Film Breakdown: Bengals' Offense Stumbled a Bit, Still Took Advantage of Jets' Shortcomings

I must stress to you before everything that the Jets defense is among the most unseriously organized and poorly run in the NFL. While that may surprise you with Aaron Glenn as the head coach, he is not the one running the unit. Steve Wilks is (go watch the highlights from when he was Missouri DC against Isaiah Spiller and De'Von Achane). Accordingly, do not necessarily assume that everything the Jets do/did about things on the defensive side is/was rational.

Some of it was pretty smart, but, still, take everything with that grain of salt. The Jets had their eyes on Chase and Higgins the whole time, but early on stayed a bit honest, only mixing in their specialty coverages with their more standard menu. Of course, Flacco isn't exactly playing an honest game right now, he's getting the ball to the Italians.

The specialty coverage the Jets drew up to deny easy access to the Bengals' two horses was pretty simple. They had a designated, or "jersey-number" double on Chase, with a CB/Nickel and S dedicated to vicing him and doing nothing else. To the other side, they just played regular 2-man. Chase is too dangerous laterally and underneath to play regular 2-man against him as it's regular man coverage without help everywhere but over the top. Higgins is mostly a threat as a ball-winner so it's OK there.

As you can see, Flacco's "pass to Ja'Marr Chase no matter what" approach ran into issues against this look. Flacco is good enough to deliver these guys the ball, but he's absolutely not good enough to get into reads and dig out answers consistently in situations like this where he can't. The Bengals struggled massively to throw the ball in the second half as a result.

Punching Back

A more specific thing you have to understand about the Jets defense is that they cannot fit the run at all. It's not just like, tackling or physicality causing them problems, it's an inability to properly account for gaps and be structurally sound. While this has previously not stopped teams from denying the Bengals on the ground, this is a different level. Even in a loaded box, it's an issue, but it's outright impossible for them in a light box.

The Jets' general unsoundness alone is not what exposed them so much on the ground against the Bengals. It's the fact that a combination of things makes it impossible for them to stop the run from light boxes against anybody. For starters, their DL isn't that good, and their linebackers atrocious. This isn't helpful, but the main issue is that with all that, they are consistently trying to penetrate and get upfield as much as possible, even without a guy iand have no understanding of structuring fits from light boxes. Take the above. When you are in an even front like this, one of your B gaps will be open.

In even spacing, you have one IDL in an A gap and one in a B gap, with each respective unmanned A and B gap being referred to as a "bubble." You must go read Cody Alexander's writing about RPOs, cancelling gaps, and light box run fits. He has catalogued all of it as it's evolved over the years, and it's the key to understanding run defense in the current day, both college and NFL.

A big rule of the light box and post-spread era is that if you have a B gap bubble (or C gap if there is a TE to that side) to a 2 detached WR side and want to keep both Safeties deep and out of the run fit, you have to close that B gap bubble with a DL, you can't put the nickel in that gap. That nickel DOES have to be in the run fit though. The Jets don't close it, by assignment, the nickel is in the B gap AND has to play the RPO at the same time here. You can't ask this, as an interior gap can be hit quickly enough that you can't get to the ball in time like the above. What a lot of teams will do is just slant their DE into that gap and have the nickel take the edge.

Most teams will figure it out, whether they have the defensive end 2-gap the tackle, reduce into the B gap, or play a heavy 5 like above, you have to close that gap. The Jets aren't even thinking about it

That's not exactly surprising when the next time they played Chase from 3x1 into the slot in 2x2, nickel Jarvis Brownlee doesn't want to do his job and play the RPO anymore. He knows there's nobody in that gap. RPOs like use used to shred defenses in college football like this before teams figured it out. Wilks apparently still has not.

In general, between LBs only being responsible for one gap and shooting downfield when, to even back the numbers, they need to be able to track the ball gap to gap without a stacked box, and even honestly then, LBs in the wrong gaps period, a light box Jets D is a near-guarantee for big rushing numbers.

If you're going to double one guy and play 2-man to the other side, neither S can have a gap, as they can't do those jobs and expect to be anywhere near the box. While the Bengals counterpunched their all-out assault on Chase and Higgins, it's not a counterpunch you land against any serious boxer.

The Bengals' run game has been better lately, but it's not very *different* from last year or the year before, just better than it was to start the year. It's still not good enough for this to be a replicable response to these coverages. From a process perspective, it's probably best that the Bengals did not get away with Sunday's game as an organization.