If the Jets are to grab their first victory of the season, the defense will have to cobble together a complete game against the Denver Broncos.
The stats are the stats through 5 games, but the determination and intelligence to deal with what has ailed the defense is a constant.
"We got to find a way and we're still chopping wood," defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said in England on Thursday, where the Green & White are preparing to face the Denver Broncos (3-2) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday morning, New York time. "And the thing that Coach [Aaron Glenn] talks about, which is repetitive in everybody's room, is just the consistency and the detail and the focus. And again, we've done a lot of great things as a unit, but those are the words that we have to really embed in our minds and really go out and execute, from a standpoint of the details, stay in focus throughout 60 minutes, and just the consistency of making play after play. So I've seen it, I've been a part of it, and I know it's going to turn so we just have to go in with the 1 and 0 mindset. That's where we are."
With edge Jermaine Johnson expected back after missing three games with an ankle injury, the defensive line, which has notched 7 sacks so far this season (4 in Week 1 vs. Pittsburgh), will need to put pressure on Broncos QB Bo Nix (who has been sacked 21 times). The unit will also have to contain Denver's No. 4 rush offense (703 total yards, 7 TDs). The Jets are allowing an average of 140.4 yards per game on the ground, which is the sixth most in the NFL.
"We just got to find a way to get to the quarterback and affect the quarterback," veteran DT Quinnen Williams said. "Because I think that's the number one thing is to have this defense affecting the quarterback and getting up to the quarterback. And we haven't been doing that, and we tend to turn it around."
He added: "I kind of look at it like I need to get to the quarterback, no matter if it's two guys, one guy, three guys, I got to attack it with the same mindset on getting quarterback hits and quarterback pressure sacks and just being disruptive, because at the end of the day, nobody cares how you do it. It's about doing it."
Denver has averaged 140.6 yards a game led by RB J.K. Dobbins, who is No. 5 in the league with 402 rush yards and 4 TD, while RJ Harvey has 150 yards from 31 carries and Nix has rambled for 100 yards in 28 tries. The Jets have surrendered an average of 31.4 points per game (31st in the league), while Denver has put up 23.4 a game and has won two straight (over Cincinnati and at Philadelphia).
"When you look at it, when you see guys that are running open, when you see missed tackles, when you see angles of pursuit, when you see all those things, just the little details of understanding how to play together, how to coordinate everything together as a unit," HC Aaron Glenn said. "Listen, that's not one person. That's us collectively, as a team, making sure that we get on the same page. And that's why I like this situation [being in London] that we're in right now — we're away from everything."
The Jets are the first team since at least 1950 with 0 takeaways through 5 games. They forced 5 fumbles but failed to recover any. They've allowed 25-plus points in each game this season and the defense is 22nd in the league allowing 347.4 yards a game. Williams knows things must change.
"We are 0 and 5 and the defense, for me, has been the problem," Williams said. "So were we in Florham Park right now, it'll be the same conversation, the same attitude, the same solution ... fix it, applying the solution to Sunday. So it's one of those things when you're 0 and 5, no matter where you're at, you got to fix things. When you're probably the worst defense in the league, no matter where you're at, you got to fix things if you want to win football games and go in the right direction."
