Hackenberg, Jets fail to take flight
DETROIT » Just when you thought you had the Jets quarterback situation figured out, head coach Todd Bowles decided to change things up at the last possible minute.
Perhaps he should have stuck to “Plan A.”
Christian Hackenberg finished the first half just 2-for-6 with just 14 passing yards over the course of six possessions, and the Detroit Lions held a 13-0 lead through 30 minutes of play at Ford Field in a tough start to Gang Green’s second preseason game.
It wasn’t announced until just after the coin toss that it would be Hackenberg and not Josh McCown who would be under center. The second-year Penn State alum is locked in a three-way battle for the starting job with McCown and Bryce Petty, who was slated to come in after Hackenberg exited.
McCown, a veteran who went 3-for-4 for 72 yards in his only series in last Saturday’s preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans, fully participated in warmups, but surprisingly ended up on the bench for the duration of the game.
Hackenberg, who has yet to see regular season action, saw his first two drives in last year’s preseason lead to points (touchdown and field goal), but he’d gone an incredible 24 consecutive series without a score since entering the game. His first drive against the Lions was no different.
After the Lions stuffed two short runs by Bilal Powell, who was making his 2017 preseason debut, Hackenberg dropped back to pass and was flattened by Lions defensive end Cornelius Washington, who was unblocked on a blitz through the left side for the sack and forced fumble, which was recovered by the Jets.
A five-play, 24-yard drive orchestrated by Lions starting quarterback Matthew Stafford ended with a Matt Prater field goal and 3-0 Detroit lead, and somehow uninjured, Hackenberg remained in the game for the ensuing Jets possession.
However, a deep pass down the right sideline intended for de facto number one receiver Robby Anderson was badly misfired, and a third down pass thrown to Charone Peake clanked off his hands and slipped through a Lions defender’s hands to nix a sure interception.
Hackenberg finished the first quarter 0-for2, and the Jets had just three total yards before showing some brief signs of life on their fourth possession of the game. Following an underthrown ball to Austin Seferian-Jenkins on a playaction pass, Hackenberg ran for a first down and then fired a strike to Powell in the flat for a 17-yard gain and first down.
But the drive ended poorly; with Anderson open underneath, Hackenberg’s pump fake on third down squirted out of his hand for another incompletion. This was followed by another three and out; Powell had one catch for -3 yards and then again ran the ball on a draw play on third and long just as he did on the team’s first possession.
Powell, who got the starter’s workload with Matt Forte out for the second straight week, finished with nine carries for 32 yards and two receptions for 14 yards.
Defensively, things weren’t much better for the starters. The Lions tallied 99 total yards and ten points on Stafford’s three drives before backup Jake Rudock came into the game with 10:31 left in the second quarter; Morris Claiborne was burned by Marvin Jones on a fiveyard touchdown catch to cap off a possession that lasted nearly six minutes.
Rudock, a second-year pro out of Michigan, led the Lions to a late second quarter Prater field goal against many of the Jets backups on defense.
Special teams? There wasn’t too much special about the starters there, either.
With Lucky Whitehead, who the Jets had claimed off of waivers from the Dallas Cowboys earlier in training camp, out with a foot injury, former Saints running back Marcus Murphy handled the early return work on special teams with varying degrees of success. Murphy had an early second quarter fumble on a kickoff overturned by a penalty flag, but did have several good returns.
The kicking battle between Chandler Catanzaro and Ross Martin didn’t shift one way or the other; neither got to attempt an extra point or field goal in the first half due to the offense’s struggles.
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