ESNY Film Room: Breaking Down The New York Jets Horrid Pass Coverage

We break down the most disappointing aspect to the New York Jets current 1-3 situation after four games: the pass coverage.

One of the great injustices of football comes when one associates a poor pass defense with the direct play of a secondary. Those who play or have played the game shiver when only defensive backs are called out as a direct result for pass yards yielded.

Much more is involved.

The linebacking corps are heavily involved. The pass rush must beat the man in front of him and make the opposing quarterback uncomfortable. And last, but certainly not least, the scheme and gameplan put in must be spot on.

This appropriately brings us to the play of the New York Jets this season.

It’d be one thing to blame the four d-backs. To throw your arms up about how poor Darrelle Revis has been, how lost Calvin Pryor looks, and how unimpressive Marcus Gilchrist has been would be an easy excuse — especially after thinking the unit was gold heading into the new campaign.

Unfortunately, it’s not just those guys.

Sure, they’ve been terrible. There’s no skirting that issue. But there’s so much more involved here when analyzing New York’s pass defense.

Join us as we break down certain glaring examples from the first four games of 2016:

Too Much Respect For The Run Game; David Harris

The New York Jets currently rank 27th in the NFL in total pass defense, surrendering a robust 285 yards a game. While this stat alone screams volumes, it’s not the most disturbing factor about what’s transpired up to this point.

New York’s run defense is dominant, ranking second in the league (70.2 yards a game).

The reason for such a startling imbalance is strictly due to Todd Bowles’s stubborn defensive philosophies.

The Jets, no matter how light the offense lines up its personnel, continue to matchup with a bigger set.

For example, in Week 3 in Kansas City, Travis Kelce cut up the Jets to the tune of 89 yards and a score on six grabs. His lone touchdown came in the second quarter on this play:

The reason Kelce cut the Jets up was because Bowles remained persistent in making sure he could stop the run first. On this particular play, Andy Reid sent out a 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB personnel. Bowles matched with his nickel (4 DL, 2 LB, 5 DB). The problem with this is Kelce, K.C.’s TE, runs like a WR.

Matching up with the nickel means either Calvin Pryor, Darron Lee or David Harris will have to take Kelce one-on-one if it’s a man call. Obviously, it was man coverage here, and Pryor had zero chance of sticking with Kelce on the short crossing pattern.

The Chiefs currently rank 23rd in the league in rushing and were playing without Jamaal Charles. Why in the world would the Jets provide that much respect to the run game?

One week later against Seattle, Bowles, again, continued to remain stubborn in matching nickel against a speedy tight end in Jimmy Graham:

With the Jets leading 3-0 to begin the 2nd-quarter, Russell Wilson faced a 2nd-and-11 situation pinned deep. The Seahawks came out in the very familiar 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB situation. Instead of Bowles recognizing Graham needs to be treated like a WR, he allowed his heavier nickel defense to stay on the field.

This resulted in Russell identifying that Graham would beat rookie Darron Lee.

Why in the world, on a 2nd-and-11, would Bowles not go dime and throw Antonio Allen in the game in exchange for one of the linebackers? There is no big ground threat in this situation.

What’s highly disturbing is that this isn’t a “once in a while thing.” Todd Bowles continues to run out his regular nickel personnel against any 3 WR set. While this might have worked in the 1980s, it doesn’t work in today’s league with tight ends running like wideouts.

If Bowles started playing a new-age style of defensive ball, he’d get David Harris off the field in favor of Antonio Allen and allow Pryor to sniff the box more alongside Darron Lee. Harris, as good a Jet as he’s been, is one of the worst covering LBs in the NFL.

Against Seattle, there were at least four glaring plays when Harris’s lack of coverage skills popped up. The most glaring came when C.J. Spiller abused him on the angle route for Seattle’s first TD of the game:

First off, Harris showed himself entirely too hard for the flat. He just couldn’t recover once Spiller turned it upfield.

More importantly, though, Harris wouldn’t have been put in this situation if Bowles appropriately matched up in a dime while treating Graham like a WR, not a TE.

Defenders Out Of Position

What happens when a defense is put into a situation in which its defending the run first in most situations?

Defenders are exposed in the passing game. Guys like Calvin Pryor and David Harris are asked to cover their man one-on-one, and even worse, when there’s only a single-high safety, opposing QBs have been feasting on this Jets look.

In the following example, the Jets matched K.C.’s 3 WR look with their base nickel. In a 2nd-and-2 situation, Bowles went single-high safety and rushed five (with K.C.’s RB remaining in to block):

All it took was one glance in Pryor’s direction for Alex Smith to gash the Jets. Playing Pryor in one-on-one covere outside of the numbers is risky business enough, but in this case, Bowles had him lined up against one of the most dangerous TEs in the league.

Pryor is a guy who struggled his rookie year under Rex Ryan. The reason was obvious, as he was asked to play centerfield far too often (thanks to a lack of personnel). Last season, he thrived in playing close to the box and robbing underneath. Now, in his third season, Bowles is allowing him to be exposed by playing him severely out of position in man coverage against much faster weapons.

In the above example, either two safeties need to be over-the-top (while relying on the front seven to stop the run), or a dime package needs to be in the game (if the Jets would like to remain with a single-high look).

Pryor cannot matchup in this situation. This falls squarely on the shoulders of Todd Bowles.

Lack Of True Edge Rusher

Looking strictly at the personnel up front — with the likes of Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson and Leonard Williams — the average onlooker would believe this Jets front can do serious damage with the pass rush.

There’s just one little problem: there is no speed rusher on the outside.

Offenses can pinch the offensive line to a point that it becomes a desperate struggle in getting to the QB. To get all three beasts on the field at once, Big Mo lines up on the edge. To get all four beasts in the game at once (Steve McLendon), Sheldon lines up on the other edge.

This is simply too much beef without enough speed.

Offenses rarely need to pay extra attention to either tackle side. Wilkerson and Richardson are far better pass rushers when they’re out-quicking a guard instead of out-powering a tackle.

For this to be remedied, either Lorenzo Mauldin and/or Jordan Jenkins need to step up when put on the edge.

Lack Of Team Defensive Speed; Communication

The lack of communication piece of it has been mentioned many times this past week. In-house, communication (or busts, as Todd Bowles puts it) seems to be the culprit that all involved are pointing to for their issues, via Connor Hughes of NJ.com:

“It’s really not miscommunication,” said Bowles after more than a handful of his players described it as miscommunication. “That’s probably the wrong choice of word. You can call it busts. Sometimes it’s not miscommunication when there’s only one guy involved.

“I’ve seen certain plays like that that I’ve coached the secondary. I don’t know if there’s been as many at the same time, but overall during the year you’ve seen certain plays like that. We’ve had way too many.”

Unfortunately, it’s much more than communication. New York lacks true speed in the secondary.

Darrelle Revis, the future hall of famer, is a rather slow cornerback. Calvin Pryor moves like a linebacker. Buster Skrine, as quick as he appears to be, is only a little above average in the speed department.

In knowing this, either Bowles needs to adjust by throwing more speed on the field, or the communication better be on point. Against Andy Dalton and A.J. Green in Week 1, it sure wasn’t:

Showing a single-high safety look, something the Jets love to do, Bowles had a straight Cover 3 on. Essentially, the Bengals ran a two man route on the play fake.

Darrelle Revis’s first read was Green. Marcus Williams‘s first read was the opposite receiver. Marcus Gilchrist is playing deep middle-third.

The result? All three of them were at fault on this play.

Gilchrist winds up as the top culprit once he chased the deep dig. But Williams never should have allowed his man such separation in the middle of the field. The reason is simple: nobody else came into his deep third zone.

If his second read, which is undoubtedly the tight end, doesn’t enter his zone, Williams should continue to chase his first read to the middle. Because he was so open, Gilchrist jumped it.

Revis, while he expected deep help, also had no reason to allow Green such separation. Nobody was even near his deep third. This means Revis should’ve had hand-on-hip contact with Green the entire play.

It was a lazy football play all the way around for the Jets secondary, and if it doesn’t get fixed this week in Pittsburgh, kiss 2016 goodbye.

What It Should Look Like

This is simple. For Todd Bowles, it hasn’t been so simple.

Instead of relying heavily on his base nickel that sees both David Harris and Darron Lee in the game at the same time, he needs to up the personnel to match more of a speed game on offense and challenge his big heavies up front to handle the run.

1. Get Harris off the off the field in passing situations.
2. Get Calvin Pryor in the box, in almost a LB position.
3. Make sure a Jordan Jenkins or Lorenzo Mauldin is opposite Muhammad Wilkerson to have a speed presence on the other side.

This is the new-age defense other defensive coordinators are deploying. Use this and challenge the offense to run the ball, first and foremost.