Three on D: Adams, Skrine, Williamson
After each game, we're going to highlight three defensive and three offensive players and look in detail at their performance. We'll start today with the defense:
Maladaptation
Jamal Adams had a productive game as he was tied for the team lead in tackles. This was highlighted by a strip sack, on which he skipped around a block, showed terrific closing speed and knocked the ball loose with good technique:
Adams also had a third down tackle in the flat, a good coverage play on a third down incompletion and a downfield hit that knocked Danny Amendola out of the game in the first half. However, he had less of an impact in the second half.
At times, it seemed like Adams was a little overaggressive in the running game and on short passes as he allowed himself to be blocked out of a few plays and overpursued and got caught on the inside on a few of the quarterback keepers and reverses that the outside linebackers had issues with.
There's also been a lot of discussion online as to Adams' role in the blown coverage that led to Miami converting the crucial 3rd-and-19 play that enabled them to run out the clock.
The most likely conclusion seems to be that Adams wasn't responsible for Frank Gore if he leaked out of the backfield, but he might have been able to react to the threat of Gore being open and drop off to cover for whichever of his teammates missed the assignment. While that's a lot to ask for a young player, Adams is potentially headed for greatness so it's fair to expect a lot of him. Hopefully that's the kind of play he is alert to in future.
Avery Little Step I take
Avery Williamson had four tackles, a quarterback hit, a fumble recovery and a half-sack that was negated by a penalty. However, he didn't have a great game against the run.
While he wasn't blocked out of too many plays, Williamson was only in on one run stop and had a couple of missed tackles, including this one:
Three of Williamson's four tackles came in the passing game, including two on short passes where he came up to make the tackle in the open field. However, he was also beaten for a third down conversion on an out-breaking route.
As detailed yesterday, Williamson was also perhaps partially at fault on the AJ Derby touchdown because, having taken a deep drop, he was theoretically in position to step in front of Derby, but wasn't aware of him breaking across the end zone in behind him.
Williamson's fumble recovery was simply a fumbled snap that he actually fell on after having stopped to celebrate because he thought a teammate had already recovered it. However, he reacted well and hustled to get the loose ball. His quarterback hit was a big play though, as it forced Ryan Tannehill into a wide throw on 3rd-and-1.
This inside linebacker pairing with Darron Lee has real potential, but they're not quite firing on all cylinders yet. The fact there was a key breakdown late in the game doesn't reflect well on Williamson, who has been wearing the headset.
Skrine Bloody Murder
Sunday night was not one of the better games of Buster Skrine's career. He had two huge penalties and got beaten for a touchdown.
After each of his penalties, Skrine compounded the issue by immediately making another mistake. His first penalty was a face mask penalty, which was immediately followed by Albert Wilson's touchdown, on which Wilson deceived him into slowing up and then beat him down the sideline. His second, a defensive hold that negated Brandon Copeland's sack, was immediately followed by this play:
As you can see, Skrine anticipates and gets around the block, but by getting around the block on the inside, he's unable to get outside to make the tackle. He also had one other missed tackle and was beaten by Amendola for a downfield catch on 3rd-and-2.
Skrine actually led the Jets in tackles for the second straight game - tied with Adams - which is not exactly an ideal situation. He did get in on a run stuff though, which seems to be a weekly occurrence over the last few years.
It's in coverage where he needs to avoid mistakes though, and if he's thinking so much about not being called for penalties that it leads him to make other mistakes, that's a worrying set of circumstances.
We'll be back with the 3-on-O tomorrow.