BGA: Jets at Broncos

WhiteShoeWillis · Oct 21, 2010

By Bent on Oct 20, 2010, 10:14 pm

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).

Here comes the 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 tomorrow. (Note: I have already taken note of several BGA questions via the comments/e-mail, which I will also respond to later.)

After the jump, catch my analysis of Sunday’s game, including – but not limited to – comments on Darrelle Revis, Trevor Pryce and Mark Sanchez.

Playcalling

I think we’ve debated the offensive playcalling enough for one week, so I’m staying out of that one.

Although…don’t look now, but Manish kind of disagrees with Andrew’s take:

The Jets are excellent at limiting their tendencies. Consider the runass breakdowns:
First play of series: 8 run, 4 pass
On first down: 15 run, 11 pass

Instead, I want to talk about defensive tendencies. Rex Ryan has come in for a lot of criticism for the way he “always” sends pressure defensively. However, in the last three consecutive games, the team has managed to thwart potential game winning/tying drives by the opposition. Against Miami, they bucked the trend by rushing just three on the last two plays. Then against Minnesota, Rex really lived up to his “Mad Scientist” reputation by lining Brodney Pool up as a defensive tackle for a crucial third down. After Shaun Ellis jumped offsides, he reverted to a “normal” formation and a perhaps-baffled Favre threw the game-clinching pick-six on the next play. Against the Broncos, Rex took things to another level on the play which led to Denver’s final turnover.

James Ihedigbo had only been on the field for one other play (Tebow’s touchdown, where he actually did a poor job and gave up outside contain), but he was put into the game at strong safety. Dwight Lowery hadn’t played at all, but he came into the game at right cornerback. Antonio Cromartie – who had been playing opposite Brandon Lloyd all game, apart from when Tebow would enter the game – dropped into a free safety position behind Lowery. Bart Scott came out of the game – missing his only defensive snap of the game. That’s not all – the Jets sent Lowery on a blitz, their only cornerback blitz of the season so far that wasn’t from the slot and also sent Drew Coleman on a blitz from the other slot, then dropped a defensive lineman (Jason Taylor) into coverage for just the fifth time all game. All-in-all, you have to wonder whether Orton saw something he liked the look of and rushed the snap as a result and perhaps mis-fielded the bad snap because he was surverying the field. You certainly can’t say Rex isn’t afraid to mix it up on crucial plays.

On the whole, both teams made a ton of adjustments for this game, which might explain why both teams seemed to struggle at what they had been doing well and had success doing what they hadn’t been able to earlier in the season. To summarize some of these:

- Denver, a 3-4 team, played in a 4-3 formation 69% of the time and a 3-4 on only five plays. That might explain why the Jets didn’t run the ball so well early on.
- The term “8 men in the box” is thrown around a lot when it isn’t actually the case. This time, it was, as Denver brought a safety (usually Nate Jones) into the box, almost as a fourth linebacker, on almost every play, with only eight plays (out of 65) where they had no safety in the box.
- Denver sent a defensive tackle on a pass rush from a standing position six times. This may or may not be the norm for Denver, but it certainly isn’t something the Jets have seen that much all year. They also sent an eight man rush and a couple of seven man rushes.
- The Jets left more extra backs/tight ends in to block early in the game than they had at the outset of any other game.
- Although they only dropped defensive linemen into coverage five times, that was a season high.
- The Jets took a different approach to Tim Tebow than they did against the Wildcat. Antonio Cromartie would drop back to free safety and Brodney Pool would step into the box, which makes sense, since Pool is the superior tackler. The Broncos ran nine times out of nine with Tebow in.
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http://www.thejetsblog.com/2010/10/20/bga-jets-at-broncos/

WhiteShoeWillis · Oct 21, 2010

continued ...

Quarterback

Sanchez was poor and he admitted as much when he thanked the defense for saving his [posterior] after the game. However, he made two clutch throws (to Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes) on that last drive and although I felt his throw to Holmes to draw the game-deciding flag was underthrown, it is always better to underthrow a long ball when your receiver has a step and the defensive back is not yet looking back for the ball.

One alarming statistic was that when he was pressured, which he brought upon himself a few times by holding the ball for too long, Sanchez was 0-for-7 with two interceptions and two sacks. It’s no coincidence that his best performances this year have been the ones where he has done an outstanding job of getting rid of the ball decisively. In this game, it looked like the Broncos were daring him to take a chance and that paid off for them. It also underlines how crucial it is for the offensive line to keep him clean.

Offensive Line

As mentioned, Sanchez brought a lot of the pressure on himself. One of the sacks was on him and the other was a coverage sack. Nick Mangold did give up two pressures and D’Brickashaw Ferguson gave up a hit and a pressure (one of which was costly because it came on the play where Sanchez threw his second interception). Other than that, Matt Slauson gave up a pressure, but Brandon Moore and Damien Woody didn’t.

For Moore, it was a bit of a breakout game. He had an excellent run blocking performance. The rest of the line graded out positively too, with Nick Mangold attaining his best run blocking grade of the season so far, so we can perhaps expect big things from him after the bye week. After last week, where I said the success of the running game was more down to the backs than the line, this week I am going to say the opposite…and here’s why:

Last week – 32 carries, 155 yards, 115 yards after contact
This week – 30 carries, 129 yards, 59 yards after contact

So, the yards before contact increased from 1.3 to 2.3 yards per carry and the total yardage wasn’t bolstered by the skills of the running backs at the second level.

Running Backs

As I said above, I give most of the credit to the offensive line for the success of the running game this week. It was tough sledding early – per CBS, seven of ten rushing plays in the first quarter went for two yards or less – but, despite the eight men in the box, it was good to see that the “Keep Choppin’ Wood” philosophy is alive and well, as the Jets were finally able to spring LaDainian Tomlinson for a 20 yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Even with that run, Tomlinson’s 3.4 yards per carry were easily a season low and no runner was able to break/avoid a tackle after Tomlinson and Greene combined to cause eight missed tackles last week. Greene did pick up some tough yardage, but will presumably always see his workload (nine carries) reduced when the Jets are trailing in the fourth quarter. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen too often.

At fullback, Tony Richardson played three times as much as John Conner this week and Conner – whose workload almost doubled to nine carries – was perhaps more impressive, getting the key block on Tomlinson’s first score.

Tight Ends and Receivers

Dustin Keller, Jerricho Cotchery, Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards were each targeted at least five times and each had at least three catches. The Denver secondary actually played really well. Against certain other teams, this quartet is likely to put up some big numbers.

Keller was the only one to drop a pass, but Holmes did fumble on the end around. Brad Smith had a quiet 44 all purpose yards, but still made a positive contribution on each of his four touches (including one kick return).

None of the receivers or tight ends was particularly good or bad in terms of blocking. It seems that now Wayne Hunter is back, Matthew Mulligan is back to being a pure special teamer for the time being.

Defensive Line

While it seemed like Denver had a big game running the ball, their 145 yards can be broken down to show that the front seven actually did a creditable job. If you just consider the yards gained by the running backs, they gained 87 yards on 26 carries. 36 of those yards came on just three plays, which means that they averaged just 2 yards per carry on the other 23 carries, which explains why Denver found themselves in a lot of passing situations.

The Jets only dressed five linemen, instead opting to use Calvin Pace, Bryan Thomas and Jason Taylor as 3-4 ends at certain times. This did leave them shorthanded in terms of their goalline defense, with Rob Turner and Wayne Hunter both coming in to play defensive tackle on the play where Tebow scored. This was the first time they’ve played together all season.

I want to give special mention to Trevor Pryce, who I thought was superb. He was only credited with a tackle for a loss and two QB hits, but he constantly drove his man back into the pocket and gives the Jets an extra dimension when they don’t blitz. If he plays like this all year, it will prove to be a fantastic signing. On a per-play basis, he easily had the best grade on the team according to PFF, but I had every intention of mentioning him even if he hadn’t graded out well.

Linebackers

The key to stopping the run this week was the play of the linebackers. Bart Scott in particular had a high-impact performance and David Harris was excellent too. Scott also had a good game rushing the passer, registering two hits and a pressure.

This week, Thomas, Taylor and Pace combined for just two pressures between them as the Jets had a sack (Pouha), four hits and five pressures. Here’s a breakdown of the pressure sent:

Fewer than 4 pass rushers: 7 (last week: 12 – all in the last 3:24)
Four: 10 (last week: 12)
Five: 11 (last week: 16)
More than five: 12 (last week: 3)

Interestingly, although they sent a lot of pressure, they only blitzed the same number of players three times in a row once. That wouldn’t have been the case in earlier games this year, so that’s another example of them mixing it up.

Defensive Backs

On closer inspection, Darrelle Revis had a very solid game. Is he all the way back? No way. He was too far off Jabar Gaffney on one post pattern and still occasionally half a step short of perfect position that you’d come to expect last season. Rex said he was 90% and I’d suggest that sounds about right. Had they successfully challenged the touchdown by Demaryius Thomas, his numbers would look more Revis-esque.

Antonio Cromartie was even better in coverage than Revis and probably had the tougher assignment. Revis seemed to be playing a lot more press coverage this week and seemed to have no safety support a few more times than Cromartie. Drew Coleman deserves credit for his job on Eddie Royal and his day didn’t get any easier when Royal got hurt and he had to cover Gaffney. Each had three catches. He also deserves credit for his forced fumble, which prevented the Jets from being in an early hole. And no, Kyle Wilson did not play on defense this week.

Jim Leonhard had a much better game this week, although he did give up two big plays to Brandon Lloyd in zone coverage. Brodney Pool spent more time in the box this week and wasn’t thrown at.

Special Teams

Yes, the conditions in Mile High Stadium were such that Diana Ross probably could have kicked a touchback, but once again the Jets kicking game was great. You can’t read too much into Nick Folk’s five touchback performance, but his 56 yard field goal was a clutch kick. Steve Weatherford’s punting was good again and he had one punt which bounced inside the 20 and was inches away from hitting an oblivious Bronco on the leg for what would have been a huge turnover. One negative saw Eddie Royal rip off a 32 yard punt return.

PFF Analysis

I once again 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:

Strange things can happen at altitude. The Broncos’ anemic running game racked up 145 yards on the Jets’ stingy run defense. The Jets — who entered the game with just one turnover on the season — turned the ball over three times. The vaunted Denver passing game was kept in check by a Jets pass defense that had been struggling to stop anyone moving the ball. In other words, throw the form book out of the window for this AFC clash, which ended up with the Jets coming from behind for a 24-20 win.

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

After the game, I was a little down on the Jets. I didn’t enjoy the game and felt they escaped with the win, although I did feel it was a good sign that they won despite performing poorly. Having re-watched the game, I definitely feel a lot better about the performance. The bye week is very welcome and I would hope that the benefits of getting everybody healthy and having two weeks to prepare for the next game will far outweight the downside of losing the momentum from this five game winning streak.
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Hobbes3259 · Oct 21, 2010

Thanks Willie!

tpjets62 · Oct 21, 2010

Nice...Thanks!

fozzi58 · Oct 21, 2010

Definitely good stuff. Thanks for posting.

JetFanInMD · Oct 21, 2010

Diana Ross could have kicked a touchback? Where did that come from?

Baumeister · Oct 21, 2010

Very in depth break down of the game and a good read for Jets fans. Thanks for posting.

624 · Oct 21, 2010

JetFanInMD said: ↑

Diana Ross could have kicked a touchback? Where did that come from?
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Ask WSW, he wrote this whole thing.

WhiteShoeWillis · Oct 21, 2010

624 said: ↑

Ask WSW, he wrote this whole thing.
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lmao - prick!

BK_Jetsfan · Oct 21, 2010

Freakin awesome! Thanks for this! Nice read during the bye.

Milliner is your Mommy · Oct 21, 2010

good read. I defenitly feel better about the win now then i did immediately after. I was happy we got the win of course but it didnt feel like normal Jets football

BGA: Jets at Broncos

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