It’s time for some New York Jets football! I’m praying that we’re all still getting amped for games in December because the last two years have been torturous. The fanbase is sharply divided between those who are excited/impressed by the “progress” of losing by one score and those who aren’t happy about losing at all. I’ll let you guess which one of those I am.
Regardless of which way you feel, what should be clear to all of us is that the Aaron Glenn Jets need to dramatically(!) improve their 2-minute
drill and late-game efficiency. Did you know that the last time the Jets have scored any points to end a half was the game-winner in Week 13 of last year against Atlanta!? In the 16 halves of football AG has coached since then, his Jets have had the ball in the last two minutes of 14 of them and have scored zero times. Zero.
That is a streak I’d love to see end this weekend, and there’s another one I’m hoping to see end (more on that later) en route to a New York Jets win. I promise you, we won’t remember anything but the wins. Losing by three to the Bears (or any team) is not an accomplishment, so let’s try to win! I’ll have my eyes on these things:
Running Men
Speaking of winning, Breece Hall has scored a touchdown on 14 of the Jets’ last 15 wins. We are 28 days away from the two-year anniversary of the last time the Jets won without him scoring a touchdown. It was Halloween vs. the Texans, and he still put up 86 yards on 17 touches while Davante Adams and Garrett Wilson found the end zone.
In this game, Breece is out, so does that automatically doom our chances of success? The short answer is no. While they’re certainly lower without Breece, we have seen a game where Braelon had 81 yards on 15 touches, and Isaiah Davis had 67 yards and a touchdown on 13 touches in the same game. Aaron Rodgers added 339 yards of his own and 1 passing touchdown en route to an OT loss against the Dolphins in Week 7 of 2024. Competitive loss, though!
I can’t lie, Braelon Allen has only had 60+ total yards in one other game besides that Dolphins one, despite playing in 23 others. Isaiah Davis has had 60+ total yards in three other games, including 109 yards (65 rushing, 44 receiving) against the Bengals in last year’s 39-38 win. Davis also has the distinction of having the highest yards per carry in the room (5.6). Of course, Davis has only 73 career carries compared to 129 for Allen and 806 for Hall, but there were several full games where they called his number, and he delivered.
I won’t be anywhere close to the field, but if I were in charge of calling numbers on Sunday, I wouldn’t hesitate to make Davis my top option in the run game. In my opinion, he is a more complete back who has great burst, steady hands, and underrated vision and football IQ. He makes plays that impact games but don’t show up on the stat sheet, like this one. It makes absolutely no sense that he hasn’t played an offensive snap yet, but that better change this Sunday.
Chicago is allowing the second-most rushing yards per carry in the NFL so far (5.1), which is great news because the Jets have been averaging the third-worst rushing yards per carry at 3.3. With the Jets’ offensive line struggling and down a starter, the craftier, wiser running back should get the first cracks at setting the table for the offense. Of course, Braelon could make me eat my words, and I’d love to see him have a great game, but with this fanbase starved for a win, I think Davis is the best bet to make that happen and replicate Breece’s impact on the game.
Meatball Subs Anyone?
Fun fact: As Jets fans, we are the only fanbase in the NFL to not witness an interception during our team’s games so far this season. Not so fun fact: half of the reason for the first fact is because the Jets are one of four teams without an interception forced this season. Please don’t get it twisted though, the Jets have no peers in this area.
Before Aaron Glenn became a head coach, over 100 seasons of NFL football were played and no team ever went a full season without catching an interception. 12 game seasons, 14 game seasons, 16 game seasons, there was always at least one. Aaron Glenn’s Jets had 17 games and couldn’t muster an interception. With zero heading into Game 4, the Jets’ unprecedented run of infamy has extended to 20 consecutive games. Is there an end in sight?
The Bears have former Aaron Glenn colleague Ben Johnson running the show in Chicago and you may be surprised to hear it didn’t take him multiple seasons to take his terrible team to a playoff win. You could choose to say “he had a quarterback!” but then I’d be curious to hear your response to seeing 38-year-old Case Keenum carve up a talented Eagles defense for 247 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions on 70.6% completion.
The Eagles hadn’t allowed a 200-yard passer leading up to that point and for you bettors out there Keenum’s passing yards line was at 170.5. He specifically thrived against the blitz, diagnosing plays pre-snap and getting ball out at an average 2.41 seconds per throw (2nd fastest in the NFL in Week 3). For Glenn and his love of exotic blitzes, will those disguised looks be enough to trick Keenum? Or will those quick looks be too much to overcome?
Luckily for Keenum, the responsibility isn’t solely his. The Bears are the only team in the NFL rushing for more than 175 yards per game, a whopping 184.3 yards on 35 attempts (5.3 yards per attempt). Both the Bears and the Jets emphasize the run game, the Jets’ 28.3 attempts per game are 10th in the league, but we already mentioned how they have the second-worst yards per carry. The Bears have been the platinum standard of rushing the football, and if they continue to have their way, this entire section becomes obsolete.
Step A is stopping the run, which the Jets were able to do nicely against Tony Pollard and the filth of the Packers’ running back room, but Jahmyr Gibbs was a different story. 99 yards on the ground, 65 more through the air, and Jared Goff had the easiest time dicing up the defense. Swift’s 84 yards against the Eagles were crucial in giving Case the openings he needed to dice up their defense. If the Jets have any hope of ending this interception streak at 20, it starts with making D’Andre Swift look like D’Andre Slow.
Double Duty? Or Double Trouble
I was watching the Jake Asman show on YouTube and I saw in the live comments the legendary Connie Carberg raise the point of Isaiah Williams playing wide receiver much more often this year than last year. She hypothesized that since he’s so much more involved in the offensive gameplan, he is not as fresh or readily available to be the superstar kick returner that he was last year en route to being voted Team MVP.
Clearly, Isaiah hasn’t been the same so far in the return game. In the Packers game specifically, his hands were a massive liability, which I thought was a weather issue but Skyy Moore of the Packers played in the same weather conditions and didn’t drop the ball once. Last year he was third in punt return yardage, scored 2 touchdowns, and only called 12 fair catches in 15 games. Needless to say, he hasn’t come close to these ranks this year but in three games played he already has 30% of the catches and 32% of the yards he had last year.
According to footballguys.com, Williams’ usage as a WR has only increased, going from 60% in Week 1 to 82% in Week 2 and 89% in Week 3! As far as skill position players go, only Geno Smith and Garrett Wilson have played more snaps. Compared to the aforementioned Skyy Moore, he was only out for 6% of snaps Week 1, 36% in Week 2, and 52% in Week 3. There are more than five Packers skill position players with more snaps than Moore.
Last year, Williams did have three weeks where his snap count % exceeded 70 but the rest of them were 60 or less (including five under 5%). I would love to see him return back to these lower usage rates so he can go back to returning punts and kicks. He was fourth in kick return yards per attempt last year, which is funny to note because the returning Kene Nwangwu was first (33.6 per attempt).
Perhaps Isaiah has been missing his bash brother? A healthy Nwangwu should be an electric jolt of energy to the special teams unit that has certainly needed some electricity. He is one of only six players to score a touchdown from a kickoff return last year and the only player in the league to do it in each of the last two seasons. He’s actually done it five times in five NFL seasons and is a threat for a massive return even if he doesn’t reach the end zone.
With Breece out, there’s a slight chance that Nwangwu suffers the same issue Williams is having and they call on Nwangwu to carry the ball a few times, but since Davis is alive and breathing I’m imagining they’ll keep running two rbs instead of adding a third to the mix. With having both Nwangwu and Williams in the return mix, perhaps this is the game that we finally see the Jets’ return game look like last year’s incredible unit.
Kenyon Sadiq, Sterling Shepard, Jeremy Ruckert, Isaiah Davis, and Jelani Woods should all be able to pitch in and help Garrett with the pass catching duties and allow Williams to be used where we need him most! What do you think? Let’s go Jets!
