Raiders 45 Jets 20: Tank Sucked Into the Black Hole

The Jets turned in another ugly performance today in a 45-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders today in the Bay Area. The Jets fell to 0-2 in the 2017 season. The team played a surprisingly feisty first 28 minutes, but things snowballed after a muffed punt right before halftime led to an Oakland touchdown, and things snowballed in the second half.

The Bad

Darron Lee: The Raiders had a pair of touchdown runs of over 40 yards in the second half, and Lee had a large amount of culpability in both. It is one thing to have a bad Week 1, but Lee has now turned it into two lousy performances to start the season. Again he looked just as lost as during his rookie season when it came to filling incorrect gaps, not getting off blocks, and biting on play action. He said before the season started that the game was slowing down for him, but it hasn’t looked that way.

Juston Burris: Burris was burned for a pair of touchdowns against Michael Crabtree and appeared to miss a tackle on one of the long touchdown runs. Last week against Buffalo, there was not much action against him. It wasn’t clear whether this was because Burris’ coverage was good or because the Bills just had no interest in testing him because they were having so much success elsewhere on offense. Today might have been a sign that the latter was true. And this brings us to perhaps the most disturbing point of this game. We all know that the Jets don’t have enough talent to compete against a team like Oakland, but it is deeply troubling when two young players like Lee and Burris look this bad. Those are two of the top four picks from last year’s Draft class who didn’t look like they belonged on an NFL field, and a third (Christian Hackenberg) was a healthy scratch. This team is supposed to be building through the Draft, but even its Draft picks aren’t producing.

Kalif Raymond: He had the aforementioned muffed punt. At the time, the Jets were down 14-10. The sense of frustration on the Raiders side was palpable. The Jets had momentum and a chance to score and take a halftime lead. Then Oakland was gifted the ball on the 4 yard line. Would the Jets have won if Raymond had caught the punt? Probably not. The dam probably would have burst at some point. It was just disappointing to see the Jets hand the Raiders a gift like that. It is difficult to explain why this regime is so incapable of finding a capable returner.

Demario Davis: Lee outshined Davis this week, but we saw more of the same from Week 1. Davis was frequently in the wrong place at the wrong, bad in coverage, and unable to shed blocks.

Leonard Williams: I told you last week how Williams was quietly dominant, but this week didn’t look like his greatest performance. He really was having trouble getting a consistent push against Oakland’s solid line. Derek Carr typically had all day to throw.

Buster Skrine: Skrine was beaten for a touchdown early and whiffed on a few tackles.

Morris Claiborne: Claiborne wasn’t tested much, but it felt like the Raiders could get a completion on him whenever they wanted. He also was flagged in the second half to set up a score.

Receivers: I don’t think Josh McCown was horrendous. There were a lot of instances where replay angles showed that he had nowhere to go with the ball.

The Good

Brandon Shell: I had the sense that the Jets left Shell alone against Khalil Mack quite a bit, and he held up very well. At least there was one 2016 Draft pick with an encouraging game. A late sack will probably go on his ledger, but it was more a result of McCown not having much pocket sense.

Marcus Maye: Maye bounced back from a rough debut with 7 tackles, many of which cleaned up missed assignments.

Jermaine Kearse: I guess I have to put him here because he had a pair of touchdowns. The first one, a 34 yarder, was nice. The second was in garbage time. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we see empty calorie stats like that. Somebody has to get the targets after a game gets out of hand.

Chandler Catanzaro: Again he was 2 for 2, and a 46 yarder on dirt wasn’t an easy one.

The Jets head to MetLife Stadium for their home opener next week. Will there be empty seats? We will have to wait and see.