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Seattle has a
solid running game featuring Kenneth Walker, so the Jets need a much better run defense performance than we have seen the last six weeks.
They can’t allow big gashers up the middle, like these two:
In the Jets’ loss to Jacksonville, in the first quarter, running back Travis Ettiene had a 19-yard run up the middle. The initial hole was opened up in an area where Quinnen Williams and Carl Lawson got locked up, and then on the second level, Quincy Williams took a bad angle.
This is a bad combination – defensive linemen getting locked up and the linebacker on the second level taking a bad angle. Quincy Williams is tough as boot leather and one of the biggest hitters in the league, but sometimes he gets a little too aggressive and takes bad angles.
In the Jets’ loss to Detroit, Lions running back D’Andre Swift had a 16-yard run, also up the middle, and on this play, and Sheldon Rankins and John Franklin-Myers both got locked up, opening up a big hole.
It goes with out saying the Jets need their run defense to step up in these last two games . . .
Robert Saleh was asked if Jets defense has slipped a little over the last month, during the team’s four game losing streak.
“I don’t know if I’d call it slippage.,” Saleh said. “A lot of credit you want to give to Minnesota, Buffalo, Detroit, Jacksonville — they’re four pretty high-powered offenses coming in hot, top-10 offenses. So, anytime it’s going to be a battle. So, I always look at it in terms of if we were able to hold them under what their season averages would be.”
Saleh continued: “You got to give credit to the opponent, but I do think defensively, we’re playing these top-10 offenses, and those guys are doing a great job at least keeping them at bay and well below what their season averages are.”
They lost all four games. That is the bottom line, and as we mentioned above, they weren’t good against the run. As Bill Parcells liked to say, “There are no medals for trying.” . . .
With Miles Austin suspended by the NFL for gambling, Mack Brown is coaching the receivers now. He has been with the Jets since 2019, and is currently listed as an offensive assistant. He was a college QB at Colorado before transferring to Baker University in Kansas, where he finished with school records for most passing yards in a career, season and game by a Wildcat quarterback.
In the 2022 Senior Bowl, Brown was elevated to wide receivers coach working with the National Team’s six WRs.
While serving as an offensive assistant the last two years, he assisted Austin with the receivers.
Austin is appealing his NFL suspension for gambling, but not on NFL football.
Nobody on the beat has asked Robert Saleh about the Austin suspension . . .
Joe Douglas needs to give Zach Wilson a break. Don’t make him speak to the media the rest of the year. Serves no purpose, unless you want to torture him. Let him focus on fixing his mechanics the rest of the season and during the off-season, and keep him away from the media. Let him reset his mind and soul . . .
The Jets are pretty healthy entering their big game in Seattle. The only player who seems iffy is cornerback Brandon Echols who is dealing with a quad injury and was walking around with an electro-stim device on that quad . . .
I have been getting grief some some fans on Twitter for not being critical of Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur.
We will certainly find out more about his ability this last two weeks with a QB who executes the coordinator’s offense better. Mike White is much better at going the progressions designed in each play than Wilson, and is also more accurate. Wilson’s accuracy issues are leading to a lot of missed layups in the passing, like that simple hitch route to Garrett Wilson in the right flat that was thrown too far in front of him.
But overall, LaFleur, like a lot of young coordinators, needs to improve as a chess player, like his mentor, Kyle Shanahan. Sometimes with young coordinators, you feel like they are just calling plays from their playbooks, and not playing enough chess against the opposing defensive coordinator.
December 28, 2022
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