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Bills vs. Jets 2013: Jets getting big plays from new faces

Faced with the issue of making big plays with brand new skill players, the Jets and coordinator Marty Mornhinweg have put plenty of new and creative things on tape for the Bills and Mike Pettine to prepare for in Week 11.

By Brian Galliford
  • (Play 1, 1 of 2) The Jets line up in a Pistol formation with two running backs, Chris Ivory (33) and Bilal Powell (29) behind Geno Smith. The quarterback has the option of handing off to Ivory, or keeping it and potentially tossing to Powell on an option play. The blue lines indicate the Saints' play call; outside linebacker Parys Haralson is looping inside.
  • (Play 1, 2 of 2) The Saints have two unblocked defenders in the hole, but Haralson over pursues and Curtis Lofton takes a poor angle. He can't catch up, and Ivory is off to the races for a huge gain.
  • (Play 2, 1 of 2) Trapped near their own goal line, the Jets run a very basic power running play: double-team the right end, pull the left guard to meet the linebacker, and let the fullback lead the way.
  • (Play 2, 2 of 2) This works to perfection for the Jets. The fullback contains the edge defender (24), the left guard pulls to take out Lofton (50), and Ivory has a massive, gaping hole through which to run. This play took the Jets all the way out to midfield.
  • (Play 3, 1 of 2) David Nelson is making himself a valuable Jet on plays like this: he runs a simple drag across the formation, working a level lower than tight end Zach Sudfeld off of play-action (and, you'll notice, out of the Pistol formation again).
  • (Play 3, 2 of 2) A linebacker moves forward to account for Ivory (blue arrow), who is in pass protection. This leaves one Saints defensive back (red circle) to account for Sudfeld; he runs underneath that route to try to pick off a pass that instead heads for Nelson (yellow circle), who picks up 19 yards on the play.
  • (Play 4, 1 of 2) The Jets operate out of a two-back shotgun look a lot; here, they do it with Josh Cribbs lined up at quarterback. He pulls out of a run to Powell, rolling out with Sudfeld (yellow arrow) running the only non-receiver route on the play. A safety moves forward to account for the threat of a run (right blue arrow).
  • (Play 4, 2 of 2) Cribbs extends the play just long enough for Sudfeld to get behind 10 of 11 Saints defenders (blue X), save for one defensive back running upfield with Stephen Hill. A better throw from Cribbs may have resulted in a touchdown.
  • (Play 5, 1 of 2) On another play featuring Cribbs, they line him up in a trips to the right, but with Sudfeld and a fullback beside him. The fullback will pull to take the weak-side contain defender, and left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson will move forward to block Lofton as Cribbs takes the end-around.
  • (Play 5, 2 of 2) Tommy Bohanon, the fullback, seals the edge and Ferguson gets enough of Lofton to give Cribbs space to make a first-down run. A play-fake to Ivory prior to the end-around flip helps to freeze the strong-side defenders.

If you haven't seen the New York Jets play since they beat the Buffalo Bills in Week 3, you haven't witnessed the Jets finding ways to make plays on offense despite a large number of injuries to prominent skill players.

Take their 26-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints in their last game prior to their bye: as evidenced in the above photo gallery, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg reached deep into his bag of tricks to find ways to crack the Rob Ryan defense in that victory.

Mornhinweg was helped by a very poor performance defensively by the Saints; Chris Ivory was able to rip off several long runs simply because the Saints were poor at the point of attack and took horrible angles in the secondary to make stops. But the Jets also got creative in the game, making several nice gains out of the Pistol formation and using reserve receiver Josh Cribbs as a Wildcat quarterback to make plays through the air and on the ground.

It really is quite impressive that the Jets have been able to acquire players like Cribbs, David Nelson, Greg Salas and Zach Sudfeld, then find ways for them to make plays in games that count. The Jets have had their problems offensively this season, particularly with consistency, but they're solid on the ground and are able to generate big plays through the air with rookie Geno Smith. More to the point for their rematch with the Bills, Buffalo's defensive staff has a lot of new wrinkles on tape to prepare for this time around.

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