Chiefs 24 Jets 10: Same Script, Different Day

The Jets fell to 1-8 today. It was their 8th loss in a row. Kansas City defeated Gang Green 24-10 at Arrowhead Stadium. The loss guarantees the Jets a fourth straight season where they will not have a winning record. It was yet another game where the Jets were never really in it. The Jets spent much more time in this game trailing by two scores than they spent within two scores. Let's recap yet another disappointing day below.

The Bad:

Antonio Allen: It was yet another day of Allen getting beaten left and right in coverage. Whether he was playing cornerback or safety, whether he was playing man or zone, Allen was roasted. Rex Ryan finally had enough and pulled Allen out of the game in the second half. It has become painfully clear that Allen is not a quality regular player in the NFL, and it has nothing to do with the ill-fated attempt to make him a cornerback. Last year Allen entered the season with zero expectations. Nobody was expecting him to do anything well. He had some nice games against the run, and he did a solid job against Rob Gronkowski, although Gronkowski still went over 100 yards in that game. He beat the extremely low expectations people had, but that didn't make him a great prospect. There were still glaring holes in his game, particularly in coverage. The Jets shouldn't have signed Ed Reed last year,  but it's not difficult to understand why they did. They saw that Allen's deficiencies in coverage were going to get exposed. Maybe he can make it as a part time player, but it's very difficult to make it in today's NFL as a cornerback/safety who can't cover.

Marcus Williams: He led the Jets with 7 tackles. It's seldom a good sign when a cornerback leads the team in tackles. Most cornerback tackles happen after completions. Williams out there looked like his goal was just to avoid getting beaten over the top at any cost so he left the kind of cushion underneath that gave Alex Smith a completion whenever he wanted. This is a game where the numbers lied to some extent. Smith amazingly didn't even throw for 200 yards, but in the first half Kansas City built its lead by roasting New York's cover guys over and over.

Josh Thomas: When he entered the game, the Chiefs went after him over and over and had success.

Front Seven: I thought the linebackers played too soft in zone coverage. They gave Alex Smith any completion he wanted over the middle. The defensive line lost the battle too frequently up front both against the run and the pass. Alex Smith was sacked only once, when the game was out of reach. He was rarely bothered. The Chiefs also got a push on run plays.

Ryan Quigley: He only averaged 36 yards per punt today. That wasn't too good.

Jeremy Kerley: Another quiet day for Kerley, 2 catches for 11 yards, and he didn't do much on punt returns.

Jace Amaro: It was a shutout for him.

Chris Ivory: Ivory didn't create much yardage today.

Bilal Powell: He had a 12 yard run and then did little with the rest of his carries.

Kickoff Coverage: The Jets had just scored a touchdown to cut Kansas City's lead to 14-7. The momentum gained from that lasted until the ensuing kickoff when DeAnthony Thomas returned it 78 yards to set up a Kansas City touchdown. I have to put the entire unit here because it looked like multiple people strayed from their lanes.

Matt Simms: I don't really blame Simms. You can't expect much out of a guy just signed off the practice squad. He's on the practice squad for a reason, nobody thinks he's good enough to be on their active roster. Simms was  who we thought he was. He has a great arm, but doesn't read coverages. When his first read isn't there, nothing good will happen. He also cannot make the appropriate adjustments or even recognize a blitz.

Michael Vick: Vick was an upgrade over Geno Smith. There were less drives where the Jets did absolutely nothing. Vick looked like he knew what he was doing in the pocket and could read a defense. The offense only scored 10 points, though. One of those drives required 15 plays. There wasn't enough explosion in the offense. There were a handful of plays, like Vick making a defender leave his feet on a pump fake and scrambling around him and a nifty 26 yard pass to Chris Johnson. The offensive output was still pretty bad. Sadly, by Jets standards, this was pretty good quarterback play. Vick showed more than Geno Smith, and earned another week starting. By regular NFL standards, though, this wasn't great.

The Good:

Percy Harvin: Harvin was the best player on the team today. He ripped off a 65 yard kickoff return that set up a field goal right before the half. He ended the day with 11 catches for 129 yards. Harvin did nice work underneath and made a really nice adjustment to a deep ball on a 42 yard gain. Percy looks like he still has a lot of playmaking ability left in him.

Chris Johnson: The Jets rarely saw this version of Chris Johnson in the first half of the year. Johnson looked fast today, picking up 69 rushing yards on 11 carries and another 32 yards on 2 receptions. The offensive line opened holes for him, and he exploded through them the way he was supposed to do. There was one negative. Johnson did step out of bounds near the goal line on a series that the Jets failed to score. It proved costly. Had he stayed in and scored, the Jets would have been right back in the game.

Nick Folk: He did his job today knocking another field goal through.

Other Thoughts:

• The Jets had an undrafted rookie from North Dakota State play cornerback for them most of today's game. I just figure that's worth noting when we assess the job performance of this team's general manager.
• Alex Smith in many ways is an extremely difficult matchup for a team like the Jets. With cornerbacks this ineffective, the Jets feel like they have to provide receivers cushions. If they challenge receivers, the cornerbacks will get beaten over the top. The hope when playing a strategy like this is the quarterback won't be patient enough to dink and dunk. Hopefully he tries to force something down the field. Smith isn't like this. He'll happily take those underneath completions all day. He doesn't like pushing it down the field. That was bad news for the Jets today.

Seven games left in this season. Next up is Pittsburgh. I'm not looking forward to it, and I'm sure you aren't either.