–Poor offensive line play is among the reasons for the Giants being a disaster but it’s starting to creep into the Jets.
Perhaps no Jets lineman is experiencing a rougher time of it recently than center Spencer Long, who returned in the 13-6 loss at Miami after sitting out a week with a finger injury.
His return did not go remotely well and his problems snapping the ball continued, especially when the Jets were in the shotgun formation.
Long did fine on his first nine snaps out of the shotgun but out of the 18 shotgun snaps in the second half, 12 were ineffective and overall 13 were bad. On those snaps, rookie quarterback QB Sam Darnold completed 4 of 10 passes.
“Something I have been battling for the last few weeks here,” Long said. “We’ve been trying to work through it, and I’m doing the best I can to work through it and it just keeps getting worse. It’s something that obviously is very frustrating for me, and I’m just trying to do the best I can to help this team, and it didn’t work out for me today.”
One of Long’s poor snaps ultimately led to Miami’s Jerome Baker intercepting quarterback Sam Darnold for a touchdown. On the interception return, Darnold had to reach for a high snap. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Long made an errant snap that whizzed by Darnold.
Long stayed in the game until late in the fourth quarter when Head coach Todd Bowles eventually replaced him with Jonotthan Harrison. Harrison started for Long in the Chicago game but the switch was made because Bowles said Long reinjured his finger.
–When a team loses often and when one unit plays poorly while another plays adequately, it would be natural to wonder if there is going to be a fractured locker room.
After New York’s defense provided an ineffective offense a chance to win in Sunday’s 13-6 loss at Miami, various players insisted positive team chemistry still existed.
“If we start dividing now, if coaches start dividing from players or players from players or coaches from coaches – any type of division in this organization – it’s only going to hinder us,” defensive end Leonard Williams said Monday.
Williams was part of a group who held the Dolphins to 168 yards of total offense and 3 of 16 on first downs. Those numbers are enough for most teams to win and it did not unnoticed by tackle Kelvin Beachum, who said the defense played their “balls off.”
“We’re in this together, man,” defensive lineman Steve McLendon said. “We understand that. We are in this together. Everybody in here is in this together. We’re going to get everything. I’m not worried. Not at all. We still have hope. That’s all we need.”
–Wide receivers Robby Anderson and Quincy Enunwa both returned from ankle injuries which meant the number of targets for the third option Jermaine Kearse might have decreased.
Instead, Kearse was targeted nine times, the most among any player in Sunday’s 13-6 loss at Miami. The problem was he only caught three of those balls for 20 yards.
It was a similar problem as the previous week in Chicago when he was targeted 10 times and only hauled in three receptions.
During the losing streak, Kearse has been targeted 21 times but only has six catches for 50 yards. Overall, he has 22 catches for 215 yards while being targeted 48 times.
In his first season with the Jets in 2017, Kearse was targeted 102 times and hauled in 65 receptions for a career-high 810 yards and five touchdowns.
BY THE NUMBERS: 21 and 161 — These figures represent the number of penalties and total yards the Jets have been penalized for during the three-game skid. Nine of those penalties have been committed by an offensive lineman and the Jets have been whistled for six false starts in their skid. Overall, the Jets have been penalized 58 times for 440 yards.
