CATCHING A WHIFF
Heralded ‘D’ can’t keep letting runners pass it by
The Jets defense was supposed to be the strength of this team, but after Sunday’s loss to the Bills, it is fair to wonder if this team has any strengths at all.
The defense, which features five first-round picks, looked lost against the Bills, allowing 408 total yards an 190 rushing yards in the 21-12 loss.
“We know what we have,” defensive end Leonard Williams said. “Every person on the team knows what type of defense we are and what type of defense we could be. We’ve seen glimpses of it when every person on the defense is doing their job. We just have to hold ourselves to that standard and everybody has to do their job and we’ll get it done.”
They certainly did not get it done against the Bills. You did not have to be a defensive genius to figure out who you had to stop in Buffalo’s offense. Running back LeSean McCoy is the only star the Bills have left on that side of the ball. Shut him down, and take your chances with Tyrod Taylor should have been the plan, and most likely was. But the Jets failed to set the edge, over-pursued and whiffed on too many tackles.
“The biggest problem I saw was just a bunch of small details,” Williams said. “It wasn’t like anyone was getting beat really badly. People weren’t getting beat that bad. It’s just us executing our plays and making sure we stay in our gap, staying disciplined and staying on the details every play. As soon as someone messed up on one detail, that’s when something broke.”
The Bills had eight plays of 20 yards or more and converted 8-of-17 third downs. The Jets looked lost at times.
The Jets offense was expected to be terrible this season with little star power and so much turnover. But the defense? This was still supposed to be a strong unit that could keep the Jets in games and maybe even win a few games for them.
Jets coach Todd Bowles does not sound overly concerned. He said he is confident they can make the corrections before facing the Raiders on Sunday.
“They’re minor,” Bowles said of the defense’s issues. “They can be corrected. They’re self-inflicted. We’ll just go back and everybody watched the film. We understand what we did wrong. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and work on them. We’ll have it fixed by Sunday.”
This is the second-most rushing yards the Jets have given up under Bowles. They allowed 248 last year to the 49ers, a game they ended up winning. It was clear from the start of the game the Bills would be able to move at will through the Jets defense. McCoy had a reception for 21 yards. Mike Tolbert had a run of 16 yards. Then Taylor scrambled for 10 yards. McCoy had a run of 10 yards. The Jets got lucky when a ball bounced off Charles Clay’s hands and Jets cornerback Juston Burris intercepted it in the end zone.
Even though the Bills failed to score, the tone for the day had been set.
Now, the Jets face the Raiders, who rolled up 359 yards on the Titans this week. With Derek Carr, Marshawn Lynch, Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree, the Raiders have one of the toughest units to defend in the NFL.
Williams acknowledged they are facing a “great offense” this week, but he said he knows the Jets defense can get things fixed.
“What gives me confidence is it wasn’t every play we were messing up,” Williams said. “We’ve seen what it looks like when we’re doing it right. When we’re doing it right, it looks perfect. We stop the offense. We showed that we can play that way. I definitely have confidence in us that we’ll correct it and fix the details.”