As the Country Goes Conservative, so do the Jets
If you tuned in to the Rams vs. Jets game this Sunday, you might have witnessed a nail biter. That is, if you didn’t turn the TV off and watched the Cowboys vs. Steelers game immediately following it. As for the meeting between the Rams and Jets, that was anything but, and Chan Gailey is to thank for that. A matchup between the two worst offenses in football in a game that featured one touchdown was bad enough, but Gailey, the Jets’ offensive coordinator made sure that there would be no excitement.
The big storyline coming into Sunday’s matchup was the first start in the young career of Bryce Petty, the second-year quarterback out of Baylor who the Jets drafted in the fourth round. Petty only got the start due to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s knee sprain, but he was greeted with cheers from Jets fans, who were eager to see any glimmer of hope at the quarterback position. Unfortunately, Petty didn’t offer one. He finished the game 19 for 32, tossing for 163 yards, a touchdown, and a pick that clinched the win for Los Angeles. The numbers on the surface don’t look too discouraging, and they’re not, but if Jets fans were looking to see flashes of arm talent out of Petty, they were left disappointed.
The primary reason that Petty didn’t impress wasn’t his own fault, however. From the outset, the Jets showed no intentions of handing Petty the keys and letting him run the offense. Chan Gailey displayed an extremely conservative game plan, scarcely giving Petty the opportunity to air the ball out. The game plan was predictable, it was unexciting, and ultimately, it didn’t help the Jets or their fan base understand their quarterback situation any better. The Jets ran the ball twice to start the game, and it seemed like a way to simply ease into the action, allowing Petty to get a feel for things before he was able to make plays.
The playmaking never came though, as all the way up until the last five minutes, the predictable runs on first and second downs left Petty with third and longs constantly. Gailey, in an effort to ensure that Petty wouldn’t make a mistake and turn the ball over, would call for short pass plays, and a punt would ensue. That was the progression of the Jets offense on Sunday, and they ran it ad nauseam.
Petty managed a measly 4.31 yards per attempt, more than a full yard lower than every starting quarterback in wthe NFL this year. While the 4.31 figure is concerning, it also speaks to the play calling. He simply wasn’t given the opportunity to throw the ball down the field. Of his 32 pass attempts, 30 of them were short passes, or passes that travelled fewer than 15 yards. It’s extremely hard to manage a healthy yards per attempt average if the play calls don’t warrant a vertical passing attack. Most of the play calls were screens to Bilal Powell or Robby Anderson, who had 13 targets between them. Petty rarely looked Brandon Marshall’s way, and there weren’t many designed play calls to get the ball to the Jets’ best offensive weapon. One would think that the game plan would be for a young quarterback to rely heavily on his top receiver, i.e., Jameis Winston with Mike Evans, Derek Carr with Amari Cooper, or even Cody Kessler with Terrelle Pryor, but Marshall wasn’t a focus of the offense, which contributed to a minimal scoring output.
The more confusing part of the game plan was that in his two passes more than 15 yards, Petty completed one of them on a 52-yard bomb to Anderson on a throw that Fitzpatrick was never able to make. Petty unquestionably has the arm to make those deep throws, and showed it off again on a deep ball to Anderson. The second throw to Anderson sailed out of bounds, and Anderson stopped mid-route, but the combination seemed to be there until Gailey abandoned it completely. Gailey settled for a vanilla offense that limited Petty’s range, and when Petty finally had to execute a drive with two minutes left and no timeouts, the offense was a complete change. Alec Ogletree picked him off, taking a 50-50 ball from the hands of Quincy Enunwa to seal the deal. The Jets offense stalled for the majority of the game, in large part because of the inexperience of Petty, but the play calling was the determining factor in what was a lackluster passing game on Sunday.
austink: Petty misses Anderson wide open!!! Whose fault is it… #YouDecide Fox NFL Football:… https://t.co/fhLo7kSFM4 pic.twitter.com/cUJuoddTi7
— FanSportsClips (@FanSportsClips) November 13, 2016
While Gailey was overwhelmingly boring, one would be remiss to not touch on the Jets touchdown in the first quarter to cap off a 99-yard drive. Petty dropped back, tossed a quick sideline screen pass to Marshall, who then flipped the ball to Powell coming around the edge for a touchdown. It was a perfectly executed hook and ladder at the perfect time and it made Gailey look like a genius for the only time on Sunday.
Bilal Powell dances into the end zone on a trick play that gave Bryce Petty his first NFL touchdown pass.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
After a poor showing, the usual question remains. Who will be the Jets quarterback going forward? The Jets have a bye week coming up, and a difficult matchup against New England the following week. Fitzpatrick will likely be healthy by then, but Bowles surprisingly declined to name his quarterback in his postgame press conference following the loss. Maybe Sunday’s game was an attempt to ease Petty into the offense if the plan was to use him going forward, but there will always be talk in New York about who will be quarterbacking the Jets, and these next two weeks will be no exception. But one thing is for sure. If the Jets plan on using Petty in the future, there needs to be a change in the game plan.
