NY Jets: Sign of the Line

Run blocking has been a struggle for the Jets all season. No back not named Chris Ivory is averaging over 3.6 yards per carry. Ivory himself has had to create a lot of his yardage on his own by bouncing runs outside when he has no room. When Ivory has been banged up and lacked the explosion to do so, his production has been pedestrian.

When a back is stopped for no yards, in most cases the offensive line is the biggest culprit. It means the back is contacted before he gets past the line of scrimmage. Sometimes the back misses a hole. Sometimes he waits too long. I have noticed a bit of a tendency in Ivory to dance behind the line of scrimmage too frequently waiting for something to open rather than lower his shoulder and grind out a few yards. Still, more often than not the line is the blame for a play that does not net yardage.

I decided to take a look at the rates the top twenty rushes in the league get stuffed for zero or negative yards on a run. What I found was the Jets' run blocking failed Ivory. He had the second most total such runs, and they were happening at the third highest rate.

The Jets might be spending a lot of their cap space on the offensive line, but they are not getting production to match the investment.