He can't erase all the bad games to help the average....all they can do is work on getting better each week but if you start bad for a few weeks, it's hard to fix where you wank in the stats....look at the individual games and you'll get a better idea of how the Jets play against the run. The Oakland game is an anomaly and they ate up big chunks on a few plays. I am not saying that we are great against the run but in reality we are also not the 28th best. That stat is misleading. If the Jets get ahead on teams by 14 or 20, they won't run and we'll technically "get better" against the run....statistically...
I don't think this stat is representative of the Jets run defense, especially up the middle. Their problem is bottling up runners that break to the outside for big runs. Obviously this isn't good, but it's better to have a guy break 1 big run and average 2 yards on the rest of his carries then allowing him to gash you for 10 yards at will every time he touches the ball.
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to point that out. Had to bring it up a few days ago for a Bills fan who said his team was better against the run.
It's been a very disappointing year for our so-called "best ILB tandem in the NFL." (Quoting myself, two years ago). Age is clearly catching up with Bart Scott, but the guy I'm really disappointed in is David Harris. He's good. That's really all I can say about him. He's not lousy or average, but he sure isn't playing like the highest paid inside linebacker in the NFL should be playing. At this point in his career, I'd like our opponents to be thinking "Shit, DH tomorrow," on Saturdays. I don't really sense that. He's just not a gamechanger.
That's the average amount of yards per carry we give up. We give up 126 yards per game in total, which is 26th.
Depends which one you value more. I think YPA is more important. One team gets rushed on 400 times for 950 yards on the season. Another team gets rushed on 250 times for 850 yards on the season. Which is worse?
Is the season over? Have a little faith, guys. Good teams with good coaches improve during the season. Who cares that we played poorly early on ? Its how you play in November and December that really matters. Smashmouth season is just about to arrive, I think our D is ready to step it up.
Either way - 15th in ypa or 26th in ypg - the OP was was correct. The Jets were 28th at some point. :breakdance:
YPA is an important stat also but the overall yards allowed per game tells you how much success the defense is having getting off the field. A high-powered offense can often get away with not being particularly good against the run, although that will come back to bite them in the playoffs fairly frequently. A midrange offense that is not all that explosive has more problems when the defense just can't get off the field. That offense tends not to have large leads. It tends to be fighting for a single score late to decide the game. Not being able to get off the field in those situations is debilitating to the overall effort. The type of team the Jets are right now depends on having some predictability on the defensive side of the ball. They need to be able to reliably shut down the opposing offense in crunch time. The loss against the Patriots had a lot of factors in play but the inability of the Jets defense to shut down the Patriots on their last drive was huge. The Patriots had a 14 play drive at the end that ate 6 minutes off of the clock and put the Jets away. They ran the ball 11 times for 67 yards on that drive. For the game the Patriots had 152 yards on 35 carries, or a 4.3 YPA, but on that drive they sealed the win by playing keep away on the ground, minimizing the chances of a turnover and burning the clock. The Jets need to get much better on run defense or we're going to be looking at an effective elimination scenario very shortly, maybe within the next few games.
yep,i was about to say. using total rushing yards as the sole barometer is retarded. it doesn't tell the whole story, but it definitely says more than total yards. i guess you need to look at both
when you break it down, this team only had 2 bad games against the run. Giving up 220+ in oakland is going to completely skew the stats. The other game was the pats game, and a HUGE chunk of that came in the last drive. I think the offense is just as much to blame that day as the defense was. Other than that, we've been pretty solid despite not having BT for half the season, arguably our best LB against the run. The only alarming thing though, is the big runs. we never gave up big runs the last couple of years. Tolbert hit us for one last game, Reggie Bush on the opening drive of the game against the dolphins, and of course McFadden's field day.
I think it's difficult to look at the total numbers and judge the defense. A lot of the yardage came on three runs for the raiders and the last drive against the pats. They have given up some big plays but if you erase those big plays the run defense has been very good. Obviously those plays did happen but it's not like we have the bills defense where they get gashed every drive. If the Jets can clean up those bad plays the run defense will be fine. Also, as the season goes on, Ellis and Wilkerson will only get better and more comfortable in the defense. I would also say that the offense for the most part has put the jets defense in a position of weakness almost the entire season. 3 and outs and turnovers. A good offense is a defenses best friend.
Wow, I totally agree with this post. Although the DL has problems sealing the edge, and as others have pointed out Westerman is not so great against the run, these two problems can be expected following Thomas going out and the move to youth on the DL. Hopefully Wilkerson steps up as he gains experience, which is likely, of course. I also think Pace has been playing better this year than last year. What else is going on, though? What you point to - ILB play is not what it was last year. Scott seems noticeably slower, and Harris is not making big plays. He's also looked slow in pass coverage, although the issue here is run D. I know many here with good reason think the Jets need a better pass rush from OLB, but neither Mauga nor Bellore look like either is likely to improve to a starter level of quality, and I don't know how much longer Scott will be playing before his decline becomes too problematic. He's 31. Not so old in one respect, but when you look at how he's playing this year compared to back when he was on the Ravens, it's quite noticeable. Harris just signed a big contract. I hate when that happens.
I'm counting on a healthy DeVito and a rededication from the secondary as far as stopping the run goes for the rest of the season. Hopefully, this can almost make up for the loss of BT, the wane of Scott, and the overall in effectiveness of the LBs as a group. The defense played pretty well against the run without DeVito last week, but maybe that had to do more with McNeil getting banged up than anything else. We'll see.
Unfortunately I think at least some of that was due to the two primary SD running backs getting hurt during the course of the game.
The NFL has become a passing league and the Jets are excellent against the pass. They give up under 200 yards per game through the air and less than 7 yards per attempt. Opposing QBs hit for a 54 % completion rate. The run defense is not as big a problem as some stats might suggest. I bet the stats would look extremely different if you took away the one big run per game that opponents have been getting. Now, stopping teams from getting that big run needs to be fixed. But when its all said and done, the run defense will be fine.
Ftr I think in my earlier post I may have sounded a bit too down on Scott. While I do think he's not playing as well as last year, and noticeably so, he's still imo up there in terms of ILB's in the league, even against the run. It's relative to his own performance that there's been a decline, in short.
