Sep 7, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets running back Chris Johnson (21) runs the ball against the Oakland Raiders during the third quarter of a game at MetLife Stadium. The Jets defeated the Raiders 19-14. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Yesterday we looked at the passing game in the Oakland offense and critiqued the way screens and short passes were executed in attempts to beat New York’s aggressive blitzing defensive schemes. Today we’ll shift our eyes to the defensive side of the ball analyzing how coverage and assignments were used successfully and unsuccessfully against Geno Smith and the Jets offense.
Oakland was up and down in the secondary. FS Charles Woodson and CB T.J. Carrie had decent games, especially in run support. CB Tarell Brown was about average all around, and SS Tyvon Branch was serviceable in coverage but terrible against the run. In the defensive front seven, the trend of the day involved leaving a super soft middle of the field for New York to happily exploit. Runs up the middle and medium distance middle of the field passes were the Jets bread and butter plays. With Nick Roach out of the game, Oakland had to turn to Miles Burris to fill in at inside linebacker, to near disastrous results (Overall PFF Grade of -3.5 in Week 1). Though they may have only scored 19 points, the Jets basically had they way in the middle of the field.
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
On a play in which both Sio Moore and Miles Burris manage to slip when trying to break on the pass New York exploits the soft underside of the deep zone. New York comes out in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) and uses the two receivers to run a hi-lo concept on the left, while sending the tight ends on the right into a double verticals concept. Oakland runs a Cover 2 zone scheme from their 3-4 defense , but with the twist of having CB Carlos Rogers and SS Tyvon Branch switch assignments for this play.
Burris drops back in a Tampa-2 style technique, racing to fill the deep middle of the field as the safeties float out toward the numbers. With an eleven yard difference between the depth of Burris’s dropback and that of the other linebackers the middle of the field is wide open and Geno Smith easily finds WR David Nelson on the deep hook for a first down and some change.