Jets vs. Bengals First Half Film Breakdown

The Jets lost against the Bengals for numerous reasons. The redzone play calling was suspect, although on the first drive you couldn't have dialed up a better play than what Gailey called on first and goal.

The Jets lined up with 4 wide, 2 spilt to each side in a tight formation. Both patterns are what I call pick patterns as they are designed to get the underneath man open in the flat. Enunwa in red is the man who will catch the pass.

The wide receiver to his outside runs a perfect legal pick play, running dead ahead and causing just enough of a pick to completely free up Enunwa for an easy score.

There's no denying this play worked as there was a ton of room.

That's the good of Chan Gailey. Obviously there were a few drives deep where it seemed he lost sight of what worked and kept dialing up some questionable calls.

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On defense, the Jets played well at times due to the pass rush. John B did a great job of showing the miscommunication between Revis, Gilchrist and Williams on the TD, but early on this play showed the Jets at times were great at making switches.

On third and forever, the Bengals needed a big play for the first down. They lined up with 4 wide, 3 to the right of the QB and a single WR on the left. They ran a deep flood concept with two outs and one deep route coming from the outside.

The key is the Jets rush and Marcus Williams seeing the pressure. The Jets bring only 5 and play cover two man behind it. Cover two man is man coverage on the WR with two deep safeties providing help over the top deep.

Leo Williams runs over the man trying to block him. Meanwhile, 3 defenders cover 2 wide receivers deep. Williams is covering the outside man but knows he has help deep. The inside WR is running a deep out and his defender is caught inside. Without Williams checking off, he does have some separation.

Here you see the switch about to happen. The man in blue is for all purposes toast. Williams is now letting the WR pass inside deep and letting the safety take the man deep. At the same time, Leo Williams has shed a blocker and now has a free path to Dalton.

Leo forces Dalton to throw. Williams reads everything right, and drops to the outside right where the pass is intended. His man is now covered deep by the safety and a short pass is covered by the man in blue.

This is textbook defense from pass rush to the defense behind it.

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Later in the half, Fitz and Decker continue to show great chemistry in year two on a play that had a really good play action set up.

The Jets lined up with a two WR set (singles) with two TE's and a running back. The play is play action with both WR running a fade route. It's only a two man route, so it will be tough if the coverage is good or the WR don't get separation.

The defense is straight man on the WR with the safety covering the middle of the field. The sidelines here will be wide open.

Decker sprinted inside off the line of scrimmage forcing the defender to shy that way. Then he busted outside and gave himself just a bit of separation for a throw to the sideline. Fitz reads this perfectly and delivers a back shoulder throw slightly behind Decker.

It works perfectly as Decker just has to make the catch with both defenders unable to do much but hope he drops the ball when the make the tackle.

For those that decry Fitz stinks, this is a just about perfect read and throw by Fitz. That said, in part two of the Chalkboard will take a look at the downside of Fitzpatrick as the QB of the Jets.