Gang Green Nation
It was not a pretty offensive showing for the New York Jets in Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers. For a second consecutive game, the Jets failed to reach the end zone. Things got so bad that the team made a quarterback change at halftime, benching Justin Fields.
Anybody who watched the game could see how much Fields was struggling. Looking at the sacks he took, I would say the team didn’t have a choice but to make a quarterback change.
Our first sack comes on a packaged play. It’s a simple concept which is essentially two plays built into one. Fields can either hand the ball off to Breece Hall or throw a screen to Arian Smith based on the look the defense gives him.
Tre’von Moehrig creeps up as a potential blitzer from the slot.
This makes the screen to Smith the correct play.
Fields sees it and looks like he’s about to throw the screen.
Then he just…doesn’t.
One other thing I will note is this play was not the finest hour of the Jets’ two young tackles. Both Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou whiff pretty badly on their respective blocks.
Still, this is as easy of a play as a quarterback can have put on his plate. Fields even sees what he should do but is too hesitant to get the ball out on the screen.
On our second sack, we have the Panthers loading the line of scrimmage with defenders. They want to confuse the Jets as to which are blitzing.
The Jets move Allen Lazard in motion. A defenders follows him across the field, which is a sure sign of man to man coverage.
This motion provides Fields with some information that could really help his presnap read. Not only was Lazard followed across the field. The Panthers certainly are lining up as if they are in man to man coverage.
There is, however, one eligible receiver who doesn’t have an obvious defender aligned to cover him. That is running back Isaiah Davis.
It’s almost certainly going to be one of the two defenders at the end of the line for the Panthers. Sometimes these blitz fakes can get you into trouble, though. Davis is running a wheel (Frank Gore?) route out of the backfield. The inside guy is going to be outleveraged trying to get out to cover Davis. The outside guy is an edge rusher who only drops into coverage sparingly and probably won’t be comfortable one on one is space against a running back. Fields’ presnap read should tell him he’s got a big advantage here.
It ends up being the inside guy, linebacker Trevin Wallace. His presnap alignment leaves him nowhere close to Davis.
Fields sees Davis on the Gore route and is about to throw it. All he has to do is flip it out there, and this will be a positive play. It even has a chance to be a big gain.
Again, he just holds the ball...
