New York Jets: Credit for Marty Mornhinweg

I think sometimes analysis of coordinators can become self-fulfilling prophecies. If a unit does well, the coordinator gets praise for putting together a brilliant strategy. If a unit does poorly, a coordinator gets criticized. It frequently is more about execution than any kind of planning.

When rewatching the Bills and Jets play, though, something stuck out at me. By my unscientific count, on half of the Jets' third down passes they kept at least two extra blockers in to protect Geno Smith. It seemed to be mainly a situational trend. The Jets did not seem to make a point of doing it in other spots.

When you think this through, it really makes sense. The Bills were a defense coming off a six sack game and like to throw a lot of different looks. You could count on them trying to confuse and attack a rookie quarterback. By leaving the extra blockers in consistently, it made the quarterback's job easy. He had more resources to react to the blitz and didn't have to make decisions as quickly against fronts he had never seen before. With less receivers, his decision-making process also became relatively more simplified.

Marty Mornhinweg isn't a perfect coordinator. I'm sure there will be points this season when plenty of us will question him so he deserves credit when he comes up with a plan that makes sense on every level. He might make mistakes at some point, but for the first time in the Ryan Era, the Jets finally have a coordinator who understands how to construct an offense and attempts to build a plan around the strengths and weaknesses of the two teams.