GANG ON THE RUN
Jets must find way to move ball on ground to stop teams from loading up against pass
The Jets expected this — or at least they should have.
After cutting their two best receivers this offseason (Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker), losing their next-best wideout to a season-ending neck injury in training camp (Quincy Enunwa), and adding 38-year-old journeyman quarterback Josh McCown to lead the offense, the Jets’ passing game simply is not threatening.
So opposing defenses will game plan accordingly, stacking players — sometimes as many as eight — near the line of scrimmage to force the Jets to move the ball in the air. It started this past weekend in a 21-12 loss at the Bills, when the Jets mustered just 38 rushing yards, and it will continue for the rest of this season, until the Jets prove they can pass effectively, especially down the field.
But for John Morton, the remedy isn’t that simple. The rookie offensive coordinator was adamant Thursday that the Jets must run the ball against the eight-man fronts, and he put the onus on his offensive line to create success in those difficult situations.
“We got a pretty decent line, and they got to go out and block those guys,” Morton said. “If everybody executes and does what they’re supposed to do, we have hats on hats. And yeah, you’d like to throw the ball, but at times you got to run the ball versus an eight-man front and pound it up in there.”
“You got to do that. There’s no doubt,” Morton added. “You can’t just (face an) eight-man box and throw it every single down.”
Morton’s offense bordered on one-dimensional Sunday in Buffalo, especially in the first half. McCown attempted 16 passes in the first two quarters, while running backs Matt Forte and Bilal Powell combined for just five rushing attempts and 11 yards.
Morton said some of that disparity was related to his game plan.
“Everybody has their certain plays that they have in the beginning of the game. We love these plays. And then it changes with certain circumstances,” he said. “I’m going to have certain plays that we feel really good about as a coaching staff and as a team, and we’re going to run those plays in the beginning, and then we adjust from there.”
Morton also hinted that tight end Eric Tomlinson’s elbow injury in the second quarter forced him to alter his approach. Will Tye was the only other active tight end on the game-day roster, and the Jets had claimed him on waivers less than a week before the season opener. Rookie Jordan Leggett (knee) was inactive because of injury.
“When Eric went down, he had to step in and do some things that maybe he didn’t get a chance to do during the week,” Morton said of Tye. “And I thought he did a really good job.”
The tight end situation remains suspect entering this weekend’s contest at the Raiders. Leggett and Tomlinson both missed practice for the second straight day Thursday.
So Morton will be relying on his offensive line to spark the rushing attack.
“Things didn’t really go our way last week as far as the run game, so we want to use that,” guard Brian Winters said. “That’s adding fuel to the fire.”
Second-year tackle Brandon Shell is confident his unit can create holes against stacked fronts.
“It is a pretty challenging thing. But we see it all the time, so we can block an eight-man box,” Shell said. “I have faith in us that we can do it. We just got to go out there and execute.
“I know that everybody’s capable of doing their job. I have trust in them, and I know it’s going to happen.”