Sam Crnic answers questions surrounding the New York Jets’ loss to the Buffalo Bills using All-22 film.
With Week 1 in the books and Week 2 against the 49ers on the horizon, the New York Jets are looking back at the film to see what must happen to prevent another unprepared mess like the one they stumbled through against the Buffalo Bills. Whether it was Sam Darnold‘s inconsistency and inaccuracies, or Quinnen Williams‘ uneventfulness on the stat sheet, both the offense and defense needs serious work in order to avoid a second consecutive 0-2 start to the season.
Today, I’ll be answering questions from fans on Twitter regarding the Jets’ Week 1 loss through clips of the All-22 film. This will be a weekly event, so feel free to contact me (@sam_crnic) with your questions about anything Jets-related after Week 2.
Who is the largest to blame on offense, Sam Darnold or Adam Gase? (@duca_JE)
Regarding Week 1, I have to say Sam on this one. While the playcalling wasn’t anything special, Darnold missed a numerous amount of opportunities to put the Jets back in the game. Whether it was a missed throw or bad read, Darnold had one of his worst games as a professional in terms of not putting his team in a position to succeed.
While bailing the pocket and running to his left wasn’t a bad decision given the interior pressure, the decision to lob a ball in the middle of the field to an undersized wide receiver presents a serious problem.
Crowder does a fantastic job of realizing his quarterback is scrambling left, so he adjusts his route to find a lane for Darnold. While he appears open for a couple of seconds, Sam is much too late with the throw, rendering this opportunity ineffective. With Tremaine Edmunds rushing Darnold to force a throw, Milano moves over to Crowder. Even though Milano is rewarded with the interception, this is more just a horrible decision by Darnold than an amazing defensive play. Darnold again puts his defense in a tough situation.
Remember that 6-yard Darnold scramble? Like running out of bounds for a sack, this is one of those plays Sam will want back.
Noticing Hogan on the top of the screen, once he passes midfield, he looks wide-open the whole way. There are no intricacies here, Hogan is running a simple post route to pair with Crowder’s out route. This route combination deems successful, as both seem relatively open for most of the play.
Sam locks onto his first read on the left, only looking at Herndon for a split second. He completely ignores the right side of the field. This a rare sight for Sam, who usually takes advantage of open guys off his progressions. He takes off with the ball, disregarding the potential touchdown opportunity to Hogan and an open Herndon over the middle.
Concerning the fact that Herndon couldn’t put together much on offense, what did he do well on Sunday? (@SteveCono)
In the passing game, Chris Herndon didn’t do much. While some of this was caused by missed throws, unsatisfactory execution, or a lack of communication, the Jets should hope that Week 1 was Herndon’s worst of the year.
Before we get to his best play, let’s go over a couple of bad ones.
Known for his physicality and blocking ability, Herndon displayed the exact opposite on this screen. Located on the left side of the play, Chris is supposed to block the man up at the line of scrimmage to set up a one-versus-one with Perriman and the defensive back with space. He whiffs and gives Perriman no chance. While Herndon might have thought the throw would come quicker than it did, there’s simply no excuse to not even lay a hand on a guy you’re supposed to block at the line of scrimmage.
In pass protection, one of the golden rules that coaches still haven’t realized is to never ask a tight end to block a defensive end. In Chris Herndon‘s case, he is assigned to do just that here.
This is ideal alignment from the Bills, as they get George Fant to block a defensive back while Herndon (right side) is stuck with Trent Murphy; a mismatch. Known for his strength off the ball, Murphy utilizes a bull rush technique to put Chris on the balls of his feet, striking him back into the pocket. With enough pressure down the right side, Murphy easily gets to Darnold once at a desirable angle to do so.
Enough of that, let’s look at Herndon’s huge positive moment.
On Crowder’s 69-yard touchdown catch, Herndon plays an integral role in creating enough space for Jamison’s run after the catch.
Getting upfield in a hurry, Herndon (slot right) puts himself in a perfect situation to secure a running lane for Crowder as he gets by Edmunds. In addition, Herndon’s ability to angle his block towards the sideline presented a problem for the Bills, as Jordan Poyer failed to disengage the block in time to catch up with Jamison.
That was about the only positive, though. Throughout the game, Herndon did not live up to his offseason hype as a receiving or blocking threat. Given it was only one game, Chris still has plenty of time to gradually work his way back into the offense throughout the next 15 games.
How did Quinnen Williams play a team-high in defensive snaps and yet only get 1 pressure? What was the issue? (@shhwagah)
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