Inside The Jets vs. Dolphins Film Room: Defense

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

The Jets faced the Dolphins on Sunday, at Metlife Stadium, and had an OK defensive outing. The scoreboard, however, indicated otherwise.

So, what went right? What went wrong? JETSerious will analyze the tape, and show you what’s happening.

Enjoy!

First, we’re going to take a look at the TD catch by Dolphins TE Anthony Fasano. He runs a corner-route, where there is a break-down in coverage responsibility. Let’s see what happened…

Below, you’re going to see the pre-snap view. The black arrows will represent the Dolphins outside WR’s on the left. They’re almost decoys, seeing how it helps Fascano get wide open. Fascano will be the red arrow, being Tannehill’s target.

Next, we’ll show you the Jets pre-snap look.

If you’re Ryan Tannehill, this pre-snap look seems to be man-to-man, with help over the top by LaRon Landry. The man-to-man responsibilities are arrowed in blue, with Landry’s zone boxed in yellow.

Though the Jets seem to be in man-coverage, Isiah Trufant (bubbled below in blue), is responsible for the underneath/left zone. Yeah, he’s supposed to get help over the top from Landry, but the gap between the two defenders creates a HUGE window. If you look at Fasano’s route in red, you can tell that he’s got a bunch of space within the corner of the endzone.

When you look at Fasano (in red below), you can see how much space he has between the two bubbles. Those two zone are too distant if you’re going to play zone-coverage in the redzone.

It’s unfortunate, because if you look at the circle in white, you can see that Quinton Coples almost gets the sack.

Then Fasano makes a great catch in bounds. He manages to keep both feet in, while us Jets fans are praying for a bobble of some sort.

Overall, it was a well executed play. You have to give them credit, but at the same time, the Jets shouldn’t have allowed Fasano to get as open as he did.

This play sort of resembles a play that Peyton Manning likes to call. You’ll often see Manning call this in the red-zone because the route combination eliminates the outside corner from the area. When the cornerback starts to run with his man to the inside, that enables the slot receiver to run the corner route…in which a perfect pass is almost impossible to defend.

Please turn the page and join us as we break down David Harris’ forced fumble from this past Sunday’s matchup…

This next play we’re going to focus on is a Reggie Bush run out of the gun. Reggie’s going to take the handoff to his right (our left), as his left guard pulls.

In this next still-shot, you’ll notice that Muhammad Wilkerson gets a lot of attention. The Dolphins send a double team his way, using the center and guard to get Wilkerson off the line of scrimmage.

It’s easier to see the double team in the picture below, but notice David Harris in blue. He’s going to read this run beautifully. Eventually, he will go around the double team and force Bush to stop dead in his tracks.

Harris is able to make contact with Bush (not easy), AND make the strip. This is a great play by our inside linebacker. Yeremiah Bell (blue arrow below) is going to see the forced fumble in progress. With great awareness, he rushes to the area.

Yeremiah Bell notices the loose ball when nobody else does. Bell makes a play for the ball and gives the Jets a much needed turnover.

Unfortunately (again), the Jets fail to capitalize on Offense. Only scoring 9 points against Miami, the Jets have a lot of work to do on offense.

Until then, the Defense will have a lot of pressure on them. They will be forced to make plays similar to this one, just to stay  in the contest…. and that’s only IF the Special Teams unit can avoid giving the ball away THREE times.

At 3-5, the Jets have a lot of work to do during the bye week. For now, we can only hope for a turnaround.

That’s going to be all for this week’s defensive film session.

Be sure to check back in a couple weeks, where JETSerious will bring you inside the Jets vs. Seahawks defensive film room after the bye week.

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