Quick Fix: Divide and conquer
With Brian Winters out injured, the challenge of stopping the irrepressible Ndamukong Suh was tougher than ever for the Jets this week. Suh didn't make many impact plays but was a major handful in the trenches and yet the Jets were able to slow him down just enough to allow their offense to dominate time of possession.
I got some direct insight into the Jets' approach to stopping Suh back in 2015 when I spoke to James Carpenter and Tommy Bohanon before and after the win over Miami in London.
Carpenter was tight-lipped about the gameplan beforehand but told me that because Suh lines up on the other side of the formation, his main focus is primarily to control his assignment and free up the other side of the line to deal with Suh.
After the game, Bohanon said that part of their gameplan was to run plays where they could spread the defensive line out. They employed a fullback liberally in that game and got him to block on the move enabling them to create winnable one-on-one match-ups upfront, rather than running up the middle where Suh could bottle up runs even when he didn't get off his block.
In order for this to be effective, though, they had to mix it up. In London, Chris Ivory ran for 166 yards and a touchdown whereas the Jets barely averaged three yards per carry in yesterday's game, although the numbers would have been much healthier had Bilal Powell's 52 yard run not been negated by a dubious flag. That was enough to enable them to keep the clock and the chains moving and it was the result of a running attack much more varied and diverse than they employed in the first two weeks.
This is, of course, a different system now to the one they employed back in 2015. However, the Jets operated many of the same principles to try and prevent Suh from having a big impact. (He stuffed three runs and had a strip sack).
Here is perhaps the best blocked running play of the day, even though it ended up in a turnover. This came late in the game, perhaps after the Dolphins had seen their resolve worn down:
On this occasion they used Suh's aggressiveness against him. The line initially steps left and Suh reads this and tries to use his quickness to shoot a gap and penetrate into the backfield. This makes Dakota Dozier's job easier as he can just use Suh's impetus to push him upfield. On the edge, Austin Seferian-Jenkins did the same thing to Cameron Wake. The run action goes the other way, straight into the lane Suh and Wake just vacated.
Designing a play so that Suh (and Wake) can be single-blocked enables Wes Johnson and Brandon Shell to get out to the second level with Johnson picking up a block cleanly and Shell doing a good job to seal him on the outside. It's just unfortunate that McGuire lost the ball.
Here's a play from earlier in the game, where they execute two of the key facets on their gameplan to spring a hole for Matt Forté:
It's telling how they handle Suh here. First, they run away from him, which is obviously smart - especially with starter Jordan Phillips out injured and his replacement Davon Godchaux somewhat on his heels after jumping offside twice in the early stages.
Secondly, they recognize that Dozier probably isn't going to be able to handle Suh at the point of attack without help, so Wes Johnson helps out. He drives Suh laterally at the snap so that Dozier can control him cleanly before peeling off to the second level.
This creates those winnable match-ups on the left side of the formation. Kelvin Beachum, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Jermaine Kearse all lock onto their block and turn their man back to the inside to create a good running lane over the left side.
Johnson regularly helped Dozier out with Suh before moving onto another assignment but the Jets also worked it the other way sometimes, with Shell helping Dozier and then peeling off. In fact, Shell ended up as the player ultimately tasked with handling Suh quite often.
Using a fullback was once again a key factor. This came as a surprise with no fullback currently on the roster, but the Jets used Lawrence Thomas, a player who has played some fullback in the past, in that role. He was pretty good too, blocking effectively on some straight ahead runs initially, but then branching out to block on the move as his role expanded.
The play on which Bilal Powell scored the second Jets touchdown was a good example of how - as effective as running away from Suh, spreading the line out and using double team help was - they still needed to mix it up and run at him in order to not become too predictable.
This play was actually poorly blocked, but that fact might actually have helped the play work:
Suh actually lined up on the right this time - something he did a few times, getting the better of Carpenter on a bull rush and a penetration to blow up a run. On this occasion, the Jets run over to that side and double-team Suh at the point of attack. He fights off the double team but can't get to Powell because there's simply too much traffic in his way.
Ironically, by getting stood up and driven into the backfield, Brent Qvale inadvertently ends up blocking Suh's path into the backfield. From fullback, Thomas doesn't make a clean contact either, but he also finds himself in Suh's way as Powell bounces outside. Powell is able to score despite Will Tye losing outside leverage on his man.
We often talk about how defensive linemen bottle up runs, but actually this play worked in reverse as the defensive linemen got bottled up, enabling Powell to get outside on a play where there may not have been a single blocker with a positive grade.
Overall, the Jets were badly overmatched in the trenches yesterday but they showed creativity to overcome this and the individuals executed their assignments well to operate effectively as a unit.
PREVIOUSLY: Reviewing the rotations