No rush... Jets get to QB at last

AS THE JETS prepared to play the Dolphins last week, outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins attempted to diagnose why he and his defensive teammates were struggling to disrupt opposing quarterbacks.

Through six games, the Jets had managed just seven sacks — fewest in the AFC — and they ranked 24th in the league in combined quarterback hits and hurries with 74, according to Pro Football Focus.

“We just aren’t finishing,” Jenkins said. “We just got to keep rushing relentlessly. You can’t hesitate. …You have to be a bat out of hell, 24/7.”

Jenkins put his message into action in Sunday’s 31-28 loss to the Dolphins, and the rest of the Jets defense followed suit. The Jets unraveled down the stretch of an embarrassing loss, squandering a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, but there was one positive in the mess: Todd Bowles’ unit finally got to the quarterback.

The Jets finished with three sacks. More telling, they set a season high with 12 quarterback hits, repeatedly driving Jay Cutler and Matt Moore into the soggy and mud-ridden turf at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. They sacked Cutler twice and hit him four times in the opening half before Jenkins ended the gunslinger’s day with a crushing blow.

Just more than two minutes into the third quarter, the Jets sent six men on a blitz, with Jenkins rushing from the left edge. Jenkins was one-on-one against third-string tight end MarQueis Gray and bull-rushed the blocker for four steps. Jenkins then cut inside past Gray and sprinted at Cutler, wrapping his arms around the quarterback and slinging him into the ground.

Cutler barely got the throw off, and it landed incomplete. He then left the game with what the Dolphins said were multiple cracked ribs. Cutler could miss several weeks.

As he did on the Jenkins hit, Bowles used a variety of sets, blitzes and stunts to free up his pass rushers. Darron Lee was just late on a sack early in the fourth quarter when he rushed up the middle on a delayed blitz. A gaping hole opened up in front of Lee after fellow inside linebacker Demario Davis occupied the center and right guard with a stunt.

Davis later sacked Moore on a protection miscommunication late in the fourth quarter, which eventually led to a stop that gave the ball back to the Jets with the game tied at 28 and less than a minute remaining. (Josh McCown threw an interception on the ensuing possession that sunk the Jets in frustrating fashion.)

Williams racked up three quarterback hits, all bone-rattling collisions on which he narrowly missed sacks. Two of them came in the fourth quarter, including one with 8:09 remaining, when Williams abused right guard Jermon Bushrod with a lightening-fast inside swim move and walloped Moore.

Wilkerson, meanwhile, posted his first quarterback hit of the season.

With both Matt Forte and Bilal Powell healthy, the Jets released running back Travaris Cadet on Tuesday. They also activated cornerback Robert Nelson from the practice squad, released safety Harold Jones-Quarter from the practice squad and signed running back Akeem Judd to the practice squad.