Jets Offense Crashes Against Bengals: Jets Open with Not Much to Show

Added by Justin O'Connell on August 15, 2012.

Tim Tebow avoids a Cincinnati defender during their preseason matchup.

Well, it wasn’t what the Jets hoped for, but, luckily for the team, it was only the first preseason game. The Jets offense is still a work in progress, and tonight was a prime example of that.

The offensive line had trouble picking up the blitz, which allowed the Bengals defense to get five sacks and seven quarterback hits. Not all the blame can go on the o-line though, as the Jets tight ends were embarrassing to watch against the pass rush.

Mark Sanchez went 4-of-6 for 21 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. Tony Sparano was very conservative with the offense like he said he would be. Most of the plays were basic runs right up the middle or quick slant routes. Sanchez didn’t make any stand out plays, but he was very limited by what he could do. He was not able to put any points on the board and did hold on to the ball longer than he should of at times; this was a big problem for him last season.

Tim Tebow made his much anticipated Jets debut and did bring a spark to the Jets offense, but he was only able to mustard up a field goal in his two quarters of play. He was vintage Tebow, making plays with his feet instead of his arm and only coming through when the there was some pressure on him. Tebow went 4-of-8 for 27 yards and had one bad interception in the third quarter; he threw it right to the Bengals linebacker. Running the ball was his bread and butter against the Bengals defense, where he had 34 rush yards on key third down conversions. Sparano decided not to run the wildcat, saving it for another game.

Tebow was impressive on punt coverage as well where he played just as hard as he did when he was playing QB… no surprise. When he came out of the game the Jets gave up a blocked punt for a touchdown.

The Jets defense was projected to come out strong and dominate, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Although they only allowed ten points and 213 total yards, they still allowed 7-of-16 third down conversions and couldn’t keep the Bengals off their side of the field. The Jets defense did make their stands when the Bengals got into scoring position, which was an encouraging sight.

The bright spot of the game was the performance of rookie, Quinton Coples, who simply took over at times and singlehandedly stopped the Bengals run game. Coples played most of the game so he wasn’t going against the first team offense the whole time, but he wreaked havoc on the offense nonetheless. He had two sacks, a forced fumble, five tackles, and two tackles for loss.

“I know he’s a bust, we should have taken this player or that player,” Ryan sarcastically said. “But if you make five tackles … a sack, a forced fumble, and a knocked-down pass on third down, then I’d say he’s doing OK.”

Unfortunately, the rest of the d-line didn’t show up to play, so the jury is still out on the Jets new look 4-3 defensive schemes.

The Jets receiving core wasn’t anything special to watch, mostly because the quarterbacks didn’t have time to get the ball to them. Joe McKnight led the team in receiving, but it was Patrick Turner who caught most of Sanchez’s passes. This group of receivers still has a lot to prove in a short amount of time.