Jets Lose 31-19 With Limited Offense

  Bryce Petty (19-39, 179 yds. 1 TD, 2 int.) started his first game of the season and made a few good passes but those were overshadowed by too many inaccurate ones with wide open receivers. It is too bad because the Jets defense played very hard and very well. Three players in particular were awesome, Jamal Adams, Marcus Maye and Buster Skrine all played at an incredible high level. Skrine who has taken the wrath from Jet fans for a combination of some awful play and penalties has put together three outstanding games in a row. He has been playing his best football in the month of December since he became a Jet. In addition to some excellent cover skills that he has shown, he has also forced turnovers. The team went down quickly 10-0 in the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the Jets began a 12 play drive that took 7:09 mostly running the football. Powell and Forte led the way with Powell scoring on a 2 yard run. Elijah McGuire also had a couple of good plays during this drive. Let me say that Elijah McGuire has a chance to be a special player. I would say give him more reps the rest of the way but I’d rather build up the offensive line and make him the premier running back next year. He has shown excellent running as well as pass catching ability. The Saints answered with a touchdown of their own and the Jets after an interception by Leonard Williams had to settle for a field goal instead of punching it in for seven.
  The Jets stalled on the opening kickoff in the second half but did mange to get a field goal on a drive later on that was highlighted what may have been Petty’s best pass of the day. A 38 yard pass to McGuire. The third quarter was impressive by the Jets defense. The Saints were limited to two first downs and it seemed that Marcus Maye and Jamal Adams each had twins making plays all over the field. They were tremendous in the third quarter and these two players may be the most positive things that come out of this season. In the fourth quarter the Saints scored two more touchdowns and the Jets answered with one but missed the two point conversion. One of the Saints touchdowns was a 50 yard run by Mark Ingram.

Offensive Line Comes To Play
The Jets had 124 net net yards rushing and 179 yards passing. Not great but not awful. The offensive line only gave up one sack. The big problem was that except for a couple of good passes, Bryce Petty never looked like he was in a rhythm the whole game. I’m not sure that it is being rusty or just not being able to make the plays. The number of inaccurate passes either being thrown too low or too high was not good for a player who is auditioning for a job for next year. Also the number of passes that were tipped or knocked down were way too many. Petty has got to learn to pump fake sometimes just to throw the defense off. It seemed like he is locking on to a receiver and a predictable throwing motion led to all those tips and blocks.

Assessment of Bryce Petty
Bryce Petty was the 103rd player chosen in the 2015 draft in the fourth round. Going into today’s game he had a career quarterback rating of 58 with 3 touchdown passes and 7 interceptions. Contrary to what people may be thinking about giving Bryce Petty the necessary repetitions to secure the Jets quarterback position, he is nothing more than probably a third string or second string quarterback at best. He cannot see the field well and he seems to always be passing the ball a fraction of a second late. His accuracy with open receivers is awful. Too many times it seems like he does not know how to lead a wide receiver. He also does not have good touch on the football when he is throwing a short pass. He steps out of the pocket rather than stepping up in it which is the sign that he is not a true pocket passer. This was the knock on him coming out of Baylor after he put up staggering numbers with the spread offense. He does have very good running ability and it’s too bad his passing ability is not a little better. The Jets quarterback search continues.

Elijah McGuire
As I mentioned above it looks to me that Elijah McGuire can be a special player. Right now he is playing behind Matt Forte and Bilal Powell. To date he has 321 yards rushing and 161 yards receiving with two touchdowns. If the Jets can upgrade the offensive line and improve their passing game next year, McGuire will put up big numbers. This is assuming that Forte will not be a Jet next year and I don’t think he will be. At 23 years old McGuire has a huge upside. We can all get on Mike Maccagnan for picking Christian Hackenberg in the second round but we have to give him credit for picking Elijah McGuire in the 6th round. With players like McGuire and Robby Anderson an undrafted free agent on board the Jets need to uncover a couple of more diamonds in the rough in 2018. Here’s one a little bird told me about: Luis Perez quarterback for division 2 Texas A&M University-Commerce. 


Green Tidbits
…..Defensive lineman Xavier Cooper had a good pass rush to force the Willimas INT…..12 men in the huddle. Maybe the league should allow the Jets to play with 12…..7th straight year with no playoffs…..What is the point of having JoJo Natson return kickoffs out of the end zone. He can’t get past the 20…..Darron Lee whiffed on a few pass coverages but had a solid game…..Under the radar was a great catch by Chad Hansen in the fourth quarter…..Time of possession Jets 30:50, Saints 29:10…..The Saints were only 3-10 on 3rd down efficiency. Great job by Jet defense….Jet penalties 8-50 were not killers today…..Rookie wide receiver ArDarius Stewart continues to move down the depth chart…..As well as the defense played, the Jets had no sacks…..Jets were officially eliminated from the playoffs and have back to back losing records which is the first time since 1995 and 1996…..Jets are actually better off waiting to cut Wilkerson on June 1st. I would do exactly that…..My Jet Christmas wish list: A quarterback, two offensive linemen, one defensive lineman, one edge pass rusher, one defensive back and a new head coach…..


                                        

              

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