An inside take a look at the Jets-Colts Week 11 matchup on Sunday.
Marquee matchup
Colts RB Jonathan Taylor vs. Jets defensive position
The Jets’ largest weak spot on protection this season has been stopping the run, and now right here comes Taylor to present them one other problem. Taylor will not be the identical again he was a number of years in the past, however he’s nonetheless having a powerful season. He has 616 speeding yards and 5 touchdowns in seven video games. He has gone over 100 yards in 4 video games this season, together with final week when he had 114 in opposition to the Payments.
The Jets are twenty fifth within the NFL in opposition to the run and have given up a minimum of 100 yards speeding in 5 straight video games and in eight of their 10 video games this season. In 2021, Taylor torched them for 172 speeding yards and two touchdowns, essentially the most that any again has gained in opposition to the crew below defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
“He feels like a guy that is a little bit of a renaissance of the guy that he was the first couple years in the league,” Ulbrich stated. “He looks fast, he looks explosive, he doesn’t go down with arm tackles, you got to get numerous hats on him to get him down, so it is a great challenge, they got great scheme too as far as ways to create space for him and get out in the open, so he is going to be a huge part of what they do on offense and we got to be ready for that.”
Costello’s name
There may be little or no motive to count on Jets victories nowadays, however I believe they don’t simply win however dominate on this sport. The Colts are turning again to Anthony Richardson, who has not performed nicely and their protection is suspect. The Jets management the sport from wire to wire and intercept Richardson twice, together with one from Sauce Gardner.
Jets 27, Colts 17
4 DOWNS
Shot takers: The longest play the Jets offense had final week was 15 yards, and that was on a checkdown move from Aaron Rodgers to working again Breece Corridor. The offense had 4 drives of 10 performs or extra and scored simply two area objectives. They didn’t hit any of the explosive performs that result in straightforward touchdowns. Can they do it this week in opposition to the Colts? Rodgers stated it comes right down to safety.
“We got to be able to block it up,” Rodgers stated. “If we want to take shots down the field, we got to block it up front and if we do that, we got a chance, but otherwise, we got to keep quarterback clean, part of us has to run the ball. We got to run the ball a little more effectively and maybe a little more so we can get some of those [play]-action passes.”
Tackling the issue: The Jets missed 20 tackles final week within the loss to Arizona, and the emphasis this week has been on altering that. Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, a former NFL linebacker, did a tackling presentation for the whole crew, not simply the protection, this week. In addition they practiced in full pads greater than normal. Ulbrich expects to see a distinction.
“They took the challenge this week,” he stated. “Of all things, if something’s going to get improved, it’s that. We showed a lot of it in the meeting rooms, practice, individual. As much as you can shine a light on something we did that with tackling, so I anticipate a much better tackling game.”
Mr. Wilson: There are many negatives to level out in regards to the Jets, however one gamers who’s having a monster season is third-year receiver Garrett Wilson. He ranks second within the NFL with 65 receptions, one behind the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase. He has essentially the most catches by 10 video games in franchise historical past.
Wilson has a streak of eight straight video games of a minimum of 5 catches that ought to be capable of be prolonged in opposition to a Colts protection that ranks twenty seventh in move protection. Solely Laveranues Coles has an extended streak in crew historical past of a minimum of 5 receptions. Coles did it in 13 consecutive video games in 2002.
Take your choose: One of many strangest stats about these Jets is that they’ve simply two interceptions this season. Each got here from backup cornerback Brandin Echols, and the final one was in Week 5 in London in opposition to the Vikings. That’s so way back that Robert Saleh was nonetheless the coach.
Ulbrich stated they haven’t gotten as many alternatives as they’d like as a result of they’ve been trailing and opponents haven’t needed to move.
“We’ve got to be operating we leads, and we don’t operate with leads,” Ulbrich stated. “Teams aren’t forced to press the ball as hard and search for the explosives and try to get down the field, so when that happens there’s less opportunity and at the same time, we’ve missed some opportunities that we should have taken advantage of, so it is a combination of both those things.”
