twice, one of these saw him pick up a blitzer well on the two point conversion to Braylon Edwards and he also made a nice first down catch. Those were two things he didn’t do much of last year, so these are encouraging signs.

John Conner only saw action on six plays (and three of these were right near the end) and neither fullback graded out well. The Jets had more success running the ball without a fullback in the game.

Tight Ends and Receivers

I’ve already mentioned the reduction in dropped catches this week, but there were also some difficult catches that were made, notably one-handers by both Edwards and Keller. Edwards caught five of the six balls thrown his way, which was an extremely positive sign from a guy who once caught fewer than 40% of his targets in a season. Less positive were his two taunting penalties (one of which wasn’t called) and the incident after the game. Hopefully, Edwards will be humbled by the experience and will perform like he did on Sunday for the rest of the season, without the extra-curriculars.

Keller had a superb game, with 115 yards on seven catches. Perhaps more excitingly, he even had the third best rating of his career for run blocking, achieving a positive grade for just the sixth time in his career (38 games).

Having dropped two last week, Jerricho Cotchery rebounded with four catches including the go-ahead score in the third. He is nearly always the slot receiver when there are more than two receivers on the field.

After Brad Smith hurt his jaw, David Clowney got all the reps as the number three receiver, but was only thrown to once in 25 snaps. Sanchez threw behind him and was shown rolling his eyes, which was telling.

Defensive Line

You would normally credit holding a team to 2.6 yards per carry to the front seven, but the fact of the matter is that there was only a front seven on five plays. For the rest of this game, the Jets had at least five defensive backs on the field. Through two games, the Jets have given up 101 yards rushing on 55 carries. Wow.

Mike DeVito was the key to this one, with a team high four “stops” (ie plays that result in an offensive failure). Vernon Gholston only played on 10 out of 62 snaps, which was not unexpected because he only played in 15 of 77 snaps against the Patriots in week two last year. This time, however, he made the most of it, with a good performance that included a tackle for a loss and another play where he got penetration leading to another run being stuffed. He also almost got to Tom Brady with an outside move on his touchdown pass to Moss.

With only four defensive linemen active, Westerman, Taylor and Thomas all saw action as down linemen on three man fronts and the Jets even got some pass rush from their defensive line, as Shaun Ellis contributed one hit and six pressures.

Linebackers

Bryan Thomas continues to thrive in the Rush LB role, recording four more pressures. The inside backers were less statistically productive this week, but did contribute to slowing down Wes Welker at the line whenever he lined up in the slot. David Harris was the only linebacker on the field for every play. Jason Taylor overcame his injured elbow to spin past Matt Light for the strip sack that ultimately closed out the Jets win. Perhaps more importantly, the four of them had no missed tackles between them.

When Calvin Pace returns, it should provide this unit with a boost, but the defense as a whole did manage to pressure Tom Brady 15 times, despite sending far fewer blitzers than last week. Here’s how it broke down:

Fewer than 4 pass rushers: 9
Four: 17
Five: 13
More than five: 1

(continued)
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http://www.thejetsblog.com/2010/09/23/bga-patriots-at-jets/#more-30427

WhiteShoeWillis · Sep 23, 2010

Defensive Backs

Even before his hamstring injury, Darrelle Revis did not look to be 100%. The Jets made several adjustments with him not available, including taking Eric Smith out of the game at halftime and replacing him with Brodney Pool. Smith did not play in the second half, despite the fact that the Jets often had three safeties on the field and Pool graded out better in pass coverage. They also employed more zone coverages and put Antonio Cromartie on Randy Moss.

After a shaky first half, both in terms of coverage and tackling, Cromartie responded by more or less taking Moss out of the game. Covering Wes Welker was the assignment handed to Kyle Wilson and he was also kept quiet in the second half. Both guys had plenty of help though.

Dwight Lowery again saw plenty of playing time at safety. This week, he wasn’t playing deep very often, and was mainly employed in underneath coverage. Drew Coleman was only on the field for one play against the Ravens (as a blitzer), but saw plenty of action as the number two corner in the second half, and surprisingly held his own. Marquice Cole saw action on one series after Coleman was hurt playing special teams.

Pool and Cromartie also contributed an interception each and the unit as a whole did a much better job of cutting down on the penalties.

Special Teams

Once again Steve Weatherford and Nick Folk kicked well, although I don’t want to say too much in case I jinx it. James Ihedigbo didn’t get any defensive reps, but came perilously close to a blocked punt. Lance Laury had a couple of tackles, but the return game contributed just 41 yards.

PFF Analysis

This week, I contributed to the game recap article for ProFootballFocus.com (which also gives you a sneak preview of some of their player ratings) and here’s a sample quote:

The Patriots’ inability to run the ball put them into a lot of passing situations in the second half, which the Jets were able to exploit. They also struggled to get pressure on Mark Sanchez after halftime and he was able to punish them with the first three-touchdown game of his young career.

TJB readers can obtain full access to PFF’s premium stats for $63 this season. The discount available has been increased to 30%. E-mail me (bentdouble@gmail.com ) to obtain a code to enable you to get the discount.

Conclusions

It was a confounding game, as key players seemed to be dropping like flies at one point and the early signs were not good. The team deserves credit for sticking to their gameplan and finally showing signs of the team we hoped they could be this season. There are still more questions heading into this week, not least of which involve the Braylon Edwards situation, so the Jets are not exactly heading out onto the road for the first time this season at full strength. At least they have some momentum now, though.
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fillerfiller

73klecko · Sep 23, 2010

Great analysis! Thanks for posting.

Hobbes3259 · Sep 23, 2010

nnd his final touchdown pass saw him look off a wide open Wayne Hunter in favor of throwing back across his body to the more-tightly covered Dustin Keller.
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That right baby!

Get the Damn ball to Wide Open Wayne Hunter

624 · Sep 23, 2010

You would normally credit holding a team to 2.6 yards per carry to the front seven, but the fact of the matter is that there was only a front seven on five plays. For the rest of this game, the Jets had at least five defensive backs on the field. Through two games, the Jets have given up 101 yards rushing on 55 carries. Wow.

I like this

Pluvrr · Sep 23, 2010

Good analysis, thanks!

DRC™ · Sep 23, 2010

I saw that play with Hunter wide open too

But on 3rd down, who would you trust? Your tight end who has being playing lights out or an offensive lineman?

There's a reason he was so wide open

Analysis of Pats @Jets: TheJetsBlog

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