Jets-Chargers Game Preview

down there, great efford, great fight. This is something we've seen from Todd Bowls Club throughout the two thousand seventeen season. I think that a lot of people were wandering after the Jets went to Denver and we're shut out twenty three and nothing on the one side of the affair where the wheel about to fall off, And know they weren't because Todd Bull said all week I got confidence on my guys were gonna go out there and we're going down there to get a victory. And indeed the

Jets had an opportunity to secure a victory. But that's a tough place to win it. That is a very good football team, that is a Hall of Fame quarterback and ultimately they fell short. Outside of weeks two and fourteen against the Denver Broncos and the Buffalo Bills in Week two, the Jets have lost by an average of

seven points per game. So go one possession games, right, So you're five and nine, and then we're gonna look back at the season a couple of weeks on this podcast, and we're gonna say the Jets very easily could have been maybe nine and seven or eight and eight or whatever. But with all that being said, I think there is a confidence building within the locker room after the game. You could feel it, you could sense it, you could hear it. Jermaine Curse, That's something that I'm always going

to come back to. All he said, one more five games. You surpassed your guys expectations, and I think the biggest thing is for us then I'd be a fluid by that, you know, So, like we gotta our standard and expectation has gotta be higher, and we gotta open hold ourselves to the expectation of standard. But when you look at game film on Monday and you watched the Jets play the Saints, you say, there were a lot of good things that happened in this game, and you can immediately

point to the three turnovers on defense. Leonard Williams recorded his first career in exception dr Crows Drew Brees under pressure. Here does he pros over the it's intercepted, picked up Leonard Williams against Drew Brees. Jamal Adams with a force fumble. Three strops to throw, looks like Throse wh Comba makes the catch up the ten, The ball pops out Jaball Adams force the fumble, The Jets up the ball recovered by Jordan Jenkins and Buster Screen with another force fumble

and he recovered that. Well, let's not bury the lead here. Let's talk about Bryce Petty for a moment, because this was his first start of the two thousand seventeen season, his fifth career start. How do you think he fared and what do you see out of him from a

growth perspective from last year to this year? And I think it's tough to say what did you see from him as far as a growth perspective because it's been such a small sample size for one game and a tough place to play, Yeah, a tough place to play, And I think he did some good thing. I think he missed some passes that he would like to have back.

He's said that. I think he talks about footwork and at times that, hey, there are certain throws that I have to be on the money with a hundred percent of the time, and he missed a few of those. He didn't make a couple of beautiful throws. A play down the sideline to Eli McGuire, back to throws, Bryce Petty looks right, throws a bomb down the right side, look for McGuire, He's got it. H'side the fifteen Brice Petty throws it right down the chip. Then late in

the game, the throw to Chad Hanson. Petty back to thront, pumps once, looks left, throws down the sideline for Hanson and somehow he made the catch. What a catch by the rookie chat Hanson. So there were times where Bryce flashed, uh. There were other times where you would say he's struggling a little bit. I think it's hard to evaluate Bryce and make a definitive judgment on what he is or

what he isn't based on one game Greece. What I liked from Bryce Petty and he said this is that he felt a lot more confident, and I thought you could see that watching him Sunday. I in particular, I think about his first down scramble for thirteen yards back to throw his price, Petty steps up in the pocket, He'll take off and run. He's got the first rounded more to the forty to and the Jets have a first step. When he felt a little bit of pressure, he stepped up and out of the pocket and he

took off. And that was decisive on his part. And last year something that I took aways He tended to almost pump fake and second guess himself, and I think he would tell you the same thing. So I liked seeing that and then moving forward now he ate a Sunday is what are you expecting from him? Now that he has a week under his belt, And I think it'll be better against the Chargers. I think the Jets will be better this week, and I thought they played

pretty well in New Orleans. They have proven to be a better home team this season, There's no doubt about it. You just look at the records. The Jets are four and three at My Life Stadium, and they're not one and six on the road. I think that the Jets will open up the playbook a little bit. The other thing that Bryce has to do, Bryce, but he has to do this week is that he can't get so

many balls bedded down at the line. Cameron Jordan's had and he's a great player, but he he had four pds and you think of the one on the two point conversion that really squandered an opportunity. So you have to make sure the throwing lane is there. While the Saints had one guy where you're like, wow, he's really Ellion disrupt her off the edge. The Chargers hif too. They got Joey Bosa, NonStop motor of physical freak, and

then Melvin Igraham's not bad in his own right. So the Jets tackles have a big time assignment this week. But I think there's gonna be a time this week that Petty will have an opportunity to get the ball down the field of Robby Anderson. Twelve targets is five catches against the Saints. I would not be surprised if they hit on a long one this week. And stemming back to last preseason, Petty and Anderson have Anderson led the NFL in preseason yards from primarily with Petty throwing

him the rock. And then when Petty first started in Week ten last season, Robby Anderson had that fifty two yard reception up the sidelines. So we'll have to see what happens in Bryce Petty's first home start. Since we're talking a lot about Bryce Petty here on the Official Jets Podcast game preview, Chad penny ten, it's time to bring you in. What did you think about Petty's for start of two thousand seventeen, the fifth start of his career. Well, Eric,

I thought it was kind of difficult to evaluate. I just when I look at the performance, I do see some opportunities there for the Jet to really makes um some hay and do some damage there. In seventeen ball game, you have to uncharacteristic Saints turnovers and the offense was able to produce points in that time period, and that to me was the difference in the ball game. And when I watched Bryce play, I see some good things. One thing I'm still concerned about is just the accuracy

being able to hit those easy ones. There's probably four or five easy passes to make easy completions that some of them had actually happened on first down. It creates easier second and third down opportunities. Uh, keeps drives alive, just kind of makes things a little bit smoother. When you're unable to make those makes it so difficult. You do see, Bryce makes some good throws down the field, some macu throws down the field. Players making plays on

the field, but those are sporadic. When you don't hit your gimmes, you've gotta be able to be a dent on your gimmes with them, make those bigger plays down the field much more meaningful and impactful. Bryce talks about improving his footwork for this weekend's match up against the Chargers. What did you see out of his footwork and what is the importance of footwork, especially on game day? Well,

the most important aspect of your footwork is timing. The quarterback must listen to his feet, which allows him to move through his progression and doesn't keep him on a receiver too long or get off of a receiver too quickly. And so when I think about footwork, I think about a quarterback being able to listen to their feet, move through their progressions efficiently, and being able to deliver the football.

And I can see exactly what Bryce is saying as far as footworks and not his footwork and tell him to move off of it. Uh, And he's getting to his next progression a little bit late because he's not

allowing his feet to work for him. That's that's a struggle for him because typic Clee and the system like he played uh in Baylor, if it works, really not that important in my opinion, And so when you get into the NFL, so it work is extremely important because of the pass rush, because of the windows closing down so quickly. Your feet really help you out in your

decision making. Do you anticipate a better performance this week? Now, have his second full week of practice, getting the reps, having that continual communication with John Morton and Jeremy Bates and other weeks to go through the game plan. Now he gets an opportunity to play at home the Jets throughout the year, as you know, you had have played it very well, not Life Stadium. First of all, I would hope that the team would come out with the energy.

I felt like they came out with a really good energy. Um, I guess the Saints and played some solid football. Certainly wasn't a team that was looking to pack it in or anything like that, and you hope that the team does the same thing this week, uh facing the Chargers team that does have playoffs hopes, and this is another good measuring stick game of for the Jets and and for Bryson to be able to make some improvement in

a lot of different areas. Being at home certainly helps, and you would hope to see some improvement and really see a Jets team kind of take control of a ball game. What do you think of the Jets defensive efforts down in the Big easy because coming into Sunday's game, the Saints were tied for fourth and giveaways. Drew Brees only had six interceptions on the year, and the Jets defense forced three takeaways. Well, I thought it was a a winnable performance. I wouldn't call it a win performance

because it wasn't com thirty one. Of course, the last touchdown you could say didn't count. But it was a winnable performance, meaning that they performed well enough to give the just a chance to win. And I felt like the offense didn't compliment those three turnovers and being able to turn those into points, especially there in the third quarter. That was the chance for the Jet to really put the Saints on their heels, make them nervous. Uh, And they just weren't able to do that, and so that

that was disappointing. UM. I still think that there are some mistakes being made that are allowing some plays that should be just some screens and things like that that maybe seven eight yard games turned into big games, and so that's that's something that has to be cleaned up. But there's still some really good things happening. I thought Leonard Williams play was unbelievable. What a great athletic play. He just continues to show his worth. Uh. Game after game.

Safeties are very aggressive and run support and making really good plays there. And so as far as the team defensive effort, uh, they certainly did some things to keep the Jets in the ball game and and allow this game to go to into the fourth quarter with a chance to win. I want to get your thoughts on tie bowls here. He said after the game that we're gonna keep fighting. Obviously this is gonna turn. I believe

we have a good core group. We just gotta eliminate some of the mistakes and some of the situational football things and We're gonna be okay. With that being said, I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Also, the Jets waving Jeremy Curley, he was suspended four games, eligible to come off suspension for getting some more playing time for Chad Hanson and our Darius Stewart. And then finally Mohammad Wilkerson did not make the trip to New Orleans

with the team. Todd Bull said, we're dealing with that as an internal matter. I can let you know later on. So a few things all involving a coach Bulls in what he's trying to establish here with the culture. Well, I think as a Jet fan, I think you have to respect how coach Bowls conducts his business internally externally

on the field. He is extremely consistent, and I think when you're looking at an organization and you're looking for stability and long term success, that's what you're looking for. To head coach. He's not going to ride an emotional role coaster and it's very easy to do that in this market and he has resisted that and so I respect him for that. Um, you know, the NFL, like Coach Parcels used to say, the train that keeps moving and you're either on it or you're off up it.

And so when it comes to players like Wilkerson, what comes players like Curly If you're not handling your business off fulfilled, this train is leaving. That's how professional sports works, especially in the NFL. But I when I look at Coach Bowls and what he's been able to do, I look at the first two years of his three year stint, where the Jet three able to win ten games, and

then the second year just kind of blew up. He did what he needed to do, the organization did what they needed to do as far as push the reset buttons um and revamp this roster. And so when I look at it, I look at this is really year one for Coach Bowls and rebuilding this team and creating a playoff contender. I don't really look at this year as combining it with the first two years. I pushed the reset button and see where the team is, the organization is, and I think it's on an upward trend.

And Uh, I feel really good about where Coach Bowles is, where what he's done, how this team is playing, how they respond to him. Uh, the pieces that he has in place with his staff, as well as the pieces that are in place with the team. UM. And it's not based upon setimo expectations. I don't look at and go, well, they were expected only to win one or two games and they beat It has nothing to do with that.

It has to do with the work that's been put in the games that have been played, the effort that's there, and and you look at the plays that have been made, and so that's what I believe. How do you expect this team to rebound this weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers team that's come across country in week sixteen, and how do you go about attacking these guys? Well, I think the charges of ball. He's struggled on the East Coast, UM, and I think this is a winnable game to focus on.

Melvin Gordon and Keenan Allen Rivers had a you know, struggled last week and three interceptions against the Chiefs. UM. You would like to see the Jets be able to create a couple more turnovers. They did a good job that against the SATs. If they can do that, they certainly have a chance to win this ball game. And finally, Chad, I talked to Todd Bowls about this week, and he said,

Philip Rivers one of the smartest competitors I face. From a defensive play calling standpoint, himself and Casey Rogers, what do you like most about Rivers and what can the Jets take advantage of, specifically with his aggressiveness at times. Well, what I've always liked about Rivers, Number one is he's always been able to succeed and be successful with an unorthodox type of throwing motion. And the throwing motion people said he couldn't be successful with, He's always been Philip

Rivers and he's never changing that. To me, I respect that. Secondly, I really respect his toughness. He is a guy that's going to stand in that pocket and regardless of what is in front of his face, he has the ability to make throws all over the field with under a lot of durests and pressure. And so it's one thing to get to a guy, but when you're going trying to get to a guy that's that tough, he can

make you pay. And so the Jets gonna have to be judicious on how they defend Rivers and this Chargers offense because he does a really good job under pressure. He throws with anticipation, he throws with timing. Uh, He's he's a passer, He's a true passer and he's that's why he's had such a great career. So it's a big time challenge for this young defense. Merry Christmas to you and your family. We'll talk to you next week. Absolutely, Eric,

Thank you guys. Brien's is always good getting a quarterbacks perspective on the play of a quarterback. So uh, Pennington is emphasized this continually, is that you gotta make the passes that are considered gimmes. And in National Football League, let's see if Petty can do this this week and has the Chargers. Yeah, and the Chargers aren't really known for their secondary you mentioned it before. Melvin Ingram and

Joey Bosa lead the way up front. And last week when the Chargers travel to Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs really utilized their ground game with Kareem Hunt, who rushed for a hundred fifty five yards. And we saw the Jets try to established the run and have success on the ground early in New Orleans. Well, then touchdown drive in the first half of the great drive. Is that you had the stats on that wealth plays, ten of which were rushes, and then blal Pal got the two yard

touchdown after that todown run. Focusing on the Chargers now for a second. Is earlier when we talked about the Chiefs on the Official Chess Podcast game preview, they were really hot, then really cold. The Chargers are quite the opposite. They were really cold Owen four, relocation to Los Angeles, new head coach, and then they were one of the hottest teams in football. And right now they've gone from Owen four to seven and seven and that offense runs

through Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen. Time to hit the phone. Hello, Nick hig, It's Ethan Greenberg and Eric Allen with the Jets. How's it going, guys? Good? Thank you Nick Hardwick. You can follow him on Twitter at hardwin or if you want to pronounce it hardwin a you can do either or Nick. Thanks so much for Joe winning us right now. Guys, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. So can you just kind of take us through the ebbs and flows

of this Los Angeles Charger season? Yeah? Absolutely. It was a wild start to the season. First off, with the relocation, having a new head coach, having a defensive coordinator change, a lot of staff changes, getting comfortable in a new city, I to be locating, new training camp location, all of it.

Amidst all of that, the team got off to a very rocky start, going Owen four to start it off, and then they got on the road and went to New York and had a fourth quarter come from behind victory over another oh and four football team, the New York Giants, and that really started turning the season around. Went on to beat the Raiders and the Broncos before losing the Paths. And at the beginning of the season, you've got head coach Anthony Lynn coming in and he

came from Buffalo. They had the number one rush attack of the National Football League with Lyshawn McCoy, and you can tell right away that he was trying to hose that offense onto the Chargers Ken Wizz and Hunt offensive coordinator Philip Rivers, and he wanted it to be a run first offense, and you could tell first second down

they were running the football. At one point in this season, it was like of their first down plays were runs, and then it would put the team behind the sticks because everybody seemed to know, they said, all right, if we're gonna do this, we've got to get the keys to the car. Back to Philip Rivers Keenan Allen finally appeared healthy for the first time all season, and he became virtually unstoppable. Over a four game span, Keenan had

thirty nine catches, five seven yards, four touchdowns. I mean, he was remarkable in that time period. And they figured out that it needs to be a pass first offense that they're going to have any success. The defense started finding themselves. Gus Bradley came in new defensive coordinator, former coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. But last week they kind of fell on their faces in a playoff light game at Arrowhead Saturday night, and it was a real disappointed

loss for the guys. They look young, they look nervous for the first time in a long time in a game that had a lot writing on it, they failed to show up completely. Nick, what can you say about the job that Anthony Lynn has done there this year? An assistant here under Rex Ryan running backs coach, very well, aliked with an organization, and he was very successful for

Rex is an offensive coordinator with the Bills. How has he been able to keep the ship afloat the thing that Anthony Lynn has done so well to me as he stayed true to himself. He's unabashed about his comments towards the guys. He's very direct, not afraid to say what he thinks, and he's very even killed. And when you're even killed, you have a good chance to get through those downtimes. What I want to know is, how does Anthony Lynn prevent this loss becoming two losses or

three losses? How much did it take out of this team? How do they prevent that moving forward as they go and play a Jets team who has played well at home so far this year. Yeah, exactly they have. And that's what Anthony Lynn. I've asked him before about trap games. Got done beaten the Dallas Cowboys and had the Cleveland Browns the next week, and I said, coaches their potential for a trap game, and he laughed at me, right in my face on the post game interview and he goes, Nick,

we're five and six. We don't have time for a trap game. He's like, we're still trying to prove that we're a good football team. I do believe their confidence was maybe shaking a touch last week against Kansas City because they were the betting favorite. They were one of the Darling's. As you're working later into the season that you could hear the national conversation go and this Chargers team, they've got a chance to be Pittsburgh, lookout New England.

This team's hot. They got a good day, they got a great quarterback, and then they fell on their faces and they've got to regain that confidence. I don't at all believe this will be a trap game. I take the playoff implications are still on the line for them. It's a very clear picture as to what has to happen for the Chargers to make the playoffs. On the defensive side of the ball, Nick, what kind of changes has Gus Bradley installed in his first year? And upfront?

Joey Bosa had a tremendous rookie season. What have you seen from him in his progressions in year two? Both as a monster, He's an absolute freak show of a human as far as the way he's put together. I described him before as the moose, and we say the moose is loose when he gets going. His techniques are derived on what the offensive lineman. Their techniques are how they plan to attack you. He's not flashy's not jump around. He is going to bul rush you and use his

hands so effectively to capture the edge. And the thing about him is he's got as much talented as anybody in the league, but he hustles as much as anybody in the league. And that's how you take talent and take it to an elite level. And that's what Joey Bosa has been at to do. Jets moved the ball pretty well on the ground against the New Orleans Saints. Ran a lot of twelve personnel packages with two tight ends, brought in an extra alignement and said we're gonna come

right at you. New Orleans played a lot of coverage trying to take away Bryce Petty going deep to guys like Robbie Anderson. But do you think potentially the Jets could have some success running a football against the Chargers team who at times has been suspected against the run. Oh, I would absolutely expect that. Yeah, Chargers coming into this contest are going to be twenty nine in the league

and rushing yards allowed. So if I'm the Jets, the thing I would absolutely look to do is bring in twelve personnel bringing bait packages and try to run it down their throat. And while you're doing that, if you could, you know on the field you can wear them down. You're also keeping Philip rivers off at the field, which is a pretty good tool to use. I want to know about Keenan Allen and the weapons around him, because Keenan Allen is a guy that's been often injured and

then the season he breaks out. If Keenan Allen's having a successful day, it's very difficult to slow the chargers down. If he's able to be contained what he was last week, he was contained to get the City Chiefs, then you got a good chance to slow the other guys down. The Tyrrelle Williams the Travis Benjamin do. You would think Travis, with his small stature, would be a possession receiver, but he's anything but a possession receiver. He's a deep threat.

He's a vertical guys take the lid off the defense, and Tyrelle Williams is kind of a long striding receiver, incredibly fast when he gets in the open field. He's good on crossing routes both shallow and deep, but those two. Both of them aren't really guys that beat man pressed. Keenan's the man press meter. So if teams want to beat the Chargers, I think what what happened last week is Bob Sutton, defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. They like to play a two man look with two

deep safeties and press across the board. Get a chance to go either inside out with coverage on Keenan and sometimes put three on him and make the other guys beat man pressed because they're not very good at it, to be honest, all right, So we've gotta ask one

question about Philip Rivers. What's different about the ultra competitive Rivers here is he continues to be so productive late in his career and it doesn't get any easier for the Jets over this final three game strategy just finished up with Drew Brees and no, no, here they go. They got a deal with Philip Rivers, and then they finished up the season with a guy in New England by the name of Tom Brady. Right, yeah, good luck

with those quarterbacks there, Philip Rivers. The difference to me this year when he's having success is that he's being patient. I only have to preface that with having success, because last week got intercepted three times and two of them were in the attempt to make a comeback, and he's a guy who's gonna go down swing and he didn't

really care so much about his statistics. But the thing about him when he was having success and you were starting to hear his name coming to the m v P conversation is that he's been patient and he's picked his spots and he's really just dictated to the defense that I'm going to make the completion or you're not going to get the ball. He's been very mindful of taking care of the ball. Lost that patience last week because it kind of turned into a shootout with the

Kansas City Chiefs. But why he's able to be patient is because his defense has been so strong today they had going into the Kansas City Chiefs game, they had the number two scoring defense in the National Football League, and that has allowed him to trust them and he doesn't feel like he needs to go out and put seven points on the board every single time the offense takes the field, which when you're running that engine that hot,

eventually something's going to break down. And so now he's able to just kind of pick his spot to burst off from the top light, if you will. But most of the time he's just driving that f two fifty down the road, kind of at a casual pace, listening to some country music, picking it all in and when he's in command, that's kind of what he's doing. All right. That's Nick Hardwick, a former San Diego Charger now covering the Los Angeles Chargers. You can follow him on Twitter

at Hardwinner or hardwin A. That's with one end. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see a Sunday, all right, Thank you so much, guys. Alrighty, A couple of things stick out to me, but I want to touch on what Nick Hardwick had to say about the receiver's opposite, Keenan Allen, and we talked about it a little bit. But outside of Keenan Allen, that's what the

chiefs did. They kind of took him out of the game and then they said, hey, Phil, may you throw to the other guys and they couldn't climb over that hume. If you know, Philly maybe fail maybe Philly p Ribs, whatever you want to call him. But except you have to remember this is that Mike Williams, the Clemson wide receiver from last year. He's been hurt almost all years, so he hasn't really seen a lot of the field. Maybe he's that piece that the Chargers are missing. Yeah,

but we won't we won't be playing on Sunday. Well to see how that progresses for the Chargers. They're a

dangerous team. But again, as Nick Hardwick said, Anthony Lynn has done a tremendous job because a lot of teams would have folded their tents after starting zero on four, after having uh been forced to move the third tents up north in southern California from San Diego to l A, going to a new headquarters, playing in a new stadium that seats on their thirty thousand people where a lot of times that look like the environment was a practical

road game for the Chargers, But they rebounded, they rallied, and here they are still in a position to compete for a playoff birth but this is definitely gonna be a big time test for their medal in their character. Where do you think the Jets go from a game plan perspective to attack this Chargers defense and vice versa, How do you expect the Jets to attack Phil Rivers. Well, I think you want Petty to get in some rhythm early. I think you want to have some success on first

and second down. That's one area. The other thing is you got to make sure those defensive ends don't get off. I think balance is going to be the key for the Jets offense. I think the running backs could have a big day against the Chargers. Switch over the defensive side of the ball. I think you gotta take away Gordon, you gotta take away Keena now and make other guys

beat you on that game. And that's all we have on the Official Jets Podcast game preview again Jets Chargers this Sunday, Christmas, eve Day, Happy Holidays, and almost a happy New Year. Will wait to wish you that though until the final regular season game preview on the Official Jets Podcast. Fer Eric Allen, I'm Ethan Greenberg and just they need fig They didn't, they didn't, didn't did it? They did it? They did it to Tostom. Just don't co