Geno Smith's Interception: A Closer Look

The turning point of Sunday's game was arguably Tramon Williams' interception. At that point the Jets had a 21-9 lead. They were rolling. A touchdown could have made the score 28-9 heading to halftime. Instead Green Bay turned the turnover into a touchdown of its own, and the Jets only led by 5 heading into the locker room.

Let's take a closer look at this play. You have a three tight end set here with Eric Decker split wide to the left and all three tight ends on the right side of this formation.

At the snap, Geno fakes a little handoff to Chris Ivory.

Why I think the Jets do this is to freeze the linebackers. The Jets are going to send two players on the right side of the field on vertical routes, and slowing the linebackers down will give the receivers more open field to run to.

The Packers aren't really fooled, though.

Now I've heard some folks suggest the problem was that Geno didn't get the ball out quickly enough. His first read is pretty clearly Jeff Cumberland as he plants.

As you can see here, Brian Winters has already lost his matchup, and this is after Geno's first read isn't open.

On the play the protection seems to be mixed. Nick Mangold, Willie Colon, and Breno Giacomini all slide right at the snap, indicating their assignments are to block the area to the right of them. D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Brian Winters don't. They seem to be blocking man to man. None of the tight ends stay in, and the Packers rush five. Everybody is blocked so Geno has the Jets in a perfect protection.

This, however, requires all five players to execute their blocks. Brian Winters does not do this. He gets beaten on a swim move by Mike Daniels.

Moving to his next read, Geno correctly identifies that he has Zach Sudfeld.

Tramon Williams is deep, but Sudfeld is open. Geno fires, but...

You can say Geno should have taken the sack, but it's kind of tough to play effectively if a quarterback cannot trust his protection will hold when his first read is not there. At any rate, Geno does get enough on the ball for a play to be made. It leaves 6'7" Sudfeld vs. 5'11" Williams. Advantage Jets one would think.

But somehow this (ball is red)...

...turns into this:

Instead of going up with a guy he towers over, Sudfeld runs around Williams, allowing the defensive back to gain position. Forget about not being an interception. Sudfeld probably should have had a reception. Isn't the whole point of having a 6'7" guy is that he makes plays like that? Your quarterback just took a huge hit and put you in position to make a play. Can you help him out a little bit?

Bad times all around.