So as the title talks about rather than doing a full game review I’m just gonna do a review of the offensive line play. I have been seeing people talking about the lines play this past week and after seeing this tweet I knew I had to do a deeper dive.
Now I’m not saying that the line played good or bad I will need to watch the film to be able to get a better idea but to say solid returns seems disingenuous. The Jets only ran for 74 yards on the day and 25 of those were from McCown, and McCown was sacked 2 times. During the game I really wasn’t thinking to myself that the line was playing that well but I guess I will dive deeper and see. Although I will say if the solid returns are just the fact that the Jets were able to complete a shotgun snap then I agree they did see solid returns.
1st Quarter:
The Jets start the game with a run because that’s what Bates does and they run a power to the strong side pulling the front side guard to kick out the end. The play goes for no gain because Crowell is forced to cut back almost as soon as he gets the ball. This is because rather than helping Snell secure his block Thomlinson decides he’s not going to block a single player on this play. With the emergence of Herndon who has shown an ability to block it’s time to get Tomlinson the hell out of town. He stinks as a pass catcher and has regressed as a blocker, if he’s still on the roster next year it would be the wrong decision. The very next play the Patriots are playing with 8 players in the box, and on the snap Harrison gets beat by a swim move disrupting the timing of the play. With the first drive moving along the Jets get to mid field and then Brian Winters gets a holding called against him. This effectively kills the drive as the Jets punt 2 plays later.
So this is from their second drive and it’s actually a good job by the offensive line it’s just McGuire doesn’t cut the ball up field at the right time. There is a hole where the blue arrow is that would have allowed Eli to get 4-5 yards, but instead he loses 2. But it’s a real good job by Winters sealing his block, and by Harrison getting to the next level.
I know I am breaking down the O-Line here but it’s funny to me how much more willing Josh is to run then Darnold. McCown is 75 years old and could evaporate into dust if hit to hard and yet he was making plays with his legs on Sunday. I don’t need Darnold to be Mike Vick but if he was a more willing running I think it would help the Jets offense especially with the current crop of WRs.
McGuire gets himself a bit of redemption later on the drive on a toss play where the O-Line does another good job of opening a nice running lane for him as shown below. 
This play is set up by Long and Harrison securing the tackle and backer. I also just saw that the Jets are placing Carpenter on the IR so looks like we will continue to see Long at guard for the rest of the year. He’s clearly not the long term solution at center we had hoped for when signing him but if he can show he is a capable guard that would be a help considering Carpenter more than likely played his last game as a Jet.
On McCowns first touchdown pass, the line game him a great pocket to throw from and he had 3.55 seconds from snap to throw to survey the field. So far through the first two drive besides the holding penalty the line has played well.
The below screen grab is from a toss play to Crowell at the start of the second quarter.
Wanted to do a full game breakdown but wasn’t able to with my schedule. I promise I will get back into the breakdowns.
-Big Dog
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