5 statistical improvements that spurred the New York Jets’ 6-2 finish to 2019

These improvements are what made the New York Jets a 6-2 football team over their final 8 games of the 2019 season. The Jets' 2019 season will always be seen as a major disappointment in the eyes of the fanbase, but as we sit here today, the campaign looks like far less of a nightmare than it was on track to be. After a loss to the winless Dolphins in Week 9, the Jets were 1-7 and at rock bottom. The season was an absolute dumpster fire at that point. Then, everything turned on a dime as Adam Gase's team closed the season with a 6-2 run, and the 2019 campaign is now considered "underwhelming-but-promising" rather than "utterly embarrassing." Momentum does not carry over from one season to the next, but the Jets' hot finish gave us something else - an idea of this particular team's formula for winning games. While the 2020 roster looks a lot different than the 2019 iteration, the team's strengths and weaknesses should be largely similar, so we can still glean quite a bit from last year's second half. Here are five major differences between the Jets team we saw from Weeks 1-9 of last year and the one we saw from Weeks 10-17. The overhaul at outside cornerback The Jets' outside cornerbacks in the first half were abysmal. From Weeks 1-9, the trio of Darryl Roberts, Trumaine Johnson, and Nate Hairston combined to allow 78-of-112 passes to be completed for 953 yards (8.5 per target), six touchdowns, and two interceptions on passes in their direction (106.0 passer rating). They also committed 12 penalties. In the Week 10 game against the Giants, the cornerback depth chart took a turn for the better. Arthur Maulet got his first start of the season while Bless Austin replaced Nate Hairston early in the game. The young duo started together on the outside for the remainder of the season (save for Austin's benching in the season finale). From Weeks 10-17, Austin and Maulet combined to allow 49-of-72 passes to be completed for 496 yards (6.9 per target), one touchdown, and one interception (86.3 passer rating). They only committed three penalties. Sam Darnold's improvement with no uptick in support quality Sam Darnold had a mostly strong finish to the season even though the supporting cast around him did not do more to help him out than it did in the first half of the season. From Weeks 10-17, the Jets ranked 32nd in yards per rush attempt (3.3) and 29th in rushing yards per game (90.9) while Darnold was pressured on a higher percentage of dropbacks (41.9%) than any other quarterback. Yet, Darnold overcame the poor support to forge a good stretch of quarterbacking. Among 31 qualified quarterbacks from Weeks 10-17, Darnold ranked eighth in touchdown passes (13), 10th in passer rating (93.3), and 11th in yards per attempt (7.3). While clean pockets were rare, Darnold took advantage when he did get them, posting the fifth-highest passer rating from a clean pocket over that span (109.3). Ball security Jets fans have rarely been able to feel confident about their offense keeping the ball safe, but perhaps the Darnold-led offense of the future will break that trend. The Jets turned the ball over on just six of their 88 offensive drives from Weeks 10-17. That's a rate of 6.8%, third-best behind the Patriots (6.5%) and Saints (2.3%) over that span. From Weeks 1-9, the Jets gave the football away on 15-of-98 drives, a 15.8% rate, seventh-highest over that span. This was actually the Jets' first extended run of great ball security in a very long time. The Jets closed 2019 with one multi-turnover outing (counting only interceptions or fumbles by the offense) over their final nine games. The last time the Jets had a nine-game stretch with no more than one multi-turnover game was back in 2002, when Chad Pennington led the Jets to the accomplishment over the exact same Week 9-17 period that Darnold's offense did it over in 2019. That low-turnover run by Pennington's 2002 Jets directly coincided with a 7-2 finish after a 2-5 start, culminating in the franchise's most recent AFC East title. Great third down defense as a result of early-down success While Gregg Williams' defense was not awful in the first half, it certainly was not good, and a major part of that was failing to get off the field on third down. Over the first eight games of the season, the Jets allowed a conversion rate of 48.8% on third down, which ranked fourth-worst even though they forced their opponents into the 12th-longest average third down (7.6 yards to go). The Jets were the only team to allow a third down conversion rate above 48.0% while forcing the opponent into an average to-go distance of over 7.5 yards. Williams' group got even better at forcing teams into long third downs in the season's latter half. From Weeks 10-17, the Jets forced their opponents into an average to-go distance of 7.9 yards on third down, second-longest in the league. In turn, they dropped their third down conversion rate allowed to 35.6%, seventh-best in the NFL. How exactly did the Jets force so many long third downs? It started with their dominance on first and second down. The Jets allowed just 4.3 yards per play on first and second down from Weeks 10-17, third-best over that span. Only the Steelers (4.2) and Buccaneers (4.1) were stingier on the first two downs in the second half. Strong starts The Jets were not a fast-starting team throughout most of their 1-7 stretch to kick off the season. From Weeks 1-9, they scored on the lowest percentage of their offensive drives that began in the first quarter (14.3%) while their defense allowed a score on the third-highest percentage of drives that began in the first quarter (59.3%). Once Week 10 rolled around, the Jets stopped digging themselves into early holes. On drives that began in the first quarter from Weeks 10-17, the defense ranked a more respectable 18th in scoring rate allowed (37.5%) while also yielding the 11th-fewest yards per drive (30.9). The offense scored on the fourth-highest percentage of drives that began in the first quarter (55.0%) and averaged the second-most yards per drive (44.3) on those series. Start fast, make the other team play catch-up, and let the wins roll in.