Film Breakdown: How Bad was Rex's Gameplan?

by Ryan Alfieri on Dec 11, 2010 8:29 AM EST

I know, you just want to move past this game. But I just wanted to show an example of how off balance, predictable, and un-Rexy like this defense was Monday night. Let's take a play that would up being about a 50 yard gain by Danny Woodhead. Lets break it down:

Here, we start with the Pats in trips right, shotgun, single back. The Jets respond with a dime package, with 2 down lineman, single high saftey. Pretty standard Jets D on 3rd and long. Notice the three DB's to Brady's right: It SCREAMS overload blitz, a staple of Rex' system.

Now, this play was probably supposed to be a pass, being it is now 3rd and long. But Brady sees the poorly disguised blitz, and audibles to a draw.

The ball is snapped, and we have four guys covering a blocking TE. Not what you want. On the left side, the side the ball is being run, there are 5 Jets being blocked. everyone else is either playing deep, of covering that blocking TE. You do the math.

Now, here is where Rex looks really out of whack. If you want an overload blitz, putting all of you blitzers where there is only one eligible receiver makes no sense. Now, Gronkowski is a nice player and all, but four guys is a little excessive. This blitz is just horribly disguised and it is ultimately a bad play call.

Find out what happens, after the jump: (Although you can probably figure it out)

Seconds later, Woodhead takes advantage of the numbers advantage, combined with some nice blocking by his recievers. Its kinda tough to see, but check the block the Pats guy is laying on the Jets saftey around the 50. He holds this block for a while, and Woodhead takes it for a huge gain.

What do we take from this? I think Rex was just out of his mind this game. I have confidence he'''ll get this figured out. However, it is comforting in that this loss was terrible mostly because of bad play calling, which is certainly fixable, especially with someone like Rex. If would be much more concerning if this was a result of a lack of talent, which doesn't appear to be the case.

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I respectfully disagree

I can’t argue what you have here, however, Rex had the right defense on Deion Branch touchdown catch and run. Eric Smith was lining up like he was suppose to blitz. He was suppose to drop back and cover the slant or underneath route. He faked like he was going in when he should of just dropped back. If he’s in position, he either has an interception or knocks that pass down. That was a case where the right defense was called and the players didn’t perform. The jets tried to win this game in the first quarter. After not succeeding, the game was a wash from the first quarter on.

by BIG OH!!!!! on Dec 11, 2010 9:08 AM EST reply actions

The u described was indicative of what happened most of the night. The play described in the main post, however, is.

Its a bad match-up. They’re built to beat us, and they’re coaches actually are aware of the match-up probs and attack them. Revis is a non-factor, bc they can just simply avoid him. They have a HOF qb and can go 4 or 5 wide on every play and attack the nickel. Without a pass rush from the d-line, they are gonna carve us up every time. Brady is that good.

by Crackback on Dec 11, 2010 11:29 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

Woops. Meant the play u described is not indicative.

by Crackback on Dec 11, 2010 11:30 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

I have this fantasy where the Jets coaching staff made the decision to play a vanilla game in order to not show the Pats much for their likely playoff rematch.

I don’t believe it either. But it’s a beautiful lie, no?

by SioneBAAOOOHA on Dec 11, 2010 9:19 AM EST reply actions