The New York Jets were flying high after holding the Buffalo Bills to just 16 points in the season opener. However, they were humbled by the Cowboys putting up 30 points in Dallas on Sunday.
Former NFL scout Bryan Broaddus of the Audacy original podcast “Love of the Star” explained how the Cowboys took advantage of the Jets’ defensive arrogance in Dallas’ 30-10 win over New York.
“I was really surprised at the arrogance that which the Jets played that football game defensively,” Broaddus said (3:05 in player above). “I mention the arrogance in which the Jets played defense and it’s something that I think they’re going to learn from and probably be better for in the future, and that’s that when you keep your corners on the same side of the field – a right corner and a left corner – and you don’t show the flexibility to be able to travel with.
“I think it’s something that Sauce Gardner, the very talented corner from the Jets, came out and basically said ‘Hey, let me travel.’”
Broaddus brought up the fact that longtime NFL defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli was against having cornerbacks travel with receivers.
“That’s because they always fear that if travel with it’ll change everybody else’s responsibility in the defense,” he said. “So there are some positives, there are some negatives according to defensive coordinators.
“But the arrogance in which the Jets played. They felt like their pass rush was probably good enough to get pressure – it didn’t. They probably felt like they could cover on the back end playing mostly zone – it didn’t work. So there was some real arrogance there.”
The Cowboys were without wide receiver Brandin Cooks on Sunday which was a cause for concern, but the Jets were unable to stop CeeDee Lamb.
“I’m going to give Mike McCarthy and his staff some credit here. They kept moving CeeDee Lamb around and the Jets didn’t really have an answer for that,” Broaddus said. “Once the Cowboys figured out that there was not going to be a traveler, they’re not going to bracket, they’re not going to play man coverage, then they went to work with CeeDee Lamb throwing the football.”
The Cowboys’ offense ran through Lamb in the first half. On 36 plays in which Lamb wasn’t targeted, the team averaged just three yards per play.
Lamb finished the game with 11 catches on 13 targets for 143 yards.
“The Jets’ arrogance of just allowing CeeDee Lamb wreck shop on them is something that they’re going to have to look at for their football team going into the future,” Broaddus concluded. “If you’re just going to continue to play the way they did you better make sure that pass rush gets home if that’s what you’re going to do, and the Cowboys did a great job of neutralizing that.”
The Cowboys will look to stay hot when they travel to Arizona in Week 3 while the Jets look to bounce back at home against the Patriots.