QuickFix: Saucy Nuggets from the Jets' win over the Colts
We're going to kick off today's analysis with some things you might not have noticed from yesterday's win over Denver:
Destroying the "injury-ravaged Colts" narrative
A lot of people - including some Jets fans - are for some reason eager to downplay the Jets' win yesterday, on the basis that the Colts had a series of injury issues that the Jets were able to exploit.
There is, of course, some truth to this. However, expecting a blowout win from the Jets was unrealistic. The Colts haven't been blown out all season despite their 1-5 record and the fact many people are ignoring is that they were already dealing with injury issues as bad, if not worse, than what they had yesterday.
Let's take the infallible, all-conquering world-beaters from New England as an example. With 10 minutes to go in their game with the Colts, the score was 24-17; no different really than the Jets' 33-27 lead at the same point in yesterday's game.
Ultimately New England won by 14, but the Jets themselves were leading by 15 at the two minute warning. Again, no real difference other than the fact the Colts punched in a meaningless consolation touchdown or the Patriots scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter while the Jets settled for three field goals.
But New England was facing a much healthier Colts team, right? Not at all. In fact, with a long week to prepare, the Colts were able to get some key guys back. While they had seven guys inactive against the Jets, they actually had 10 guys who missed the Patriots games through injury.
Sure, the Jets benefited from guys like TY Hilton and Jack Doyle being out, but they also missed the Patriots game with Andrew Luck still able to pass for 365 yards. In addition, the Colts got Anthony Castonzo, Darius Leonard, Marlon Mack and both starting cornerbacks back for the Jets game.
The three key players the Colts lost since that game were starting safety Clayton Geathers and defensive linemen Denico Autry and Margus Hunt. Three key losses for sure, but not as significant as the five players they got back since the New England game and they had already brought in a veteran safety in Mike Mitchell as cover, while Jihad Ward, Grover Stewart and Hassan Ridgeway filled in adequately on the inside.
No NFL win is easy, so there should be no shame whatsoever in the fact this game was still close into the fourth quarter, especially when the Jets have their own key absences. If anything, maybe questions should have been asked of New England.
Another zero for Leo
It wouldn't be surprising to see the media make a big deal over the fact that Leonard Williams was held without a tackle for the third time in six games.
To put that into context, Muhammad Wilkerson - whose statistical production was constantly being monitored and nitpicked by the New York media - has never failed to register a tackle in an NFL game.
Indeed, Williams had some negative plays at the point of attack as the Colts picked up large chunks of yardage in the second half with the Jets playing sub-packages. Mack rushed for 89 yards on just 12 carries.
Williams did contribute though. He had three quarterback hits which - officially - were the only hits the Jets' entire team registered all day on Luck. He also flushed Luck from the pocket to draw an intentional grounding penalty. And his contribution on Darron Lee's crucial fourth quarter interception shouldn't be ignored:
Unless you're a member of Quenton Nelson's family, you'll probably want to see that again:
Blowing up a guard like that can often lead to an interception. Just ask Brian Winters:
Thanks for reading!
We talk a lot about tendency-breakers in our analysis and Chris Herndon's touchdown was an example of the exact play we'd suggested would be a good way of getting a big play in a recent article:
The fake receiver screen often causes the defenders to come up too fast, leaving the guys who were expected to make a block wide open down the field.
Unfortunately, the Colts' offensive coordinator obviously read the same article because they scored a touchdown on basically the same play:
This is an interesting one to review. At first glance it seems like Marcus Maye is late getting over to the receiver who scores. However, maybe Avery Williamson should have got across to pick up that player.
While it's clear Parry Nickerson bit on the fake and was caught trying to get out ahead of the blocker, the key to this play is probably Darryl Roberts also being caught out. The outside slot receiver gets behind him and that draws Maye out of the middle, leaving the receiver open down the seam. If Maye stays at home, Roberts' man would've been wide open for the score instead.
It's always difficult to apportion blame on such plays but Maye was probably the only one who was reacting to what was going on. Unfortunately, three other players were fooled or late to react.
Maybe some defensive coordinators should start to read our articles too.
Much more analysis to come later today and over the next few days. Please let us know who you'd like to see us feature in more detail in 3-on-D and 3-on-O.