Three on O: Vera-Tucker, Moses, Corley

After each game, we'll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We'll wrap up today with the offense:

Bringing his AVT game

Alijah Vera-Tucker's return restored the Jets' starting offensive line to full strength (at least until Tyron Smith got injured) and the unit did pretty well as the Jets averaged 4.6 yards per carry.

Coming off a rolled ankle from a few weeks ago, Vera-Tucker didn't look like he had missed a beat as he had multiple solid blocks in the running game. He seals his man off cleanly here to make this run work.

Here's another play where they ran behind him. This time, he helped Joe Tippmann to seal off his man and then climbed to the second level to pick up another block.

In pass protection, Vera-Tucker gave up this quarterback hit which was a clear communication breakdown and sign that the line isn't completely in sync yet. He had his man blocked but expected Tippmann to remain next to him so he could go and help Morgan Moses. However, John Simpson had been thrown to the ground and Tippmann tried and failed to help him instead. The net result was that Vera-Tucker's man got a big hit on Aaron Rodgers even though Simpson was the only guy beaten.

Other than this play, Vera-Tucker didn't give up any clean pressure, as he stayed in front of and redirected his man on the few rare occasions where his man got upfield on him.

This is a big year for Vera-Tucker, who continues to perform well on a consistent basis. He'd like to remain healthy over the second half and finish the year strong, though.

Fierce Morgan

Morgan Moses only gave up one pressure according to Pro Football Focus, although this was arguably generous. There were three or four plays where he initially had his man blocked but then allowed them to flush Rodgers from the pocket or get in his face. It was also Morgan's man who forced a Rodgers fumble on fourth down in the red zone, even if it was someone else's man that got the initial pressure.

It's been well documented that Moses has been playing through a lot of injuries and he's seen a handful of different players lining up on his inside shoulder over the past month. With that context, he's continued to perform impressively.

As usual, he made good contributions in the running game. Here's one play where they ran behind him on a stretch zone play for a good gain.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Moses' season so far is that he hasn't given up a sack all year, according to PFF's numbers. This is a player who has given up exactly five sacks in eight of the last nine seasons (and four in the other of those years).

This isn't necessarily an anomaly either, as his pressure rate allowed has been the lowest of his career. Maybe you can attribute that to the effect of blocking for Rodgers rather than some of the other quarterbacks he's protected over the years - or maybe you can point to some plays as we have above where perhaps he did give up pressure but it wasn't recorded for whatever reason.

Either way, it's clear that Moses was a solid low-cost addition for this year and a big part of an offensive line that has definitely been much better than last year's injury-ravaged group. It's a shame so many other things with this team have gone south.

Corley blimey Guv'nah

Coming off the back of his goal line gaffe in the last game, rookie Malachi Corley could easily have been permanently benched. Instead, the Jets traded away their third receiver with the promise of more opportunities for the rookie.

Sure enough, he was on the field for 16 snaps on Sunday, more than he had seen over the entire rest of the season.

While Corley only contributed one catch for two yards, it was a big one on an early 3rd-and-2 and he did well to get adequate depth on his route and hold onto the catch in heavy traffic.

Aside from this play, Corley was targeted one other time on a play which should have been a touchdown but ended up being a fourth down incompletion. Corley did a great job of running to an open area when the play got extended and was wide open but Rodgers expected him to sit down and Corley expected Rodgers to hit him on the move so, the throw on the rollout was behind him.

Coach Jeff Ulbrich has praised Corley's blocking, saying that this is one of the things that could get him more opportunities. That was on show on this game as he made an excellent block on an early screen pass that went for a nice gain.

They tried two receiver screens to Corley's side in the second half too, but both of these went for a loss. That wasn't Corley's fault though. He stayed on his block well on one and looked to have his man well-blocked initially on the other too.

Ultimately, the Jets seem to be setting up a tendency breaker where Corley can line his man up for the block out of this look and then leak behind him for a big play if he comes up fast. However, they need to execute a few of the screens right first for this to pay off.

If the Jets will transition into "play the young guys" mode now that they've mucked up their postseason chances, Corley will be one of the main guys to watch. Hopefully, he can show a lot more than he has so far, which is to say not very much.

Previously: Three on D: Sherwood, Hector, McDonald