Jets-Jaguars Preview: 6 Questions with Big Cat Country

With the Jets getting set to visit the Jaguars in Jacksonville http://www.jetsfootballauthentics.com/jordan-jenkins-jersey-authentic , I was able to ask Ryan O’Bleness of Big Cat Country a few questions on the state of the Jaguars.1. How are things going for Blake Bortles? I was in the camp that thought the best move for the Jags would be to make an all-in move for a proven passer. Is he validating the front office’s belief in him? Can the Jaguars step forward from a playoff contender to champions under his lead?2. How has former Jet Austin Seferian-Jenkins done? Here in New York, fans were torn on him. He caught a lot of balls and brought production the Jets hadn’t had at tight end in a long time, but he had an absurdly low yards per catch rate and on the whole didn’t seem to be an impact player.3. How has the void left by longtime Jaguar Paul Posluszny been filled?4. Who has Leonard Fournette been? The ridiculous size, speed, and ability is there. The accolades are there. The star power is there. But to this point, has he really had a star-type impact for the Jags? His efficiency numbers are low, and until this past week, the Jaguars were playing extremely well when he wasn’t on the field. How good has he been so far, and where can he be better?5. What happened against Tennessee? Was there anything that led to the loss that is a legitimate cause for concern going forward, and what were the main takeaways from the game both positively and negatively?6. Which players are the primary weaknesses on both the offensive and defensive sides? The Jets saw their two-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 3-4 with a 37-17 home loss to the Vikings. The offense was putrid, failing to generate any traction for a very long stretch between the first quarter and garbage time. The offensive line certainly played its part in the sluggish performance.Let’s dive in!Previous editions: Pre 1, Pre 2, Pre 3, Pre 4, W1-DET, W2-MIA, W3-CLE, W4-JAX, W5-DEN, W6-INDAs I will always mention, it is impossible to capture everything with the stats, but with this series I hope to capture the most impactful plays accumulated by each linemen, both positive and negative, to help better our perspective on their production levels. Every single snap does matter, and here we will only be grading a small portion of those snaps, but this data can still help shape our opinions on players more properly and truly. Do not use these numbers as final judgement, but as useful evidence.Here’s what I’ve been tracking:Stuffs (runs for 2 yards or less and no first down) allowed in the run gameRushing first downs assisted“Setup runs” assisted (which I now define as a 5+ yard pickup on 1st-3rd down that did not result in a first down). Despite not resulting in a first down Womens Kelvin Beachum Jersey , these kinds of pickups are still positive plays that deserve to be tracked.Sacks allowedQB hits allowedQB pressures allowed (pressure counts include all throws affected by pressure, forced rollouts/dodged defenders, forced throwaways, throwing directly over/around a deeply penetrating defender, footwork/mechanics forced to adjust due to pressure, etc.)Deflections allowed (occurrences when allowing the currently engaged defender to bat/deflect a pass at the line)Open field assists (blocking assists for significant extra yardage/first down by any player, OL or skill position, in the pass game while a pass receiver has the football)Pass blocking snaps (Pass blocking snaps now counted for all players rather than just the base five linemen. Team pass attempts + sacks)Penalties (Total accepted, yards, first downs/scores wiped out, and declined)Here are the numbers for the Jets in Week 7!Some takeaways:Aside from Spencer Long, I thought this was a below average, but not awful overall performance from the offensive line. They allowed 3 sacks, and I tagged them for 13 pressures. On 47 protection snaps, that’s not too bad at all. Brandon Shell had his third straight strong game in pass protection, while James Carpenter protected well also. Kelvin Beachum had a rough day, in on 2 sacks and 4 additional pressures, two of them resulting in interceptions. Brian Winters also struggled as he was primarily responsible for 1 sack and in on 3 more pressures.Up and down day at the skill positions. Eric Tomlinson did a great job blocking with 8 clean pass protection snaps, some of those assignments against very tough matchups. However, Isaiah Crowell, Trenton Cannon, Chris Herndon, and Neal Sterling all allowed pressure.Spencer Long had a very rough day. He allowed 2 more pressures and added a holding call. His snapping was terrible all game, throwing off many plays and often resulting in disaster. It seems he might now be missing time due to a lower leg injury - we’ll have to wait on more news.It was a mediocre run game performance. The Jets did a great job in power running situations, especially on a pair of Sam Darnold sneaks, but couldn’t generate any big plays and struggled on early downs. The Vikings linebackers and defensive backs performed very well in this phase. At the same time, the Jets were only stuffed 7 times compared to 7 positive runs www.newyorkjetsteamonline.com , and I thought both Bilal Powell and Isaiah Crowell missed on some 1-on-1 chances they were presented with. A better-than-terrible, but certainly less-than-good game in the run blocking department.FILMSpencer Long’s snapping destroyed this offense. He has reportedly been dealing with a finger issue - but the man is out there on the field playing every down. If the team didn’t think he could contribute, he wouldn’t be out there. It’s really not an excuse. Snapping is one of those tasks that should be expected to be executed every single time. It’s in the same neighborhood as extra point kicking - if you mess it up once in a game, you had a bad day in that department.Long didn’t just mess up once - he was consistently launching inaccurate snaps, and they led to catastrophe on multiple occasions.Long makes Darnold leap to catch a shotgun snap prior to a handoff, leading to a fumble recovered by Minnesota.Another poor snap blowing up a play. Long delivers it low and outside to the left. Darnold bobbles the ball and has to eat this play - the Jets are extremely lucky Long inadvertently kicked this one back to Darnold.We’re not done yet. Long launches another errant snap, this time high and outside to the right. Luckily, Darnold, being the Olympic-caliber athletic prodigy he is, snags it with one hand, and proceeds to throw a perfect pass to Charone Peake for a first down. Or, not. Peake drops it for the interception. This play is a very solid microcosm for the whole game.While the snap didn’t necessarily affect the end result of this play, it’s the second straight week an interception was thrown off of a bad snap by Long. In addition to those obvious occurrences, Long was slightly off on many other snaps as well.Kelvin Beachum had his worst game of the year by my tally. He was in on two sacks and four pressures.He gets abused by the bull-rushing Danielle Hunter here. Hunter throws Beachum straight into Darnold, and the sack is finished by Jayron Kearse, who pummeled Isaiah Crowell for his second sack allowed of the year.Hunter had himself one dominant game. He affected Darnold on both of his interceptions, beating Beachum with power both times.On Darnold’s first interception, he had a window to Robby Anderson near the sideline, but ended up severely underthrowing the ball for the interception.Beachum played a hand in Darnold’s inability to get enough air under the ball. Beachum has Hunter under control at first, but Hunter is able to take control late with a swipe and penetrate Beachum straight into Darnold as he is throwing.Take a look at the feet. It looks like Hunter’s penetration forced Darnold to step on Beachum’s foot, likely taking major air off of the throw and leading to the interception.There are a few noticeable things happening in this next clip. Firstly, I chose this clip because I wanted to highlight Brandon Shell, so check him out stifling Stephen Weatherly on the right edge. Weatherly has been a solid player this year filling in for Everson Griffen. Shell drew a lot of matchups against Weatherly with Danielle Hunter primarily operating on the right side, and Shell mostly owned those.A few other things stood out here. Firstly, Long launches another imperfect snap. You can see Brian Winters get beaten to his outside with a rip to force Darnold to step up and rush the ball out. Darnold also makes a bad decision here. Crowell is open with at least 15 yards of turf in front of him. Darnold instead tries to fit the ball to Herndon downfield and nearly was picked off.Here’s a look at the team numbers through seven games.