I know some of you are fond of Football Outsiders, (as am I) so once the season gets underway and trends start developing, looking at an opponent’s rankings on Football Outsiders helps to give fans some perspective.
(As a heads up, negative percentages are good on defense, bad on offense & specials)
Pass Offense: -13.2% (27th)
Rush Offense: -9.2% (30th)
O-Line Ranking: Run 20th / Pass-Protection 25th
Analysis: Good news for the defense, if they’re trying to gain some confidence, this week is a good chance at that they can do it against a Kyle Shanahan offense that has gone back and forth at QB and has struggled to do much else. Rookie RB Roy Helu is starting to play well for the Redskins. He’s a good ball-carrier and is dangerous as a pass-catcher. TE Fred Davis is also playing very well, which is a concern of course for the Jets who have struggled to stop TEs this year. But when a TE is the team’s best receiver there’s larger issues in the passing game afoot.
Wait … what’s that? The Jets player with the most receptions, yards and YPR is a TE?
Oh.
Davis and Helu though are not enough to overcome a bad offensive line, bad quarterback, and average receiving corps.
It’s bad news that Mike DeVito is out again this week, but the rest of the front four should be able to seal the running game for the linebackers, thereby keeping the Redskins in longer down and distance on second or third down. Look to see what Pettine does then. My thought is that he’ll get a chance to try some riskier stuff — to really pressure test this defense to see what they’re made of for the final stretch.
Expect to see Revis line up not on any one man in particular all game, but I would expect he’ll see a majority of his time playing against Jabar Gaffney. Cromartie should pull Moss – but he’s no longer the deep burner that he once was.
Pass Defense: 4.9% (12th)
Rush Defense: -4.5% (15th)
D-Line Ranking: Run 19th / Pass 3rd
Analysis: For as bad as their offense is, their defense is actually playing better enough to challenge the Jets inconsistent offense. Led by their pass-rushers Brian Orakpo & Ryan Kerrigan, the Redskins are getting to the QB with regularity. Here’s some highlights of Orakpo, and some collegiate ones of Kerrigan. You might remember Ryan Kerrigan as the high-motor rookie (spaz) who toasted Vlad Ducasse and rolled into Rob Turner, thereby ending the Turner’s season in the first preseason game.
These two guys are the high-motor, athletic players that are going to give the Jets line trouble … specifically Hunter … but with D’Brickashaw’s recent inexplicable struggles, both sides are going to be under siege. There’s a few ways to counter these two players. Throw quick developing pass patterns, reverses, using the screen play (as if Schotty would ever do that), or run at an overaggressive pass rusher. In short, anything that gets the ball out of the QBs hand quickly, or makes the defensive ends have to pursue the non-QB ballcarrier – establishing quick throw or counter tendencies that will hold the pass rushers from going weapons free on the Jets.
The good news of course is that the Redskins don’t have the horses in the secondary to limit Sanchez from being able to spot the open man, and quickly get the ball to them … granted of course QB & WR are on the same page. But if Sanchez can get the ball out, then the WRs should be able to shake their coverages …
Special Teams: -1.5% (23rd)
Analysis: The Jets have been — terrible — especially recently in their punt return game this year, which is of course the complement is the one area of extreme strength by the Redskins. With the way the Jets have played recently on returns, Westhoff would do well to be a penny-wise instead of a pound-foolish.
From thejetsblog.com. Please read the complete article and let us know what you think below.
