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The New York Jets are for real — why Bowles’ boys are legit

By Sayre Bedinger

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It’s not all that often you see teams make such vast changes (improvements) over the course of an offseason that it so quickly comes together on the field as we have with the New York Jets. We’ve seen it this year in Philadelphia, that wholesale changes to both sides of the football can result in disaster. But there’s something different in New York this season.

First-year head coach Todd Bowles has his team playing dominant football right now and showed the entire football world what he was about with a huge road victory over General Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. Until the Jets play the New England Patriots or another big time AFC power, this was a signature win that is going to stand out for awhile.

Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick already had Andrew Luck beat pre-game with his nearly flawless beard, but it was the former Harvard grad that showed up against the boy from Stanford and proved to be the better of the two on this night.

The Colts could throw out every excuse in the book, and for the most part, they’d be right, but there was nothing they could do against the intense pressure applied by Bowles’ defense and the way it was affecting how Luck threw the football, which was to say, ‘not good at all.’

Led by newcomers Darrelle Revis and Buster Skrine in the secondary, the Jets’ defense was on point all night in this game and they were explosive up front, notching a hit on Andrew Luck what seemed like every time he dropped back to pass. Rookie Leonard Williams was fantastic, proving exactly why the Jets took him in the top 10 of this past year’s draft and why he was considered the best defender in this class.

Perhaps no one is playing at as high a level as defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson, who was the subject of some (pretty hilarious) trade rumors this offseason. The former 1st round pick out of Temple is the highest graded Jets defender on Pro Football Focus after a dominant performance against the Colts in which he registered 6 QB hurries and 2 QB hits.

On the whole as a defense, the Jets hurried Luck on 18 drop backs and hit him on 13. They were not able to sack him shockingly enough, but that really doesn’t matter in the long run. If you get pressure on the quarterback and affect his throws, you’re going to make plays defensively, and that’s just what the Jets did. They forced five turnovers in this game — four off of the mighty Andrew Luck — increasing their total takeaways this season to 10.

Todd Bowles knows how to orchestrate a defense, and he knows how to get the ball back in the hands of his offense, which is probably the best the Jets have had in recent memory.

Despite concerns at the quarterback position (and Ryan Fitzpatrick has played pretty darn well up to this point), the Jets have some really interesting skill players led by receivers Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall. Decker and Marshall are a pair of former Denver Broncos who have combined for 23 receptions, 297 yards, and 4 touchdowns through 2 games together with the Jets.

Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell are running the ball well, and the Jets don’t even have their prized draft pick Devin Smith out on the field as of yet. He will provide yet another big time target in the passing game as a player who can burn you downfield with great speed.

Another really important figure through two games — the Jets have allowed just one sack offensively. They are doing a great job of protecting Ryan Fitzpatrick and right now, everything is going their way. This team looks like it can contend for the long-haul with a top flight defense, a solid running game, and a number of big time weapons in the passing game.

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