December 21, 2022 • 34 mins
It's Week 16 of the Game Preview Podcast with Ethan Greenberg and NFL Network Analytics Expert Cynthia Frelund, and the duo dives into Jets-Jaguars. They begin the first quarter talking about what has led to the Jaguars' recent string of success (0:30) and how the Jets offense led by Zach Wilson performed vs. the Lions (2:20). In the second quarter, they talk about the hot play from Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (9:45) and the stylistic fit of the Jaguars wide receivers (13:45). In the third quarter, Frelund gives her take on the play of rookie cornerback Sauce Gardner (21:40). She also discusses the play of the Jets defensive line (23:45). They finish in the fourth quarter talking about the Jaguars defense (24:00) and the Jets' recipe for success vs. the Jaguars on Thursday Night Football (30:35).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to another edition of the Game Preview Podcast. Ethan Greenberg.
Cynthia Freeland on the short week, Quick turnaround four the
New York Jets after taking on the Detroit Lions unfortunately
losing the game. Now the Green and White five hundred
on the year seven and seven, welcoming in a Jacksonville
Jaguar team that, Cynthia very much like the Detroit Lions
last week, very hot right now four and two in
(00:25):
their last six. Before we get into the matchup specifically,
from just like an like a bird's eye view, what
have you seen from the Jacksonville team that's enabled them
to turn it around pretty quickly? Play action passing, Play
action passing, that's the answer. Um, if you if you're
looking at Trevor Lawrence, he's since week nine, something happened
(00:45):
and they figured out the play action work for them.
Why well, what am I looking at here? Well, he's
always been one interception since that time. In fact, before
last week he had the longest streak going of no interception,
So that's interesting. It was like ten to nothing, ten
touchdowns to zero in receptions, So that's good. Why does
this work? Seventy completion percentage using play action. Now, where
(01:07):
does Travis e t N run? Great question, That question
really helps outside runs, which, by the way, the Jets
defense they are the best at limiting outside runs negative
fifty five rushing yards overexpected a lot. So the answer
is play action that comes off of efficient running and
efficient rushing that typically has come from outside the tackles rushes,
(01:28):
where by the way, e t N is like number
six in Monks running back since Week nine and rushing
yards overexpected on those outside runs. But again, Jets all
season long not allowing those runs. All right, we're gonna
talk about Trevor Lawrence in the second quarter. Naturally he's
been playing out of his mind to your point. But
let's just start with Zack Wilson in the first quarter
because Robert Salas said it will indeed be Zack Wilson
(01:49):
again starting against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That makes it his
second consecutive start. Kind of a weird game for Zach
against the Lions because he goes over three hundred passing yards.
He had a lot of chunk plays, but it also
felt like there were spurts of when the office of
the offense not the office, but I guess the offenses
office is MetLife Stadium, which they will be again on Thursday.
(02:11):
But it felt like the offense was kind of lacking consistency,
although it was hitting some explosive plays. What did you
make of the way that the offense came together with
Zack last week? I mean, Zach had a nice game,
Like it wasn't his fault that anything didn't go the
Jets way. So it was interesting when you look at
this one. Obviously, injuries to the running backs, that one
took a toll because that just like I talked about
(02:32):
with you know, when we talk about Trevor Lawrence, we
we want to talk about play action and the ability
to run. And this was the first time we hadn't
seen efficient running in in a little bit of a time.
In fact, it's like the first time the Lions held
the team to a low passing number rushing number rather
in like all of their games this season. So that
was that that injury made a big difference. However, I'm
going to give Garrett Wilson a bunch of credit here
(02:54):
because his ability to run different routes and be effective
and efficient and be of the quarterbacks expecting is really
really profound and makes a big difference for Zach Wilson.
Those deep passes ten plus eight yard plays, he caught
four of them for over ninety yards. Like that was
a really big help for this team. And by the way,
(03:16):
Garrett Wilson, if you're looking for like reasons to tell
your friends why he should be your offensive Rookie of
the Year, He's got at least four passes on nine
different routes in the route tree. So most rookie receivers
you see maybe two or three, just a more limited number.
They like have their things. They you know, they line
up only the slot and they do whatever they line
about why and they do another thing right, But Garret
Wilson has been super versatile and from every level of
(03:38):
the field. So that's where Zach Wilson really got help
because they found the mismatch on a deeper pass and
they're like, okay, just you that one good and it
really helps Zach Wilson out and Garrett Wilson four receptions
yards and not find the end zone in consecutive weeks.
Now he's broken Jets rookie receiver records. He brokekeh On
(04:00):
Johnson rookie receiving record at Buffalo in terms of a
single season. Then he broke Wayne Cribet's single season receptions
record as a rookie with four receptions last week against Detroit.
The next thing that he needs to check off would
be a thousand yards. He'd be the first Jets rookie
receiver to do that. Right now, he's at N six.
(04:20):
Definitely very feasible against the Jacksonville defense. That again, this
game feels like eerily similar. I feel like Cynthia from
a statistics standpoint and from a Jets offense vantage point.
Detroit's defense wasn't all that in bag of chips. You
liked when I said that last week, So I had
to bring it back and Zack Wilson three seventeen yards,
two touchdowns, one pick. But Jacksonville's defense feels like it's
(04:44):
kind of the same in the same stratosphere as Detroit's
in terms of the amount of yards they let up.
So what's different between the two of them that maybe
is unique to their scheme. Well, the biggest difference, and
we're gonna start with a stat and then we'll get
into why the status that the Lions are causing turnovers.
They had the longest treak in the NFL thirteen turnovers
(05:04):
and thirteen games. The Jags aren't doing that as efficiently
and effectively. The Jags are winning because Trevor Lawrence is
being effective and their offense is winning them games. And
whereas the Lions were really like their offense was already
good and their defense just got ratcheted up just a
little bit better to help them out. So when I'm
looking at this defense, they have started to intermittently bring
(05:25):
a lot like some games, it's a lot more pressure.
A different Josh Allen will be bringing the heat in
this one, not the I love the same name ones.
I think like the Bill should trade for Josh Allen
so that we could have just confuse everyone, especially because
you know Michael Carter on this team whatever. Of course,
so the same same name players is my favorite. But
you know they've been they've been able to bring the
heat intermittently, but they're really targetable in different areas. Like
(05:48):
I go back and watch that Cowboys game and look
where Ceedee Lamb was effective. I understand that the Cowboys lost,
but when you look at Seedee Lamb on intermediate routes,
that was an area where you could exploit, which means
good thing for Garrett Wilson, because you know, I think
seed Lamb was like four for ninety four. I think
it was. It was over ninety yards on intermediate targets
tend to nineteen air yard attempts, and he was really
(06:10):
efficient there, which means they're targeting a different level of
the defense when they're seeing something, they're saying, Okay, well
we're we're going to use a different level because Ceedee
Lamb is quite firsatile as well. So the point being
is there's areas to exploit in this secondary for sure. Well,
I do think that to your point, Like, yes, the
Cowboys lost, they still put up thirty four points, and
not to mention guys like Ceedee Lamb. To your point,
(06:33):
he finished the game with seven catches a hundred twenty
six yards. Dak completed seventy six point seven percent of
his passes on yeah, exactly. And and the Jets defense,
I mean, I guess you wouldn't imagine the Dallas Cowboys
to let up forty points either, but you would you
would think that something would would have gone horribly wrong
(06:54):
from a Jets defensive perspective to allow forty points considering
how well the Jets defense has done the past couple
of weeks specifically, and even in the Detroit game. I mean,
they let up one touchdown and it just was the
worst timing possible for the Jets on the fourth and one.
So the Jets did a great job defensively speaking. But
to wrap up the first quarter, about Zack Wilson. This week,
(07:18):
short week, no real practice. You know, both teams conduct walkthroughs.
What do you expect from Zach Wilson and what will
be the number one overall pick from two thousand one
and the number two overall pick from two thousand one
in a rematch of last year's game, which, by the way,
Zack Wilson had a fifty two yard touchdown run. I
(07:39):
don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, I don't think so either.
I just want to put it out there. I hope
that doesn't happen because like that would mean some weird things,
like like let's get the run game going here. So
I think the thing some things to to really look at.
I think like we saw something pretty cool from c
J Sama, like that's height position became more and more
(08:01):
valuable in this game. I do think that one will
continue to pick up, So I think targeting different levels
of their defense that are specifically tailored to problem areas.
But now we saw you were like, oh, use Uma,
I see you, bro, Like it's there, So I think
that's what we'll see and I think different. Obviously I
don't know about you, but I don't know who's exactly
(08:23):
healthy from the run situation, and as soon as as
soon as we kind of get an understanding of who's
actually going to be available, then the run game will
be a big and important factor in this one, because,
like I said, the Jags have been able to bring
the heat on some place that they're not the number
one pressure defense in the league or anything, but they
are able to bring pressure and that will be a
key factor. And by the way, both of these teams
(08:45):
are really looking like this is like this is might
as well be a playoff game because this could really
determine who goes to the postseason. Yeah, this is a
huge game in terms of playoff implications. The Jets at
seven and seven, the Jaguars at six and eight, And
for the Jets, I mean the arrative has always been
since Sunday like that you do or die, Like the
Jets have to try to win out to really control
(09:07):
their own destiny as much as they can. And DJ
read I think said it best. He was like, we
didn't want other teams to have like a say in
our destiny where you're like, you're hoping for this, you're
hoping for that. And unfortunately for the Jets that is
now the case after losing to the Lions, which brings
us to the second quarter, because if the Jets want
a chance to win this game, they have to limit
(09:28):
Trevor Lawrence. To your point, he was so good since
week nine. He leads a league in completion percentage and
passer rating. It feels like the Jaguars have found their
franchise quarterback when you look at it from a statistics standpoint,
and and I mean like surface level statistics, what about
furthermore than that, like what makes him so good specifically
(09:50):
since week nine and on? Whatever click for him is
clearly working. Yeah. I think part of what they're doing
shifts and motions shift and most wow, that was bad
English shift of shifts and motions. There we go, the
words are coming out of my mouth. So shifts and
motions are very helpful for young quarterbacks and in being
able to diagnose defenses, right, is it? Man? Is it not? Man?
(10:12):
Is it's? Don't? Like what am I looking at here?
And being in more manageable downs and distances because of
that almost forty or sevent completion percentage using play action
that has really allowed him to start seeing the defense
in a way where he can pick the right receiver
to target. In last week's game was clearly a Jones
three times sennzo. So when I'm looking at when I'm
(10:35):
looking at what he's done, well, um, you know when
they okay, I'm gonna say this and then we have
to do an asterix here. Because the Cowboys last week
when they didn't blitz, Trevor Lawrence was like peace out,
three touched out, We're all good, Like, no, don't even try.
The blitz was where he threw the pick. But it
is a totally different their scheme. Dan Quinn's defense totally
(10:57):
different than what we're going to see from Robert Sala.
So like the fact that the Jets can blanket the secondary,
that is a big like helpful note for the Jets defense.
It won't look the same. The Jets are pressuring at
thirty point four percent um this year, which is fourth
best in the NFL. They rarely need to blitz. They
would rather leave the defensive backs back there. That is
(11:17):
a better strategy in part because now you have to
remember and they'll be without their left tackle, Cam Robinson,
so being able to one we talked about it, stop
that outside the outside run from Travisy Tien or whoever
the runner maybe and to get pressure, which now without
Cam Robinson becomes a lot more manageable for the Jets.
(11:39):
That that's the two ways to do, because Trevor Lawrence
still has pretty significant splits when he's under pressure versus
when he's not under pressure. You just have to remember
that blitz doesn't always equal pressure, right, it's a it's
an attempt at pressure, but it's not. It doesn't always
mean pressure. And often if you can bring pressure with four,
the quarterback is forced to be in a pocket, maybe
(12:00):
out of the pocket, think about it a little bit,
hold on to the ball for a long time. And
that's where we've seen Trevor Lawrence have some uh some
his passer rating goes down significantly. Yeah, I think that
it's very important to keep in mind two players, one
is Quinn and Williams. Obviously with the calf strain, we'll
see what his status is. Robert Sala said. The Jets
are gonna take it up pretty much still kick off
or till game time. The other player comes from the
(12:23):
Jacksonville side. It's Cam Robinson's replacement. That's Walker Little, who
is a decorated player out of high school, had an
up and down career out of in Stanford and then
his second round picked for the Jags and he's been
their swing tackle. Now he's gonna play for Cam Robinson.
So this is Carl Lawson versus Walker Little. If you're
Jets fan, you're imagining advantage loss in here. And to
(12:44):
Cynthia's point, that needs to be the case for the
Jets to get pressure on Trevor Lawrence now in terms
of his receiving corps and just the options around him.
Cynthia Robert Salo said that there's a lot of speed
there and there's definitely a lot of new faces. When
you think of Christian Kirk, obviously that was the big
ticket free agent that everyone was surprised at the contract
(13:04):
he got. Evan Ingram, the former Giant, joined the Jaguars
the tight end. Then you're looking at I know Travis
et N was a rookie last year with Lawrence, but
he was out all last year, so he's essentially a
new player there. Zay Jones and then Marvin Jones has
been the guy there for a couple of years. It's
just like a sneaky good core around Trevor Lawrence because
(13:25):
it feels like they have a lot of pieces that
maybe we're overlooked at the beginning of the year just
because of the way the Jacks were playing. I think
that there, I'm gonna call them sneaky good, But I
think the thing that's even more important is the stylistic fit.
We saw this in Philadelphia when Doug Peterson had Carson Wentz.
It sounds wild to say this, but I mean there
(13:47):
were like rumblings of like Carson Wentz m VP, like
like that was that was real. I didn't make that up,
you know. So part of what was going on during
that stretch was a multitude of different pass catchers and
Carson Wentz was spreading the ball around. He didn't have
like like it was like four or five different guys
who had like a significant number of yards and catches
or whatever. It wasn't just like funneling it to one
(14:07):
person or maybe even two. It was really like spreading
the ball around, and that was a real key. If
you notice when Trevor Lawrence has started to really pick
things up, it's now he understands, these are my different reads,
this is my different checks, this is my different you know,
these are the different options that I have on every
single play and the multitude of passketers. So yes, it's
(14:27):
it's more that it's a stylistic fit. Like I wouldn't say, like,
plug and play any quarterback into this system and you'd
have the same results. I think they're they're really figuring out,
like meaning like if you put a different coach there,
like and they didn't have that same style, it probably
wouldn't look the same. So you have to give Doug
Peterson a lot of credit for finding the right guys
that kind of fit, because any one of those guys
(14:50):
in and of themselves, I mean, we were kind of like,
I mean, look Christian Kirk's contract, like we were. We
weren't wrong to say it was huge for without knowing, right, like,
but okay, they paid it. Great, that's some costs now, right,
But at the end of the day, it's not like
you're adding Tyreek Hill, who his speed and yeah ability
(15:10):
is just it is game changing. So none of these
guys in and of themselves are game changing, but the
sum of the parts has really fit Doug Peterson's style,
and now Trevor Lawrence can execute it. That's how I
would mathematically say it. But in words, the only thing
I was going to say to end the second quarter
was that Christian Kirk's nine hundred sixty six yards is
ironically the same exact as Garrett Wilson. Anyway, that's halftime,
(15:34):
So let's let's let's rip the band aid off here. Cynthia,
is your Christmas shopping done? Your holiday shopping? Next question? Okay,
alright on in the next what is your favorite? Oh? Oh,
so we talked about this today in the office. Have
you watched the movie Claus on Netflix? No? Oh? It
(15:55):
is incredible? Yes, yes it is. I've said this exact
saying three times today and this will be the fourth.
It is non negotiable to watch class. You might you
might need a box of tissues next to you because
you know it's it's heartwarming? Is it it's a family flick? Ye? Perfect?
(16:16):
Watching together? Then great? Always need a good always need
a good recommendation for a Christmas movie, Christmas time movie,
that that's exactly what you need class Netflix. It'll it's animated,
but it's not like old school animated. It's like new school,
so it doesn't feel super animated. It's great, it's incredible,
and so I would really thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah,
if anyone else who's listening needs any recommendations, watch Klaus.
(16:40):
By the way, we do look very like holiday festive.
Although I have the mug you have, yeah, you do.
I have the water bottle, not the same. I liked
how you described it before. It's like I've got my
Gotham green logo and then the inside is the stealth black.
There's also there's the coffee yep, and the uh, spotlight white,
(17:05):
the spotlight white mug with the Gotham green accent. I mean,
I love how you describe it perfectly. Do you go
iced coffee in the winter at all or you're always so?
I usually do. I prefer iced coffee, but my voice
tends to like hot coffee better. My throat, my voice,
(17:26):
the whole thing. You get that nice, those nice soothing tones,
not like the but I like the taste of coffee better.
That is exactly why I drink tea because I don't
like coffee and I go tea. I wish I liked tea.
I just don't. Yeah, I get it. It has to
be a mint tea or an orange tea, and I'm
(17:49):
in Other than that, I'm way out. Like Earl Gray
came meal, any of that stuff not not great for me?
Got it? So do you have any halftime questions or well,
I guess, I guess, I want, I want to know.
I mean, your weekend is pretty open. What are you
going to do? Because you know, like you kind of
got like a like a great holiday gift. Right, here's
(18:10):
what we get that. That is a fantastic point. I
thank you very much for noticing that. So what I'm
going to do is absolutely nothing perfect, It's going to
be great. That the best answer. So Friday, it's supposed
to rain all day. I will probably be in my
apartment watching movies all day, not budging from the couch. Saturday,
(18:33):
I will be baking a cake with my dad, or
Sunday cake. So it is a nine seven or nine
layer chocolate cake with vanilla like it's a vanilla cake.
With chocolate frosting on it, and it's may You're supposed
to put it in the freezer so it forms. It's
not a hot cake. It's not a room temperature cake.
(18:54):
It is a cold chocolate vanilla cake. It is incredible.
It's my favorite thing that a picture of this. It
sounds amazing, It is incredible, and it is a family
recipe that's been handed down probably like two generations now.
And yeah, and my dad uses like his grandmother's hand
(19:14):
mixer that looks like a Hogwarts train from the front
and when you plug it in, it sounds like and
then it slowly like starts to get going and then
the egg beater starts to yeah, oh yeah, it's it's
a it's a family tradition at this point. And then
other than that, nothing, football, cake and movies. Great weekend. Yeah.
(19:38):
I would ask you what you're gonna do, but I
think you're just gonna tell me that you're gonna work. Yep.
We have two game day mornings. We have Saturday Game
Day morning and Sunday Game Day morning, so I will
be game day morning ing ing ing. Yeah, that sounds good.
Game day morning ing ye huh. Yep, yep, twice twice.
And so does that mean that you don't have to
get anybody gifts other than your coworkers because you won't
(20:01):
be seeing them or you're still on the hook for that.
Yeah tough. So when are you going to do like
a gift exchange? Monday? Usually it's like here and there,
stop by, blah blah blah. Luckily my family will be
will all be here so they can help coordinate. It's
a lot of work, you know, It's tough. And most importantly,
(20:26):
have you purchased something for Gordy? Actually, and Gordy has
done with his Christmas shopping? Gordy got the entire family
matching matching pjs. Wow, yeah, Gordy knows. Gordy knows. Gordy
is like quickly immersed himself into the Freeland family here.
(20:47):
I mean, he's really cute. So he is really cute,
so cute. He just ate my shoe earlier this morning.
But other than that, he's very well. Maybe maybe he
wanted some hand fed peanut butter covered kibble and instead
he's like, you know what, Mom, You know, I don't
think we can top that. So we're gonna have to
(21:08):
move out of halftime, right, into the third quarter. Let's
talk about the Jets defense a little more. Sauce Gardner
like not really seeing targets, Cynthia. He was not targeted,
I believe a single time against the Detroit Lions. And
Robert Sale was like, Hey, he's gonna have to talk
to Richard Sherman about that kind of stuff, because that's
what happens when you're a good player. How rare is
(21:28):
it for someone who's a rookie to not be thrown
at um quite rare. I think you have a massive
advantage in the league, especially right now, if you have
a corner who even is pretty good. In fact, right now,
PFF rates Sauce as the number one corner in the entirely,
not number one among rookie number one, period, full stop, whatever.
(21:50):
And his coverage grade is the highest by I don't
even know what they're are they they're not percentage points,
but by several number of grades. I don't know whatever
he pulled eat, I don't know several points. We'll say points. Right. So,
at the end of the day, when you're looking at coverage,
their coverage, and then I look at my computer vision
and the cool thing that I came up with with
wind share, is you get credit for not being thrown at,
(22:13):
meaning you know, like it would be nice to be
like he was thrown at eighty five times and only
allowed seven yards and coverage. Well that's great, but you
know it's even better. We won't throw to you. So
if you're on our best guy, I'm ros Brown, we
won't throw to him. You know why we don't want
to deal with you. We're actually going to be smart
and not not do that, not do that to ourselves.
So that was actually so when you look to see
(22:35):
his wind share ranking, I mean, it'd be hard. You'd
be hard pressed to convince me anyone else should be
your defensive rookie of the Year. You'd be really hard pressed, period,
full stop. Robert Salis had something similar in his um
in Our Coach's Interview Every week for that airs on
or the interview airs on CBS every Sunday morning at
(22:58):
seven thirty in the morning on the East coast, so
in the morning my time. Yeah, we're gonna say make
sure to just look at the archive on New York
chests dot com. Or I'm just not gonna watch a
live I love you. I'm actually up. Then I'm up then,
but I gotta go to work. You're up at four
thirty in the morning on Sunday, every Sunday, I have
to be into the office by then. So I'm driving
(23:20):
through Englewood scared, but I'm good. Okay, all right, Well
on that note, in terms of this Jets defense for
this week, like obviously every aspect of defense is important,
is there a specific matchup or a specific player for
the Jets that maybe should be a little more in
(23:42):
focus this week? I mean, look that the front. I
want to know if Quentin Williams is playing. I mean,
Bryce Huff did really well. He had a thirty three
point three percent individual pressure rate last game, which is great,
a third of dropbacks and of course the team overall
thirty point four and rarely using i've pass rushers, So
I think that's going to be the To me, the
(24:04):
key is what is this defensive line doing both against
the run and against the past, because they told you
those outside runs have been absolutely key to getting play
action going. And minus fifty five that's the Jets number
for the amount of rushing yards overexpected allowed, So it's
rushing yards under expected by fifty five, which is the
best in the league from week one from the jump,
(24:26):
they've been great at it. So that's to me, the
defensive line is really the key factor here because if
they because that changes everything for the options. We talked
about the optionality that Trevor Lawrence has and it changes
the options completely if he's under pressure, true pressure, or
if he's you know, if his receivers are blanketed. So
(24:48):
when I'm looking at this one, it's like, what is
that line doing and how are they stopping the run?
And Travis e t N like he's so shifty. I
mean even going back to the days at Clemson, like
that was this thing is he's fast, he's shifty, and
I feel like the rapport or the reports from all
the draft analysts were like, you know what, We'll see
(25:08):
how he is in between the tackles and that will
determine how good of a player he is. And so far,
especially last week, Travis Etn coming off of a good
game where he had nineteen carries one hundred three yards,
did not score, and then also had twenty four yards
through the air. But let's move to the fourth quarter.
Jags defense, because this is an interesting unit. I think
(25:30):
Ray Shawn Jenkins had hell of a game the safety.
He led the team with eight teen tackles, which is ridiculous.
He had two interceptions that game. And then Foyer Loukhan,
the former Atlanta Falcon, is a tackling machine. He had
fourteen last week. He's had at least fourteen and like
four or five straight games he leads the NFL and tackles.
(25:51):
Is this a defense that has good players and is
underperforming or or like, what's the story there? I think?
I mean when I when I'm charting that game and
looking at it, the first thing I noticed because I
think that the Cowboys maybe over so with Smith coming back,
with Tyron Smith coming back, I think they maybe overestimated
(26:13):
their game plan, meaning they've been good with the run
they but they didn't stop doing things when they didn't work.
So that's always a strange one for me, right, Like
what is that definition of insanity as doing the same
thing over whatever again and expecting different results. So like,
it's not that I don't want to give credit to
the safety. Will will give all the credit, but the
(26:35):
tackling in the middle part of that, it was a
little bit weird, not not weird, but it was a
little bit like, Okay, well this isn't working, but we're
just gonna keep doing it. And it doesn't always work.
I know, they were scoring points and it wasn't just
an interesting one, but sometimes you have to make decisions
that are going to limit the number of possessions in
(26:55):
your opponent. It's and those decisions were not being made
like you know, not throwing shade, but a little bit shape,
like just did it didn't make sense? So there were
some things that were a bit nonsensical that we're done there.
So I love those numbers for the defense. They did
what they responded to what they were given, and that's
exactly what the defense needs to do. But often what
(27:17):
the Jags don't do well is they typically don't adjust
in second halves. Two teams quite as well. So the
Cowboys were unable to exploit that fact from them, right,
So that's kind of I think maybe they were like, oh,
we got our left tackle back, We are good, good
to go. No, you know, no need to adjust. But
I mean, perhaps it was an underest they underestimated because
(27:38):
they looking ahead to the you know, to the Eagles.
I don't I don't know what I'm not in their heads,
but I did see some some things that I wouldn't
expect to happen in this game based on what I've
seen this offense. Do the adjustments they've been able to
make in game, and how second halfs look, you know,
a lot more favorable than first if something isn't working.
(27:58):
It feels like the jag Is have a lot of
like a handful of pieces on defense and like recognizable names. Foyer,
Loui Khan, I mentioned him, Devin Lloyd and Trayvon Walker
two first round rookies, my guy fall around so far,
Tookasi we do love fully and who else? There was
someone Josh Allen you mentioned earlier. This might sound like
(28:22):
a this might not be an answerable question. Maybe it
is who is the Jags best player on defense? Um
like I would I honestly, it would be hard to
say it's not Josh Allen because he's been pretty consistent.
We've seen some inconsistencies from some of the other players
(28:42):
that have been a little strange and their secondary though
they had just coming off again with two interceptions. Their secondary.
I told you, you you have a massive advantage if you
have a very good corner. They could use an advantage
like that, right like like, there'll be in good shape
drafting next year because they won't need the quarterback and
they have some good pieces there. But the coverage situation
(29:06):
is a bit different. I mean you know that, Like
I like I said, Ceedee Lamb at the intermediate level
was pretty wide open, and you know, so their secondary
is where I'm like interesting, right, so that could be
an area to exploit for Garrett Wilson. It's a it's
a great point, and I just want to mention, like
for Jets fans, Josh Allen has been the most consistent
(29:29):
Jacksonville Jaguar defender over the past one four years since
he was drafted in two thousand nineteen. That's when he
had his best year. Yeah, he had ten and a
half sacks and then he had two and a half.
He was hurt that year, only played in eight games.
He had seven and a half last year, and he
had five this year. So all this to say, Josh
(29:50):
Allen is a very good player, but it doesn't feel
like he's a game record that that like in terms
of the NFL standards. Now, I'm not saying he's a
bad player, of course, if you're gonna let somebody like
this wreck the game, whole wreck the game. But he's
not a consistent game record over the course of an
eighteen weeks seventeen game season. So with that being said,
let's just wrap with this then. Obviously we talked about
(30:14):
this earlier about this being like a do or die
game for the Jets, playoff implications for both teams. Jacksonville
is within a game of Tennessee of the division. Now,
with Tennessee being seven and seven, what is the Jets
recipe for success against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Thursday night
(30:35):
at MetLife Stadium. Slow possessions, slow grinding. I mean, look,
it's not sexy, but you know, get the chunk plays
where you need it, but don't need to rely on
chunk plays to get the win. Exploit the secondary with
smart plays, eat up time off the clock. Because I
love the Jets defense, let me be clear, I think
(30:56):
the Jets have an awesome defense. But you know what,
Trevor Lawrence is also pretty darn good. Like it's much
better to have control of the ball possession like that.
It doesn't sound sexy, but the highest probability, like a
way to win football games in the NFL is to
run the ball to possess the baller, use your your
run game efficiently or short game efficiently efficiently, like it
(31:16):
doesn't need to be running specifically, be shorter passes, but
you know, non stopping clock situations, and have an expert
defensive front that can pressure the pants off of the
other quarterbacks so you're not allowing them to pass the
ball effectively. That's the like the time honored best way
to get wins, most highest probability way to earn wins
is to have that formula. So the Jets have it,
(31:39):
and that's that. That would be the smartest And by
the way, I wrote an article like NFL dot com,
I we we do like teams on the bubble and
both teams. This game switches things from like maybe thirty
thirties and forties percent chance of creating a playoff run
to like sixties. So the one it's kind of winning.
You're in this This is basically like a play in game, right,
(32:02):
like you know the March Badness Tournament. This is like
the two big game, you know, like this is this
is a this is an important one. Yeah, this is
a we It feels like a week sixteen winning in
situation based on the probabilities that you just laid out.
And for the Jets, they they've been saying all the players,
we have to win out. We have to win out.
We don't want another team to to dictate our destiny.
(32:24):
So the Jets have to take care of business. That
starts Thursday night in week sixteen at met Life Stadium,
as the Jets will be rocking the Stealth Black on
Stealth Black on Stealth Black out. I love that. Listen.
The green is my favorite. Gotham Green is like the
coolest and the best. But like the Black on a
Thursday night, can Juicy in here like it? Yeah? As
(32:47):
the CEO and owner of the Jets tweeted, night Mode
is activated for week sixteen. Yeah, very very it is.
It is very Batman. That's a hot button debate. Eight though,
because supposedly, and I'm sorry if this is gonna like
burst somebody's bubble. Supposedly Batman was filmed in Chicago, but
(33:07):
everyone thinks Gotham is New York, so this is this
is perplexing. Wait wait, so do you think that Gotham
is New York or Chicago? Gotham is New York? I mean,
and and just because they they're probably filmed in Chicago
because there was like it was like cheaper or something,
like they cleared the streets more easily, right, like New
(33:29):
York is a really busy place, like you're gonna have
just been a lot more money together. So I think
they were smart, right, like filming in Chicago call it
New York. Who cares, you're good and New Yorkers just
you know, they work smarter. They do work hard, but
they also got to work smarter. So they said, you
know what, they said, we're taking our set to Chicago
because it's cheaper, and thank you very much for the memories,
(33:50):
but Gotham is New York. Cynthia the former Chicago native
Chicago chicagoan Chicago and I was a Chicago for a
long time. But I think like all my New York
friends will be like, we like it, it's a baby
New York. You're like, second, you're our Chicago in though
you know, like you you're the podcast Chicago, because it's
it's sure not me. And if you're saying that it's
(34:10):
a New York that Gotham is in New York, that's
what we're going with because you won't hear me completely,
Nobody you pull like, you know anyone even in Chicago,
be like, is Gotham Chicago. They'll be like, no, what
are you talking about. No, Gotham, New York. Okay, the
Jets need this game. That's how we wrap up the
Game Preview podcast. Cynthia, I know that you have some
(34:32):
work on your hands with the gift shopping. Good luck
with that. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and
we'll talk to you next week. Perfect. Thank you, Happy holidays.
Enjoy your kick and the football. It's gonna be great.
Welcome to another edition of the Game Preview Podcast. Ethan Greenberg.
Cynthia Freeland on the short week, Quick turnaround four the
New York Jets after taking on the Detroit Lions unfortunately
losing the game. Now the Green and White five hundred
on the year seven and seven, welcoming in a Jacksonville
Jaguar team that, Cynthia very much like the Detroit Lions
last week, very hot right now four and two in
(00:25):
their last six. Before we get into the matchup specifically,
from just like an like a bird's eye view, what
have you seen from the Jacksonville team that's enabled them
to turn it around pretty quickly? Play action passing, Play
action passing, that's the answer. Um, if you if you're
looking at Trevor Lawrence, he's since week nine, something happened
(00:45):
and they figured out the play action work for them.
Why well, what am I looking at here? Well, he's
always been one interception since that time. In fact, before
last week he had the longest streak going of no interception,
So that's interesting. It was like ten to nothing, ten
touchdowns to zero in receptions, So that's good. Why does
this work? Seventy completion percentage using play action. Now, where
(01:07):
does Travis e t N run? Great question, That question
really helps outside runs, which, by the way, the Jets
defense they are the best at limiting outside runs negative
fifty five rushing yards overexpected a lot. So the answer
is play action that comes off of efficient running and
efficient rushing that typically has come from outside the tackles rushes,
(01:28):
where by the way, e t N is like number
six in Monks running back since Week nine and rushing
yards overexpected on those outside runs. But again, Jets all
season long not allowing those runs. All right, we're gonna
talk about Trevor Lawrence in the second quarter. Naturally he's
been playing out of his mind to your point. But
let's just start with Zack Wilson in the first quarter
because Robert Salas said it will indeed be Zack Wilson
(01:49):
again starting against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That makes it his
second consecutive start. Kind of a weird game for Zach
against the Lions because he goes over three hundred passing yards.
He had a lot of chunk plays, but it also
felt like there were spurts of when the office of
the offense not the office, but I guess the offenses
office is MetLife Stadium, which they will be again on Thursday.
(02:11):
But it felt like the offense was kind of lacking consistency,
although it was hitting some explosive plays. What did you
make of the way that the offense came together with
Zack last week? I mean, Zach had a nice game,
Like it wasn't his fault that anything didn't go the
Jets way. So it was interesting when you look at
this one. Obviously, injuries to the running backs, that one
took a toll because that just like I talked about
(02:32):
with you know, when we talk about Trevor Lawrence, we
we want to talk about play action and the ability
to run. And this was the first time we hadn't
seen efficient running in in a little bit of a time.
In fact, it's like the first time the Lions held
the team to a low passing number rushing number rather
in like all of their games this season. So that
was that that injury made a big difference. However, I'm
going to give Garrett Wilson a bunch of credit here
(02:54):
because his ability to run different routes and be effective
and efficient and be of the quarterbacks expecting is really
really profound and makes a big difference for Zach Wilson.
Those deep passes ten plus eight yard plays, he caught
four of them for over ninety yards. Like that was
a really big help for this team. And by the way,
(03:16):
Garrett Wilson, if you're looking for like reasons to tell
your friends why he should be your offensive Rookie of
the Year, He's got at least four passes on nine
different routes in the route tree. So most rookie receivers
you see maybe two or three, just a more limited number.
They like have their things. They you know, they line
up only the slot and they do whatever they line
about why and they do another thing right, But Garret
Wilson has been super versatile and from every level of
(03:38):
the field. So that's where Zach Wilson really got help
because they found the mismatch on a deeper pass and
they're like, okay, just you that one good and it
really helps Zach Wilson out and Garrett Wilson four receptions
yards and not find the end zone in consecutive weeks.
Now he's broken Jets rookie receiver records. He brokekeh On
(04:00):
Johnson rookie receiving record at Buffalo in terms of a
single season. Then he broke Wayne Cribet's single season receptions
record as a rookie with four receptions last week against Detroit.
The next thing that he needs to check off would
be a thousand yards. He'd be the first Jets rookie
receiver to do that. Right now, he's at N six.
(04:20):
Definitely very feasible against the Jacksonville defense. That again, this
game feels like eerily similar. I feel like Cynthia from
a statistics standpoint and from a Jets offense vantage point.
Detroit's defense wasn't all that in bag of chips. You
liked when I said that last week, So I had
to bring it back and Zack Wilson three seventeen yards,
two touchdowns, one pick. But Jacksonville's defense feels like it's
(04:44):
kind of the same in the same stratosphere as Detroit's
in terms of the amount of yards they let up.
So what's different between the two of them that maybe
is unique to their scheme. Well, the biggest difference, and
we're gonna start with a stat and then we'll get
into why the status that the Lions are causing turnovers.
They had the longest treak in the NFL thirteen turnovers
(05:04):
and thirteen games. The Jags aren't doing that as efficiently
and effectively. The Jags are winning because Trevor Lawrence is
being effective and their offense is winning them games. And
whereas the Lions were really like their offense was already
good and their defense just got ratcheted up just a
little bit better to help them out. So when I'm
looking at this defense, they have started to intermittently bring
(05:25):
a lot like some games, it's a lot more pressure.
A different Josh Allen will be bringing the heat in
this one, not the I love the same name ones.
I think like the Bill should trade for Josh Allen
so that we could have just confuse everyone, especially because
you know Michael Carter on this team whatever. Of course,
so the same same name players is my favorite. But
you know they've been they've been able to bring the
heat intermittently, but they're really targetable in different areas. Like
(05:48):
I go back and watch that Cowboys game and look
where Ceedee Lamb was effective. I understand that the Cowboys lost,
but when you look at Seedee Lamb on intermediate routes,
that was an area where you could exploit, which means
good thing for Garrett Wilson, because you know, I think
seed Lamb was like four for ninety four. I think
it was. It was over ninety yards on intermediate targets
tend to nineteen air yard attempts, and he was really
(06:10):
efficient there, which means they're targeting a different level of
the defense when they're seeing something, they're saying, Okay, well
we're we're going to use a different level because Ceedee
Lamb is quite firsatile as well. So the point being
is there's areas to exploit in this secondary for sure. Well,
I do think that to your point, Like, yes, the
Cowboys lost, they still put up thirty four points, and
not to mention guys like Ceedee Lamb. To your point,
(06:33):
he finished the game with seven catches a hundred twenty
six yards. Dak completed seventy six point seven percent of
his passes on yeah, exactly. And and the Jets defense,
I mean, I guess you wouldn't imagine the Dallas Cowboys
to let up forty points either, but you would you
would think that something would would have gone horribly wrong
(06:54):
from a Jets defensive perspective to allow forty points considering
how well the Jets defense has done the past couple
of weeks specifically, and even in the Detroit game. I mean,
they let up one touchdown and it just was the
worst timing possible for the Jets on the fourth and one.
So the Jets did a great job defensively speaking. But
to wrap up the first quarter, about Zack Wilson. This week,
(07:18):
short week, no real practice. You know, both teams conduct walkthroughs.
What do you expect from Zach Wilson and what will
be the number one overall pick from two thousand one
and the number two overall pick from two thousand one
in a rematch of last year's game, which, by the way,
Zack Wilson had a fifty two yard touchdown run. I
(07:39):
don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, I don't think so either.
I just want to put it out there. I hope
that doesn't happen because like that would mean some weird things,
like like let's get the run game going here. So
I think the thing some things to to really look at.
I think like we saw something pretty cool from c
J Sama, like that's height position became more and more
(08:01):
valuable in this game. I do think that one will
continue to pick up, So I think targeting different levels
of their defense that are specifically tailored to problem areas.
But now we saw you were like, oh, use Uma,
I see you, bro, Like it's there, So I think
that's what we'll see and I think different. Obviously I
don't know about you, but I don't know who's exactly
(08:23):
healthy from the run situation, and as soon as as
soon as we kind of get an understanding of who's
actually going to be available, then the run game will
be a big and important factor in this one, because,
like I said, the Jags have been able to bring
the heat on some place that they're not the number
one pressure defense in the league or anything, but they
are able to bring pressure and that will be a
key factor. And by the way, both of these teams
(08:45):
are really looking like this is like this is might
as well be a playoff game because this could really
determine who goes to the postseason. Yeah, this is a
huge game in terms of playoff implications. The Jets at
seven and seven, the Jaguars at six and eight, And
for the Jets, I mean the arrative has always been
since Sunday like that you do or die, Like the
Jets have to try to win out to really control
(09:07):
their own destiny as much as they can. And DJ
read I think said it best. He was like, we
didn't want other teams to have like a say in
our destiny where you're like, you're hoping for this, you're
hoping for that. And unfortunately for the Jets that is
now the case after losing to the Lions, which brings
us to the second quarter, because if the Jets want
a chance to win this game, they have to limit
(09:28):
Trevor Lawrence. To your point, he was so good since
week nine. He leads a league in completion percentage and
passer rating. It feels like the Jaguars have found their
franchise quarterback when you look at it from a statistics standpoint,
and and I mean like surface level statistics, what about
furthermore than that, like what makes him so good specifically
(09:50):
since week nine and on? Whatever click for him is
clearly working. Yeah. I think part of what they're doing
shifts and motions shift and most wow, that was bad
English shift of shifts and motions. There we go, the
words are coming out of my mouth. So shifts and
motions are very helpful for young quarterbacks and in being
able to diagnose defenses, right, is it? Man? Is it not? Man?
(10:12):
Is it's? Don't? Like what am I looking at here?
And being in more manageable downs and distances because of
that almost forty or sevent completion percentage using play action
that has really allowed him to start seeing the defense
in a way where he can pick the right receiver
to target. In last week's game was clearly a Jones
three times sennzo. So when I'm looking at when I'm
(10:35):
looking at what he's done, well, um, you know when
they okay, I'm gonna say this and then we have
to do an asterix here. Because the Cowboys last week
when they didn't blitz, Trevor Lawrence was like peace out,
three touched out, We're all good, Like, no, don't even try.
The blitz was where he threw the pick. But it
is a totally different their scheme. Dan Quinn's defense totally
(10:57):
different than what we're going to see from Robert Sala.
So like the fact that the Jets can blanket the secondary,
that is a big like helpful note for the Jets defense.
It won't look the same. The Jets are pressuring at
thirty point four percent um this year, which is fourth
best in the NFL. They rarely need to blitz. They
would rather leave the defensive backs back there. That is
(11:17):
a better strategy in part because now you have to
remember and they'll be without their left tackle, Cam Robinson,
so being able to one we talked about it, stop
that outside the outside run from Travisy Tien or whoever
the runner maybe and to get pressure, which now without
Cam Robinson becomes a lot more manageable for the Jets.
(11:39):
That that's the two ways to do, because Trevor Lawrence
still has pretty significant splits when he's under pressure versus
when he's not under pressure. You just have to remember
that blitz doesn't always equal pressure, right, it's a it's
an attempt at pressure, but it's not. It doesn't always
mean pressure. And often if you can bring pressure with four,
the quarterback is forced to be in a pocket, maybe
(12:00):
out of the pocket, think about it a little bit,
hold on to the ball for a long time. And
that's where we've seen Trevor Lawrence have some uh some
his passer rating goes down significantly. Yeah, I think that
it's very important to keep in mind two players, one
is Quinn and Williams. Obviously with the calf strain, we'll
see what his status is. Robert Sala said. The Jets
are gonna take it up pretty much still kick off
or till game time. The other player comes from the
(12:23):
Jacksonville side. It's Cam Robinson's replacement. That's Walker Little, who
is a decorated player out of high school, had an
up and down career out of in Stanford and then
his second round picked for the Jags and he's been
their swing tackle. Now he's gonna play for Cam Robinson.
So this is Carl Lawson versus Walker Little. If you're
Jets fan, you're imagining advantage loss in here. And to
(12:44):
Cynthia's point, that needs to be the case for the
Jets to get pressure on Trevor Lawrence now in terms
of his receiving corps and just the options around him.
Cynthia Robert Salo said that there's a lot of speed
there and there's definitely a lot of new faces. When
you think of Christian Kirk, obviously that was the big
ticket free agent that everyone was surprised at the contract
(13:04):
he got. Evan Ingram, the former Giant, joined the Jaguars
the tight end. Then you're looking at I know Travis
et N was a rookie last year with Lawrence, but
he was out all last year, so he's essentially a
new player there. Zay Jones and then Marvin Jones has
been the guy there for a couple of years. It's
just like a sneaky good core around Trevor Lawrence because
(13:25):
it feels like they have a lot of pieces that
maybe we're overlooked at the beginning of the year just
because of the way the Jacks were playing. I think
that there, I'm gonna call them sneaky good, But I
think the thing that's even more important is the stylistic fit.
We saw this in Philadelphia when Doug Peterson had Carson Wentz.
It sounds wild to say this, but I mean there
(13:47):
were like rumblings of like Carson Wentz m VP, like
like that was that was real. I didn't make that up,
you know. So part of what was going on during
that stretch was a multitude of different pass catchers and
Carson Wentz was spreading the ball around. He didn't have
like like it was like four or five different guys
who had like a significant number of yards and catches
or whatever. It wasn't just like funneling it to one
(14:07):
person or maybe even two. It was really like spreading
the ball around, and that was a real key. If
you notice when Trevor Lawrence has started to really pick
things up, it's now he understands, these are my different reads,
this is my different checks, this is my different you know,
these are the different options that I have on every
single play and the multitude of passketers. So yes, it's
(14:27):
it's more that it's a stylistic fit. Like I wouldn't say, like,
plug and play any quarterback into this system and you'd
have the same results. I think they're they're really figuring out,
like meaning like if you put a different coach there,
like and they didn't have that same style, it probably
wouldn't look the same. So you have to give Doug
Peterson a lot of credit for finding the right guys
that kind of fit, because any one of those guys
(14:50):
in and of themselves, I mean, we were kind of like,
I mean, look Christian Kirk's contract, like we were. We
weren't wrong to say it was huge for without knowing, right, like,
but okay, they paid it. Great, that's some costs now, right,
But at the end of the day, it's not like
you're adding Tyreek Hill, who his speed and yeah ability
(15:10):
is just it is game changing. So none of these
guys in and of themselves are game changing, but the
sum of the parts has really fit Doug Peterson's style,
and now Trevor Lawrence can execute it. That's how I
would mathematically say it. But in words, the only thing
I was going to say to end the second quarter
was that Christian Kirk's nine hundred sixty six yards is
ironically the same exact as Garrett Wilson. Anyway, that's halftime,
(15:34):
So let's let's let's rip the band aid off here. Cynthia,
is your Christmas shopping done? Your holiday shopping? Next question? Okay,
alright on in the next what is your favorite? Oh? Oh,
so we talked about this today in the office. Have
you watched the movie Claus on Netflix? No? Oh? It
(15:55):
is incredible? Yes, yes it is. I've said this exact
saying three times today and this will be the fourth.
It is non negotiable to watch class. You might you
might need a box of tissues next to you because
you know it's it's heartwarming? Is it it's a family flick? Ye? Perfect?
(16:16):
Watching together? Then great? Always need a good always need
a good recommendation for a Christmas movie, Christmas time movie,
that that's exactly what you need class Netflix. It'll it's animated,
but it's not like old school animated. It's like new school,
so it doesn't feel super animated. It's great, it's incredible,
and so I would really thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah,
if anyone else who's listening needs any recommendations, watch Klaus.
(16:40):
By the way, we do look very like holiday festive.
Although I have the mug you have, yeah, you do.
I have the water bottle, not the same. I liked
how you described it before. It's like I've got my
Gotham green logo and then the inside is the stealth black.
There's also there's the coffee yep, and the uh, spotlight white,
(17:05):
the spotlight white mug with the Gotham green accent. I mean,
I love how you describe it perfectly. Do you go
iced coffee in the winter at all or you're always so?
I usually do. I prefer iced coffee, but my voice
tends to like hot coffee better. My throat, my voice,
(17:26):
the whole thing. You get that nice, those nice soothing tones,
not like the but I like the taste of coffee better.
That is exactly why I drink tea because I don't
like coffee and I go tea. I wish I liked tea.
I just don't. Yeah, I get it. It has to
be a mint tea or an orange tea, and I'm
(17:49):
in Other than that, I'm way out. Like Earl Gray
came meal, any of that stuff not not great for me?
Got it? So do you have any halftime questions or well,
I guess, I guess, I want, I want to know.
I mean, your weekend is pretty open. What are you
going to do? Because you know, like you kind of
got like a like a great holiday gift. Right, here's
(18:10):
what we get that. That is a fantastic point. I
thank you very much for noticing that. So what I'm
going to do is absolutely nothing perfect, It's going to
be great. That the best answer. So Friday, it's supposed
to rain all day. I will probably be in my
apartment watching movies all day, not budging from the couch. Saturday,
(18:33):
I will be baking a cake with my dad, or
Sunday cake. So it is a nine seven or nine
layer chocolate cake with vanilla like it's a vanilla cake.
With chocolate frosting on it, and it's may You're supposed
to put it in the freezer so it forms. It's
not a hot cake. It's not a room temperature cake.
(18:54):
It is a cold chocolate vanilla cake. It is incredible.
It's my favorite thing that a picture of this. It
sounds amazing, It is incredible, and it is a family
recipe that's been handed down probably like two generations now.
And yeah, and my dad uses like his grandmother's hand
(19:14):
mixer that looks like a Hogwarts train from the front
and when you plug it in, it sounds like and
then it slowly like starts to get going and then
the egg beater starts to yeah, oh yeah, it's it's
a it's a family tradition at this point. And then
other than that, nothing, football, cake and movies. Great weekend. Yeah.
(19:38):
I would ask you what you're gonna do, but I
think you're just gonna tell me that you're gonna work. Yep.
We have two game day mornings. We have Saturday Game
Day morning and Sunday Game Day morning, so I will
be game day morning ing ing ing. Yeah, that sounds good.
Game day morning ing ye huh. Yep, yep, twice twice.
And so does that mean that you don't have to
get anybody gifts other than your coworkers because you won't
(20:01):
be seeing them or you're still on the hook for that.
Yeah tough. So when are you going to do like
a gift exchange? Monday? Usually it's like here and there,
stop by, blah blah blah. Luckily my family will be
will all be here so they can help coordinate. It's
a lot of work, you know, It's tough. And most importantly,
(20:26):
have you purchased something for Gordy? Actually, and Gordy has
done with his Christmas shopping? Gordy got the entire family
matching matching pjs. Wow, yeah, Gordy knows. Gordy knows. Gordy
is like quickly immersed himself into the Freeland family here.
(20:47):
I mean, he's really cute. So he is really cute,
so cute. He just ate my shoe earlier this morning.
But other than that, he's very well. Maybe maybe he
wanted some hand fed peanut butter covered kibble and instead
he's like, you know what, Mom, You know, I don't
think we can top that. So we're gonna have to
(21:08):
move out of halftime, right, into the third quarter. Let's
talk about the Jets defense a little more. Sauce Gardner
like not really seeing targets, Cynthia. He was not targeted,
I believe a single time against the Detroit Lions. And
Robert Sale was like, Hey, he's gonna have to talk
to Richard Sherman about that kind of stuff, because that's
what happens when you're a good player. How rare is
(21:28):
it for someone who's a rookie to not be thrown
at um quite rare. I think you have a massive
advantage in the league, especially right now, if you have
a corner who even is pretty good. In fact, right now,
PFF rates Sauce as the number one corner in the entirely,
not number one among rookie number one, period, full stop, whatever.
(21:50):
And his coverage grade is the highest by I don't
even know what they're are they they're not percentage points,
but by several number of grades. I don't know whatever
he pulled eat, I don't know several points. We'll say points. Right. So,
at the end of the day, when you're looking at coverage,
their coverage, and then I look at my computer vision
and the cool thing that I came up with with
wind share, is you get credit for not being thrown at,
(22:13):
meaning you know, like it would be nice to be
like he was thrown at eighty five times and only
allowed seven yards and coverage. Well that's great, but you
know it's even better. We won't throw to you. So
if you're on our best guy, I'm ros Brown, we
won't throw to him. You know why we don't want
to deal with you. We're actually going to be smart
and not not do that, not do that to ourselves.
So that was actually so when you look to see
(22:35):
his wind share ranking, I mean, it'd be hard. You'd
be hard pressed to convince me anyone else should be
your defensive rookie of the Year. You'd be really hard pressed, period,
full stop. Robert Salis had something similar in his um
in Our Coach's Interview Every week for that airs on
or the interview airs on CBS every Sunday morning at
(22:58):
seven thirty in the morning on the East coast, so
in the morning my time. Yeah, we're gonna say make
sure to just look at the archive on New York
chests dot com. Or I'm just not gonna watch a
live I love you. I'm actually up. Then I'm up then,
but I gotta go to work. You're up at four
thirty in the morning on Sunday, every Sunday, I have
to be into the office by then. So I'm driving
(23:20):
through Englewood scared, but I'm good. Okay, all right, Well
on that note, in terms of this Jets defense for
this week, like obviously every aspect of defense is important,
is there a specific matchup or a specific player for
the Jets that maybe should be a little more in
(23:42):
focus this week? I mean, look that the front. I
want to know if Quentin Williams is playing. I mean,
Bryce Huff did really well. He had a thirty three
point three percent individual pressure rate last game, which is great,
a third of dropbacks and of course the team overall
thirty point four and rarely using i've pass rushers, So
I think that's going to be the To me, the
(24:04):
key is what is this defensive line doing both against
the run and against the past, because they told you
those outside runs have been absolutely key to getting play
action going. And minus fifty five that's the Jets number
for the amount of rushing yards overexpected allowed, So it's
rushing yards under expected by fifty five, which is the
best in the league from week one from the jump,
(24:26):
they've been great at it. So that's to me, the
defensive line is really the key factor here because if
they because that changes everything for the options. We talked
about the optionality that Trevor Lawrence has and it changes
the options completely if he's under pressure, true pressure, or
if he's you know, if his receivers are blanketed. So
(24:48):
when I'm looking at this one, it's like, what is
that line doing and how are they stopping the run?
And Travis e t N like he's so shifty. I
mean even going back to the days at Clemson, like
that was this thing is he's fast, he's shifty, and
I feel like the rapport or the reports from all
the draft analysts were like, you know what, We'll see
(25:08):
how he is in between the tackles and that will
determine how good of a player he is. And so far,
especially last week, Travis Etn coming off of a good
game where he had nineteen carries one hundred three yards,
did not score, and then also had twenty four yards
through the air. But let's move to the fourth quarter.
Jags defense, because this is an interesting unit. I think
(25:30):
Ray Shawn Jenkins had hell of a game the safety.
He led the team with eight teen tackles, which is ridiculous.
He had two interceptions that game. And then Foyer Loukhan,
the former Atlanta Falcon, is a tackling machine. He had
fourteen last week. He's had at least fourteen and like
four or five straight games he leads the NFL and tackles.
(25:51):
Is this a defense that has good players and is
underperforming or or like, what's the story there? I think?
I mean when I when I'm charting that game and
looking at it, the first thing I noticed because I
think that the Cowboys maybe over so with Smith coming back,
with Tyron Smith coming back, I think they maybe overestimated
(26:13):
their game plan, meaning they've been good with the run
they but they didn't stop doing things when they didn't work.
So that's always a strange one for me, right, Like
what is that definition of insanity as doing the same
thing over whatever again and expecting different results. So like,
it's not that I don't want to give credit to
the safety. Will will give all the credit, but the
(26:35):
tackling in the middle part of that, it was a
little bit weird, not not weird, but it was a
little bit like, Okay, well this isn't working, but we're
just gonna keep doing it. And it doesn't always work.
I know, they were scoring points and it wasn't just
an interesting one, but sometimes you have to make decisions
that are going to limit the number of possessions in
(26:55):
your opponent. It's and those decisions were not being made
like you know, not throwing shade, but a little bit shape,
like just did it didn't make sense? So there were
some things that were a bit nonsensical that we're done there.
So I love those numbers for the defense. They did
what they responded to what they were given, and that's
exactly what the defense needs to do. But often what
(27:17):
the Jags don't do well is they typically don't adjust
in second halves. Two teams quite as well. So the
Cowboys were unable to exploit that fact from them, right,
So that's kind of I think maybe they were like, oh,
we got our left tackle back, We are good, good
to go. No, you know, no need to adjust. But
I mean, perhaps it was an underest they underestimated because
(27:38):
they looking ahead to the you know, to the Eagles.
I don't I don't know what I'm not in their heads,
but I did see some some things that I wouldn't
expect to happen in this game based on what I've
seen this offense. Do the adjustments they've been able to
make in game, and how second halfs look, you know,
a lot more favorable than first if something isn't working.
(27:58):
It feels like the jag Is have a lot of
like a handful of pieces on defense and like recognizable names. Foyer,
Loui Khan, I mentioned him, Devin Lloyd and Trayvon Walker
two first round rookies, my guy fall around so far,
Tookasi we do love fully and who else? There was
someone Josh Allen you mentioned earlier. This might sound like
(28:22):
a this might not be an answerable question. Maybe it
is who is the Jags best player on defense? Um
like I would I honestly, it would be hard to
say it's not Josh Allen because he's been pretty consistent.
We've seen some inconsistencies from some of the other players
(28:42):
that have been a little strange and their secondary though
they had just coming off again with two interceptions. Their secondary.
I told you, you you have a massive advantage if you
have a very good corner. They could use an advantage
like that, right like like, there'll be in good shape
drafting next year because they won't need the quarterback and
they have some good pieces there. But the coverage situation
(29:06):
is a bit different. I mean you know that, Like
I like I said, Ceedee Lamb at the intermediate level
was pretty wide open, and you know, so their secondary
is where I'm like interesting, right, so that could be
an area to exploit for Garrett Wilson. It's a it's
a great point, and I just want to mention, like
for Jets fans, Josh Allen has been the most consistent
(29:29):
Jacksonville Jaguar defender over the past one four years since
he was drafted in two thousand nineteen. That's when he
had his best year. Yeah, he had ten and a
half sacks and then he had two and a half.
He was hurt that year, only played in eight games.
He had seven and a half last year, and he
had five this year. So all this to say, Josh
(29:50):
Allen is a very good player, but it doesn't feel
like he's a game record that that like in terms
of the NFL standards. Now, I'm not saying he's a
bad player, of course, if you're gonna let somebody like
this wreck the game, whole wreck the game. But he's
not a consistent game record over the course of an
eighteen weeks seventeen game season. So with that being said,
let's just wrap with this then. Obviously we talked about
(30:14):
this earlier about this being like a do or die
game for the Jets, playoff implications for both teams. Jacksonville
is within a game of Tennessee of the division. Now,
with Tennessee being seven and seven, what is the Jets
recipe for success against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Thursday night
(30:35):
at MetLife Stadium. Slow possessions, slow grinding. I mean, look,
it's not sexy, but you know, get the chunk plays
where you need it, but don't need to rely on
chunk plays to get the win. Exploit the secondary with
smart plays, eat up time off the clock. Because I
love the Jets defense, let me be clear, I think
(30:56):
the Jets have an awesome defense. But you know what,
Trevor Lawrence is also pretty darn good. Like it's much
better to have control of the ball possession like that.
It doesn't sound sexy, but the highest probability, like a
way to win football games in the NFL is to
run the ball to possess the baller, use your your
run game efficiently or short game efficiently efficiently, like it
(31:16):
doesn't need to be running specifically, be shorter passes, but
you know, non stopping clock situations, and have an expert
defensive front that can pressure the pants off of the
other quarterbacks so you're not allowing them to pass the
ball effectively. That's the like the time honored best way
to get wins, most highest probability way to earn wins
is to have that formula. So the Jets have it,
(31:39):
and that's that. That would be the smartest And by
the way, I wrote an article like NFL dot com,
I we we do like teams on the bubble and
both teams. This game switches things from like maybe thirty
thirties and forties percent chance of creating a playoff run
to like sixties. So the one it's kind of winning.
You're in this This is basically like a play in game, right,
(32:02):
like you know the March Badness Tournament. This is like
the two big game, you know, like this is this
is a this is an important one. Yeah, this is
a we It feels like a week sixteen winning in
situation based on the probabilities that you just laid out.
And for the Jets, they they've been saying all the players,
we have to win out. We have to win out.
We don't want another team to to dictate our destiny.
(32:24):
So the Jets have to take care of business. That
starts Thursday night in week sixteen at met Life Stadium,
as the Jets will be rocking the Stealth Black on
Stealth Black on Stealth Black out. I love that. Listen.
The green is my favorite. Gotham Green is like the
coolest and the best. But like the Black on a
Thursday night, can Juicy in here like it? Yeah? As
(32:47):
the CEO and owner of the Jets tweeted, night Mode
is activated for week sixteen. Yeah, very very it is.
It is very Batman. That's a hot button debate. Eight though,
because supposedly, and I'm sorry if this is gonna like
burst somebody's bubble. Supposedly Batman was filmed in Chicago, but
(33:07):
everyone thinks Gotham is New York, so this is this
is perplexing. Wait wait, so do you think that Gotham
is New York or Chicago? Gotham is New York? I mean,
and and just because they they're probably filmed in Chicago
because there was like it was like cheaper or something,
like they cleared the streets more easily, right, like New
(33:29):
York is a really busy place, like you're gonna have
just been a lot more money together. So I think
they were smart, right, like filming in Chicago call it
New York. Who cares, you're good and New Yorkers just
you know, they work smarter. They do work hard, but
they also got to work smarter. So they said, you
know what, they said, we're taking our set to Chicago
because it's cheaper, and thank you very much for the memories,
(33:50):
but Gotham is New York. Cynthia the former Chicago native
Chicago chicagoan Chicago and I was a Chicago for a
long time. But I think like all my New York
friends will be like, we like it, it's a baby
New York. You're like, second, you're our Chicago in though
you know, like you you're the podcast Chicago, because it's
it's sure not me. And if you're saying that it's
(34:10):
a New York that Gotham is in New York, that's
what we're going with because you won't hear me completely,
Nobody you pull like, you know anyone even in Chicago,
be like, is Gotham Chicago. They'll be like, no, what
are you talking about. No, Gotham, New York. Okay, the
Jets need this game. That's how we wrap up the
Game Preview podcast. Cynthia, I know that you have some
(34:32):
work on your hands with the gift shopping. Good luck
with that. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and
we'll talk to you next week. Perfect. Thank you, Happy holidays.
Enjoy your kick and the football. It's gonna be great.
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