Three on O: Shell, Hansen, Winters
After each game, we're going to highlight three defensive and three offensive players and look in detail at their performance. We'll start today with the offense:
Winters Splinters
Brian Winters had yet another disappointing performance as he continues to flounder following his big money extension during the offseason. His struggles on Sunday included giving up this sack:
Winters also had one play where his man drove him back into McCown, knocking him down for another sack.
Things didn't get much better in the running game as he also had two holding penalties and a couple more plays where he allowed his man to make a stop or penetrate into the backfield with hardly any positive impact blocks.
There's an example here, where the Jets used a toss pitch with Lawrence Thomas on the move and Winters pulling to the right. As you can see, Eric Tomlinson sets the edge perfectly and if Winters and Thomas can take a guy each on the move, the running back will have a one-on-one with a defensive back in space:
Unfortunately, they both blocked the outside defender, leaving the other unblocked to stuff the back in the backfield.
That was a typical error for the Jets. Here was another play where they tried an unconventional run that had a chance to pop. ArDarius Stewart took a jet sweep running left and had two blockers ahead of him with two defenders. On this play, all the offensive linemen, including Winters, did an effective job of sealing their men to the inside:
Again this failed because Austin Seferian-Jenkins ran straight past the guy he should have blocked, leaving him free to make an open field tackle. Had he slowed up to block that player, it would have at least been a first down.
Back on the Shellf?
Some people have singled out Brandon Shell as one bright spot for the Jets offense after Pro Football Focus released a stat saying that he didn't surrender any pressure.
However, you can clearly see he was beaten badly for a sack on the play below:
Presumably, this wasn't credited to Shell's man in PFF's initial grading process, perhaps because Josh McCown had time to escape the pocket on the left side, but nowhere to go. However, Shell should still be graded down for getting beaten around the edge like this.
Other than that play, Shell was only beaten around the outside one other time and then mainly because the player who beat him jumped offside. However there was also a play where he allowed his man to drive him back in the pocket, messing up the timing on a screen pass. The Jets had more of an issue with interior pressure, though.
Shell didn't have much success in the running game, missing one block at the point of attack and letting his man shoot a gap to blow up a run.
Shell has good length but is slow-footed so he seems to be at his best driving forward rather than moving laterally. While he did a good job of limiting his mistakes on Sunday, you have to wonder if the line as a unit was better off with Brent Qvale starting.
Who's your Chaddy?
Chad Hansen, who hadn't been targeted all season, finally got a chance for some decent playing time with Jeremy Kerley out ... and still wasn't targeted until the fourth quarter.
Finally, he made his first NFL reception on a third down catch underneath that forced the Jets to have to punt early in the final period.
As the Jets were trying to get back into the game at 15-3, Hansen had two more catches on the next drive. The first was a nice diving catch on a low third down throw for a first down. He then caught this first down over the middle:
Hansen was targeted once on the last drive as McCown tried to hit him on an out pattern on second and long but the timing seemed to be off and the throw was wide. He didn't really get any separation from Brent Grimes on the play anyway.
Hansen didn't make any impact as a blocker, but didn't make any obvious mistakes either.
It was good to see Hansen get on the board and hopefully he can build on this and start to make some plays like the ones he made in the preseason game against the Giants going forwards.
PREVIOUSLY: Smart play design exploits Jets' weaknesses