Today's Inside the Numbers starts off with a review of some real estate acquisitions against the Ravens last week.
YaQ-itty-YaQThe man known as "Q," Jets WR Quincy Enunwa, executed a dynamic early play against Baltimore. He stopped on a dime to catch Geno Smith's short pass at the Jets 38 as Ravens defenders Eric Weddle and Zach Orr overran him. Then, with Brandon Marshall blocking CB Jimmy Smith downfield, Enunwa burst across and up the field, outrunning Anthony Levine and Lardarius Webb to the left pylon for the 69-yard score.
"They were just in the perfect positions for us," Enunwa told me after the game. "Brandon ended up getting on his guy, and as I turned the corner there were no other defenders, so it was just up to me using my ability to run."
Most significant about the play today was the 62 yards after the catch. It equals the most YAC by a Jets wide receiver on one catch-and-run in the last 20 years.
We don't have to go back more than a year to find the other 62-yard YAC. The numbers were identical when the Titans didn't cover Marshall coming out of a TV timeout at MetLife Stadium last year and he took Ryan Fitzpatrick's quick throw 69 yards for the TD.
Before that, we have to go all the way back to the bleak 1996 season to find a better wideout YAC. That was the 78-yard play from Neil O'Donnell to Jeff Graham at Miami in Game 3, with the underrated Graham taking the pass 69 yards after the catch for the score.
Robby's RunThe Jets' longest rush of the year occurred in the next quarter vs. the Ravens and it wasn't by Matt Forte or any other RB. Wideout Robby Anderson took the flip from Fitzpatrick around his left end on a 30-yard end-around to set up Fitz's TD toss to Forté. That play and Anderson's 28-yard reception in the final quarter energized the young man from Temple.
"I just felt good, I felt like I really contributed," he said. "I know the run set up a touchdown and that last catch, it carried on our drive and cut down the time for them and gave us better field position. It just feels great to win and get myself some momentum. We've been working hard, and I just feel great."
The Green & White haven't been a big end-around/reverse team over the years, which can be deduced from the fact that Anderson's 30-yard run was the sixth-longest in franchise history by a WR (seventh-longest if we add TE Richard Caster's 60-yarder against Washington in 1976) and the second-longest by a rookie wideout.
The longest rookie WR run was by the very versatile Brad Smith. As a rookie in 2006, Smith took a reverse 32 yards at Green Bay. He then topped that with a 53-yard score vs. the Bengals on Thanksgiving night 2010.
Rush Defense FootnoteThe Jets' rush defense record vs. the Ravens was revised from 6 yards on 12 carries to 11 yards on 11 carries by the Elias Sports Bureau in midweek. That didn't change the fact that the rushing yardage allowed set the franchise record.
The Jets set the defensive rush record of 17 yards allowed by Oakland in 1964, didn't break it for more than a half-century, then reset the record three times in a little over a calendar year. When the Jets' current front seven is in "green wall" mode, foes decide early on not to try to run into it a whole lot.
And the scoring change didn't affect this: For the third time in team annals, the Jets didn't allow an opponent run of longer than 5 yards. The first two times: 2012 vs. Indianapolis and 2015 vs. Miami, both at MetLife.
