Quick Hits: Learning about the line
The Jets' offensive line is completely unproven and it remains to be seen how well they will hold up over the course of the season. They certainly had their struggles in the opener, gaining just 2.5 yards per rush.
However, the Jets only gave up one sack and three quarterback hits officially, no doubt heavily aided by the quick passing gameplan. In fact, the sack wasn't even attributable to an offensive lineman, as McCown rolled right but didn't sense an unblocked safety coming from the blindside and was sacked from behind.
Nevertheless, we learned a few things about the offensive line and how they might fare this year, the most obvious of which is that the offensive gameplan will be designed to make their role easier in pass protection.
One thing that clearly needs work is how they work together as a unit when the defense runs a stunt. This late-game example led to Josh McCown's second interception:
As you can see, the left side of the line works in tandem with the tackle driving upfield and the end stunting underneath. Both Brian Winters and Wesley Johnson reacted too late to this.
The right side of the line runs an E-T stunt instead of a T-E stunt. So this time, the end crashes down inside and the tackle loops around the outside. This one is perfectly executed so that James Carpenter is pinned on the inside. The only way to block this would be for Beachum to anticipate it and pass his man off to Carpenter so he can switch onto the stunting tackle and, on this occasion, any attempt to do that is prevented by what looks like a sneaky hold by the end.
The end result is that McCown, who has already basically pre-determined that he's going to hurl one into traffic, gets sandwiched as he releases the throw. It perhaps would have been intercepted anyway, but McCown doesn't need to take the extra punishment.
On one other stunt, the end not only crashed down inside but also beat Brandon Shell with the inside move. This meant Shell had to get help from his left and prevented him from being able to recover onto the stunting tackle.
This is something the Jets can work on in practice and they will hopefully find some cohesiveness as the season goes along. Anything they can do to keep McCown well-protected will give the offense a chance to function more efficiently.
On a more positive note, this play highlights the main difference between Josh McCown and his two young back-ups at this stage of their careers:
McCown drops back and makes a nice throw to Will Tye, but that's not anything Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg aren't capable of.
The key here is what happened before the snap. Remember last year when Bryce Petty got sandwiched by unblocked rushers coming off the edge? Or in preseason, when Christian Hackenberg fumbled after a blindside hit by another unblocker rusher? This is what should have happened in those situations.
Before the snap, McCown read the fact that the linebacker was going to come up to the line and rush off the edge. He got the attention of his linemen, pointed out number 52 and then had the time to throw once he received the snap because everyone slid across to the right to pick up the five man rush and give McCown a clean pocket to step up into to make the throw.
On each of those plays mentioned above where Petty and Hackenberg got nailed, the right tackle simply blocked down on the player to his inside, leaving the pass rusher unblocked off the edge. And that's because either the quarterback - or perhaps the center - didn't tell him otherwise ... or if they did, he didn't get the memo.
Tye's catch led to the only touchdown for the Jets and the fact they dealt expertly with a situation that's caused them problems in a past is encouraging.
This group will probably continue to have some growing pains and their task doesn't get any easier with Khalil Mack and the Raiders up next. If they can improve how cohesively they play together as a unit, then this will give them a better chance of being successful in spite of their low expectations.
PREVIOUSLY: Reviewing the rotations