This year rather than breaking down the whole game at one time I’m going to breakdown position groups. I wanted to start with the offensive line because one I love watching offensive line film and two when watching the game real time they looked bad. One thing I am going to do for offensive line play is a plus/minus system for each player on each play. It’s pretty self explanatory, if you do your job on a specific play you receive a plus, if you don’t you receive a minus. Some ways to receive a minus are missing a blitzer, getting beat on a pass block, getting beat on a run block, a penalty, poorly executed double team or anything else that when watching someone would they had a negative impact on a given play. Is this an exact system? Heavens no, but it allows you, the reader to get a better understanding as we move through the game. Alright onto the 1st quarter.
1st Quarter:
The only points the Jets put up in this quarter came on a pick-6 by Mosley. The Jets had good field position to start their first drive but were unable to get anything going and then on their second drive they had two offensive penalties and ended in a punt. While watching the game it was evident that communication was going to be an issue for the line, and it shows up on the second play the Jets have the ball. After getting a nice gain on 1st, the Jets come out with Bell split out wide and Crowder in the back field. They motion Crowder to the slot, giving Darnold an empty backfield. The Jets get Crowder in man to man coverage on a linebacker but aren’t able to take advantage because of instantaneous pressure.
Both Ryan Kalil and Brian Winters decide that rather than blocking anyone on this play they are both just going to wave their arms. Kalil immediately turns his back to the rushers but the fact Brian Winters can’t block at least one of the two free rushers is comical. If Winters even slows down Murphy a quarter of a second longer Crowder would have picked up big yards. (The above play is a minus by both Kalil and Winters, and a plus for the rest of the line for reference) The very next play Gase called a little swing pass to Bell, a play that he called 3 of the 12 plays in the first quarter. At it’s best it resulted in a 5 yard gain, while at it’s worst the Jets fumbled the ball out of bounds.
On all three swing passes, the protection was there but Bell/Montgomery seemed to be the first option on the play. The only time it was a “success” was because Bell made a great move to get the first. Hopefully Gase loses this play call moving forward.
The Jets second drive starts from their own 5 and on the first play Winters gets called with a holding call. Brian Winters looked outmatched at many times against Ed Oliver throughout the game. It should be noted that Winters sat out basically the entire preseason with a shoulder injury. He will need to improve his performance or we could see Alex Lewis at some point this season. The very next play the Jets just forget to block the last man on the line of scrimmage, something that I can remember happening more than once. Below is a screen grab from after the ball is snapped.
Beachum rather than blocking out on the end, decides to let him run free to try to get to the second level. If I had to guess Beachum was supposed to block out on the end and Kelechi and Kalil were going to combo up to the weak side backer. Whatever the case the Jets didn’t block a man on the line of scrimmage and lost 2 on the play. From 2nd and 14 from the 1 Bell proceeds to pick up the 1st down with two great effort plays. He takes a 5 yard run and turns it into 12 and then makes a man miss on a swing pass to pick up the first. Jets then get a quick 15 and get the ball out to their own 32 and look to be in business. Then a penalty, fumbled swing pass attempt and a sack force them to punt without ever really threatening.
The sack was a bad display by Beachum and Winters as they both get beat on the play. The sack will count against Beachum but it’s pressure from the inside that forces Sam to try to escape the pocket.
I mean Winters gets put in an absolute spin cycle, to the point where he loses his helmet. The Jets punt from here and end their first quarter of football. All lineman grades can be found below.
2nd Quarter:
The Jets first drive of the second quarter got off to a promising start thanks to Bell. There are times where his running style can make the offensive linemen’s job more difficult because they have to hold their blocks longer. However his ability to break tackles, and find holes make him effective even behind mediocre line play. The second quarter is where the wheels start to fall off when it comes to the offensive line play. On just the second offensive play of the quarter Darnold gets crushed, because of a poor blitz pickup. If you read my breakdowns at all last year you will know I was extremely critical of the Jets blitz pickup last season. I was also extremely critical of their ability to deal with stunts. It appears the issues remain this year, at least after week 1.
The Jets right side of their line (Left in the above gif) allow a completely free blitzer. Watch Winters on the play above, he leaves Beachum to block two defenders while he chases Edmonds across the entire formation. If he stays engaged on 97 and allows Beachum to pick up Milano it would have given Darnold more time.
The Bills all game were utilizing Jordan Poyer how the Jets normally use Adams. He was knifing off the edge all game and played well. Kelechi after having a good first quarter did not play well in the second. Many times he was beat in 1 on 1 situation. He also seemed to be lunging too much in pass protection, allowing defenders to swipe his hands and get around him easy.
The Jets first sack of the day is above. The Bills only bring 5 but the Jets still allow a free rusher off the edge. From snap to sack is about 3 seconds, no where near enough time. You can also see Kelechi with poor form lunging forward and allowing Hughes to completely cross his face. If Poyor doesn’t get the sack, Hughes would have.
When Darnold was given a clean pocket he was accurate with the ball. Not only that but when given time the receivers were able to get open. This lead to a few easy gains of 11,9, and 8 on this drive.
When watching the game live the first deep shot to Robbie I blamed on the offensive line because I thought Darnolds arm got hit which forced him to short arm the throw. Watching again it just seems like Darnold doesn’t put enough on it, there is some pressure in his face but I think he should have been able to make a better throw. Anderson also needs to try and high point the ball instead of trying to let it fall into his bread basket. A wasted chance at a TD.
The second sack of the drive falls on Griffen and poor play call. There was no where for Darnold to go with the ball and he’s trying to make a miricle play when he’s tripped from behind. Just good defense by the Bills. McDerrmott was the better coach on Sunday, and it showed on multiple instances.
For the first time in the game the Jets ran a sweep to the left side of the line and pulled Kalil. The play would have worked if it wasn’t for Kelechi and Beachum’s inability to secure their double team and work up to the next level. The Bills line did a good job all day at not giving up ground when being doubled. Allowed the backers to flow free and make plays.
The second quarter is also when Darnold starts having his passed batted down. The first time was by Shaq Lawson. When a pass is batted at the line it could be a number of peoples fault. On this instance it was Darnold. He didn’t take his eyes off Bell in the flat and Lawson was able to wait and time it and got an easy deflection.
If you wanna know why people are high on Darnold it’s because of plays like the one below.
His ability to extend the play and make an accurate throw moving to his left, throwing to his left is impressive. The line holds up okay, besides Kelechi who gets completely turned around, but Darnold needs to improvise in order to give his receivers a chance to get open. No one could watch the game on Sunday and be happy but not everything was terrible. After this play the Jets had 1st and 10 from the Bills 29 with :46 left and 2 timeouts. Not scoring in that situation is laughable. After a 2 yard gain to Crowder, Adam Gase gets completely and utterly out coached. The Bills let the Jets come out in their formations, and call a time out before the play. When the Jets come back up the play results in a free rusher off the edge who bats the ball at the LOS. Next play the Bills again call a time out after seeing the Jets formation, and the play leads to the below image.
That is Ryan Kalil diving to try and stop Ed Oliver from getting a free shot on Darnold. Gase got worked on both these plays, something that would happen again at the end of the game.
You can see the Jets second quarter grades at the bottom of the document.
3rd Quarter:
At half time it seems like the Jets decided to allow free rushers off the left side of the line. It happens 2 times on two straight plays. Darnold is able to identify quickly though so I guess no harm no foul. I should also note that on both plays the Bills only rushed 5, so the Jets should not have allowed someone to run free.
I mentioned above how Bell helped mask some offensive line issues and it’s on display on the screen grab below.
Kelechi Doesn’t come off the double team, allowing Hughes to cross his face and meet Bell in the back field. Brian Winters about a half second after this picture is thrown to the side and his defender has a shot at Bell. Ryan Kalil can’t decide who to block so he decides to block no one. Then still with all this happening Bell is able to gain 6 yards.
The play directly after the one above is almost comically bad offensive line communication.
The entire Left Side of the Line Doesn’t block a soul. Kalil doesn’t block anyone, and Brian Winters gets beat almost immediately by a swim move. Just a pitiful display. Next play, finally a clean pocket and time to throw and Darnold short hops an open Anderson on a curl route. Next play the following happens…
Ed Oliver just MAN HANDLES Brian Winters and gets about as clean a shot as you can get on a QB. Kelechi has terrible positioning, bending at the hips and gets easily beat and Kalil is there with a hands to the face penalty. (I hope you can see the video, if not just search Ed Oliver on twitter and it should come up)
Darnold had Anderson wide open on this one too, I need him to stay in the pocket know he’s gonna get hit and make that throw. Those are the type of superstar throws the Jets need him to make to get to the next level.
The very next play Oliver blows up Kelechi and collapses the pocket and causes the sack. Ed Oliver made the Jets interior 3 offensive linemen look like little boys. He looked stronger, faster, and quicker than the entire Jets offensive line. How did the Jets 3rd overall pick do who plays the same position? Zero tackles, zero pressures, and left the game early with an ankle injury. I’m not going to sit here and say I wanted Oliver over Williams, but if we are comparing the two after one game, Oliver looks like he should have been the 3rd overall pick.
Luckily for the Jets, team MVP Lachlan Edward is able to pin the Bills within the 3 and the Jets get a safety the following play.
Look at Kelechi on the play below. He gets beat before Bell even has the ball.
Head down, feet together, poor hand placement, and bent at the waist. This is horrible form and it allows his defender to beat him easy and the play results in no gain.
Kelechi is beat again on the very next play by the same defender. He is bailed out by a rouging the passer call and a quick release by Sam, but Kelechi took a good first quarter and went down hill fast from there. Winters has to do a better job with his hands in pass pro, he is too slow engaging the defender and allows the defender to dictate the rush.
On the Darnold touchdown play that was nullified by offensive PI I went nuts. What a play that was even if it didn’t count. Then on the TD that counted, Bell really bailed Darnold out, he was wide open and Darnold threw it at his feet.
On the Jets next drive, from a 3rd and 3 the Jets let another edge rusher run free and ran the dumb swing route again. Again the Bills should have made the play but Bell is able to make a man miss and get the first.
On the next play 1st and 10 Darnold checks down a little early for my liking considering how clean the pocket was. I guess it’s better than trying to force something.
On the next run Shell gets beat across his face by Murphy who gets a tackle in the backfield. It looks like he thought he could force him up field but he crashes in instead for an easy tackle.
4th Quarter:
So I was just going to end the break down here after the news of our quarterback getting fucking mono. However I spent too much time to just end the breakdown before getting to the fourth quarter. Also Marcus Mariota beat the Browns last week so there is no reason Siemian can’t beat them. Having said that, how the fuck does your quarterback get mono? Last time I remember anything like this was the MERSA outbreak in the Bucs locker room. Also how have we as a society not come up with a way to cure mono, kinda bull shit doctors can’t figure a way to cure something like this. Really makes you wonder what these doctors are working on. Alright lets take a look at the 4th quarter. Jets start on defense and give up a TD to put the game at 16-10. It’s in the 4th quarter that I think the Jets become particularly inept on offense.
Even though the quarter changed the same issues plagued the Jets offensive line. An inability to identify who is blitzing and because of this free rushers. Below the Bills only send 4, and still are able to rush free of the edge.
The very next play…
Honestly you can’t make this stuff up, the Jets line and Darnold refuse to identify who is blitzing. Still Darnold is able to complete the pass and gets the 1st.
The Jets get to 3rd and 12 and decided to let Jeremy Bates come back in for a guest play call. They throw a quick WR screen, they don’t get the 1st and the Jets punt it away. Also I thought the Jets were going to run this up tempo offense this year under Gase. On this drive the Jets go 19 yards, on 6 plays and use up over 4 minutes of game clock. I don’t know it just seems like at times they were playing slow and just trying to not blow the lead rather than trying to continue to add onto it.
After the Bills scored their second TD to make the game 17-16, there couldn’t have been a single Jets fan who still thought the Jets were going to win. As Jets fans we’ve seen this too much in the past, it’s just the same old Jets, blowing 4th quarter leads.
The Jets start their drive by getting a quick 5 yards on the first play. Gase then goes back to a WR screen, I just about punched my TV. I may be speaking out my ass when I say this but WR screens suck and they seldom work in the NFL. I would love to know the average yards per play on a WR screen in the NFL, because if it’s based on the Jets over the past few years it’s maybe 3.5 yards? The next play the Jets have Bob Anderson behind the defender, and Darnold just leaves it short. I know Gase critizied the receivers after the game but this is one where Anderson has his man beat and Darnold just doesn’t get him the ball.
This is also one where he has good protection. I don’t know what happened here, this is a play that has to be made. Honestly the game should have been over on the next play. It was the two minute warning and the Jets go I-Formation, and if not for an incredible individual effort, Bell would have been stopped short of the line to gain.
Bell gets hit 3 yards before the line to gain because Brian Winters gets beat quicker than any offensive linemen in the history of the NFL. There is then a safety waiting for Bell as well, but he is able to fight and pick up the 1st.
The Jets again have a shot at Anderson deep, but he stumbles out of his break and Darnold over throws him. The Jets had a chance to hit Robbie deep 3 times this game, twice he was under thrown, and once overthrown. If the Jets can connect on any one of those passes they win this game.
I think it was off base for Gase to criticize Robbie for this play, people stumble, just bad luck. If your gonna call him out in the press conference you also have to call out Darnold for under throwing him twice. Darnolds next play is batted by a free rusher off the edge. his next one is also batted at the line forcing 3rd and 10. On 3rd and 10, Darnold and Enunwa have a miscommunication on the route. Then on 4th and 10 Beachum is driven into Darnolds lap and his guy is able to get a hand on Darnolds arm as he’s throwing.
Jets get the ball with 12 second left on the clock but never had a chance to score. After the missed Anderson deep ball the game was essentially over.
| Lineman | Beachum | Kelechi | Kalil | Winters | Shell |
| Quarter 1 | 75% | 100% | 83.33% | 66.67% | 91.70% |
| Quarter 2 | 66.67% | 61.11% | 66.67% | 77.78% | 77.78% |
| Quarter 3 | 84% | 68% | 72% | 80% | 84% |
| Quarter 4 | 75.00% | 75.00% | 75.00% | 62.50% | 62.50% |
| Total | 76.06% (65.2) | 73.24% (55.6) | 73.24% (52.0) | 73.24% (44.2) | 78.87% (63.0) |
In parentheses I put the current PFF grade for each lineman to show how my grading system compares. As you can see from both, the interior of the line, played like dog shit. Any time a lineman is below 80% using my method it’s a bad game. It means that on that on over 20% of plays the linemen negatively impacted the result, which is not ideal. The worst part about no one finishing above 80% is that I was lenient because it was week one. The line needs to figure it out by next week or they are going to get smacked by the Browns. Darnold and Bell were able to mask some of their deficiencies but with Trevor Siemian behind center they need to play better then they did.
Look for the Browns to crowd the line, like the Bills did to try and confuse the Jets about who is blitzing. Also if I have to watch the Jets fail to pick up a DT/DE stunt one more time I am going to go crazy. The Browns have a fierce line and if the communication isn’t better it will get ugly fast.
I am gonna do some defensive breakdown hopefully Saturday, but I’m just gonna give my observations rather than pulling all these clips. Hope you enjoyed the break down. Also doctors, lets get a cure for mono already.
-Big Dog
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