Key advanced metrics for New York Jets defense in 34-28 loss to Los Angeles Chargers

Another big step forward for Quinnen Williams highlights the key takeaways from the Jets defense's advanced numbers in Los Angeles. Quinnen Williams hits new heights as a pass rusher Continuing the upward trajectory he has been on throughout the year, Williams wrecked the interior of Los Angeles' offensive line, putting up some staggering numbers in a career-best pass rushing performance. Perennial stardom is in Williams' future if he continues to put up numbers like these. Over 36 pass-rush snaps against the Chargers, Williams racked up a career-high seven pressures, most among interior defensive linemen in Week 11 (prior to Monday Night Football). Williams is the first interior defensive lineman under 23 years old to post 7+ pressures in a game this season. In addition to his pass-rushing prowess in L.A., Williams picked up a run stuff and recovered a blocked punt by Henry Anderson. On the season, Williams is one of only three IDL that have a 70.0+ Pro Football Focus pass rush grade, a 70.0+ PFF run defense grade, 20+ stops (tackles that constitute a "failure" for the offense), and 20+ pressures. The other two - Cameron Heyward and DeForest Buckner. Elite company. John Franklin-Myers and Jordan Jenkins bring the pressure Franklin-Myers got back on track after a quiet couple of games, collecting four pressures over 28 rushes at SoFi Stadium. With 27 pressures over 182 pass-rush snaps this season, Franklin-Myers has a sparkling pressure rate of 14.8% that ranks fifth-best among qualified IDL. Jenkins had himself a strong game, picking up five pressures (including a sack) over 38 rushes. He had gone 12 straight games without hitting five pressures, last doing it against Miami in Week 14 of 2019. All quiet on the Jabari Zuniga front It's extremely early, but Zuniga has yet to do anything intriguing. Over 17 snaps against the Chargers, Zuniga's only claim to fame was cleaning up a Justin Herbert scramble beyond the first down marker. He had no pressures over 13 pass-rush snaps and was knocked with a missed tackle. Three games in, Zuniga has yet to be credited with his first career pressure. He has not gotten much playing time, though. Zuniga has played just 45 defensive snaps over his three appearances, participating in 19% of the defensive plays on average. Getting too critical of the rookie at this point would be nonsensical considering that he has not even played one game's worth of snaps. An up-and-down game for Bryce Hall culminates with solid production Hall was targeted early and often by the Chargers, but he did a nice job of keeping everything in front of him, prompting the Chargers to begin looking in the direction of other Jets defenders to find more success. In his second career game, Hall played 81 of the team's 82 defensive snaps, lining up as the left cornerback on 80 of them. Over 58 snaps in coverage, he allowed 7-of-10 passing in his direction for 47 yards and three first downs. That gives him very solid numbers of 0.81 yards per cover snap, 4.7 yards per target, and a 30.0% conversion rate. However, Hall did commit an eight-yard pass interference penalty on a third down play, dampening the numbers a bit. When targeting anybody besides Hall, Justin Herbert completed 30-of-39 passes for 323 yards (8.3 per target) and 15 first downs (38.5%). For the second consecutive game, Hall was the least-exposed cornerback on the team. While that accomplishment is not going to get a statue built for Hall, it is a promising fact for a kid making his first two professional starts after recovering from a severe injury and barely getting any NFL practice time. Non-Hall coverage dooms the Jets While Hall held up fairly well, Herbert and the Chargers had a ton of fun targeting everybody else on the Jets defense. These were the main culprits for Gregg Williams' unit on Sunday: Neville Hewitt: 50 cover snaps, 9/9 passing for 96 yards and 3 first downs Harvey Langi: 46 cover snaps, 7/7 passing for 66 yards and 2 first downs Ashtyn Davis: 50 cover snaps, 5/6 passing for 61 yards, 3 first downs, and 1 TD Arthur Maulet: 53 cover snaps, 4/5 passing for 58 yards, 2 first downs, and 1 TD Lamar Jackson: 58 cover snaps, 4/5 passing (1 drop) for 38 yards, 2 first downs, and 1 TD That quintet combined to allow 29-of-32 passing for 319 yards (10.0 per attempt) and 15 conversions (46.9% rate). For Langi, this game represented a bit of a step back from his Monday Night Football breakout against New England. He did have some splashy plays here and there against Los Angeles, including a clutch stop short of the sticks in the fourth quarter, but the consistency level was not quite as high. Nevertheless, his flashes could be enough for him to enter a competition with Blake Cashman (and any other additions) to start alongside C.J. Mosley next season. Langi is a restricted free agent, so if the Jets like what they see, they hold the keys to his future. Davis also took a step back after his Monday showcase. His usage against the Chargers was much different than it was against New England. Most notably, the Jets drastically lessened his number of snaps at outside linebacker. After lining up at that position for 48.1% of his snaps last week, Davis only took an OLB-type alignment on 13.6% of snaps in Los Angeles. In turn, the Jets increased his snap counts at free safety (21.7% to 42.0%), strong safety (1.2% to 13.6%), and slot corner (7.4% to 19.8%). Is Folorunso Fatukasi of this world? I'm not sure he is. Human beings are not supposed to be capable of devouring opposing running backs at the rate Fatukasi has. In Week 9, Fatukasi led the NFL with six stuffs in the run game that held the rusher to two yards or less and no first down. Against the Chargers, Fatukasi added four more stuffs, tied for the second-most among IDL in Week 11 (prior to Monday Night Football). He did so even with only 17 snaps against the run, slightly more than half of his 33 run defense snaps the week prior. On the season, Fatukasi has 19 stuffs, tied for the third-most among IDL despite ranking 34th in snaps played against the run (164). Quinnen Williams ranks second at the position with 20 stuffs despite ranking even lower at 55th in snaps played against the run (141). Jets fans should be thrilled about having the trio of Fatukasi, Williams, and Franklin-Myers anchoring the defensive front going into the future.