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Hello Jets Fans, I'm sorry for my hiatus the past week, had an unexpected loss that occupied my time. I'm happy to be back and even happier to see our Jets do pretty well against the Ravens today, winning 24-16. Geno Smith played what I thought was a very good game, but left and did not return with a right knee injury. Fitzpatrick came in and helped secure a lead and eventual win. That being said, if Geno is not seriously injured, should the Jets stick with him going forward? Below I will give my analysis on what I saw today from both Fitzpatrick and Geno. Let me know what you think should be done.
Geno Smith
As some of you may know, I am not much of a Geno Smith fan. That being said, I thought Geno actually did pretty well when he was in. He only threw 8 passes with 4 completed, but all of his throws showed precision, great zip, and in general were just very good throws. He benefited from an Enunwa catch and run for a TD, but he made an excellent read in the zone coverage, and I won't take that from him. I did not see him go through progressions much, but with only 8 passes, that can only be taken with a grain of salt. However, there's one thing that has still bothered me about Smith, and that is his decision making when under pressure. As noted from Smith's previous starting experience, he takes unnecessary sacks, and today was not different. There were two occasions where Smith should have thrown the ball away and instead took a bad sack. One of these sacks led to his injury, and being taken out of the game. For a player who needed to come out strong and make a statement, he came up short by limiting his own playing time. It was very unfortunate, because he was playing a pretty solid game. My heart actually ached when I saw Fitzpatrick come back in. Overall, I liked what I saw a lot from Geno.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
As I stated before, my heart ached when Fitzpatrick came in. He lost his job from poor play, and we all expected the same. Fitzpatrick actually surprised me, and made little errors in this game. He came out doing very well, hitting on 7-7 and leading the Jets to a TD on his first drive. Fitz showed accuracy that was seriously lacking in the previous games, and did not have a turnover for the second straight week. However, there are also things I saw from Fitz that just weren't good. Fitzpatrick as well took some bad sacks, and I would say confidently that some of them were due to Fitz looking for a big play, instead of going to the checkdown. The first time he was sacked, he had a safety valve RB in the flat that he ignored, and instead took a bad sack. Going headfirst when facing contact against 300+ pound linemen also isn't the safest option when you're the only QB on the active game roster. It was bone-headed, and luckily he did not have to leave the game after it happening multiple times. Although play selection from Bowles/Gailey slowed down the Jets' offensive momentum, Fitz also completed a beautiful pass to Robbie Anderson that was probably the best throw of the entire game, though that's not saying much. When all was said and done today however, I think Fitz played a pretty good game as well.
Overall, both quarterbacks played pretty good games. Both were scrutinized more than they should be on bad plays, and praised more than they should be on the good. If Geno Smith is completely healthy next week, who do you think the Jets go with? The 'big-money' QB who just lost his job? Or the upstart QB looking for his second chance? What do you think? Leave your thoughts below and I hope you all enjoyed the victory. Be safe this week!