Jets Week 5 Game Balls

The Jets beat the Dolphins yesterday, which means it is time to give out some Game Balls.

Breece Hall: Under my old format, I gave out only one Game Ball to the most exceptional player in a win. It frequently was a difficult decision. If the old format was still around, this week we would not have had one of those difficult decisions. Hall would get the honor in a runaway.

The Jets had 322 total yards from scrimmage on offense. Hall accounted for 197 yards by himself.

It was a bit of a slow start to the season for the Iowa State rookie, but he has improved every week. I believed heading into the season, that Mike LaFleur wanted to build a powerful rushing attack behind Hall to make Zach Wilson’s life easier. Game situations have made it difficult to run it extensively. Yesterday was the first time all season the Jets did not trail by double digits in the fourth quarter.

Hall has steadily improved over the course of the season. He now appears to have taken the top running back job away from Michael Carter, who can slide into an overqualified second banana role (and maybe steal some of Breece’s goal line touchdowns). I wonder whether we look back at this game as the point where this became Breece Hall’s offense.

Sauce Gardner: Miami’s passing attack was limited so this ended up not being the premium matchup we expected against Tyreek Hill. Still he largely held Hill in check. He also made a pair of game-changing plays. His hit on a corner blitz both resulted in a safety and knocked Teddy Bridgewater out of the game. He also had a momentum-swinging interception in the second quarter. Sauce’s game wasn’t perfect. He missed a couple of tackles in space and was called for a(n admittedly)O borderline flag. Still, his strong start continued.

Alijah Vera-Tucker: What else can you really say about Vera-Tucker? He played his third different position in as many weeks and had no issues with this quick change.

Duane Brown: It was nice to see Brown make an appearance on the field after his mystery injury cost him the first four games. I thought he provided some stability that has been lacking at the tackle position. Max Mitchell did his best, but for the most part looked not ready to see the field. Brown is apparently playing through an injury. It isn’t clear how long he can hold up, but any snaps the Jets get out of him are likely to be helpful.

Carl Lawson: The Jets pass rush eventually heated up in this one. Lawson helped to lead the way with a sack and 7 QB hits.

John Franklin-Myers: JFM was living in the Miami backfield. He added a half sack with 5 QB hits of his own.

Quinnen Williams: Through much of his career, fans have wondered aloud whether Quinnen Williams is good enough. Everybody acknowledges he has been a good player, but is he providing what you want from a third overall pick? Time will tell whether this is a career year or a breakout season, but Quinnen is putting together his best season. Yesterday marked the fourth straight game he appeared in the sack column of the box score. His fumble return was also one of the greatest moments of the young season for Jets fans. After everything that happened this offseason with Tyreek Hill and all of the trash he talked, it was something else to watch Quinnen flick him to the ground on a fumble return.