The Jets misplaced a heartbreaker to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 13. Let’s give out some anti-game balls to the culprits together with a single sport ball to a worthy participant.
Mike LaFleur: The offensive coordinator is all the time the low hanging fruit. He often receives effusive criticism when the crew shedding. When the crew wins, he often will get ignored. It isn’t actually truthful. The proportion of blame that falls on the play caller is often too nice. Any play appears to be like dangerous when the gamers don’t execute it accurately.
I get the sensation some Jets followers put like 60 to 70 p.c of the blame for the loss the Vikings on LaFleur. It’s a bit excessive. The Jets put up over 500 yards of offense. How dangerous might the play calling have actually been?
Whereas LaFleur might be getting an excessive amount of criticism, I nonetheless say he deserves some. The Jets settled for 5 area targets and have been stopped on the aim line as soon as. The crew scored just one landing regardless of shifting the ball properly. Why was this? There are many causes, however LaFleur’s crimson zone play calling stands out.
The crimson zone isn’t a straightforward place to play offense. The world of the sphere is constricted, which means defenders don’t should cowl a lot floor to run to the ball and make tackles. LaFleur referred to as an terrible lot of lengthy growing performs in these conditions. I believe you additionally should query the knowledge of going to an empty set on fourth and aim from the one with the sport on the road late within the fourth quarter. With no cell quarterback, you get rid of any pretense of a run.
If these performs labored out, no one can be complaining about LaFleur. This isn’t utterly outcomes pushed, although? Did the crimson zone performs maximize the Jets’ possibilities of success in opposition to the Vikings? I’d should say no so LaFleur will get an anti-game ball.
Tyler Conklin: There are gamers who fail quietly. You don’t discover them as a result of they don’t produce. In his first 12 months with the Jets, Conklin has proven an inclination to fail loudly. You discover him when he doesn’t ship. He’s often leaving one thing vital on the sphere by failing to execute what ought to be a routine play.
Conklin had arguably his worst sport of the season in opposition to his former Vikings teammates. He didn’t haul in at least three passes which hit him within the arms. All three have been vital performs on their respective drives.
Jordan Whitehead: The curler coaster season for Jets safeties took one other downward flip in Minnesota. Whitehead received misplaced on a number of key performs, a protracted completion to Jalen Reagor and a protracted landing run the place he received taken out of the play. On a lot of different performs by way of the sport, he was a step late on a profitable Vikings acquire.
Lamarcus Joyner: Whitehead’s security accomplice discovered himself out of place on some large performs that went in opposition to the Jets in each halves.
DJ Reed: Reed has been excellent all season lengthy so I don’t need to be too laborious on him, however I assumed he had a tricky Sunday. Reed’s uncooked protection numbers weren’t horrible, however he did enable a landing in protection to go together with a missed deal with and a penalty. He additionally was crushed a few times for what might have been an enormous acquire on an off course move.
Sauce Gardner: Like Reed, I view this sport as a footnote in an in any other case stellar season, however there have been too many hiccups by Sauce, significantly within the first half. He took a penalty, allowed a important conversion as a result of his protection was too comfortable, and utterly whiffed when he was the final defender there to forestall a landing run.
Braxton Berrios: Berrios’ fourth down drop stands out as a play that price the Jets the sport. In actuality it was one among not less than 5 that might have swung the sport. The largest distinction was how late within the sport Berrios’ play got here. With this in thoughts I don’t assume it’s truthful to utterly annihilate the receiver. That stated, one among his largest attributes is that he often catches something thrown to him. The timing of when he failed to take action is unlucky.
Greg Zuerlein: Even within the loss, Zuerlein deserves a shoutout. With the offense stalling time and again in scoring vary, the kicker performed an enormous position in holding the Jets inside shouting distance. His 5 for five area aim sport features a 60 yarder proper earlier than halftime. Had the Jets received, this efficiency would have been one of many largest causes.
