Corners hold up, but Zach takes pounding
The Jets have started the season 0-1. Gang Green struggled in the trenches and failed to stop big plays in the first half of its season opener against the Panthers. Despite falling into a 16-0 hole, the Jets rallied to make it a one-score game, 14-19, and force an onside kick they were unable to recover.
Sam Darnold collected 279 yards passing. But that doesn’t reflect how the cornerbacks played because they held up well.
The Jets head back to practice with some work to do. The offensive line, for starters, has to be better.
So before they suit up to play the Patriots on Sunday, here are three takeaways from that Week 1 loss.
CORNERBACKS HELD UP
A big challenge for the Jets defense was its cornerbacks against the Panthers receiving corps of Robby Anderson, D.J Moore and Terrance Marshall. And the inexperienced group met that challenge.
Brandin Echols allowed three catches for 26 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. Bryce Hall allowed one for nine yards, to Christian McCaffrey. Javelin Guidry gave up one catch for 27 yards. Slot corner Michael Carter II allowed three catches for 17 yards and had a nice pass break up on a slot fade route while guarding Marshall in the first quarter.
D.J. Moore snagged an impressive back shoulder fade for a 27-yard gain, with Guidry in coverage.
But overall, there was minimal damage. “I thought they did a good job,” coach Robert Saleh said. “We had the one with Guidry on the go ball. I think it was DJ Moore on the left sideline. That was the big one, in terms of one-on-one. Even then, I thought he was in a really good position. He’s just got to go up and make the play somehow. Again, credit to him. If we give up those, I can live with that. That was a hard catch. … Hall had an opportunity on Robby Anderson on a couple of go balls. You saw Michael Carter had an opportunity on a slot fade. The one thing they have to get better at is their zone coverage awareness. We gave up a couple of bad zone eyes. A couple of explosives on the sideline.”
ROOKIE STRUGGLED UNDER PRESSURE
When a starting quarterback says he feels like he got hit by a bus, that’s not usually a good sign.
The offensive line struggled to protect Zach Wilson, who was sacked six times on Sunday. Wilson became just the fourth rookie quarterback since the 1970 merger to be sacked at least six times in Week 1 — the others were Archie Manning, David Carr and DeShone Kizer.
Wilson was pressured on 51.2% of his 43 dropbacks. That’s second-most behind the Broncos’ Teddy Bridgewater, who finished his Sunday being pressured on 53% of his 41
dropbacks — the Broncos, however, finished with a victory over the Giants.
In those situations Wilson went 5-of-16 with 109 yards and one touchdown. The only quarterbacks with a worse completion percentage on Sunday were Ben Roethlisberger, Tua Tagovailoa and Aaron Rodgers, but they weren’t pressured nearly as much.
Each part of the Jets’ offensive line allowed pressure: Alijah Vera-Tucker allowed six and Greg Van Roten, Mekhi Becton and Connor McGovern gave up two each.
McGovern said the Panthers weren’t anything they weren’t ready for and blamed the performance on early- season woes.
“It is early in the season and especially with a young quarterback, they are going to heat you up,” McGovern said. “It is nothing we didn’t prepare for, but when the team is blitzing you every snap, it might be a little softer than normal. It is kind of what we expected and prepared for, just got to execute better.”
The unit needs to play better because opposing defenses will only get tougher.
ZERO ANSWERS FOR CMC
The Jets’ plan was to contain McCaffrey and they failed to do so.
McCaffrey did whatever he wanted against the Jets defense. In the first half, he totaled 91 yards receiving and 33 yards rushing. He added 65 yards rushing in the second half.
McCaffrey was Darnold’s safety net whenever Darnold needed to get rid of the ball. And when he got in space, he provided a plethora of yards after the catch, finishing with 86.
The Jets defense had zero answers for that.
C.J Mosley said the unit has to improve in stopping dynamic players. If it doesn’t, then other teams will learn to exploit that.
“Well when he has space he can make big plays. That is what he did,” Mosley said. “I think we did the best that we could. We have to make sure that we have a lot of people around him when he has the ball. They try to get him out of the perimeter with a bunch of screens. A lot of traps. A lot of draws. We have to game plan for that because the big plays that we did let go, other teams are going to copy-cat that.”