Ryan Fitzpatrick Gets it Done Late

Ryan Fitzpatrick is all of the above: journeyman, beard aficionado, and a gamer. We've seen him take hits, refuse to slide, but more importantly he's led comebacks. However he's still too inconsistent to put all the eggs in the basket.

After a huge INT from the defense, the Jets got the ball back in the 3rd quarter. They did everything to screw up the gift that was Kellen Moore. To be fair to Fitz, this is a heck of a read and play by the defense. However, it brings up a criticism of Fitz, expect him to lock on his WR far too often.

The Jets had a second and long, where they lined up with 3 wide with a wingback to the right of Fitz. The top WR was alone to the far side of the field running a deep in route, while Decker cut across from the slot and ran to the middle of the field. The RB ran a simple release route. The two key routes are the comeback route to the bottom and the wing running the arrow route.

The defense lined up in cover three. The key man will be the bottom yellow circled player who had a decision to make.

He took a few steps up as if he was going to cover the arrow route, but dropped back right in front of the comeback route, reading Fitz the whole way.

It was a heck of play to give up your assignment but he baited a perfect hook as Fitz threw it to him.

Here a defender was smart and got Fitz to make a big error. While it wasn't a killer, this had all the markings of a huge play that could have changed the game. If not for a defensive stand, this game could have been a lot different.

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On the other side of the ball, the Jets threw the ball around, foregoing a running game that seemed to fail at every turn. The highlight of course besides the Enuwa pass was this gem called by Gailey. That's not snarky either, it was a great play call that caught Dallas in a bad spot.

Decker was in motion from top to bottom and he ran the arrow route to the pylon in red. Marshall runs a little slant route across the middle of the field. The top WR runs a cross route on the end zone line. Ivory does something, perhaps looking for an inside shovel pass.

The defense gets caught in the pick play. Marshall runs across the middle of the field and does the pick play to perfection. He slams his defender into the defender on Decker.

That pick gave Decker a wide open lane to stroll into the end zone.

We dog Gailey all day, so might as well make it right. He called a perfect play here.

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Here Fitzpatrick and Thompkins show a connection that you really can't teach. Both see the defense jump on the short or middle routes and take advantage of cover two and a napping cornerback.

The Jets line up with 4 wide, three right and one split out left. All 5 eligible men are in the pattern. The RB runs a safety valve, the bottom WR runs a dig route across the middle of the field. The near slot runs a straight seam while Decker runs a box out route. Thompkins, the hero runs a little stop route, that he turns into a deep fly route.

The underneath men are all in cover two. The deep two play towards the middle of the field as the slot guy runs through. That would provide some space towards the sideline if you can get past the corner. Luckily, the corner was eyeing Fitz the whole way and let Thompkins go around him up the sideline.

The pass was a perfect one, landing dead in stride. It beat both the corner and safety who were out of position for the pass. It's easy to rag on a corner for letting Thompkins go, but the safety needed to also keep an eye on that play. Where Fitz laid the pass is the area where the cover 2 can be easily exploited.

The jury may still be out on Fitz as a long term starter for the Jets, but so far this year, he's done his job as the starter better than anyone thought he would do.