NFL Week 10 New York Jets Vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Quick Hits

Nov 9, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets quarterback

Michael Vick

(1) reacts against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The Jets beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-13 in a pleasant surprise. The Jets capitalized on four Steelers turnovers and looked the better team for most of the game. For the 2nd time in 2 weeks the Jets did not turn the ball over and this time it led to a victory.

1) Jets play near perfect 1st half – The Jets forced 3 turnovers, including an interception and fumble recovery by Jaiquawn Jarrett, out gained the Steelers 202-77 and had 102 yards on the ground in the 1st half. Michael Vick played well completing 5 passes for 99 yards and two touchdowns, including a beautiful 67 yard bomb to TJ Graham, and ran for 29 yards. Percy Harvin had 56 total yards in the 1st half.

2) The Jets are not fooled by the Pittsburgh screen game – Pittsburgh had 4four screen passes for no gain or a loss in the 1st half as the Jets recognized screen and dropped back. Calvin Pace was all over them with three tackles, including two for loss. The Steelers seemed content to run the ball behind Bell and throw short passes in the 1st half instead of attacking the Jets deep. The 2nd half the Steelers started to throw deeper and with more success but the Jets’ success against the screen game and their blitzing forced turnovers.

3) Folk misses a field goal? – The Jets recovered Antonio Brown‘s muffed punt with 2 minutes to go until halftime then ran 3 very conservative plays that netted 0 yards leaving Nick Folk to hit 45 yard field goal with 55 seconds remaining in the half. He pushed it left, shockingly, and that led to a Pittsburgh field goal as time expired. That turn of events took a possible Jets 20-0 lead and turned it into a 17-3 lead and gave Pittsburgh momentum going into the half.

4) Jaiquawn Jarrett’s day – Jarrett had 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery and a sack in the game and was nearly single-handedly responsible for the Jets jumping out to a 17-3 lead. Jarrett, playing in place of Calvin Pryor, made plays on almost every snap he saw. The sack was on a delayed blitz where he hung onto Roethlisberger for dear life. He had an interception on a tipped ball just outside the end zone late in the 2nd quarter, then again on a jump ball Roethlisberger threw in the 3rd quarter.

5) It’s time to move away from Willie Colon – Colon committed his 6th and 7th false start penalties of the year, which lead the league, and singlehandedly stalled a couple of drives. He is playing hurt and his effort is admirable but at this point in the season they might as well activate and play Dozier and see what he has because Colon’s play has been underwhelming at best.

6) Mornhinweg needs to stick with the run, specifically in the red zone and more specifically with Chris Ivory – Marty Mornhinweg went away from the formula that got the Jets the lead in the game. After 20 1st half carries for 102 yards for the team, Mornhinweg only called 5 2nd half runs through the middle of the 4th quarter and of those only 2 were designed runs, the others were Vick scrambles. The offensive line and Vick aren’t good enough to be throwing the ball all over the field and everything needs to play off of the run. The 67 yard touchdown to Graham only worked because the Steelers bit extremely hard on a fake to Ivory. Once you stop feeding the ball to him that threat is gone and Pittsburgh no longer bites on that fake.

7) Good game plan and effort – The Jets were ready to play this week and since Rex Ryan got the blame when they weren’t he gets the credit here. The Jets outplayed a 6-3 Steelers team from the opening possession on and that has to do with Ryan. The defensive line wreaked havoc, they took away the screen game and the yards after the catch for the Steelers and the blitzing rushed Roethlisberger into mistakes. The team played hard and with an angry edge and as a result they got some much deserved breaks that just haven’t gone their way previously.