New York Jets Week 7: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Oct 12, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks wide receiver

Percy Harvin

(11) during pre game warm ups prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

The Jets lost a heartbreaker to the Patriots 27-25 as Nick Folk‘s game-winning kick as time expired was blocked. That wasn’t the only Jets news this week as John Idzik acquired WR Percy Harvin from the Seahawks for a conditional 6th round pick in 2015. So how did the week play out? Here is the good, the bad and the ugly:

The Good

1) The Jets acquire Percy Harvin for basically nothing – The Jets, in desperate need of a playmaker that forces teams to game plan against, acquired just such a player on Friday when they traded for Percy Harvin of the Seahawks. Harvin is a wide receiver, running back and kick returner whose speed and agility creates matchup issues and forces teams to know where he is at all times. The trade has zero risk for the Jets because they only traded a 6th round pick for Harvin that becomes a 4th rounder only if Harvin is on the team in 2015.

Also, this year ends the guaranteed portion of Harvin’s contract so the Jets can cut him at any point and not be on the hook for anything further financially. The Jets have plenty of cap room to absorb his remaining seven million dollars in salary for the remainder of the season. A Jets offense built around Chris Ivory, Eric Decker, Jace Amaro, Percy Harvin and Geno Smith has a chance to be solid for the foreseeable future. It will get a trial run over these last nine games.

Note: If you are looking for me to give credence to the near slander that the Seahawks front office immediately leaked regarding Harvin and his attitude you are looking to the wrong place. Harvin’s teammates supported him in the media and the Seahawks’ lackluster offensive performance against the Rams on Sunday shows that the deal certainly wasn’t addition by subtraction. Yeah he got in a fight with Golden Tate, who slept with Russell Wilson‘s girlfriend and broke in and stole donuts from a local Seattle store, and Doug Baldwin, who still wanted him on the team and disagreed with the trade but Harvin is a prime talent who is certainly worth a 6th round pick.

2) Geno Smith bounces back and the running game is dominant against the Patriots – The Jets ran 80 plays for 423 yards in 40:53 against the Patriots. They had six scoring drives, all of which were nine plays or greater. The 1st five possessions for the Jets were all scores and they didn’t punt until the 3rd quarter and were 9-16 overall on 3rd down. The run blocking was exceptional with the Jets racking up 218 yards on the ground on 43 carries for a robust 5.1 yards per carry. Nick Mangold owned Vince Wilfork. Chris Ivory was spectacular as he ran for 107 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown.

Ivory was quick through the hole and violent as he ran which set the tone for the Jets. Ivory’s success on 1st down set up 2nd and 3rd and short which made conversions much easier and allowed for shorter, quicker routes helping Geno Smith be more decisive. Smith, although not perfect, looked more than competent leading the Jets up and down the field. He was mobile, both scrambling in the pocket to give himself better throwing lanes and angles and outside the pocket to run for 1st downs. Smith was able to get the ball to Decker beating Revis directly on a couple of occasions and would have had a 3rd but Revis ran through Decker before the ball got there, ruining a potential 3rd down conversion.

It will be very interesting to see how Smith develops with Harvin coming in to spread the field. There should be easier throws for him and less corner and safety blitzes as a result. The running game will be helped as well because Harvin forces you to have a safety over the top so that backs out a defender from the box.

Sep 28, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets defensive end

Muhammad Wilkerson

(96) reacts after the Detroit Lions scored a touchdown at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

3) Pressure generated by the defensive line in the 2nd half slows down Brady and the Patriots – Tom Brady was 20/37 for 261 yards and three touchdowns on Thursday but the numbers are deceptive. Two of Brady’s touchdowns were gifted to him by mental mistakes by Antonio Allen. The 1st was a 49 yard pass to Vereen where Allen never picked Vereen up after Walls handed him off and Vereen ran right by him for a wide open touchdown on the Patriots’ opening drive. The 2nd was where Allen bit on an out and up fake by Amendola on 3rd and goal from all the way back at the 19 for a touchdown.

More from Jets News

All Allen has to do is keep Amendola in front of him to hold New England to 3 points and the Jets most likely win the game. The Jets were playing soft zone for the majority of the game but the difference from the first half, where Brady was picking the Jets apart, to the second half, where he was far less accurate, was pressure from the defensive line. Muhammad Wilkerson knocked Brady down three times, Jason Babin, the returning Antwan Barnes, and Sheldon Richardson all had a knockdown as well.

David Harris had the only Jet sack on a Brady scramble that didn’t make it back to the line of scrimmage. Under pressure the ball came out early and led to multiple drops by Patriot receivers as well as throwaways by Brady when his timing routes were interrupted. Calvin Pryor played the best game of his young career with seven tackles (4 solo) including a 1st down saving tackle that held New England to a field goal in the 3rd quarter.

4) Nick Folk is still excellent despite the blocked kick – The Jets failure to finish drives and mental mistakes on defense lost this football game not Nick Folk. Folk was 4/5, including kicks from 46 and 47 yards on the day. In fact, Oday Aboushi forgot to go on the field before Folk’s 46 yard field goal so the Jets had to call timeout and ice their own kicker. It ended up not making a difference as he made it anyway. When Folk comes out for an attempt it is shocking when he doesn’t make it and that is what I want from my kicker. The ball had to be low to get there from 58 yards and his teammates needed to help him out by keeping the defenders’ hands down so Folk at least had a chance. He never had a chance so we’ll never know if he would have made it.

Oct 16, 2014; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots wide receiver

Danny Amendola

(80) catches the ball for a touchdown against New York Jets cornerback Antonio Allen (39) during the second half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

The Bad

1) The Jets were 0-4 on their drives into New England territory in the 1st half – The Jets were moving the ball very easily between the 20s but as the team made it to the scoring zone their execution left them and key mistakes prevented them from turning three points into 7. On their 1st 2 drives holding calls on Aboushi and Colon pushed the Jets into long conversion situations that they could not recover from. They also had a key drop from Amaro subsequent to that on another drive and the play calling in general got more conservative the closer they got to the end zone. It was noted on the broadcast on the Jets final 1st half drive that on the 3rd and goal from outside the 10 no route went into the end zone and they were happy to not make a mistake and just take the field goal.

That is not a winning mentality, that is playing not to lose and in a must-win game that is just unacceptable. On a day where nearly their entire game plan worked and was a winning one they managed to lose because they failed to trust Smith to execute it close to the goal line. That’s coaching failure that’s not on the quarterback. Smith’s poise on the final 2 drives showed that they should have trusted him the whole time and that the conservative play calling in the 1st half cost them the game.

2) Mental mistakes cost Jets victory – As I mentioned before Antonio Allen had 1 of the worst games I can remember anyone having mentally as he cost the Jets two touchdowns with his mistakes. Failing to pick up Vereen on a simple fly pattern and falling for Amendola’s out fake on an out and up on 3rd and goal from the 19 were both terrible mistakes. The Jets also lost Brandon LaFell twice for over 20 yards and inexplicably let Rob Gronkowski catch a pass right before the half inside the hashmarks then let him get out of bounds 20 yards later.

It seemed that if the Jets did not get pressure on Brady that eventually he would find a weakness in the Jet defense and exploit it. The Jets have very, very little talent in the secondary and it shows. The over-reliance on Dee Milliner coming into the year has turned out to be a fatal flaw in the team and something that will be need to be addressed by multiple moves before the 2015 season.

The Ugly – 1-6 and barring a miracle no playoffs

Home/Jets News