Jowon Briggs doesn't always realize how often the Jets blitz in each game because of how "locked in" he is throughout. As the Jets improved to 2-3 with a 17-12 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, the defensive line put together a cohesive performance.
"I get the play call, and I go out and execute and, you know, it might seem like a lot of blitzes after the fact … but I'm just playing ball," Briggs said.
Browns QB Deshaun Watson was 15-of-33 passing for 155 yards and 1 TD — 24.2% of his passing attempts resulted in sacks (Tru Media) as the Jets took him down 8 times.
Briggs recorded his second of the season, wrapping Watson up for a 6-yard loss in the second quarter.
"On the pass rushing front,: guys win their one-on-ones, and then once a guy wins their one-on-one, the next guys is going and cleaning it up," Briggs said. "That was pretty much popping up all over the tape and it's something that we're really proud of and something we'll continue doing."
HC Aaron Glenn said "every game takes on a life of its own" and he doesn't want to put himself "in a box as a play-caller." The Jets faced 44 drop backs, the highest amount this season, and played 26 of them in zone coverage (59.1%). For 18 snaps, the Jets were in man coverage, which is 10 more snaps than last week against the Bears.
Jarvis Brownlee Jr.. was often used when the Jets aggressively blitzed and Glenn used what he saw on film from the Browns when making his game plan.
"I just felt like this week that we could take advantage of some of the pressures that we have in our system to try to create some plays," Glenn said postgame. "I give a lot of credit to [Browns HC] Todd [Monken]. I think he's a hell of a coach and he's done a hell of a job with that team. We just felt like this was a week we could take advantage of some pressures that we have in our system.
All Business
David Bailey doesn't have a social media presence, which only adds to his business-like demeanor. Azareye'h Thomas' brother, Juanyeh, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys, was shocked to notice that about the rookie edge rusher.
"He was like 'Bro, David Bailey doesn't have Instagram or social media?' and I was like 'I don't think so,' " Thomas said with a laugh. "It shows how he plays and how selfless he is. As a player, he's a great player, but the person he is and how he tries to credit everyone else and deflect the praise and honor that goes to him and everyone else, man I love that."
Bailey has a regimented routine that AZ Thomas equated to an approach a "fourth- or fifth-year" player might have.
"[Bailey is] everything you'd want in an edge," Thomas said. "We can go into stats and stuff like that but I mean like he's a rookie and it's going to be a learning curve just like I had last year. … David Bailey is David Bailey and he put that on display last night, I just look forward to seeing more of that."
Check out the top photos from the Jets' Week 5 game against the Browns.
Where to Improve
While the Jets are "happy" with the win, HC Aaron Glenn recognized several things he'd like his team to improve on in each phase of the game.
"When it comes to the offense, being able to sustain drives, penalty situations, two-minute drives, things like that we'll make sure that we address this week and get that going," Glenn said. "Defensively, we had a number of opportunities to take the ball away and we missed those … and on special teams, we want to get our return game going."
Work is already starting for their first AFC EAST matchup of the season for their Week 6 trip to face the New England Patriots. That 1-0 mentality the Green & White stressed before playing the Browns, isn't going away.
"Every game is important to us, it doesn't matter who you play," Glenn said. "I know it's the Patriots and it's a division game, but we want to win this game just like we wanted to win the Cleveland game and we're going to go out there and prepare to win it."
