So 2020 has been a crummy year for a lot of reasons, and then Thursday Night Football rubs salt in everyone's wounds by giving us a pair of bad and injury-riddled 0-3 teams for the showcase game. And yet, it was a strangely fun and entertaining clash (65 total points!), life-affirming if you will. The teams can be bad, but football is still great.
QUARTERBACKS:
Sam Darnold delivered one of the plays of the young season early on in this one, somehow eluding an unblocked pass rusher and then juking a defender out of his cleats on a thrilling 46-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. (In the Weekly we observed how running isn't part of Darnold's game; he finished with a Lamar Jacksonesque 84 yards.) This was not of course a running play, but rather a horrible display of defensive tackling both in the backfield and 10 yards downfield; somebody caught an earful after that. The next series, Darnold was body-slammed into the turf on a sack, a totally unnecessary play that somehow failed to draw a flag. (After that, personal foul flags were falling from the sky like rain, with officials perhaps realizing that they blew that non-call.) Kinda looked like Darnold's game and season were over when he walked off the field with his arm dangling limply at his side, but incredibly, he returned.
In this review, I will concede that perhaps Darnold was affected by the pain of playing through a sprained shoulder. I hope that's the case, because it was a fairly disappointing outing. Granted, the Broncos were dialing up blitzes and he took 6 sacks. But what was concerning was the number of throws he made that seemed to have no real chance of being completed -- passes to guys who were well-covered. When the team got near or in the red zone, at no point did they come close to scoring a touchdown; typically three straight incompletions followed by a field goal (they kicked 5). Darnold needs a new offensive coaching staff, now. He looks like the next Ryan Tannehill, a guy who might have a good NFL career once he's free of Adam Gase.
Brett Rypien had his moments. A touchdown dart to Tim Patrick between 2 defenders that gave Denver a seemingly solid 24-16 lead was quite a nice throw. There were a couple more good sideline throws to Patrick, too. But pretty much every other throw looked like an undrafted guy trying to play in the NFL with no awareness of where and when not to throw it. The cool touchdown to Jerry Jeudy was all Jeudy -- the ball should have been intercepted. Three other throws were, and they were all major gaffes: a throwaway that wasn't far enough out of bounds, a Pick Six that got the Jets back in the game, and then an equally bad floater to a guy with three defenders around him that let them kick the go-ahead field goal. It got so bad I actually wondered if he'd be benched for Jeff Driskel. Rypien will probably make another start (he's 1-0), but the next Tony Romo he's not.
RUNNING BACKS:
The less said about the Jets running backs the better. It's over for Frank Gore. I've seen nothing worth mentioning with LaMical Perine. They combined to carry it 18 times for 45 yards, or slightly less than Darnold's long touchdown. I will give Kalen Ballage (the announcers were pronouncing it "Ball-ahj" like "Bellagio," that was a new one, maybe they know what they're talking about, but I've always heard it "Ballej") credit for making a nice catch at one point. The Jet running back who catches passes will be the valuable one for the rest of the season. LeVeon Bell might be back next week, mercifully shunting Gore into a secondary role.
Melvin Gordon looked pretty good, even before his game-sealing touchdown run. They didn't use him much in the passing game, and the refs curiously didn't want to give him a short touchdown I'm pretty sure he scored twice, but he's probably the most valuable piece of this offense the rest of the season. Phillip Lindsay will be back for Week 5, which hurts, but I think Gordon should still get most of the work.
WIDE RECEIVERS:
Hats off to Jerry Jeudy for the "You Got Mossed" highlight. He only caught one other pass, but that should be a nice confidence booster both for him and the team when throwing to him. Sutton-Jeudy could be a nice duo for the team next year. Tim Patrick was the Bronco who actually had a big game. We endorsed him as the best wideout after Jeudy in the Weekly but underestimated just how well he'd finish. He benefitted, certainly, by Noah Fant leaving early with an ankle injury.
Jamison Crowder was a bright spot for the Jets. In the two games he's played, he's proved worthy of the favorable ranking we assigned him in the preseason. It's a trainwreck offense, but Crowder should have plenty of 6-7 catch games in him. Jeff Smith was the other, surprise producer. The second-year undrafted free agent was just activated off IR hours before the game, but to Adam Gase that screamed starting wideout, so he and Chris Hogan joined Crowder in the lineup while Braxton Berrios barely got on the field. Looks like Smith is the No. 2 in this offense at the moment (looks a lot better than Hogan) although perhaps Breshad Perriman will be back next week. I'm not sure anyone wants to invest heavily enough in the Jets offense to add Smith, but I guess he needs to be monitored.
TIGHT ENDS:
Looks like Chris Herndon isn't happening. Even with all the receiving injuries, he's not doing anything out there. Ryan Griffin had as many targets (3). Collectively they totalled 4 catches for 21 yards.
Noah Fant would have probably had a big game but for an ankle injury. He caught 5 passes for 35 yards in a little over a half. The injury was called minor, so initial indications are that Fant will be fine for Week 5. Jake Butt played almost half the snaps and had one pass thrown his way.
KICKERS:
Hoo-wee, this was great. Everyone under the sun figured this for a low-scoring game, and it led me to underestimate the kickers. Brandon McManus and Sam Ficken combined to kick 8 field goals, which is probably about as many as we'll see in one game all year. Funny story (to me), I had Younghoe Koo in a league, and had to replace him, so I picked up Stephen Gostkowski yesterday morning. When Titans-Steelers got postponed, the best available choice to me to replace Gostkowski was McManus (in this league a lot of people carry two kickers). So I grabbed him, and started out the week with an 18-0 lead. Anyway, I doubt Ficken will kick 5 field goals in a game for the rest of his career, but congratulations to anyone who started either of these guys last night.
DEFENSES:
Depending on scoring system, we had these defenses ranked 10th and 15th or 5th and 7th in the Weekly. I recall looking at it and searching for ways to lower them, because it seemed too high. Nothing like 6 sacks, or 3 interceptions including a Pick Six, to make you glad you started one of these groups last night. Going forward I'm not sure if either will be a top-10 defense again this year, because neither will face each other. But a comforting reminder that if you can put a defense up against the Jets or Broncos these days, do so.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Scoring is up this year. There are lots of theories. Offenses ahead of defenses in this preseason-less season. Officials are calling fewer penalties for things like holding and whatnot. (That's not a theory; it's statistically correct so far.) Whatever the case, we're getting a lot of high-scoring games. Last night there were a lot of personal foul penalties (at least one fewer than should have been called). That extended drives, and helped with some of the scoring issues, giving teams extra downs and opportunities. All I can say is, enjoy it while you can, and get guys in your lineups who are getting the most opportunities (from this game, Crowder, Gordon, Fant -- pre-injury -- and Patrick come to mind). Usually a recipe for big fantasy weeks.
Postscript: At the very end of the game, the beaten Jets Defense was dialing up some late hits and earning more personal fouls for no apparent reason. The Broncos left the field without the customary postgame handshake, and Vic Fangio indicated he was looking to avoid a brawl between the players. It will be surprising to no one that New York's coordinator is BountyGate jerk Gregg Williams. NFL Network's Steve Smith, talking about Williams after the game, spoke for many opposing players when he said something along the lines of, "I'm not saying Williams is dirty, but if it smells like a pig, looks like a pig, and is oinking, then it's a motherf'n pig." Good stuff.
—Andy Richardson