The Jets struggled in their blitz pickup in Week 4 against the Broncos and should expect another heavy dose of pressure Sunday against the Vikings. Minnesota ranks No. 2 in the NFL in blitz rate at 41.3%.
"I think that it was something that was good for us," C Joe Tippmann said, referring to the Broncos blitzes. "It was really eye opening to be able to see that. We weren't perfect last week and there's a lot of areas that we can kind of improve and better ourselves for this week. That's one of the big messages, being able to kind of come together. We regrouped and now we'll build a new plan for how we can attack and be able to pick up these pressures, be able to keep [ Aaron Rodgers ] up so that he can keep that confidence in the O-line that we got his back and he can sit back there and do what he does best, which is pick apart the defense from that spot."
The Broncos, who have the league's highest blitz rate at 49.7%, sacked Rodgers 5 times last Sunday, 4 of which came when Denver sent pressure, and hit him 14 times. In Weeks 1-3, the Green & White allowed 5 sacks and 12 QB hits.
"It's been a huge emphasis for us in our individual periods and our drills with [offensive line] Coach [Keith] Carter," rookie Olu Fashanu, who started his first NFL game last Sunday, said of the pressure. "Just emphasizing to us to have our eyes up to make all the right calls to pick up the blitzes."
See the Jets back on the practice field to kickoff Week 5 in preparation for the game against the Vikings in London.
Rodgers, in Weeks 1-3, was blitzed on 17.9% of his plays. He threw for 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and had a 118 passer rating. Last week he had a 72.3 passer rating, 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
"We got to keep getting better each week in and week out," Tippmann said earlier this week. "I think it's going to come down to a lot of it in practice this week. All of us up front being able to lock in and know those little areas that we want to each and individually get better so that we can be better as a complete O-line."
Rodgers will line up in London against the NFL's No. 32 passing defense. He's 96 yards shy of becoming the ninth player to reach 60,000 for his career. The future Hall of Famer is, obviously, familiar with the Jets' Week 5 opponent, having shared a division with the Vikings for 18 seasons when he played with the Packers.
Rodgers has 7,157 career passing yards against Minnesota, which is his most against any opponent. His 57-8 pass TD-INT ratio against the Vikes is the best by any signal-caller against one opponent since 1970.
Rodgers, however, is not as familiar lining up against a Brian Flores defense. This will be his first time playing against Flores as a defensive coordinator or head coach.
"They play really well together," Rodgers said Tuesday on "The Pat McAfee Show." "They throw a lot of different things at you, they have empty pressure. The thing that they do really well is that they're able to call in to pressures and call out of pressures. They have an awareness where if it looks like you're checking out of a pressure, they're going to check out. And then sometimes they can check in to pressures as well. It's a smart defense. B-Flo obviously has them on the same page because they do a lot of different things."
