Jets Film Review: All of Bryce Petty’s passing attempts vs. Broncos

As Bryce Petty takes over as Jets starting quarterback, let’s take a look at his limited action last Sunday. The third year quarterback got his feet wet with nine pass attempts.

1-10-DEN 41 (10:43 2nd) 9-B.Petty pass short right to 44-L.Thomas to DEN 34 for 7 yards (51-T.Davis).

The Jets work Lawrence Thomas into the flat here. They have two tight ends creating traffic to pick the linebacker responsible for Thomas.

They do their job, and Thomas ends up wide open at the pass.

Thomas makes the catch and scampers for 7 yards.

Verdict: This is a nice call by John Morton. It’s good playcalling to ease a young quarterback into the game with an easy throw.

1-10-NYJ 41 (2:16 3rd) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short right to 11-R.Anderson.

Petty got back in after Josh McCown left for a second time. The Jets send Robby Anderson deep here, and he is given plenty of cushion.

Petty’s throw isn’t perfect. It doesn’t hit the receiver in the numbers, but it should be caught. Anderson drops it.

Verdict: You don’t want to force Anderson to adjust to catch what should be a routine pass, but this is much more on the receiver than the quarterback.

1-10-DEN 48 (2:06 3rd) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete deep middle to 10-J.Kearse.

On this play, the Jets look to push the ball down the field. Petty is working to his left. He has Robby Anderson on the outside running a vertical route, and Jermaine Kearse in the slot on a 20 yard out.

Petty sees man coverage here. All five of his receivers are against one man.

The defender on Kearse is to the receiver’s inside while Kearse is breaking outside. It looks like there is going to be a window to throw the ball.

Looks can be deceiving, though. If you even wonder why people say this Broncos defense is so tough to face, this is a good example. Denver’s defense has an answer built into this playcall. The outside cornerback on Anderson has safety help over the top so he releases Anderson (blue), and Kearse is coming into his area of the field (pink).

The window Petty thought he had doesn’t actually exist, and this turns into a dangerous throw to a covered receiver.

Verdict: This is a very sophisticated coverage. Even on the pro level, you don’t see many defenses running things this complex. I think this was a case of a really good defense fooling an inexperienced quarterback. I’m sure now that he has had a chance to watch the film, he realizes he should have either checked it down or thrown it away.

2-10-DEN 48 (2:01 3rd) (Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass short middle to 22-M.Forte to DEN 41 for 7 yards (51-T.Davis) [57-D.Walker].

The Jets don’t get much from their receivers on this play. Denver is in man coverage. Take a look at the kind of separation these guys have.

Matt Forte (red) is the only receiver who has any room and that is essentially because he gets a clean release coming out of the backfield.

Meanwhile Petty’s pocket is in the process of breaking down. James Carpenter loses his battle against a blitzing linebacker, and Petty is under pressure.

Petty dumps it to Forte for a 7 yard gain as he’s being hit.

Verdict: This was a nice job by Petty. Almost nobody on the offense did their job well. The defense wasn’t giving much, but Petty took what little they gave.

3-3-DEN 41 (1:27 3rd) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short left to 88-A.Seferian-Jenkins (34-W.Parks).

The formation helps give away that the Broncos are in man coverage on this third down play.

Petty decides he wants to work the slant/flat route combination to his left.

One thing that’s clear is the slant is going to be an easy pass to hit with ArDarius Stewart on the outside. The defender covering Austin Seferian-Jenkins on the flat route is lined up to ASJ’s outside in the direction he is going to run.

Petty has decided to go to the flat, though. Look at the window to Stewart against the difficulty of this throw to Seferian-Jenkins.

For his part, Seferian-Jenkins didn’t run much of a route. He didn’t even take it to the marker.

Verdict: Petty should have tried Stewart. The degree of difficulty on that throw was much lower. Bad decision. It seemed like he decided to go to ASJ before the ball was snapped even though the defender had leverage to make that throw very tough

4-3-DEN 41 (1:22 3rd) (Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short right to 10-J.Kearse.

.On fourth down, Jermaine Kearse runs a nice route to the outside past the sticks. The defender is positioned inside with Kearse breaking outside.

Petty simply airmails the throw.

Verdict: This should be an easy throw. All you have to do is look at Petty’s feet to see why this throw missed so badly. You don’t need to be an expert on quarterback mechanics to see how ugly the footwork is here on a play where he’s under no duress.

2-7-NYJ 24 (11:00 4th) (Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short left to 11-R.Anderson.

Petty likes what he has on the left side of the formation with ASJ running a short route inside and Robby Anderson running a slant from the outside.

What follows next shows you how the type of complex coverage scheme we saw earlier in this post can backfire. The outside corner on Anderson releases Robby to a safety because he views Seferian-Jenkins as coming to the sideline. ASJ really just sits down on his route.

The safety is too far back to take Anderson, though, which means there is a huge throwing lane.

The throw is way behind Anderson, however, and falls incomplete.

Verdict: This one is brutal. The Broncos bust their coverage. This should be an easy completion for a first down. With Robby’s speed, a pass that hits him in stride and allows him to get a head of steam might have turned into a monster gain.

3-3-NYJ 27 (7:37 4th) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short right to 10-J.Kearse (92-Z.Kerr).

On third down Petty is looking for Kearse in the middle of the field working on Chris Harris.

Kearse runs a good route. He takes his route a yard past the marker to drive Harris back and leave himself enough room to come back while remaining in position to pick up a first down. Petty sees him and is ready to zip it in there to move the sticks.

So why isn’t this play a success? The Jets break down up front. Wesley Johnson allows his assignment to get into Petty’s face. Brian Winters could be there to help, but he makes the decision of kicking outside to help Brandon Shell against Von Miller even though Shell has handled Miller well enough to push him wide of Petty to not impact this quick timing pattern.

Johnson’s man bats the pass down at the line incomplete.

Verdict: This play failed because the offensive line failed. The other key players did their job, including Petty.

3-4-NYJ 17 (4:44 4th) (Shotgun) 9-B.Petty pass incomplete short left to 88-A.Seferian-Jenkins.

Here Petty likes his matchup getting Seferian-Jenkins on an outside breaking route against a linebacker shaded inside who is not used to covering this type of play.

There is a window for this throw as Seferian-Jenkins breaks outside.

They just cannot connect on this throw to convert on a third down.

Verdict: I’d like to see ASJ do more to help his quarterback out here. The tight end is supposed to be a big guy who can extend for off target passes. That said, this ball was badly underthrown so more of the blame has to go to Petty here.

Hopefully a full week of practice gets Petty in shape to have more success.