There’s nowhere to go but up for the Jets offense after failing to score a single point on Monday night against the Patriots. Expectations are low heading into their Week 8 match with the Jaguars, but the team they’ll face has many more weaknesses than the one the Jets faced six days ago.
Fresh off his five-turnover performance, Sam Darnold needs to forget his rough outing quickly as he heads to Jacksonville. The Jets will have ample opportunities to score against the Jaguars, but it will take an inventive gameplan from Adam Gase revolving around exploiting Jacksonville’s porous linebacking corps and soft secondary.
Here are four keys to the Jets offense heading into Week 8.
Protect Sam Darnold
This will always be one of the top priorities for the Jets offense every week. The Jets are coming off a horrible outing against the Patriots where the offensive line allowed 11 quarterback hurries that played a huge role in Darnold’s five turnovers. When the Jets kept Darnold upright against the Cowboys, the offense flourished. But when Darnold sees lots of pressure, like he did against the Patriots, the offense flounders.
That can’t happen against the Jaguars, who feature a formidable pass rush.
Jacksonville ranks fifth in sacks (21), ninth in quarterback hits (43) and sixth in pressures (72), but just lost defensive tackle Marcell Dareus for the rest of the year. That will make things a little easier for the Jets up front, but Calais Campbell, Yannick Ngakoue, Myles Jack and rookie Josh Allen are still terrors on the edge.
Pepper Jamison Crowder
Crowder is already the most-heavily targeted pass-catcher on the Jets, and New York should continue to look his way against the Jaguars highly-susceptible secondary. The Jaguars may boast the ninth-best pass DVOA, but they’re one of the worst teams against small possession wide receivers.
These are the wide receivers who have finished with at least 90 yards against the Jaguars through Week 7: Adam Humphries, Emmanuel Sanders, D.J. Moore and Alex Erickson. What do they all have in common with Crowder? They’re all smaller receivers who operate in the slot. Crowder’s ability to catch the ball will be crucial.
Establish the run early
Le’Veon Bell should see another sizable workload against a surprisingly mediocre Jaguars run defense. The Jaguars ranked 27th in rush defense DVOA before losing Dareus for the year and now figure to be even more exploitable on the ground.
Jacksonville is 0-4 in games in which it has allowed more than 100 yards and has the worst open field yards rank in the league, per Football Outsiders. Basically, that means if the Jets can get past the Jaguars’ middling defensive line, the opposing linebackers and defensive backs aren’t good enough to take down runners in the open field. That’s music to Bell’s ears, who is one of the best tackle-breaking running backs in the league.
Get the ball out in space
As mentioned previously, the Jaguars can’t take down players in the open field. They’ve also allowed 910 yards after the catch this season (first in the league) and missed 57 total tackles (second in the league).
Adam Gase should build a gameplan around getting his weapons the ball in space to do damage. This will include lots of Bell and Crowder, who have 210 and 136 yards after the catch, respectively. Jacksonville doesn’t have the same menacing defense it once did, especially once you get past the line of scrimmage. If the Jets can get into the second level of the defense they should be able to break off long gains and extend drives.
