Gang Green Nation
The Jets lost to the Patriots on Thursday Night Football. Let’s hand out some anti-game balls to the players who didn’t deliver.
Adonai Mitchell: Garrett Wilson’s injury provided an opportunity for a young wde receiver like Mitchell to step into the lineup and make an impression. Mitchell did. Unfortunately it was the wrong sort of impression. He let two well thrown passes go through his hands that would have resulted in big plays. The Jets scored a touchdown after the second one so I guess it didn’t hurt the team all that much. It certainly hurt Mitchell’s hopes of showing this team he can be a reliable target, though.
Jarvis Brownlee Jr: Brownlee was a mess in this game. He was beaten in coverage. He committed penalties. He even failed to do something as basic as touching a receiver down after a catch, resulting in a bigger gain. The acquisition of Brownlee was crowned as a steal when the cornerback had a strong first couple of games in green and white, but he now has back to back very poor performances.
Brandon Stephens: I don’t want to get on Stephens too much because he had been playing legitimately excellent football for a long stretch heading into this game, but Week 11 was not kind to him. He was beaten one on one over and over for important receptions.
Will McDonald/Jermaine Johnson: The Jets had coverage issues in this game, but the pass rush didn’t make their lives easier. A week after a four sack outburst, McDonald was nowhere to be seen. Johnson did have a sack, but that came when he got a one on one against a tight end. He wasn’t generating much pressure otherwise. Pass coverage for the Jets is going to struggle if these two can’t do better.
Jets Zone Coverage: It will be interesting to see what the film shows, but it looked like the Jets were busting pretty basic coverages all night. Of course Brownlee and Stephens failing to hold up one on one was a big problem, but it also seemed like there were issues across the defense when the Jets moved to zone.
Justin Fields: This game was on the upper half of Fields statistical performance this season, which speaks volumes. I mean he was 15 of 26 for 116 yards. Of course the numbers would have looked better had Mitchell not let him down, but Fields also missed his share of layups. If you watched the game, analyst Kirk Herbstreit said it all when he called Fields scrambling the only passing play the Jets can depend upon. I don’t think things would get much better if Tyrod Taylor went into the lineup, but we are at the point where Fields’ play might justify a change anyway.
