Inside the Jets vs. Bills Film Room: Defense

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

The Jets traveled to Buffalo for their week 17 season finale. Ending on a two-game losing streak wasn’t ideal, but it wouldn’t be fair to say that the Jets gave up. Considering how atrocious the offense has been, you have to give credit to the defense for giving it their all until the 2012 season came to an end.

With that being said, let’s look at a couple of plays from the Jets vs. Bills AFC East matchup…

Enjoy!

First, we’re going to check the touchdown pass to C.J. Spiller.

This was a designed screen pass, to the speedy Spiller, who is able to follow lead blocks up the middle of the field.

The vertical routes in blue are considered decoys by design. By taking the Jet defenders in man-to-man coverage, the Bills are able to get their linemen up the field and take care of the remaining defenders.

From the end zone angle, it’s easier to see how the Jets applied pressure. The Bills allowed the Jets to rush up field to get past the front 7.

In the next picture, you’ll see C.J. Spiller circled in blue. Ryan Fitzpatrick (yellow arrow) throws the screen before LaRon Landry can get upfield.

The next end zone shot will show how Landry (white) gets “picked”. He takes an angle that simply erases him from making a play. He ends up out of position, chasing C.J. Spiller from behind.

When we’re talking about containing Spiller, this is the last thing you want to end up doing… allowing him to get into the open field.

Once Spiller gets in between the hash-marks, he’s off to the races. Yeah, the Jets have their DB’s left to make a play… but the Bills also have a hat on each of them.

The next shot shows the lead blockers (in black), in position to make a block down-field. This is where Spiller turns it up and takes off.

Yeremiah Bell is the closest Jet to Spiller, but he is forced to take an angle that Spiller is able to beat.

Like I said before, this is the last thing you want to see when defending this guy. If you’re chasing him from behind, it won’t end well.

This was devastating to watch. Not only because it went for a long touchdown, but because this came on a 3rd down. The Jets defense did everything right up until this point, and with the offense struggling, it put the Jets in catch-up-mode.

Please take the jump with us to the next page, where JETSerious will break down the touchdown run by Brad Smith…

This one stung.

Just when we thought the season couldn’t get any worse, we had to see our old pal Brad Smith take the wildcat snap in for a touchdown.

Even without Brad Smith, this was the type of rush the Jets loved to run with Shonn Greene… and had success running in Washington last year.

It’s simply a direct snap, and a dive up the middle.

The Bills executed this so well that Brad Smith had multiple lanes to pick from.

He could’ve went with the dive left, middle, right, or even the outside to the right.

He ends up going straight up the middle, with clean blocking ahead.

Again, this was painful to watch, but we all saw this coming. Mike Tannenbaum was foolish enough to let Brad walk, and this is something that comes with a bad decision like that. What goes around comes around, and in this case, Brad Smith was who came around.

Man, what a painful season.

I believe it was one of the Flight 5 guys who said it well…. “After watching the Jets for 20 years or so, this had to be the most disappointing season of them all.”

Rightfully so.

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

Thanks for reading our segment at The Jet Press, “Inside the Film Room” for the 2012 season!

We hope you enjoyed reading… and don’t forget to check back next season!

Also, be sure to Follow @JETSerious on Twitter!