The New York Jets Film Room: The Jeremy Ross Touchdown

Let’s go inside the film room and take a look at a big play from Sunday. This is the play that put the Jets behind for the rest of the day, and exposed the Jets’ pass defense on this. We are talking about the 58 yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Jeremy Ross.

Matthew Stafford is in the shotgun, with one back next to him. Jeremy Ross, the player targeted on the play, is circled. What Ross did was actually split the two defenders, Antonio Allen and Calvin Pryor (also circled), to catch the long touchdown pass, his pattern shown with the arrow and line. Let’s see how it unfolds:

You can see that Matthew Stafford is looking to get the ball to Jeremy Ross. But, he needs to get Ross free. As you can see from the picture, Ross really isn’t open initially. So, Stafford must confuse the Jets, and he targets Antonio Allen and Calvin Pryor. How does he help spring Ross? A pump fake. In the picture, Stafford is gearing up as if he is going to throw. Watch.

See Matthew Stafford? He has already executed his pump fake. If you look at the Jets’ Calvin Pryor, you can see in the circle, he has cheated away from Tate, if you look at his feet. He has cheated towards the middle, and that gives Jeremy Ross the opportunity to get separation going up again.

As Matthew Stafford releases the ball, the Jets are toast. Calvin Pryor got turned the wrong way, thanks to the pump fake. Jeremy Ross gets behind Antonio Allen, and in case you forgot what happened……..

Jeremy Ross makes the catch downfield.

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59 yards later, it’s a touchdown for the Lions, and the Jets are playing from behind for the rest of the afternoon.

The Jets secondary was exposed, yet again. On this play, they were outsmarted. Antonio Allen and Calvin Pryor are doing the best they can. However, one just changed positions, and the other is a rookie. It’s going to take time. Maybe John Idzik can find the Jets so help here. What do you guys think on how the play ran, and the secondary in general?