Jets' secondary needs to be much better — and quickly, with Josh Allen and Bills coming to town
Sauce Gardner of the Jets defends against Calvin Austin III of the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Sauce Gardner wasn’t entirely sure how many touchdown passes Aaron Rodgers threw on Sunday. All Gardner knew was that it was too many.
Four, Gardner was told.
“That’s unacceptable,” Gardner said. “Us as a defense, we got to be better.”
It was an odd season debut for the Jets, considering how they’ve played in recent years. These weren’t the Zach Wilson-led Jets where touchdowns were few and far between. Justin Fields made plays with his arm and legs and Breece Hall was elusive, explosive and looked better than he did at any point last season.
The Jets scored 32 points on a Pittsburgh defense that was being hyped as one of the best — and they still lost.
The previous eight times that the Jets scored at least 30 points, they won. This was over a 3 1/2-year stretch, which shows how infrequently the Jets have reached that point total.
Gardner hit it right on the head: The defense has to be much better, especially with Josh Allen and the Bills coming into MetLife Stadium on Sunday. They scored 41 points in their Week 1 comeback win over Baltimore that had an even wilder finish than Jets-Steelers.
“The reality is us as a defense, the guys that have been here, we ain’t really used to that — the offense putting that many points up,” Gardner said. “We got to just complement the offense.”
That’s somewhat of a role reversal because the defense has kept the Jets in many games over the previous three seasons.
The Jets sprung leaks last season and failed to get stops in critical moments when Rodgers was their quarterback. New coach Aaron Glenn and coordinator Steve Wilks were brought in to fix some of those issues, and they’re still working on them.
The defense did some really good things Sunday. The Jets sacked Rodgers four times and held Pittsburgh to 271 total yards, including just 53 on the ground. But the breakdowns in man and zone coverage and communication mishaps cost them.
The last time the Jets allowed four passing touchdowns in a game, Gardner was still in college at Cincinnati. It was against New England in the final game of the 2020 season: Cam Newton threw three and receiver Jakobi Meyers had the other. Rodgers was the first quarterback to throw four against the Jets since Patrick Mahomes tossed five on Nov. 1, 2020.
“Secondary-wise, there are some things that we got to clean up,” Glenn said. “I love the coverage some of our guys had.”
Glenn was mostly referring to Gardner, who the Jets let travel with DK Metcalf. The prior coaching staff played Gardner on one side and D.J. Reed on the other.
Gardner allowed just one reception the entire game in 36 coverage snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. Metcalf’s only catch on Gardner was a fluke: The football bounced off Metcalf, then off Steelers tight end Jonnu Smith and landed on Metcalf’s stomach as he laid on the ground.
“Sauce had a really good game as far as challenging DK. That's a tough cover,” Glenn said. "We put him in some one-on-one situations, and that's tough going against a grown man like that, but I thought he did a really good job.”
Other players in the back end did not fare as well, particularly starting cornerback Brandon Stephens, nickelback Michael Carter II and safety Tony Adams.
Stephens, whom the Jets signed to a three-year, $36 million contract, gave up some big plays and a touchdown to Calvin Austin III. Stephens also was penalized for a 19-yard pass interference against Austin on Pittsburgh’s winning drive.
Stephens had a good training camp, but some issues that he had last season in Baltimore — such as not turning his head and seeing the ball — returned.
“The thing that we have to continue to work on with him is being able to locate and finish on the ball,” Glenn said. “I am encouraged, and I do think that as the season progresses, he'll be able to make those plays because he's a really good cover guy.”
It was a great start for the offense, but the Jets won’t score 32 points every game. The pass coverage needs to improve and fast, or Allen will pick them apart on Sunday.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
