New York Post's awful take on NY Jets' defense makes no sense

The NY Jets' offense has been the talk of the town in the last few weeks, as Zach Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett finally have something approximating a respectable NFL attack. However, the only way the Jets are going to win games this season will come on the back of a ferocious defense that causes turnovers.

That formula helped the Jets upset the Bills on Monday Night Football, made Patrick Mahomes look as human as he has in years, and forced Russell Wilson to choke away a comeback attempt in Week 5's win over the Denver Broncos. Despite that fact, the defense still is attracting a good deal of haters.

Brian Costello of the New York Post called the Jets' defense "overhyped" in a recent column, once again mocking DJ Reed's now infamous '85 Bears comparison by pointing out the fact that Robert Saleh's defense is 22nd in total yards allowed and 14th in points allowed through five games.

This article completely misses the mark, as looking at the raw totals is not a good way to evaluate what the Jets are doing defensively. Are they perfect? No. Are they a well above-average unit that is doing the best they can with what they have? Assuredly.

New York Post rips NY Jets' solid defense.

Costello is apparently ignorant of the fact that New York's defense had to spend an inordinate amount of time on the field early this season due to Wilson and the offense being unable to string drives together. In the last two weeks, the pass rush finally started to pin their ears back instead of playing passively.

Mac Jones is the only below-average quarterback the Jets have faced, and they held him to 15 points with one touchdown. Allen and Mahomes were intercepted five times between them, while Wilson looked like a JV quarterback in the second half. The Cowboys game was a stinker, but no defense is perfect.

Once the Jets get through the Philadelphia Eagles and move on to the bye, they will embark on a nine-game stretch in which they will take on Daniel Jones, Jimmy Garoppolo, Desmond Ridder, a rookie in CJ Stroud, and Sam Howell. That could help change Costello's opinion by getting the total yards against stat down.

The Jets are going to be an old-school, run-first team that lets their defense take games over. Even though they are playing without Chuck Clark and Carl Lawson, they have produced. Will this be enough to win over the grouchy Costello?