The best defense in the NFL is coached by a Ryan, but it is not Rex Ryan.
Rob Ryan’s Cowboys are the No. 1 ranked defense in the NFL right now. Twin brother Rex’s Jets are 21st. How do you think that’s going over?
“That stings a little bit,” the Jets coach said yesterday.
Ryan prides himself in being the best defensive coach in football. If that’s the case, he’s got some coaching to do.
The Jets defense has looked nothing like its dominant former self this year, and that was before it lost cornerback Darrelle Revis, the best player on the team.
The biggest problems have come in two areas. The Jets have failed to stop the run — they rank 28th in the league, giving up 148.7 yards per game — and can’t stop opponents on third down — allowing 55.8 percent of third downs to be converted, worst in the NFL.
”It makes you kind of angry,” linebacker David Harris said. “We know we’re a better defense than that. That what practice is for. It’s a long season and we’re working on turning it around.”
Ryan got the message across to the defense on Monday when he told them they were “getting back to basics.” According to several members of the defense the coaches are emphasizing being gap sound and better tackling.
”We’re thinking too much, guessing on plays,” defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson said. “We’re just not doing what normally are the characteristics the Jets up front. … We’ve been challenged before. We’re just going to accept the challenge.”
In Ryan’s first two years with the Jets, stopping the run was a staple of the defense. They were eighth in the NFL against the run in 2009 and third in 2010. Things slipped a little last year, dropping to 13th, but that number was inflated with a few huge games.
The Bills got things started this year, gaining 195 yards on the ground, 169 from C.J. Spiller. The Jets did a good job against the Steelers, but the Dolphins gashed them for 185 yards last week.
“It’s technique stuff and it’s tackling,” defensive tackle Mike DeVito said. “There’s a lot of times we have a guy wrapped up in the backfield and he bounces out. We have to make sure we bring a guy down. We have to work on our technique, something we’re usually very good at.”
Now, the Jets face the 49ers, who are the No. 7 rushing offense in football led by Frank Gore.
“It’s a big boys’ game this Sunday,” Harris said. “They’re a good overall team. They don’t have any weaknesses. We know we have to come with our A game.”
On third down, the Jets have been awful. The Dolphins and Steelers both converted more than 50 percent of their third downs against the Jets.
“You don’t win games doing that,” Harris said.
The woes against the run have also hurt the Jets’ pass rush. They have just three sacks, 29th in the NFL, this year. Part of that is because of opponents being in favorable down-and-distances on second and third down because of success running on first down.
“If you’re good on first down, you put teams in second and long,” Harris said. “Those can make the offense change what they want to do. If they have a short field, their playbook opens up and you have to defend more things and different things. You always try to win on first down.”
The question now is, how does the loss of Revis change the Jets’ game plan? They have blitzed five or more rushers on 40 pass plays this season, according to ESPN. Only five teams have blitzed more than them. The blitzes have not yielded much success. Teams are completing 65 percent of their passes when the Jets blitz, throwing three touchdowns with no interceptions and two sacks.
Without Revis, the Jets may actually need to be more aggressive to force quarterbacks to throw quicker.
“That’s certainly a possibility, that we may be more aggressive,” Ryan said. “The ’85 Bears had three college safeties and a college receiver in their [secondary], but their pressure was so intense that the ball had to come out extremely early or you got sacked.”