Seahawks 27 Jets 17: Danger Time

The Jets fell to 1-3 with a 27-17 loss today to the Seahawks at MetLife Stadium. It is getting late early for the Jets. At 1-3, this season is now on the brink. How did we get here? Let’s talk about it below.

The Bad

Calvin Pryor: What bothers me most isn’t necessarily that the team is losing. It is the play of young guys like Pryor who the team needs to grow. If anything, it feels like Pryor is regressing. At this young point in the season, he looks like rookie Calvin Pryor, taking bad angles, busting assignments on the back of the defense, and taking bad penalties. You cannot have the last line of defense making a lot of mistakes, but that is what is happening with Pryor. We are getting close to the point where a benching might be on the table.

David Harris: Harris just has not maintained the pace of last year’s bounceback year. I thought he was the major culprit on the touchdown when the Seahawks split the zone between him and Darron Lee. He was beaten a few more times in coverage and missed some tackles in the open field. Harris was never a speedy guy, but it feels like his speed has decreased to the point where it might make him ineffective.

Ryan Fitzpatrick: The good news is he cut his interception total in half. The bad news is that means he threw 3. I’m not sure I’d blame him for all 3. Really the first one was the most significant. It came with the Jets very much in the game and set up a big Seattle score. Brandon Marshall has to take some of the heat for the miscommunication. Still, this shows the obstacles of dealing with a Fitzpatrick. He is limited. That means he relies on a limited number of things. Richard Sherman is one of the smartest cornerbacks in the league. He eventually is going to figure things out. At the very least, Seattle had a quarterback making a difference today. We already knew the Jets don’t. At 4 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, though, we are rapidly reaching the point where a change will be in order if we aren’t already there.

Robby Anderson: I don’t want to jump on the kid too much for his first NFL game. It is a lot to ask an undrafted rookie to go up against this defense. With that said, there were plays to be made that he did not make. He did at least flash some ability to get open, even if he wasn’t finishing the catches. If Fitzpatrick leads him on one deep ball against Sherman, perhaps we are having a different discussion. Alas, we are not.

Todd Bowles: When the busts in coverage on the back end are so persistent for four weeks, it is on the coaching one way or another. Maybe the schemes are too complicated. Maybe the wrong guys are playing. Maybe nobody is adjusting. Maybe there is no communication. Maybe it is something else. Maybe it is all of these things. What we do know is the coaching staff has lacked answers.

Offensive Line: Four sacks and three penalties won’t do the job. Sure, asking them to operate against this Seattle defense was a rough assignment, one where we probably should have expected bad things going in. With that said, this unit was the liability they had avoided being earlier in the year.

Brian Winters: Special mention has to go to anybody who on one play A. Throws a blatant cheap shot. B. Gets caught and flagged for a personal foul. C. Manages to injure himself in the process.

Matt Forte: He had a solid start, but he wasn’t able to get much going on the ground after that.

The Good

Quincy Enunwa: If nothing else, one of the positive developments of this season has to be the emergence of Enunwa. He tied for the team lead with 6 catches. There was one sequence where he through a good block on Kam Chancellor and then caught a pass with Earl Thomas covering him. Those Seattle safeties usually cause matchup problems. Enunwa is such a versatile guy that the Jets can create an edge by matching him up with safeties.

Brandon Marshall: You could go back and forth because Marshall certainly lost his share of battles with Richard Sherman. He ran a bad route on the first Fitzpatrick interception that didn’t help things. Still, he won his fair share as well. 4 catches for 87 yards and a touchdown is very good against Sherman. The touchdown was a big one too. Sherman doesn’t always travel with number one receivers, but it seemed like he did a lot today.

Bilal Powell: Eric Decker’s absence seemed to mean that Powell reemerged in the role that helped this offense so much late last season as a receiver out of the backfield. He tied Enunwa with 6 receptions.

Charone Peake: I’m grading based on expectations. For a late round rookie, I consider it a success if he doesn’t look totally in over his head. Peake made a few plays in the passing game, and made a really heads up play running a fumble into the end zone.

Sheldon Richardson: Lost in all of the busted coverages and pinpoint passes by Wilson was that the defensive line played a pretty good game. Wilson didn’t have the type of mobility he usually has to make explosive runs, but he had enough to evade the rush at times. Still, the pass rushers moved him off his spot frequently when there wasn’t an immediate bust, and Seattle never really got the run game going. I thought Richardson was the most active of the linemen.

The Jets will now head to Pittsburgh as a team in some degree of trouble. Things need to get better and soon, or the Draft will become a topic of conversation before October is out.