Inside the Jets vs. Chargers 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 hosted the Chargers this past Sunday, and walked out with another loss. The defense did what it could,  but in the end, the Chargers were able to dominate the Jets offense. The Chargers made plays and the Jets didn’t. Quite frankly, that’s what decided the game. It should be no surprise when you’re talking about a New York Jets football team that has Greg McElroy leading the way. No disrespect toward McElroy, but we can’t expect him to be RG3 out there.

Regardless of the loss, let’s take a look at how the Chargers did a number on the Jets D did on Sunday. It was really just a couple of plays but we’ll analyze what happened.

Enjoy!

First, we’ll focus on the long touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Denario Alexander.

To keep it simple, Alexander’s route will be in red and the other Charger routes will be in blue.

Antonio Cromartie (yellow) is responsible for Alexander. He’ll remain in position to make a play, up until the ball is in the air.

The receiver running the drag route across the field is going to be open. Safety Yeremiah Bell (white) will quickly realize and run across the field. Either way, Rivers decides to go for the home-run and go deep.

When Cromartie’s yellow line starts to get squiggly is where he gets turned around.

As a CB, if you get your hips turned around while in man-to-man coverage, it’s virtually impossible to recover.

That’s why it looks like Cro gives up at the end of the play.

Even though Cromartie showed flashes of a shutdown cornerback throughout the season, he gets beat here.

Rivers puts the ball in a spot where only Alexander can get to. I suppose that if Cromartie doesn’t get turned around, he could get there… but that’s not the case. Cro thinks that Alexander is going to cut short of the end zone… resulting in an easy touchdown for Denario Alexander.

Please turn the page and join us as we dissect another defensive breakdown from Sunday’s Jets vs. Chargers matchup…

Next, we’ll take a look at the touchdown pass from Rivers to TE Antonio Gates.

This is a clear-out concept, where the outside receivers (blue) are going to serve as decoys. They’ll take the corners and deep safety with them, leaving Eric Smith in single coverage with Gates.

To make it easier to understand, Eric Smith is labeled 33 in yellow. Antonio Gates will also be labeled 85 in red.

Eric Smith tries to run with Gates one-on-one, which is a mismatch. As Jets fans, we’re used to seeing Smith get burned by the tight end, so this touchdown shouldn’t come as surprise.

Below, you can really see how the two receivers in blue are able to bring the defensive backs away from the designated target.

The target is marked with an X, where there’s plenty of room for ball placement.

In the next still-shot, it’s more evident.

Besides Eric Smith, there is not one Jet defender that is within ten yards of the Chargers tight end.

Not to mention, Eric Smith isn’t the fastest defensive back on the Jets roster.

Just look at the space between the two.

And this is supposed to be man-to-man coverage?

That’s unacceptable.

Gates has about a 3 yard lead on Smith, leaving “Smitty” no chance to prevent a touchdown.

Rex Ryan or Mike Pettine, whoever is truly running this defense, better pick a better option to defend an athletic tight end. Either that, or they need to figure out a different way to give Smith help.

Before the play even started, it was a touchdown. By that, I mean that this was a mismatch from the beginning.

If someone were to tell me that Eric Smith would be on an island with Antonio Gates, I would’ve said, “Uh Oh… touchdown”.

I’m pretty sure that you’d be thinking the same thing.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see how the team is rebuilt after the season. Until then, we still have a game to play.

That’s going to be all from The Jet Press, Inside the Jets vs. Chargers Film Room: Defense.

As always, thanks for reading!

Please check back next week… where JETSerious will break down the Jets defensive effort vs. Buffalo in the last game of the 2012 NFL Season.

I know it went quick… right?

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