Time for some New York Jets football! I’m praying that we are all still getting amped for games in December because it’s been the last two years torture. The fanbase is clearly divided between those who are excited/admired by the “progress” of losing by one point and those who are unhappy with the loss. I’ll let you guess which one I am.
Regardless of how you feel, what should be clear to all of us is that the Aaron Glenn Jets need to drastically improve(!) their 2 minute drill and late game efficiency. Did you know that the last time the Jets scored to end the half was the game winner in Week 13 of last year against Atlanta!? In the 16 football games AG has coached since then, his Jets have had the ball in the final two minutes of 14 of them and scored zero times. Zero.
That’s one streak I’d like to see end this weekend, and there’s another one I hope will end (more on that later) en route to a win over the New York Jets. I promise you, we will remember nothing but the wins. Losing three to the Bears (or any team) is not a victory, so let’s try to win! I will focus my eyes on these things:
Speaking of winning, Breece Hall has scored a touchdown in 14 of the Jets’ last 15 wins. We are 28 days away from two year anniversary the last time the Jets won without him scoring a touchdown. It was Halloween against the Texans, and he still put up 86 yards on 17 touches as Davante Adams and Garrett Wilson found the end zone.
In this game, Breece is gone, so does that automatically ruin the chances of success? The short answer is no. While they will certainly be inferior without Breece, we saw a game where Braelon had 81 yards on 15 touches, and Isaiah Davis had 67 yards and a touchdown on 13 touches in the same game. Aaron Rodgers added 339 yards and 1 passing touchdown of his own en route to an OT loss against the Dolphins in Week 7 of 2024. Competitive loss, though!
I can’t lie, Braelon Allen only had 60+ total yards in one other game besides that Dolphins, despite playing in 23 others. Isaiah Davis has had 60+ total yards in three other games, including 109 yards (65 rushing, 44 receiving) against the Bengals in a 39-38 win last year. Davis also holds the distinction of having the most yards per carry in the league (5.6). Of course, Davis only had 73 carries compared to 129 for Allen and 806 for Hall, but there were several full games where they called his number, and he delivered.
I won’t be close to the field, but if I were in charge of calling the numbers on Sunday, I wouldn’t hesitate to make Davis my top option in the run game. In my opinion, he is a more complete back with good burst, solid hands, and less vision and football IQ. He makes plays that impact games but don’t show up on the stat sheet, like this one. It really doesn’t make sense that he hasn’t played an offensive snap yet, but that’s a nice change this Sunday.
Chicago is allowing the second-most rushing yards per carry in the NFL right now (5.1), which is good news because the Jets are averaging the third-worst rushing yards per carry at 3.3. With the Jets’ offensive line struggling and down a starter, the craftier, smarter running back should get the first cracks at setting the table for the offense. Of course, Braelon can take my word for it, and I’d love to see him have a great game, but since this fanbase is hungry for a win, I think Davis is the best bet to do that and replicate Breece’s impact on the game.
Fun fact: As Jets fans, we’re the only fanbase in the NFL that hasn’t witnessed a shutout in our team’s games so far this season. Not fun fact: half the reason for the first fact is because the Jets are one of four teams without an interception forced this season. Please don’t get it twisted though, the Jets have no peers in this area.
Before Aaron Glenn became head coach, over 100 seasons of NFL football had been played and no team had gone an entire season without catching an interception. 12 game seasons, 14 game seasons, 16 game seasons, there’s always at least one. Aaron Glenn’s Jets went 17 games without an interception. With zero heading into Game 4, the Jets’ unprecedented streak of shame extended to 20 games in a row. Is there an end?
The Bears have Aaron Glenn’s former teammate Ben Johnson running the show in Chicago and you might be surprised to hear that it didn’t take him many seasons to lead his awful team to a playoff win. You can choose to say “he has a quarterback!” but then I want to hear your response to seeing 38-year-old Case Keenum carve up a talented Eagles defense for 247 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions on 70.6% completion.
The Eagles hadn’t allowed a 200-yard passer leading up to that point and for you bettors out there, Keenum’s passing yards line was at 170.5. He thrived particularly against the blitz, diagnosing plays pre-snap and getting the ball an average of 2.41 seconds per throw (2nd fastest in the NFL in Week 3). For Glenn and his love of outlandish blitzes, will those disguised looks be enough to fool Keenum? Or will those quick glances be too overwhelming?
Fortunately for Keenum, the onus isn’t solely on him. The Bears are the only team in the NFL rushing for more than 175 yards per game, a whopping 184.3 yards on 35 attempts (5.3 yards per attempt). Both the Bears and the Jets emphasize the run game, the Jets’ 28.3 attempts per game is 10th in the league, but we already mentioned how they had the second-worst yards per carry. The Bears have become the platinum standard of rushing football, and if they continue the way they are, this entire section will become obsolete.
Step A is stopping the run, which the Jets did well against Tony Pollard and the dirt of the Packers’ running room, but Jahmyr Gibbs is a different story. 99 yards on the ground, 65 more through the air, and Jared Goff had the easiest time dicing the defense. Swift’s 84 yards against the Eagles was crucial in giving Case the holes he needed to build their defense. If the Jets have any hope of ending this interception streak at 20, it will start making D’Andre Swift look like D’Andre Slow.
Double duty? Or Double Trouble
I was watching the Jake Asman show on YouTube and saw in the live comments the legendary Connie Carberg bring up the point of Isaiah Williams playing wide receiver more often this year than last year. He reasoned that because he’s more involved in the offensive gameplan, he’s not as fresh or readily available as the superstar kick returner he was last year en route to being voted Team MVP.
Clearly, Isaiah wasn’t the same in the return game. In this particular Packers game, his hands were a huge liability, which I think was a weather issue but the Packers’ Skyy Moore played in the same weather conditions and didn’t drop the ball once. Last year he was third in punt return yardage, scored 2 touchdowns, and called only 12 fair catches in 15 games. Needless to say, he hasn’t come close to these rankings this year but in three games played he already has 30% of the catches and 32% of the yards he had last year.
According to footballguys.com, Williams’ usage as a WR just increased, from 60% in Week 1 to 82% in Week 2 and 89% in Week 3! As far as position players are concerned, only Geno Smith and Garrett Wilson have played more snaps. Compared to the aforementioned Skyy Moore, he was absent for just 6% of the snaps Week 1, 36% in Week 2, and 52% in Week 3. There are more than five Packers skill position players with more snaps than Moore.
Last year, Williams did have three weeks where his snap count % exceeded 70 but the rest of them were 60 or less (including five under 5%). I’d like to see him go back to these lower usage rates so he can get back to returning punts and kicks. He was fourth in kick return yards per attempt last year, which is funny to note because running back Kene Nwangwu was first (33.6 per attempt).
Maybe Isaiah misses his bash brother? A healthy Nwangwu should be an electric jolt of energy on a special teams unit that definitely needs some electricity. He was one of just six players to score a touchdown off a kickoff return last year and the only player in the league to do so in each of the last two seasons. He’s actually done it five times in five NFL seasons and is a threat for a huge return even if he can’t reach the end zone.
With Breece out, there’s a slight chance that Nwangwu will suffer the same issue that Williams has and they’ve called on Nwangwu to carry the ball a few times, but since Davis is alive and breathing, I think they’ll continue to run two rbs instead of adding a third to the mix. With both Nwangwu and Williams in the return mix, this might be the game we finally see the Jets’ return game look like last year’s incredible unit.
Kenyon Sadiq, Sterling Shepard, Jeremy Ruckert, Isaiah Davis, and Jelani Woods should all come in and help Garrett in pass catching duties and allow Williams to be used where we need him most! What do you think? Come on Jets!