Bob Wischusen has been the radio play-by-play voice of the New York Jets for 19 years. Lasting all season, Wischusen will share thoughts about the Green & White in a weekly column.
Biggest Takeaways From Week 1
When Adam Gase used the phrase, "complementary football" in his Sunday press conference after the Jets lost to the Bills, he couldn't have used a more appropriate phrase because the Jets failed in all three phases to play complementary football. At the start of the game, when the offense was struggling, going three-and-out on the first three drives, the defense can't give up penalty-aided touchdown drives to the opposition. When the defense gets stops, the offense has to be able to at least move the ball a bit to change field position to give the defense some margin for error. When both sides are struggling, the special teams unit needs to step up and not give up 15 or 20 yard punt returns. The Jets simply, against San Francisco, must be better in all three phases of the game. When you fail in one phase of the three, it impacts the other two. That domino effect let the game on Sunday get away from the Jets and dug too deep of a hole to be able to get out of.
Areas QB Sam Darnold Can Improve for Week 2
Every athlete, no matter how highly regarded in professional sports, is going to make physical mistakes. These are human beings and that happens. However, By the time you're in your third year as an NFL quarterback, however, the mental mistakes need to be reduced significantly. I think that's where Sam Darnold needs to take the biggest steps forward. He needs his skill position guys to do a better job for him and not drop well-thrown passes — which he was victimized by several times against Buffalo. But, when you see him being chased behind the line of scrimmage up against the sideline and he simply runs out of bounds and takes a four- or five-yard sack rather than throw the ball away, or when he's running to the left and side-arms a ball off his back foot up the middle of the field for an interception, those are the kinds of error and judgment that, at this point, he should be eliminating from his game. I think that's where we need to, in the next few weeks, see Sam take the biggest steps forward. Again, you will always make physical mistakes, but it's those mental mistakes that he needs to eliminate in order to take his game to the next level and be a true franchise quarterback.
Gregg Williams' Defense vs. 49ers
I think if there's one area for Gregg Williams' defense that needs to be better on Sunday, specifically against San Francisco, it's his secondary. The wide receivers for the 49ers can be covered one-on-one if the cornerbacks play man coverage and play it well. The Jets did not play man coverage well at all against the Bills. The safeties also have to cover extraordinary well because TE George Kittle is an absolute matchup nightmare. Beyond that, the Jets want to be able to blitz. You're only going to be able to blitz effectively in the NFL if you feel like your secondary is out there doing a good job in coverage. The Jets at times played such soft coverage on Sunday against Buffalo that pitch-and-catch first downs were there way too frequently. All in all, the Jets need their defensive backs to step up and play at a different level Sunday against San Francisco.
