Our defense right now is built like an inverted pyramid. We're strong in the secondary and weak up front. That's really not how most good defenses are built and we won't be able to hide it for much longer.
It'll even out over the year. We have had difficulties, for sure, but nothing looks fundamentally broken.
I don't think we're weak up front. I think the front seven, specifically Bart Scott, is slow. It's time to get faster and younger at linebacker. The defense really played well against Ryan Mathews. The corners made a lot of plays against the run and that was huge. No big plays were given up to a serious threat. Tolbert did damage up the middle on a long run because our backers didn't fill their gaps. Wilkerson, DeVito, Pitoitua, Ellis, and Pouha can get the job done to an extent. The guys playing behind them need to step the fuck up. Maybin and Westerman are liabilities in the run game, but they aren't slow. I'd like to see what kind of impact Maybin could have against outside runs. He'd most likely get taken out of quite a few plays, but tackles for loss would come. Westerman has been awful on the edge. Thomas is clearly missed.
The week before Thomas got hurt, we got gashed by Darren McFadden. I'm not saying his impact hasn't been felt because his biggest impact was as a run defender, but we have improved against the run since his injury. However, that might have just been a product of compensating against the run.
The Jets have been consistently pretty good against the run but keep getting gashed on monster runs of 40+. I don't think the team is really THAT bad. Most of the time a back gets 2 or 3 yards max, but then they take one to the edge for 25.
Can never stop the runs on the outside. Linebackers are a bit slow and the missed tackles are frustrating to see.
This is the big question on the season. Can the Jets stop the run or will they go 9-7/8-8 and sit out the postseason? There's no way the Jets are giving up 2,000 yards rushing and making the playoffs and yet that is the pace they are on, and their composite opponent for their last 9 games would rank 9th in the NFL in rushing at 126.5 yards per game.
The offense needs to sustain drives. The 3 and outs wear down the defense and we lose the time of possesion battle.
so............this could be translated to say the reason the defense can't stop the run is because schotty sux! fire schotty
