Three on D: Maye, Burris, Williams
After each game, I'm going to highlight three defensive and three offensive players and look in detail at their performance. We'll start today with the defense:
How Maye I help you?
Marcus Maye didn't have a great first game last week in Buffalo, but made a much better contribution this week, leading the team with six solo tackles and, crucially, no missed tackles.
With the Jets not using a third safety this week, Maye operated mainly as a deep safety this week, playing out of the box on over two-third of his snaps. Jamal Adams was only deep on about quarter of his reps.
Despite this, Maye still came up to make a lot of plays close to the line of scrimmage, including two open field tackles in the flat and a stop for a four-yard gain in run support. He also laid a couple of nice hits down the field.
In coverage, Maye only gave up one catch for 16 yards, although this perhaps wasn't his fault. Morris Claiborne was initially covering Amari Cooper at the snap, with Maye essentially in the box. However Claiborne bailed out at the snap and dropped back about 15 yards, while Maye dropped off to the outside. Cooper was always going to be wide open if they played it that way and if it was some kind of planned trap coverage, then Maye started his drop far too late, perhaps suggesting that he and Claiborne got their wires crossed.
Adams, who also had a good game, bailed Maye out on this Marshawn Lynch run, where it looked like Lynch was going to beat Maye to the edge having bounced to the outside. This is one of the best pieces of backside pursuit I've ever seen. Check out Adams going all Ed Moses on us:
There's still not been any difference-making impact plays from either of the rookies, but they look good so far and the improvement from last week is good to see.
Big Cat gets neutered
At the other end of the scale, Leonard Williams had perhaps his quietest ever game as a Jet. Williams had no solo tackles and three assists but that doesn't necessarily mean he had a poor game if he was still dominating at the point of attack or generating pressure.
Unfortunately, this week he did neither.
Of course, the Raiders scheme was designed to reduce his impact and this worked well. He had to deal with a lot of double teams and didn't get many chances to generate pressure.
Williams almost got to Carr once on a play where he used a jerk move to burst cleanly into the backfield, but otherwise the quick passes meant he had no chance of generating any pressure. Carr averaged less than two seconds per pass and only held the ball in the pocket on a handful of plays.
More concerning though was how he was handled in the running game. He was driven off the line or to the ground several times, including eight yards off by a double team on one third and long play. It's not uncommon for this to happen to a player who is double teamed, but it is uncommon for it to happen to Williams.
Positives were hard to find too. Other than beating his man that one time on the pass rush, he was in on one run stuff and drew a clipping penalty.
However, although he was blocked out of several plays, he wasn't involved in most of the big runs, as they tended to happen when he wasn't in the game. You therefore wouldn't pin most of the 170 yards on him, but it was still disconcerting to see him on the ground or pushed back to the second level so often.
Juston Worries
Juston Burris is a player many Jets fans have high hopes for and are expecting to see more and more of over the course of the season. However, if he plays like he did yesterday, he might end up losing time.
Burris got schooled a few times by Michael Crabtree, including on two of his three touchdowns:
In Burris' defense, there was perhaps a push-off on the first touchdown, although Jermaine Kearse did exactly the same thing at the other end.
In addition to those two plays, Burris also was beaten for another first down as he reacted late to Cooper's break to the outside. He also gave up catches on his other two targets, but these were stopped in the flat.
There's no shame in getting beaten a couple of times by a receiver of Crabtree's caliber, but that wasn't the only concerning aspect of Burris' performance.
He had three bad missed tackles, including a key one on Cordarrelle Patterson's long touchdown run. Also, he showed poor awareness on two plays where he got picked on a pass to the flat.
Burris had one positive play - a third down stop in the flat - but otherwise it was a game to forget for the second year man.
PREVIOUSLY: The Incredibles (?!?!)