Coaches in the NFL obsess over the little details. It isn’t always easy to see, but sometimes the little things make a big impact.
I want to start out by saying that on the whole I put little to no blame
on the defense for the Jets losing in London to the Denver Broncos. The unit played its best game of the season. Any game where the defense allows 13 points and adds 2 with a safety is a game your team should win.
I would also say that often-maligned defensive end Micheal Clemons played his best game of the season against the Broncos and one of the strongest games of his career.
I have written extensively this week about the blame the offense and in particular quarterback Justin Fields deserve.
With that said, on Denver’s one scoring drive of the second half the defense made a mental error which led to a pivotal play on the drive.
With just over 8:00 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Broncos faced a third and eight from their own 40. This was a huge snap. The Jets led 11-10. A defensive stop would force a punt, and Denver would be running out of chances to take the lead.
This is how the Jets line up.
There’s a problem. Micheal Clemons has lined up in the wrong gap. Kiko Mauigoa is blitzing into the gap where Clemons has lined up. Clemons is supposed to be in the next gap over. With this alignment, the two guys will be rushing into the same space.
That makes the duo easier to block. It will also create congestion for the pass rushers. Additionally, it would create a big scrambling lane for Bo Nix it the middle of the field. Sherwood isn’t blitzing, and the Jets are in man to man coverage so it’s likely that no second level defenders would be in position to stop a scramble.
Jamien Sherwood has the role of quarterback of the defense. It’s his job to correct an error if he sees the Jets line up incorrectly. He notices Clemons’ mistake, and moves to the line to instruct Clemons to move into the right gap.
Because of Sherwood, Clemons does move into the correct gap. The Jets now have blitzers going to different gaps and no gaping hole in the middle of their blitz.
The problem is that the ball is snapped before Sherwood is able to drop back to where he is supposed to be aligned.
Sherwood is left in no position to be able to cover Marvin Mims’ route out of the backfield.
Mims turns it up the field for a 26 yard gain.
That brings me to my second point. The Jets coaching staff made an inexcusable error on this play. Marvin Mims is a wide receiver who lined up in the backfield. He was one of four Broncos wide receivers on the field on this play. The Jets only had three cornerbacks. They went with a 4-2-5 defense. That means four defensive linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. Of those five defensive backs only three were cornerbacks.
With the Jets in man to man coverage, this personnel grouping guaranteed that a wide receiver would get covered by a non-cornerback, quite possibly a linebacker. Even if Sherwood didn’t have to take himself out of position to communicate with Clemons to get into the correct gap, this is going to be a very difficult cover for him. Linebacker vs. wide receiver is not the matchup you want on defense.
I can forgive Clemons for making a mistake in an otherwise strong game. I can’t forgive a coaching staff that has looked less than professional caliber all season long for such a colossal error on a key down. Having the correct personnel grouping on the field should be Football 101 stuff on this level.
I get the sense Sherwood has taken some heat for this play, but I want to make it clear that the blame doesn’t lie with him. The small details are lacking with the Jets, and it’s making a big impact.
