Jets Film Recap: McCown Stinks, Linebackers Worse in Loss to Bills

The first game of the 2017 is in the bag and the Jets tried, but to quote Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were.” This team is bad and it’s going to be a long year, folks, especially if a few players don’t step up.

Off the bat, the defense was getting shredded until a red zone interception gave the Jets the ball. A combination of good luck and footsteps caused the pick.

The Bills trot out three wide with a TE to the strong side with the running back on the backside of the formation. On the right is a corner/hitch combination and in the center of the field it’s a levels concept with a TE drag.

The Jets line up with cover two man, with two safeties helping any deep routes. The key players are the near side safety and the tight end.

The TE beats the Darron Lee to the inside. It’s not exactly a shining moment in linebacker play and in fact after watching the broadcast again it’s clear Lee guesses outside and takes a step the wrong way. However Jamal Adams jumps the route a bit and closes for a big hit.

The TE probably should have came down with the catch, but it was nice to see a safety come up and save the day instead of being the person who needed to be bailed out. Unfortunately the linebackers wouldn’t always be bailed out.

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The Bills first TD of the game is one I’d chalk up to a learning experience for our newest rookie, Marcus Maye. He simply gets beaten on a quick route, and it’s a simple pitch and catch.

The Bills line up with 5 wide and run 5 yard in routes on the top of the screen with a deep fade and an out route. The out route looked to be like the WR saw something in the way Maye shaded him and slightly changed the route.

The first step was to the outside and by then Maye was pretty toast. The Jets played cover one man. Maye had no help and was doomed with a half false step.

Again, I’d chalk this up to a rookie mistake. Seems like the type of mistake a rookie will make the first week or two and then realize that cheating will get you burned. In this case, it lead to 7.

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The second Bills TD is why this will be a long year if Darron Lee does not step up. Simply he completely failed at this TD. This isn’t a case of a rookie making an error. This to me is a person guessing and continually getting caught out of position.

Goal line situation calls for the heavy set and the Bills line up with three TE’s, a WR in a TE spot and a back. It’s a simple play action waggle to the backside of a fake to the stretch run.

It took me a hot minute to figure out what the Jets were doing. It’s some sort of a zone defense but the exact shape I couldn’t quite make out. I have figured out that Lee was responsible for the inside nearside zone. (Think middle third near side.) Lee is caught completely out of position... biting harder than a fat kid into lunch on the stretch play. The right TE crosses his face and runs toward the sideline.

There’s no safety to bail him out either unlike the first play where he was beaten. This was not good at all.

Lee had a pretty terrible game. To me if you want to judge where the Jets will be at next year, you have to look at Lee and see if he improves at all. If he doesn’t, it adds yet another position the Jets will need to fill. (Side note to those who blasted Wilkerson: he was cut at the line and had no chance. It’s not his job there to check the TE; he should be after the QB. However, if you want your Wilkerson stinks takes, keep reading.)

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Time for some running game ineptitude from the Jets. What do you know another linebacker overplays something and that’s where Tolbert, a human bowling ball, walked into the endzone.

It’s a pretty simple dive concept where Tolbert cuts back across the center.

Let’s flip things around. The blocks are pretty basic. Watch Wilkerson in the GIF above. He gets completely folded one on one. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I’d like to hope one of the coaches is having a heart to heart with him about where his play used to be.

And then Davis jumps into the hole a bit to quick. Tolbert cuts back across the center. It’s up to the big man Williams to make the stop and he does well to at least make a hit.

It’s not nearly enough but look where the linebacker is and where Wilkerson ends up.

I’ve defended Wilkerson before... especially last season. If he doesn’t improve this year, he becomes the next great what could have been in Jets lore. He needs to step up.

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I’ve picked on the defense enough. Time to look over the offense and what went wrong there. Josh McCown, woof. Twice you had a window, twice you threw a bad pick. This is the first.

Jets line up with four wide and run double hitches in the slot with a corner route on the far side and a deep post near side. The corner route opens up.

The Banana concept is a designed cover two beater. The corner route will go between the safety in the middle of the field and the corner covering the short flat. Anderson finds the hole in the zone.

McCown waits too long and throws a heave way behind Anderson. Had he thrown it more towards the sideline it may have worked or may have gotten Anderson killed.

Just think about this. If you wanted to win a game, this QB is probably our best option.

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You ready to see the same thing twice? Well if not skip directly to the comments.

Similar formation with four wide. Almost the same concept with a curl route and combination of deep posts and corner routes. (I messed up the red route, should be the bottom one. I totally Jets’d it, my bad)

Same exact defense.

Same ball that is under thrown, late and destined to end up in the hands of a defender.

Your New York Jets everyone. This is a bad football team.

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This was not a pretty game to watch on tape. The Jets don’t have the talent they did last year. It’s likely they have the worst roster since 1994 and the 1-15 Kotite years. If Bowles wants to save his job (which I can’t see happening), the mistakes of last year need to be fixed. So far so much the same between missed assignments and general incompetence. If Mac wants to stay off the hotseat, guys like Lee, Burris, and the two rookie safeties need to improve. In Lee’s case, he’s rapidly approaching the time where you need to see improvement or he’s going to get the Bust label soon.

Either way, my advice for any fans hoping for better this year remains the same: