Inside the Jets vs. Seahawks Film Room: Offense

Nov 11, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) walks off the field following a turnover against the Seattle Seahawks during the fourth quarter at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

It’s Wednesday, and now that the bye has passed, we are back with our trips inside the film room. JETSerious will break down plays on the defensive side of the ball this afternoon. This morning, and every Wednesday post game, I break down some offensive game film. As anyone knows that watched the game on Sunday, the offensive game film was just that, offensive. There weren’t a lot of positives to take away from this one, so let’s cut to the chase. We are going to take a look at a major momentum changing play, the infamous Mark Sanchez red zone interception. This was brutal, and was case and point of what drives Jets fans nuts about Mark Sanchez. Here’s the formation:

The Jets are lined up in a shotgun formation, with three receivers to the right. Dustin Keller is in the middle of the group to the right, indicated by the green circle. The key defender on the play is Richard Sherman, indicated by the blue circle. Keller is going to run a route following the green light, making his move forward, before breaking to the corner, towards the front pylon of the end zone. Let’s roll it forward.

This is where everybody goes nuts. Do you see where Mark is looking? Right at where Dustin Keller is headed. The green arrow is following Sanchez’s line of sight, right down the field to the right corner. Notice that Sherman, as indicated by the blue line, is staring right into Sanchez’s eyes. Keller is getting ready to make his break toward the corner, and Mark is staring him down all the way. There really is no opening for Keller here, as Sherman is sitting in his zone just waiting to break on the ball. What does Mark do?

He pumps his own receiver? Seriously Mark? You make it hard to defend you sometimes, that’s for sure. Anyway, Sanchez pumps once, and as you can see Sherman isn’t fooled. The broken line is his line of sight, still right at Mark. Sherman is already making his move to follow Keller, as indicated by the blue line.  Let’s take this even further forward.

Not only does Mark miss a wide open Stephen Hill, circled in red, but in his infinite wisdom, Mark pumps his own guy again! Why? You can tell by looking at Sherman, again in blue, that he isn’t buying. He has forgotten all about the receiver making the move towards the post, and has all his concentration on Sanchez, and his favorite target, Dustin Keller. Mark has to do something besides a pump fake to get himself a window, say, look the defender off maybe? If he doesn’t like what he sees, he needs to throw it away or scramble and save the three points. He cannot do what happens next.

But he does it anyway. He throws it to Dustin Keller, all the while Richard Sherman is staring him down the whole time. There is ample time for Sherman to close on Dustin, and we all saw what happened so I am not going to make you see it again. Sherman makes the easy pick, and Sanchez again turns the ball over in the red zone. Mark cannot do this, but he continues to do it. That is why fans go crazy watching this guy play.

There wasn’t much positive in this game, but I found a small positive. Turn the page and I will break it down.

It has been a negative enough week following the game, so I went desperately looking as I watched the tape to find something positive, and then something Rex said triggered it. He said that in this game, the offensive line played more physically than they had all year, so I watched them. You know what, he was right? I may have been a little off base with my criticism of Dave DeGuglielmo yesterday, because the offensive line has some great moments, especially in the run game. They blew Seattle off the ball at times. Let me show you an example.

This is an early game run to Shonn Greene. The Jets are lined up trips left, with one receiver to the outside. The Jets are going to run a draw to Shonn Greene, in the green circle, and Greene is going to take the ball to the interior of the line. I have made note of the line of scrimmage because I want you to see the work of this offensive line. Moving ahead:

I have indicated the line of scrimmage again, to show you what I mean. Take a look at the point of attack, circled in green. The interior linemen of the Jets have blown the defenders two and almost three yards off the line! Talk about playing physically! Greene can’t help but run it up in there for positive yardage. Unfortunately, Greene doesn’t have the field vision to make it a bigger gain. Take a look at the hole:

The line has done such a good job, Shonn Greene has his choice of two huge holes, as indicated by the green lines. They have the line of scrimmage so dominated Greene can run wherever he likes. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the good field vision to make the sharp cut, but instead runs on the back of his own guy:

So, instead of a big gainer, Shonn picks up five yards. But, the offensive line did such a good job he had no choice but to gain 4-5 yards on the play. So, Greene still stinks, but at least the offensive line is coming around a bit.

Not much else positive to grasp onto in this one. Hope that next week is better.