Week 8 Thoughts
The Ravens Pass Defense is a Problem
Lamar Jackson continues to have an MVP-caliber season and Derrick Henry has been a tremendous addition to Baltimore’s offense. But their pass defense has been atrocious, and it will keep the Ravens from getting where they want to go if it doesn’t get corrected soon.
Baltimore entered Week 7 dead last in passing yards per game and completions of 20+ yards allowed. Then Jameis Winston picked them apart, completing 27 of 41 passes for 334 yards and 3 TDs with no interceptions. That included a 38-yard touchdown pass over the top of the Ravens defense in the final minute that would end up being the game-winner.
In the NFL, you’re only as good as your weakest link because teams will find ways to expose it. That’s what happened in Cleveland in Week 8.
Lions and Packers Headed for a Showdown
The Lions scored 52 points with Jared Goff throwing for just 85 yards on Sunday. That’ll happen when you’re a complete team, and they’re as complete as any in the NFL right now. At 6-1, they sit atop the NFC North.
But the 6-2 Packers are on their heels and also appear to be one of the more complete teams in the NFL. Last week, for instance, their defense led them to victory with some key 3rd-down sacks. This week, back-up quarterback Malik Willis and the run game led them to a win.
In fact, Green Bay is now 3-0 in games that Jordan Love didn’t start or missed significant time.
Next week’s showdown in Lambeau can’t come quickly enough.
The NFC West is Wild
It’s also wide open. The Cardinals, Seahawks, and 49ers are all tied with 4-4 records at the top of the division.
Arizona is the surprise team that keeps pulling out wins they seemingly shouldn’t. They’re a fun watch on both sides of the ball right now.
The Seahawks are schizophrenic. One week, they can look like a great team capable of beating anyone. The next week, they get curb-stomped.
The 49ers got a big win on Sunday night but haven’t played like the team we all expected. A big reason for this is that they’re banged up. But the difference between this year’s team and last year’s is palpable, particularly on defense.
The Rams trail the three division leaders by a 1/2 game with a 3-4 record. They were allegedly putting their stars on the trade block a week ago before getting 2 wins in 5 days. They’re now back in the race for the division, which seems like it won’t be decided until Week 18.
The NFC South is the Falcons’ Division to Lose
Isn’t it amazing how small the difference is between the teams that win and the teams that don’t in the NFL? The Falcons were a dropped pass by Saquon Barkley and two last-second field goals away from starting the season 0-5. Instead, they went 3-2, and those close wins bought them time to figure things out.
Now, they’re on a roll. This is especially true of their offense, which is averaging 11 more points and 125 more yards per game over their last 4 games than they did in their first four.
Atlanta is now a game up on the Buccaneers but also owns the tie-breaker after beating them twice, including a 31-26 win on Sunday.
The Jets are done
This thought is going to be a bit longer than the ones above, so settle in.
Just as the Falcons were a few small plays from starting 0-5, the Jets are a field goal kicker away from being 5-3 instead of 2-6. Unfortunately for them, none of that matters. Despite the talent, they are what their record says they are. And now it’s about to get even louder around the team as we move to the second half of what has been an absolute disaster of a season.
2024 has been an organizational failure, top to bottom. It’s not just Aaron Rodgers’ fault, by the way. There’s a bit (a bit?) of a “derangement syndrome” surrounding him that prevents many from being able to analyze him objectively. He’s the boogeyman for some, responsible for absolutely everything wrong with this team – from his play, to the team’s energy level, to the protection, to his receivers slipping, to the coach firings, to the defensive miscues, to the missed kicks, to the personnel moves, to the food in the cafeteria, to the JFK assassination.
I’m not trying to downplay his role in this. He’s certainly had his bad moments. Both Nick and I put the loss to the Vikings on him and Nick even wrote about it a few weeks ago. His INT against the Steelers before the half last week was also inexcusable.
But outside of that, he’s been just fine as a quarterback. Not great. Not bad. Just fine. Entering the season, most of us thought that “just fine” would be enough with the talent on this defense, at the skill positions on offense, and on the improved offensive line.
It's now clear that “just fine” is not enough. And the reason for this is largely that the organization as a whole has been rudderless and doesn’t do any of the little things right.
If firing Robert Saleh after 5 games (which appears to be a move driven by the owner) was even on the table, then he shouldn’t have been given the chance to start the 2024 season as the head coach. He should have been let go after the end of last season.
It’s already clear that his firing after the loss to the Vikings was a bad move. It’s not that Saleh was a great coach that the Jets should have hung onto forever. It’s the timing of the move.
It doesn’t matter if it’s football or any other profession. When someone gets fired or leaves their position and others have to take on additional responsibilities, things get thrown into disarray. People go into survive-mode instead of thrive-mode and it takes a while for everything to settle down.
Unsurprisingly, this has been the case with the Jets, and most visibly, with the defense. They’ve taken a major step back and shown no discipline or ability to do the little things right in the three games since Jeff Ulbrich was forced to have his attention split between calling the defense and taking on head coaching duties.
We saw it all afternoon against the Patriots (who are poorly coached themselves and far less talented than the Jets).
For instance, if there was one thing the Jets couldn’t do against Drake Maye, it was give him easy escape lanes to scramble. And yet on New England’s first touchdown drive, that’s exactly what they did. Twice!
These scrambles weren’t examples of Maye making unbelievable plays to evade pressure and make something out of nothing. Instead, they were plays where the pass rushers were seemingly unaware that they needed to rush in a way that contained a mobile quarterback and kept him in the pocket. This should have been drilled into their heads over and over all week.
That it happened twice on the same drive early in the game tells you this was not a point of emphasis in practice. Or if it was, it didn’t stick. It even happened a third time on New England’s next drive. That’s squarely on the coaching.
Situational awareness was also terrible for the Jets. Perhaps no moment was worse than when Sauce Gardner attempted to jump a pass to Rhamondre Stevenson on 2nd-and-15 in the red zone. He didn’t come close.
Had he been situationally aware, he would have kept Stevenson in front of him and made the tackle on the sideline to set up 3rd-and-10. Instead, he missed the ball and Stevenson picked up 14 yards. That enabled the run game to be a factor on the next play, a 3rd-and-1 that New England pounded in for the touchdown.
That’s not the time to take a chance unless you are absolutely certain you can get to the ball. That’s the definition of a low-football-IQ play.
That said, maybe forcing 3rd-and-long on that play wouldn’t have made a difference. The Jets couldn’t stop back-up quarterback Jacoby Brissett on 3rd-and-long three times in the 4th quarter. They allowed receivers to run freely due to miscommunications and/or poor playcalls.
And the big 34-yard reception by Kayshon Boutte on 3rd-and-10 during the Patriots’ game-winning drive was a result of Gardner not understanding the coverage or where his help would be, as he admitted after the game. He’s had a subpar season to say the least.
Everything is a mess with the Jets. On offense, they can’t seem to get a play off until there’s 1 second (or less) on the play clock. They had to burn 4 (4!) timeouts on Sunday to avoid delay of game penalties. They still ended up taking two, including on the 2-point conversion at the end of the game that could have given them a 7-point lead. We’re in Week 8. That’s simply unacceptable.
Some of that is on Rodgers. He likes to let the play clock get down to 1 to give himself every opportunity to make last second adjustments, set the protection, etc. But it gives the defense an advantage if they know when the snap is coming because the play clock is expiring. It certainly gives them an advantage if you take a delay of game or have to burn a timeout.
A part of that is also on the overall operation. New OC Todd Downing has introduced more motion into the offense since taking over. To use motion and shifts and also have the ability to change plays at the line, you have to get the play in early and break the huddle early. The Jets aren’t doing that.
Overall, it’s a mess.
And finally, we have the kicking situation. The Jets win on Sunday if they had a competent kicker. They also likely beat the Broncos and Bills. That they didn’t make a move after the Bills game (with Brandon McManus out there) is an indictment on the front office.
Needless to say, organizational leadership matters. Coaching matters. The fringes of the roster matter. Doing the little things right and having attention to detail matters.
The Jets aren’t getting that from their coaching staff or front office. The result is they’re a 2-6 team when they should be far better.