New York Jets finally show improvement with one team stat in Week 12

When reviewing the team stats of the New York Jets in Week 12, there is a whole lot to like. And to no surprise, considering the 31-10 thrashing.

As is the case in most NFL football games, the better team in most of the key team categories will likely win. Those statistics being third down and red zone efficiency, turnovers, penalties, and time of possession.

For the Jets, in particular, the time of possession battle had been an ongoing issue as far back as Week 5.

New York Jets, at last, attain time of possession success:

Following the Week 4 comeback in Pittsburgh up until yesterday, these were the time of possession, and total play counts week-by-week for the Jets offense.

Week 5: 30:58 TOP, 56 total plays
Week 6: 28:48 TOP, 53 total plays
Week 7: 27:37 TOP, 53 total plays
Week 8: 24:26 TOP, 58 total plays
Week 9: 32:44 TOP, 61 total plays
Week 11: 24:30 TOP, 49 total plays

Some pretty terrible production. The Jets may have won the time of possession battle in two of those games. But they did not win the total plays run in a game one time. The 61 recorded in Week 9 against the Bills tied their amount. On average, over those six games, the Jets were running 55 plays a game.

As noted in my article on the Jets’ defense’s success a week ago, if these time-of-possession battles were not so consistently out of whack, the special unit would have been ranked way higher than eighth going into last week.

Even Sauce Gardner spoke on the pleasant difference in the time of possession battle for the defense yesterday. He stated how the defense talked about how nice it was that they could “chill a little bit longer” from the jump with the Jets’ offense staying on the field.

Compare the time of possession and total play counts from the six games listed above to the first four, where the Jets were strong. Over the first four weeks, the Jets, while only taking the time of possession battle one time, won the total play amounts in all four games. They ran 79, 67, 76, and 67 over the first four games. An average of 72.3 a week. A whopping 17 more than the average (55) from Weeks 5 through 11.

With all of the premier skill talent and depth that the Jets happen to have at each position, running back wide receiver, and tight end, 55 plays a week will not cut it. The Jets need to keep all of these guys as happy as possible. Running more plays only leads to more opportunities for each skill player.

Of course, some of, if not all, of those struggles over that six-game stretch can be because of Zach Wilson’s inefficiency leading the Jets offense.

In yesterday’s telling win, the Jets controlled the football for 32:05, their third-best this year. They ran 62 plays in comparison to the Bears’ 56—the highest for the Jets’ offense since that game in Week 4.

And in turn, the Jets were able to feed all of their skill players. A total of 10 players caught passes (five WRs, three RBs, two TEs), and the Jets were able to get off 32 rushing attempts.

The Jets won every other team stat, along with the time of possession success. They won the third-down battle, going 7-12 (58.3%) while holding the Bears to 4-13 (30.8—a A key step toward improving in the time of possession and total play department.

The Jets won the turnover battle 1-0. Both teams committed just one penalty, but the Jets gave up five yards in comparison to the Bears’ 10. The Jets also went 50% in the red zone to the Bears’ 33%.

Going forward, hopefully, with Mike White, the Jets are able to build on this success as they work their way toward the playoffs.