Despite the general consensus of many New York Jets fans, Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t the only culprit in Orchard Park in Week 17.
Let’s officially hold onto our horses ladies and gentlemen. While Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t a play a brilliant brand of football in Week 17 against the Bills in Buffalo last year, he wasn’t the sole reason the New York Jets lost and missed the postseason.It’s understandable that you’d jump all over that “bash Fitz” bandwagon. We feel your disdain.
When a journeyman quarterback such as Fitzpatrick takes ownership of a team to the level he did in 2015, you expected him to finish off the job and qualify for the tournament for the first time in his career. It was all right there for him, yet he couldn’t capitalize.
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Allow us to rephrase: The Jets couldn’t capitalize in their 22-17 defeat. It’s extremely important to remember history during this period of QB uncertainty and contract madness in Jets land.
The Jets and Fitz sure remember history. The fans ought to as well.
The last time I checked, football is still a team game. While Roger Goodell has gone to great lengths to ensure that the QB has more power than ever, this 11-on-11 game is still the ultimate team game that demands uniquely synced pieces to produce.
It takes 11 to get the job done. On that chilly January day in Buffalo, 11 men failed. And unless you’re graced with one of the great signal callers in the game, it will always take 11.
The Defense Disappointed Greatly
The Defense Didn’t Show Up:
Fitz’s final line for the day read like this: 16-of-37, 181 yards, 2 TD, and 3 INT. Early on, however, it was the defense who didn’t even come close to showing up.
A team, mind you, who was led by a defensive mind in Todd Bowles – former safety and Super Bowl Champion with the Washington Redskins.
Rex Ryan’s offensively challenged Bills team tallied the first TD after a shanked Ryan Quigley punt. Tyrod Taylor ran for a ridiculous 18 yards for the score on third down.
In a 3rd-and-3 situation, Bowles matched the Bills full house backfield with nine in the box (eight of which were DL and LB). The play-action movement had the entire line shift to the defense’s left (strong side).
The sin of the play comes on the right side when Sheldon Richardson – who is playing way out of position at OLB in a 3-4 scheme – swims to the inside instead of maintaining outside leverage. Allowing Taylor to get outside that easily, with his legs, is an act that simply cannot happen to a good defense.
This first score of the day was a sign of cloudy things to come for Gang Green on third down. Buffalo converted an absurd 9-of-20 on third down in the game.
After the disappointing Taylor scramble for a TD to open the scoring, the Jets defense yielded a 65-yard touchdown drive engineered by the 13th ranked offense in the league. Suddenly the Jets were down two possessions.
Here’s a critical third and short situation the Bills converted early in that drive. They overloaded one side and once again took advantage of a lumbering Richardson at OLB who couldn’t seal the edge:
Sheldon was cracked on, but Calvin Pryor couldn’t get it done and Antonio Cromartie had no chance. A much faster MLB would’ve been needed in such a situation.
One play later it was Darrelle Revis who couldn’t get it done in a one-on-one against Sammy Watkins:
Watkins finished with 11 receptions for 136 yards.
It wasn’t just Watkins, however. Check out this outrageous 3rd-and-20 conversion early in the second half. The Jets were in a 3-deep look (why, I’ll never know) with a man under defense and single-high safety roaming.
Revis provided so much cushion to Greg Salas that this happened:
The poor play and mistakes continued all afternoon. One of the more unforgiving mental mistakes came on a late encroachment penalty, courtesy of rookie Leonard Williams.
The only reason the Bills didn’t have more than 295 yards of offense was because they played with the lead the entire game and Rex Ryan doesn’t play offense when that’s the case.
WR Drops Galore
The Wide Receivers Also Disappointed:
Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t the only Jets offensive player who failed to meet expectations in Week 17. The Jets most dangerous weapon, Brandon Marshall, along with his teammates out wide, were also less than stellar.
While Marshall’s final line tells a different story – 8 rec., 126 yards, 1 TD – a few key drops let his QB down in the worst way. One came on the Jets first drive in attempt to answer the Taylor TD run:
Instead of a quick first down to get New York back on the right footing, the Jets then failed on third down and had to punt again.
When the Bills got the ball back, after that drop, is when they went on their second scoring drive to make the score 13-0 (missed extra point).
So right off the bat, without Fitzpatrick even playing poorly, the Jets found themselves down two possessions on a cold and chilly day.
What’s worse, though, is Marshall wasn’t the only culprit. Two drives earlier, Kenbrell Thompkins had this beauty of a drop on a critical third-and-long:
While it wasn’t a picturesque ball, Fitz felt that classic Rex pressure on third down and delivered it right in Thompkins’s bread-basket along the sideline.
Check out this crushing blow to the Jets early chances. On 3rd-and-10, Fitz recognized Ryan would be coming with another heavy pressure. He placed his running back to help out in the pocket and looked for Eric Decker on the skinny post:
Although Decker wasn’t dinged with a drop – thanks to the coverage being tight enough – he should have come up with this one. Randy Bullock missed the ensuing field goal.
Through it all, the one that really hurt was the Quincy Enunwa drop.
Trailing 16-7, New York found a major break by recovering a Bills fumble deep in their own territory. On 3rd-and-8, Gailey dialed up a perfect shovel pass. Enunwa dropped what looked like could have been a touchdown, or at the very least, an easy first down setting up goal-to-go:
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Is Ryan Fitzpatrick a stud? In no way, shape or form is Fitz a stud QB in the NFL.
His forced throw to Decker in the endzone was a big time mistake. One that will continue to haunt him until he plays football again.
The biggest mistake Fitz made here was throwing a 50/50 ball to Decker. Marshall is the only guy who deserves 50/50 balls. Decker doesn’t have the ability to ensure that the pass will be an incompletion if things turn out badly. It seemed as though he wasn’t even expecting the ball. If anything, Decker should’ve taken the post route flatter, and thus, it would’ve resulted in an incompletion.
The final two drives of the game resulted in desperation interceptions by Fitzpatrick. Despite knowing how desperate each situation was, the Fitz bashers hang onto that first critical pick, which is completely fair considering the Jets were just one field goal away from taking the lead.
In being ultra fair, though, please call Fitz what he truly is.
While he’s not a stud, he is a serviceable starting quarterback who is automatically elevated to middle-of-the road starting quarterback when he’s teamed with Chan Gailey and Brandon Marshall. He’s a guy who does deserve up to $12 million a season in today’s NFL QB-crazy climate.
In no world would the Jets ever want to break that up and essentially start over again with a brand new unknown in Geno Smith.
We’ve seen the inconsistencies many times prior with Geno. Yes, he didn’t have Gailey. Yes, he was without Marshall. What Smith had at his disposal was average to below average. The names included Marty Mornhinweg, Eric Decker, Jeremy Kerley, Chris Ivory, and Jace Amaro.
Despite that argument, his poor decision making and questionable QB IQ shouldn’t have been so inconsistent even with that supporting cast.
Geno failed in the most basic areas competent starting NFL QBs need to be fully equipped with. Fitz, while missing much of the raw physical talents a Smith is blessed with, has those key cognitive attributes.
The video footage above doesn’t lie folks. Fitzpatrick wasn’t even close to acting as the only culprit in Week 17. Along with the rookie head coach, there were so many more players who failed the ultimate test that day.
It’s really simple: The 2015 Jets weren’t a team ready to compete in prime time, and until they find a Hall of Fame type QB to man the position, it’ll take 11 men to do their job.