READY FOR A BELI ACHE
Jets must be prepared for Bill’s Pats to take away top WR target Davis
One of the biggest challenges the Jets will face in Week 2 is the coaching chess match against Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Belichick is arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time with 311 victories and six super bowl championships. One of his many elite coaching traits is his ability to get his team to limit an offense’s passing attack and their targets in the passing game.
The Jets target the Patriots will probably try to remove on Sunday: Corey Davis.
Davis is Zach Wilson’s favorite target. Against the Panthers on Sept. 12, he had five catches for 97 yards with two touchdowns in the loss in Carolina. So expect the Patriots game plan to involve containing Davis.
But Gang Green’s No. 1 receiver isn’t worried about that because of his faith in his coaching staff.
“Just play my game,” Davis said. “Trust that the scheme that [Mike] LaFleur and [Robert] Saleh come up with is going to put me in position to win.”
Jets offensive coordinator LaFleur knows this challenge well. He remembered how the Patriots limited Falcons’ Julio Jones in Super Bowl XXXIII, when he was a member of Atlanta’s staff. Jones finished with four catches for 87 yards after previously averaging 100.6 yards per game. And LaFleur remembered how the play calling was able to sometimes overcome the Patriots defense.
The Jets plan to combat the Patriots on Sunday is to design ways to free Davis up.
“We try to move people around and get them in positions to be successful, whether it be leverage, whether it be looks, whether it be get the bump off,” LaFleur said. “They obviously do a great job of taking away what you tried to do best. And I would assume that they’re going to kind of look at Corey in that fashion.”
Last season, the Patriots allowed only 223 passing yards per game, which was eighth fewest in the NFL. The Patriots had much success limiting their opponents’ favorite offensive weapons, like: the Raiders’ Darren Waller, who managed two catches for nine yards; the Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill, who had four catches for 64 yards and one touchdown; the Cardinals’ Deandre Hopkins, who notched five catches for 55 yards; the Chargers’ Keenan Allen, who had 11 targets, but collected only five catches for 48 yards; the 49ers’ George Kittle, who had five catches for 55 yards; and the
Rams’ Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods, who combined for 10 catches for 65 yards.
In their season opening loss to the Dolphins on Sept. 12, the Patriots held Miami to 185 yards passing, the sixth best in the NFL so far. Dolphins’ QB Tua Tagovailoa’s favorite target is Mike Gesicki and Gesicki had no targets and no catches.
Not every elite offensive player, however, has fallen prey to the Patriots.
The Bills’ Stefon Diggs dominated the Patriots and took off on nine catches for 145 yards with three touchdowns in 2020. The Seakhawks’ DK Metcalf had four catches for 92 yards and one touchdown last season, as well. And one of Davis’ best games
came against the Patriots in 2018, when he had seven catches for 125 yards and one touchdown for the Tennessee Titans.
So it’s not impossible for Davis to still have success. If the Patriots are able to limit him, however, Saleh has other weapons.
“We’ve got more than one guy,” Saleh said. “I know Elijah Moore probably wants some of the plays that he had in the game back and it’s a great first game for a rookie. We got Jamison [Crowder] coming back, Braxton Berrios is capable of winning one on ones. You got the pass game out of the running backs, Tyler Kroft is every bit as deserving in the pass game.”
The supporting cast in Keelan Cole, Moore, Crowder, Kroft and others have to pick up the slack if Davis is limited.
“There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for other guys to get open if they want to double a guy,” Saleh said. “If they want to double a guy, there’s going to be opportunities in the run game for that to break. That’s where that chess match with Coach Belichick always happens and you’ve got to pick and choose your battles and stay sound and committed to what you’re doing and get ready to play chess with one of the best chess players in the world.”
The Jets offense must be equipped to counter when the Patriots try to remove Davis. If not, it’ll be a long afternoon at MetLife.