After each game, we’ll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We’ll wrap up today with the offense:
Fields of Barely
Justin Fields clearly put together a misleading statline, which was padded by his stats during garbage time. The Cowboys were mostly in a very soft prevent-style defense on each of the fourth quarter touchdown drives, during which Fields completed 17 of 21 passes (including the two two-point conversions).
The soft defense started before then though. When Dallas took a 30-3 lead, Fields was 4-for-4 on the next drive, leading to a field goal. On the first play, he ripped a 25-yard completion to Garrett Wilson in the middle of a zone coverage that had the two safeties dropping over 30 yards deep.
(He had one other drive in between that one and the two touchdown drives on which he was 1-for-3 but stopped on a fourth down sneak).
Of course, the overall effectiveness of the passing game was also affected by Fields being sacked five times for which he bears at least part of the responsibility.
One other interesting statistic, again influenced by the late-game situation, was that Fields was a perfect 18-for-18 on passes over the middle between 0-10 yards. It’s interesting that Dallas was prepared to give up the middle of the field in the passing game while still being able to keep Fields’ run threat contained (he had 26 yards on seven carries with a long of 11).
Even though it did come against a softer defense, maybe Fields will have gained some rhythm and confidence from the late game drives. He certainly seemed to have found some chemistry with Mason Taylor and was at least taking what the defense gave him and converting in the red zone.
Let’s take a look at a couple of throws from earlier in the game where Dallas was playing “proper” defense. Here’s one of Fields’ better plays where he looks at his initial read (inevitably Wilson) then hangs in the pocket long enough to find his secondary read for 14 yards. If we’re nitpicking though he was a little slow to go to the other read, especially with Dallas having a lot of success getting to him.
This one was early in the game and you have to give Fields credit for trusting his protection and staying in the pocket long enough that the play could develop with Wilson coming across the middle.
Nitpicking again, though, he probably had an easier throw to Josh Reynolds at the marker if he had been aware of it to his left. And, of course, trusting his protection wasn’t a very good idea over the rest of the day, because it failed to hold up too often. This particular throw could easily have been tipped or wobbly because a pass rusher hit his elbow on the release and then it would have been asking for trouble, so – despite the excellent result here – he probably needs to get off that look earlier.
There are things here to like from Fields. However, there are clear areas where there is room for improvement, with more decisive decision making paramount among those.
Flyin’ Reynolds
On the Jets’ best drive of the non-garbage portion of the game (the one where Breece Hall fumbled), it’s probably no coincidence that this was when they got a wide receiver other than Wilson involved in the gameplan.
Reynolds had three catches for 29 yards on the drive, including this one where he got open beyond the sticks on third down:
Those three catches came within the space of six plays, although actually the other three were all negated by penalties, so he essentially had three catches in consecutive plays. Unfortunately, although this was successful, they didn’t manage to involve Reynolds again, targeting him just once more on an incompletion inside the last two minutes of the game.
Reynolds did also score on a two-pointer a few plays after that, on a nicely designed rub route that was well timed with Allen Lazard breaking inside and Reynolds leaking to the flat but it would seem obvious that they need to spread the ball around more to maximize their chances of success.
Maybe the team will expand his role having seen how involving him seemed to make a difference. He’s a competent player and did seem to be an option when they looked his way.
Arian Nation
It’s been an even slower start from Arian Smith, who – thanks to some penalties – only officially has four catches for 24 yards in the first five games of his career (plus a carry for minus-10).
Even in this game, they dumped it off to him and he beat the first man for a nice eight-yard gain but that was negated for a penalty. He did make one catch, though, and it was his longest so far as he made an excellent effort after the catch.
Even from what we’ve seen of him so far (including as a punt gunner, where he’s been quietly effective), Smith’s speed is evident and the thought of getting the ball to him in space or trying to hit him downfield on a go-route is enticing.
It’s not happened yet, though, and it’s disappointing to see him in the game for 45 snaps as he was on Sunday but hardly ever getting the ball even if he does throw a functional block from time to time.
The inevitable question is going to be whether Smith is just not getting open, or is he sometimes open but Fields is not looking his way? Ultimately, he’s more often than not a decoy, which obviously was effective in opening up the underneath stuff at times.
There were a few plays where he was half-open but the pass went somewhere else, but most of these were completed. On one rare occasion that it wasn’t, Fields looked away from him when he was coming open over the middle, but that may have been by design as Wilson went deep and might have had a touchdown if the ball wasn’t overthrown.
As noted, Smith has been making some special teams contributions. This week he got downfield well to force a fair catch and was in on one tackle, albeit that he didn’t get statistical credit. That’s not what the Jets drafted him for, though.
Previously: Three on D: Gardner, Adams, McGregor