Anatomy of the losing play for the Jets against the Lions

As we await tonight’s game, we hope the Jets will not suffer any breakdowns the way they did in their Week 15 loss to the Detroit Lions. I don’t need to tell you how crushing Brock Wright’s 51 yard touchdown was on fourth and inches right after the two minute warning in the fourth quarter. Let’s talk about what happened anyway.

Presnap Amon Ra-St. Brown goes in motion. What I find significant is how the Jets handle it. As Michael Carter II follows Ra-St. Brown in motion, he raises his arm to make a signal to Sauce Gardner.

As the ball is snapped, Gardner and Carter swap assignments. Gardner takes Ra-St. Brown. Carter takes the receiver initially assigned to Sauce. Gardner is in better position to take the motioning receiver. Carter is better positioned to take the receiver who is running a route further inside.

The reason this is significant is Jets linebackers do not display this level of communication.

I don’t know the initial playcall, but based on the alignment of players, it stands to reason that Quincy Williams initially has Wright while CJ Mosley has the back in the backfield.

On the run fake the Lions run, Williams commits to his gap. This is generally the direction in which the fake run is going. That means it would be easy for Quincy to take the back in the event the play is actually a pass. Wright then would go to Mosley. Mosley looks and sees Wright blocking.

Wright releases his block and runs a shallow cross. Mosley isn’t aware and runs to the other side of the field even though he is the Jets defender in best position to pick up the tight end.

This play ends particularly poorly for the Jets because of the distribution of the routes. No other receiver is on the same side of the field so all of the defenders are far away from the play.

The Jets then do a poor job rallying to the football.

The rest is history, ugly history.