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It was good for the Jets . . .
That D.J. Reed spoke his mind after the game after the mental errors on defense.
He pulled the no punches and called for a special defensive meeting.
This is leadership.
This is no time to put lipstick on what is going on.
“We gotta on be on the same page and we’re not right now,” Reed said.
So true.
When the other team’s top receivers (Cleveland’s Amari Cooper and Cincinnati’s Jamar Chase) are wide open in the middle of the end zone for touchdown catches, that is a quintessential example of defensive players not being on the same page. That has happened in the last two games.
I asked Reed after the game about the secondary leaving a receiver of Chase’s magnitude wide open in the end zone.
“I’m frustrated just like you,” Reed said. “He really didn’t do anything up to that point. It’s frustrating. How you feel frustrated, I feel the same way. We gotta get it fixed.”
I got a kick out of this answer that he believed I was frustrated. I’m a reporter, not a fan, and this is Manhattan, NY, not Manhattan, KS where he played his college football. I don’t own pom-poms.
But I will say, it is frustrating to cover blown assignments because you hate to have to go over to guys and ask them what happened on that blown coverage.
Do you think it’s fun to go to a player and ask, “Why did you guys screw up?”
To be honest with you, I prefer to cover clean games, where two teams play really well, and one team wins. The Jets are giving away games like the Baltimore and Cincinnati losses by giving up easy “explosives” as they call them.
“We aren’t letting teams beat us by outexecuting us, we are just giving them stuff – we gotta get that fixed ASAP,” Reed said.
And sometimes you need “blunt force trauma” as Rex Ryan used to put it to get people’s attention.
Reed said the defensive backs and linebackers aren’t “on the same page.”
Powerful statement.
Getting Kwon Alexander in the lineup at linebacker should help a little. He’s a savvy veteran and great communicator. Quincy Williams will be out a few weeks with a high ankle sprain.
The Jets will certainly miss his Williams toughness and hitting ability. He plays with an attitude.
However, while they are both excellent in run support, Alexander gets a slight edge in pass coverage, so this could help a defense that must step it up against the pass.
Quincy Williams is tremendous in run support and causing fumbles, but he and C.J. Mosley both need to make more plays on the ball in pass coverage. In the first three games, Williams has no PDs (passes defensed). Neither does Mosley. I’m not talking about picks, I’m talking about breaking up passes.
Alexander has been a very good coverage safety over the years, so he should help the Jets’ pass defense in an area tha must improve.
And he’s a very verbal, loquacious cat, so should help the communication on the back end.
“Right now we are not communicating loud enough to hear each other,” Reed said.
Alexander should help that.
As should Reed’s leadership.
And his blunt words.
September 26, 2022
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