Jets ‘D’ lets Falcons and Ryan fly free
LONDON —The Jet defense was in bend-but-don’t-break mode through the first month of the season, but it couldn’t stop a nosebleed against the Falcons, allowing a season-high 450 yards.
Nothing worked for the defense. The most disappointing part was the fact that the Falcons were without star receiver Calvin Ridley and starting receiver Russell Gage.
But it didn’t matter as Matt Ryan did whatever he wanted as he threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns. The Jets also allowed 108 yards on the ground.
“Credit Matt Ryan and (Falcons coach) Arthur (Smith) and the game plan that they had,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “They got us in a couple of beaters.”
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts had his coming-out party as the rookie cooked all afternoon. He finished with nine catches for 119 yards and a touchdown.
C.J Mosley took blame for some of Pitts’ early production.
“I think that goes back, honestly, just I’ll start with me,” Mosley said. “A lot of those routes I was going over the middle, going over, that’s on the linebackers. That’s on me, some of those plays.”
Pitts had 189 yards coming into this game and almost matched that total against the Jets.
Through four games, the Jets’ red zone defense was the 4th best in the NFL, allowing only 33% of trips to end in touchdowns. But on Sunday the Falcons scored three touchdowns on four trips and the last score sealed the game.
“But for the most part we felt like we tried our best and we lined up and did our normal calls in the red zone,” Mosley said. “They just got the best of us today.”
The Jets defense was a top-10 unit on third downs but struggled in that aspect, too.
The Falcons converted 9-14 of their third downs.
And the Jets logged only 13 pressures with zero sacks on Ryan.
Rough day at the office.
LACK OF A RUN GAME
As much as Zach Wilson has struggled this year, he hasn’t received much help from the running game and Sunday was no different.
While the run game did produce two touchdowns, it mustered only 64 yards on 18 carries. Michael Carter led the Jets with 38 yards and a touchdown. Ty Johnson had the other one.
The Jets held the ball for 11:28 minutes compared to the Falcons’ 18:32. Saleh believes that prevented the offense from getting into rhythm.
“It’s a matter of executing on first and second down, obviously, getting yourself to third down, move the chains and you’re racking up more plays and you’re into a rhythm of a series,” Saleh said. “So you know, you always go back and look from an efficiency standpoint, how we were operating and whether or not we were handling the ball. I didn’t look at totals, but this system has always been built on opportunity to run and when you run and run and run, eventually you’re going to break one, but it’s something we have to be better at.”
No matter what the reason is, the Jets have only crossed 100 yards once this season. This is hurting the development of Wilson as he’s being forced to throw the Jets back into games and he’s currently not built for that. Nor should he be expected to be.