NY Jets: Play Call of the Week

The dust has settled on Week 6, but I want to take one last look back at a play call I really liked by the Jets. John Morton has showed some positives and some negatives during his brief stint as Jets offensive coordinator.

One of the things I have liked is his approach to testing certain cornerbacks at specific junctures in games. One such example was Robby Anderson’s long touchdown in the first game against the Dolphins immediately testing a cornerback just inserted into the game.

I saw another call I liked against New England in Week 6.

The Jets took a deep shot on their first series against Malcolm Butler. Anderson behind Butler, but Josh McCown underthrew him.

Anderson showed he could get by Butler. It made sense to go right after Butler to see whether the cornerback was spooked a bit by it. That is just what Morton did.

Anderson sold a vertical route going inside. The previous play was in Butler’s head, and the cornerback was going to give enough cushion to make sure he didn’t get beaten again.

The thing is Anderson actually cut to the outside to the sideline. Butler was actually turned in the wrong direction and left a cushion way too big because he was motivated to not get beaten deep again.

You can see how much separation there was. This was an easy throw for McCown, which was a good thing considering he had just left an opportunity on the field on the previous play.

These are the types of calls that help make an offense successful. Sometimes you have to get into a defender’s head and understand when he might be vulnerable to a certain type of play. There was no way Butler was going to be beaten deep twice in a row, which left him quite susceptible to a shorter route.