EJ Manuel probably is still picking pieces of the MetLife Stadium turf out of his teeth.
The Jets defense launched an all-out attack and pounded the Bills rookie quarterback on Sunday, sacking him eight times — the highest sack total by a Jets team in 25 years. What made it even more impressive was seven different Jets players logged sacks.
For Manuel, it must have looked like the Jets had 15 players on defense, and he could not figure out what direction the pressure was coming from. Unlike many teams who have just one superb pass rusher, the Jets have a bunch of players with the ability to get to the quarterback so teams can’t identify just one player they need to stop.
“We’re not just a four-man rush,” coach Rex Ryan said Wednesday. “We’re very multiple. We can rush four. You just might not know which four are coming.”
The Jets now rank third in the NFL with 12 sacks and are on pace for 64, which would be the highest total the Jets have had under Ryan, the architect of the defensive attack. Of the eight sacks, only one came from a five-man rush. The Jets rushed four on the others. But, as Ryan said, Manuel had a tough time identifying which four were coming. Linebackers who lined up on the line of scrimmage dropped into coverage. Defensive linemen twisted and stunted. Linebackers blitzed and defensive backs hunted Manuel down if he left the pocket.
Muhammad Wilkerson was the only Jet to have two sacks. Calvin Pace, David Harris, Demario Davis, Dawan Landry, Sheldon Richardson and Antonio Allen each had one.
“We feed off each other,” Wilkerson said.
It was the first time the Jets had seven different players register a sack in the same game since sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Nine different players have sacks this season, the first time that has happened through a team’s first three games since the 2008 Eagles.
“Anytime you can have multiple guys on a defense that present problems for the offensive coordinator, it’s always a good thing because you have guys slip through the cracks that make plays that they didn’t plan on making plays,” nose tackle Damon Harrison said. “You can’t focus on one or two guys on this defense because everybody has playmaking ability.”
Harrison did not register a sack on Sunday, but his pressure led to a Richardson sack. Ryan pointed out guys such as Harrison and linebackers Quinton Coples and Antwan Barnes did not get a sack, but their pressure created them.
“It shows that we also have some depth,” Ryan said. “Guys contribute in a bunch of different ways. A couple of guys that never had any sacks — one was Coples and one was Barnes — and they might have caused more than any of them but they never hit the board.”
Ryan has always used creative schemes to get to the quarterback. Since he took the Jets over in 2009, 31 different players have notched a sack. He’s done it with outside linebackers (54), defensive linemen (41), inside linebackers (27 ½), safeties (18 ½) and cornerbacks (8).
“It presents a lot of opportunities for different guys. I think that’s a good thing,” Ryan said. “It’s not just one guy getting them. … That’s sharing the wealth, but giving guys the opportunity to get a 1-on-1 matchup or a free run, that’s what you try to do.”
The best year for Ryan’s defense in sacks was 2006, when he was still with the Ravens. That group had 60 and nearly had four players register double-digit sacks. Trevor Pryce had 13, Adalius Thomas had 11 and both Bart Scott and Terrell Suggs finished with 9 ½.
With the Jets, Ryan’s best sack year was 2010, when the team had 40, eighth in the league. They only had 30 last season, but a revamped front seven has the Jets on track for a huge year pressuring the quarterback.
“[Ryan] puts you in the position to make plays,” Richardson said. “It’s up to you make them. We made them Sunday.”