The New York Jets find themselves dominated again, this time by the San Francisco 49ers. Plus, Adam Gase’s rigid game plan explained.
Adam Gase and the New York Jets have a “mentality” problem. Rather than an aggressive, ready to pounce squad, the Jets seemingly enter each game with a rigid game plan that’s rarely deviated from in-game.
Gase said as much in his time with the media following his team’s 31-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at MetLife Stadium Sunday.
“We had to start off the game a certain way,” Gase said following the disheartening loss. “We knew that coming into it. The big thing that we talked about was making sure we took advantage of our opportunities in the red zone. We have a negative run and we knock ourselves out of the red zone.”
The game plan led to a conservative approach that required perfection on the part of Sam Darnold and the offense. And worse yet, they couldn’t muster a single substantial touchdown (the Braxton Berrios score happened in garbage time) despite the offensive line’s tremendous ground-game effort on first down.
Gase’s offense rushed for 79 of the team’s 104 total rushing yards on first down in the game (15 carries, 5.2 yards per carry). On second down, however, they only put up 20 yards on eight carries (2.5 yards per carry).
It is absurd that the Jets offense ran so well on first down and couldn't do anything downfield. 79 of their 104 rushing yards came on first down in the game.
1st down: 15 runs, 79 yards (5.2 YPC)
2nd down: 8 runs, 20 yards (2.5 YPC)#TakeFlight— Robby Sabo (@RobbySabo) September 21, 2020
Following a game plan that kept things conservative, Gase never allowed Darnold a chance to capitalize on second-and-manageable or second-and-short situations. This was the case despite the Niners oftentimes playing single-high with a press look outside.
No NFL offense can succeed in today’s high-flying NFL with that mindset.
Sabo Radio 61 recaps the Jets-Niners game, breaks down Adam Gase’s rigidness and takes a quick look around the league.
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