After two weeks on being on the road, the New York Jets return home to take on the Miami Dolphins in their home opener and their second division game in three weeks. This is an important game for the Jets for two reasons; they are seeking their first win of the season after being blown out by the Raiders last week and losing to the Bills in Buffalo. Another reason is because this is a division game and this game will definitely boost their confidence since they are claiming that this team isn’t “tanking.” If they were to pull off this upset, they would need to get after Jay Cutler and force turnovers. Last week, Cutler went 24 for 33 with 230 yards and a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers and didn’t have a single turnover, and with receivers like Jarvis Landry and Devante Parker who combined for 17 catches for 163 yards, it is clear the Jets might be in for another tough game defensively.
It is clear that since Adam Gase has joined the Dolphins as their head coach, he wanted to run the ball more, and Jay Ajayi has been their number 1 running back. Last week, he went for 28 carries for 122 yards. The Jets defense has allowed 5.8 yards per carry this season and the teams they played have combined for over 100 yards rushing. The Jets have to contain the Dolphins running game if they want any chance of winning and have to force Cutler to throw the ball more and force him to control the game with his arm. For the second week in a row, Jets defensive end Leonard Williams has yet to have a sack and in general the line has been awful. They have to find some way to put pressure on Cutler and force him to make uncomfortable decisions.
The offense is about to get some help with the return of Austin Seferian-Jenkins (ASJ) who had a really impressive training camp and has turned his life around. I expect him to have a big game this week being that he is a big target and will help the Jets throwing the ball in the middle of the field. Josh McCown has to have a big game as well, he went 16 for 24 with 166 yards and 2 TD’s in last weeks losing effort to the Oakland Raiders. I expect him to have an even better game against this Dolphins defense who allowed Rivers to go 33 for 39 with 331 yards and a 110.6 passer rating. They will also be without right guard Brian Winters, who had an ankle injury from last week. That’s going to be a big blow to this already horrendous offensive line, because Winters had a lot of success against Suh in recent years, so I don’t expect the running game to be a factor at all for the third week in a row.