Inside Jets vs. 49ers Film Room: Defense

JETSerious will bring you inside the defensive film room and dissect plays from the beginning to end…. each and every Wednesday.  We’ll look at what the Jets defense did right and wrong for each play.

The 49ers shutout at Metlife Stadium had plenty of more bad plays than good…. but what went wrong?

Let’s start with the end around to WR Mario Manningham…

The 49ers line up in a 2 WR set, along with 2 TE’s, and Frank Gore in the backfield.

The Jets are lined up with 4 down linemen, and anticipate a Frank Gore run up the middle.

CB Ellis Lankster is lined up as the nickel/slot DB, with Bart Scott and David Harris playing LB.

Frank Gore attracts a lot of attention up the middle. Mario Manningham comes from the top of the screen and takes the handoff on an end around.

49ers QB Alex Smith does a good job keeping his back to the defense. This makes it harder for the Jets to read the play and attack the ball.

CB Kyle Wilson (circled white above) runs across the field to continue with his man. It would actually be a good thing if his man got the reverse… but he doesn’t. Now, Wilson is totally out of position to make a play. Also, this gives the Jets less margin for error– like a missed tackle.

You can tell in the picture above, the d-linemen and linebackers are sucked into the backfield. This ends up being a good thing for the 49ers, as their OL tries to set the edge.

To the 49ers credit, they did a great job creating a lane for Manningham to do his work. Ellis Lankster (bottom left in pic above) only has one option —> to try and cut off Manningham inside. If he goes back outside, he’ll have to turn his hips and he’ll be out of position.

The two missed tackles (left) are inexcusable.

This play is reminiscent  of the C.J. Spiller breakout run in week 1. Two Jets tried to make a tackle, simultaneously, and the runner breaks through the both of them. These monster runs are starting to add up and really hurt the Jets this season. They’re ranked at the bottom of the league when it comes to rush defense…. and this is a “Rex Ryan Defense”.

Rex has to reiterate to the team about the importance of tackling. If the tackle was made back at the 45 yard line, the 49ers wouldn’t be in field goal range.

Instead he gets to the 30.

David Harris (circled white) makes a hell an of effort, tracking Manningham down from across the field. LaRon Landry looks like he’s running the wrong way, but really, he’s containing area.

Overall, this was a weak play for the Jets defense.

Grade: D – hey, they did prevent the touchdown.

Continue to page 2… where JETSerious will break down the Jets first defensive snap.

I could be wrong, but I believe this was the first snap of the game. Either way, it was a bad one for Kyle Wilson.

CB Kyle Wilson is lined up man to man on Michael Crabtree at the bottom of the screen (above). Crabtree (red) is going to run a double-move, and try to burn past Wilson.

Alex Smith is looking right (yellow arrow), and pump-fakes to Michael Crabtree. He notices that Kyle Wilson has inside position and wants to fake a quick pass and bomb it to Crabtree.

Inside the yellow circle we have Kyle Wilson man-to-man with Michael Crabtree.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

What’s bad is that Kyle Wilson is making contact with Crabtree… beyond the 5 yard limit.

If you look at the line of scrimmage in blue, you can tell that Wilson/Crabtree are 9-10 yards away. It’s obvious that they made contact beyond 5 yards– the white line.

Consequently, the referee throws the flag and the 49ers get a nice start.

Grade: C

It was a bad start for Wilson, but I suppose it could’ve been worse…. the ball could’ve been caught for a TD.

What was wrong with Kyle Wilson on Sunday?

1. Complaining when he already got the illegal contact penalty.

2. He simply got beat. Burned on a double-move and he was forced to make contact beyond 5 yards.

3. Taunted Crabtree more than one time after he got beat, but he was lucky because Alex Smith misfired.

The Jets have a lot to clean up before Monday Night Football when they play the Texans… that’s for sure. The only question for Rex is, what to address first?

Run defense?

Pass defense?

Tackling?

Discipline?

Just pick one… any one.

Thanks for reading!

Check back to The Jet Press next Wednesday… I’m hoping for good film to breakdown from the Texans game on Monday Night.

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