After each game, we’ll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We’ll start today with the defense:
Into a Takk mode
Takk McKinley was added to the roster as a bit of an afterthought, but Haason Reddick being a no-show and Jermaine Johnson’s injury make him an important veteran presence in the rotation at the moment. How is he faring right now though?
On Thursday night he saw a slight uptick in his workload, from 23 snaps in each of the first two games to 29 on Thursday. However, it might have been even bigger if New England had managed to sustain drives better. Against the run in particular, he’ll be anticipating a bigger role and New England were expected to run a lot, but they actually only had 13 designed runs, of which he was on the field for just under half.
As a pass rusher, McKinley didn’t really make an impact as he seemed to be too easily repelled or redirected. While he had his moments in preseason, it’s worth bearing in mind that he was facing backups. It’s also probably no surprise that when he finally did get to the quarterback, on the final play of the game, it was against backup Demontrey Jacobs.
McKinley’s career has been beset by a series of setbacks including injuries and maturity concerns, which he’s tried to put behind him. He therefore needs to ensure he doesn’t get frustrated or show inconsistent effort. Now that his place on the roster is more secure, it would be better if we didn’t see plays like this one from him on 4th-and-2.
McKinley has a tremendous opportunity with the Jets but he needs to continue to play with the same kind of desperation that made him look like a guy the Jets couldn’t afford not to have on the roster during camp. Let’s see how he progresses…
Right on Q
By his standards, Quinnen Williams had made a slow start to the season. However, he was a game-wrecker on Thursday night.
As noted, the Patriots didn’t run the ball as much as expected but it was plays like this one from Williams coming downhill that forced them into passing situations.
When they did pass, Williams had three quarterback hits including a sack, and a few other pressures. His sack saw him come free after Javon Kinlaw rushed inside to create a path for him to loop behind.
As you’ve probably noticed, Williams has been playing on the edge in some pass rush packages to good effect, but one play on Thursday night saw them flip this on its head as Williams lined up inside but rushed outside. Will McDonald stunted inside for the sack with Williams almost in on it.
Williams also shut down New England’s attempted Hail Mary pass at the end of the first half as he initially spied the quarterback but then got pressure in his face on a delayed rush.
This is the sort of dominance from Williams that the Jets need for everyone else to produce. It’s no coincidence that as his influence is increasing the defense has been more and more effective.
Reed and Right
While Sauce Gardner’s return to form after a shaky week two seemed to get more coverage, DJ Reed once again flew under the radar with a solid performance.
He didn’t give up anything in coverage. In fact the only completion with him in coverage was a receiver screen which he blew up by beating his blocker. Demario Douglas was forced to reverse his field and the Jets stretched it out and it was stopped near the line of scrimmage.
Two other targets saw him jump the route to break it up and draped all over the receiver on a crossing route that was underthrown under pressure.
The one negative Reed had in coverage was a pass interference call on a deep throw which, for a change, wasn’t a terrible call. Reed can’t complain about this one because he had the receiver’s arm hooked, even though the official who threw the flag probably didn’t see that and erroneously believed there was body contact.
Reed made one good play against the run which is most notable because it looked exactly like several of Jordan Mason’s longer runs in week one because players in the back seven were missing the tackle in situations like these.
Reed did have some negatives in terms of getting blocked out of plays including a fourth down scramble, a toss sweep to the outside and a receiver screen. New England may have identified this as something they could attack against the diminutive Reed but whether it’s a pattern other teams will look to exploit remains to be seen.
The signs were pointing to Reed potentially moving on at the end of the season, although Qwan’tez Stiggers and Jarrick Bernard-Converse have been complete non-factors so it would be premature to anoint either of them as a viable replacement. For now, Reed is doing a solid job, once again.
Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.