Three stats to know, and more, following the Jets' 32-26 overtime loss to the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday:
New Kids on the (Catch and Run and) Block
Rookie RBs Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis took the ball and ran with it after Aaron Rodgers handed it or threw it to them in South Florida. With Breece Hall sidelined by a knee injury. Davis scored his first pro rushing touchdown and logged 10 carries for 40 rushing yards and three receptions for 27 yards. Allen converted another 3rd-and-1 — he's 10-for-10 on third-and-1 and -2 situations this season — and gained 43 yards on 11 totes and 38 yards on 4 catches.
It doesn't sound like crazy real estate for two young backs, yet Allen's 81 yards from scrimmage and Davis' 67 YFS make them a quite significant duo in franchise history. No other Jets rookie RBs have teamed up for 60-plus scrimmage yards in a game. About as near as we could find were Bill Mathis (64 yards) and Dewey Bohling (71), who did it for the 1960 Titans in their Game 13 win at Oakland. But Bohling was a first-year back, having gone to camp with the Steelers in 1959.
However we define it, IHC Jeff Ulbrich said this week, "I don't think I've seen two rookies at the same position especially have such a mature approach." For however long Allen and Davis, combined with Hall, are together on the Green & White, opposing run defenses will feel old more often than not trying to slow them all down.
Taking His Hit Show on the Road
The Jamien Sherwood takedown clinic continues. Sherwood, who had a career-high 17 tackles three games ago at Arizona, upped the ante to 18 tackles against the Dolphins, which included being in on 2 tackles for loss, giving him the team's unofficial TFL lead over Quincy Williams, 7-6. He even added a pass defense to his stat line at Miami.
Sherwood's tackle total now resides on some Jets history lists. Since 1994, when tackles began to be rigorously charted, only LB David Harris (24 tackles vs. Washington in 2007) and S Victor Green (20 vs. Buffalo and 18 vs. Miami in 1996) had as many tackles in a game.
And since all those games were played at the Jets' home stadium, Sherwood holds the recognized Jets record for most tackles in an away game, at least for the past 31 seasons.
A Silver Lining to Recent Losses?
The Jets added their Dolphins outcome to a theme of their current downturn. Of their 10 losses and the 9 L's since starting the schedule 2-1, seven have been by 8 points or fewer. Perhaps it's a sign of better times to come that the Jets are losing one-score games to some good teams, such as the 10-3 Bills and 11-2 Vikings and a pair of 8-5 units in the Broncos and Seahawks . Add their 21-13 win over the 8-5 Texans to the mix and the Jets' 8 most recent one-score games have come against teams with a combined .577 schedule strength.
We're about to see whether these close calls can translate into winning some nailbiters in the last month of the season. The Jets' seven losses of 8 or fewer points are tied for the most in the NFL with the Bengals and the Jaguars, who like the Jets are also 3-10 and host the Green & White at EverBank Stadium this Sunday.
