Jets Passing Offense Film Review – Week 6 (Cardinals) Geno Smith

[JetNation]

Geno Smith replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick in the game against the Cardinals, playing for one series, before the opposition ran out the clock.  Geno showed some promise, but also made a couple of bad plays during his one series at the helm.  Let’s see how he did:

Good Geno:

1) 

This is the first pass of the year for Geno and it shows excellent pre-snap read and good throw.  The Cardinals are in a single high safety, but as highlighted in the previous film review articles for this week, a shallow crossing route with defenders playing off the line of scrimmage is likely to be open.  What’s great about this throw is the progression on this play.  Geno starts out looking towards Marshall and Peake, and then goes to Quincy Enunwa on the play for the completion.  One of the biggest gripes with Ryan Fitzpatrick is his inability to go through progressions, so this is a welcome change.  It’s a good pass and catch by the QB and WR.

2) 

Another good pre-snap read by Geno operating in the hurry up offense.  The Cardinals have their defenders back with Charone Peake and Brandon Marshall to the right side of the formation.  Geno knows the route tree of the called play, so he rightfully theorizes that Peake should be open, and happens to be correct.  This is a good throw by him, hitting Peake in the hands, albeit this is a very good tackle as well.  There is nothing amazing about this play, but this is taking what the defense is giving, which Fitzpatrick had trouble doing earlier in the game.

3) 

This is a 3rd and 4 play for the Jets, and Geno makes a good throw to Powell here.  The Cardinals changed their defensive scheme on this play by having the defenders come up to the line of scrimmage, except for Brandon Marshall, who is double teamed with the corner back ready to jump an underneath route with safety help over the top.  Geno makes a good throw to Powell here, as he lunges for the first down, but is marked a yard short.

4) 

Once the first down was converted, the Cardinals revert back to more familiar defenses.  Again, notice the amount of space given to Jet plays to the right side of the formation, and how Geno turns to that side (even though his No. 1 WR is on the opposite end) to take advantage.  He sees Anderson break open on an inside curl route and makes a nice throw.  This is another good pre-snap read by Geno Smith, as he seems to be much better at reading defenses and realizing where the mismatches are.

Assistant Failure:

1) 

This is a play where Geno makes the right pre-snap read, by recognizing where the defense was weak (left of the formation) but makes the wrong decision in throwing the ball.  Geno has an easier throw to Brandon Marshall, but opts for the harder pass to Charone Peake.  However, it’s still a good throw and this is a ball that hits Peake right in the hands.  It’s a pass that has to be caught, especially for a young receiver facing competition with Devin Smith returning soon.

Bad Geno:

1) 

When there are mobile QBs, you always hear the phrase “He runs with his head looking down the field” because he wants to pass down the field if it’s available.  This is an example of that not being the case.  This play is bizarre for a couple of reasons.   The Cardinals trick Geno in this play, by showing him the same look as before, but dropping the LB into zone coverage.  Geno reads this at the line as if Robby Anderson should be open but there is a LB in the path of the ball.  At this point, Smith looks towards Charone Peake but fails to pull the trigger, and decides to bail the pocket to the left of the formation.  However, he does not keep his eyes down the field because the safety came away from Brandon Marshall to tackle Geno Smith and Marshall is running free down the field.  This is an easy TD if Geno looks up field, but he fails to do so.  The second aspect of this play is that Geno has an angle to at least try for a first down, but gives up rather early with this slide.  This might be a function of the score and not wanting to injure himself.  Either way, this is a bad play for Geno although the net result of this was positive.

2) 

This is purely the function of a bad pre-snap read on a long developing play.  First, it’s a horrible play by the right tackle as the defender runs right by him, and second Brandon Marshall slips coming out of his break.  The pre-snap read on this indicates that Peterson is playing well off Marshall, so a double move route should be successful.  If the LB drops far into coverage, there is an underneath route from Peake coming around that should be an easy completion.  The plan goes awry when the Cardinals drop both LBs into coverage, taking away the out route from Marshall.  Since Peterson knows the out route is covered, he doesn’t bite nearly as hard on the double move, meaning this would have been a contested pass had Geno decided to throw to Marshall.  This of course goes for naught since the defender is there before the route develops and the ball is knocked free.  This is more of a bad play on the right tackle but Geno has to take care of the ball here.

3) 

A desperation play foiled by a great player in Tyrann Mathieu.  This is a fourth down play for the Jets with four receivers and a running back.  The Cardinals blitz from the left of the formation, forcing Geno Smith to run to the right side of the formation.  While on the run, he sees a slight opening for Peake near the first down marker and decides to take the shot, and fails.  It’s not a terrible throw, but Mathieu makes a great read on this play and jumps the passing lane.  Geno can’t get as much on the throw because he’s on the run, which delays the arrival of this pass.  This is really just a great interception by the defender, showing elite closing speed.

Conclusion:

Geno Smith looked mediocre against the Cardinals, coming in relief of Ryan Fitzpatrick.  He showed off some skills with his pre-snap reads, which seem to have improved from two years ago.  However, he did make careless mistakes with the football, and missed a wide open Brandon Marshall.  It needs to be scene the relationship between Marshall and Geno, because Geno ignored Marshall twice when he was open.  There could be some animosity from Marshall openly endorsing Ryan Fitzpatrick, so it might be something to note in the future.  Overall, Geno looked better than Ryan Fitzpatrick, but the game was already out of hand by the time Geno came in, so it’s hard to judge.

Geno Grade:  C-

Forum Questions:

A)  What do you think of the relationship between Geno and Marshall?

B)  Who benefits more from this move?  Peake or Anderson?

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[JustInFudge]

@win4ever that very first play was something we havent seen from a QB all season long...working through your progressions.

It's impossible to judge a player call into action late in a blow out.  I'm going to reserve judgement till this Sunday.  That said, he 100% needs to take care of the ball better.  I'm not going to knock him from throwing a pick on 4th down trying to make a play.  Peake could have fought for the ball and didnt.  He let Honeybadger body him off the ball.  You need to fight a little more there.  And while the RT clearly whiffed, Geno needs to hold the ball in a better place.  Where he had the ball is easy pickings for a strip.

A. Marshall is a nut job and I'm not trying to be insensitive to his disease.  He's out there.  I dont make anything of his relationship with anyone.  Dude lives in his own world. 

B. Anderson.  Just because we've literally seen him wide open for 3 straight games in a row.  If we had a QB that could get him the ball, I legit think the Jets have a different record.  He's been open on game changing type plays...a lot.

[win4ever]

5 hours ago, JiF said:

@win4ever that very first play was something we havent seen from a QB all season long...working through your progressions.

It's impossible to judge a player call into action late in a blow out.  I'm going to reserve judgement till this Sunday.  That said, he 100% needs to take care of the ball better.  I'm not going to knock him from throwing a pick on 4th down trying to make a play.  Peake could have fought for the ball and didnt.  He let Honeybadger body him off the ball.  You need to fight a little more there.  And while the RT clearly whiffed, Geno needs to hold the ball in a better place.  Where he had the ball is easy pickings for a strip.

A. Marshall is a nut job and I'm not trying to be insensitive to his disease.  He's out there.  I dont make anything of his relationship with anyone.  Dude lives in his own world. 

B. Anderson.  Just because we've literally seen him wide open for 3 straight games in a row.  If we had a QB that could get him the ball, I legit think the Jets have a different record.  He's been open on game changing type plays...a lot.

Yeah, it's very evident that Geno is better at progressions than Fitzpatrick.  Now, this might also be a bad thing because he does hold onto to the ball longer than Fitz.  Lot of times, we saw many people rave about Fitz being decisive and reducing sacks, when in reality he's a one read QB most of the time.  Geno seemed to look around more at his options.  

I was hesitant about doing the Geno one because it was so short.  I would love to see more of him against the Ravens, and see how he progressed.  There is a game from his rookie year against the Ravens, where players rarely got open, so it'd be interesting to see how, if at all, he has changed.  

A.  Yeah, it'll be interesting with Marshall because I can see how Geno would be offended that Marshall went out of his way to tout Fitzpatrick after living with Geno.  I wonder if there is some animosity between the two.   

B.  Anderson seems to be getting more options so he will get more chances too I think.  He's been running right by people on deep passes, which should open up the underneath routes for him as well.  It'll be interesting to see how they incorporate Devin Smith into the offense.  

[JustInFudge]

16 minutes ago, win4ever said:

Yeah, it's very evident that Geno is better at progressions than Fitzpatrick.  Now, this might also be a bad thing because he does hold onto to the ball longer than Fitz.  Lot of times, we saw many people rave about Fitz being decisive and reducing sacks, when in reality he's a one read QB most of the time.  Geno seemed to look around more at his options.  

I was hesitant about doing the Geno one because it was so short.  I would love to see more of him against the Ravens, and see how he progressed.  There is a game from his rookie year against the Ravens, where players rarely got open, so it'd be interesting to see how, if at all, he has changed.  

A.  Yeah, it'll be interesting with Marshall because I can see how Geno would be offended that Marshall went out of his way to tout Fitzpatrick after living with Geno.  I wonder if there is some animosity between the two.   

B.  Anderson seems to be getting more options so he will get more chances too I think.  He's been running right by people on deep passes, which should open up the underneath routes for him as well.  It'll be interesting to see how they incorporate Devin Smith into the offense.  

Yep.  Agreed 100%.  Geno needs to anticipate better and be more decisive...in additional to holding on to the damn ball.   He did on a couple of throws but I agree that he tends to hold the ball too long...as we said, going through his progressions.  Who knows, Gailey said he was "light years" ahead of where he was last year.  Hopefully it translates on the field.

Side note: I really do love these threads and appreciate you doing them each week.  It shocks me that it doesnt elicit more conversation.  All the b.s that people spew, the hyperbole's, the assumption of what they see, the completely unsubstaiatned opinions and the back and forth banter about nothing....and here you're posting actual Football content/film and it's basically you and I talking to each other.  lol

 

 

 

[JetBlue]

Great post and I pretty much agree across the board.  He has to take better care of the ball, period.   If he does that I am confident he can move the team and hopefully get the team into the endzone.   

I think his first play from scrimmage on sunday should be a bomb to Anderson off of Play Action.  

I also feel since he was the back up he threw to Anderson and Peake and the other back up receivers so he probably has a bit more of a comfort level with them right now.  Hopefully that will change as he gets the first team reps.    I do think he probably has some issues with Marshall; it seemed that he went out of his way to praise and stick up for Fitzpatrick in a way I have not seen too many receivers do.  I mean I never heard Jerry Rice talk that way about Montana lol.  I guess that is just Marshall being Marshall and now that Smith is the starter, he will show his support and "love" for him. 

[win4ever]

6 minutes ago, JiF said:

Yep.  Agreed 100%.  Geno needs to anticipate better and be more decisive...in additional to holding on to the damn ball.   He did on a couple of throws but I agree that he tends to hold the ball too long...as we said, going through his progressions.  Who knows, Gailey said he was "light years" ahead of where he was last year.  Hopefully it translates on the field.

Side note: I really do love these threads and appreciate you doing them each week.  It shocks me that it doesnt elicit more conversation.  All the b.s that people spew, the hyperbole's, the assumption of what they see, the completely unsubstaiatned opinions and the back and forth banter about nothing....and here you're posting actual Football content/film and it's basically you and I talking to each other.  lol

 

 

 

Thanks.

Yeah, I think it's part of the problem coming from the Air Raid where you can wait longer to have players get open because you are just loaded with speed guys that can win one on one matchups.  If he can be a bit more decisive, he has a chance to improve this season.  

Lol, I think you are like the only one that reads all of them.  Each week the "Bad Magic" one gets replies, but all the other ones fall off the page.  At one point, my wife said I should just do the bad throws since that's the only one getting responses, but I feel like that's unfair if I cherry pick all the bad throws.  I try to show that Fitz does have good qualities and makes good decisions at times because otherwise people would dismiss it at a dislike for the player.  

I started to post links to this on reddit, and even there, the few comments all deal with the Bad throws, lol.  

[JustInFudge]

2 minutes ago, win4ever said:

Thanks.

Yeah, I think it's part of the problem coming from the Air Raid where you can wait longer to have players get open because you are just loaded with speed guys that can win one on one matchups.  If he can be a bit more decisive, he has a chance to improve this season.  

Lol, I think you are like the only one that reads all of them.  Each week the "Bad Magic" one gets replies, but all the other ones fall off the page.  At one point, my wife said I should just do the bad throws since that's the only one getting responses, but I feel like that's unfair if I cherry pick all the bad throws.  I try to show that Fitz does have good qualities and makes good decisions at times because otherwise people would dismiss it at a dislike for the player.  

I started to post links to this on reddit, and even there, the few comments all deal with the Bad throws, lol.  

haha - everyone loves to be a critic and pick you apart when the going gets tough.  I was talking to another poster about this the other night, its crazy the amount of traffic and people that start posting here when the Jets are sucking.  People you never hear from when the going is good.

I read them all.  So thank you.  It's hard not to follow the ball when you're watching from home, so getting to see the play break down is very interesting to me.

 

[win4ever]

2 hours ago, JiF said:

\

Ok, I screwed up the quoting function, so I'll throw an @JiF

Yeah, usually all the people come out of the woods when things go bad, especially the trolls.  I stayed out of getting invested in some of those threads because I feel like people enjoying just messing with people and have them freak out.  I usually just say my point of view and then move on because sometimes it's just not worth it.  

Thanks.  I used to be the same way, because the camera angles on TV would be terrible.  I used to just watch some of these tapes just to see what was going wrong, and it was just so much more informative.  I also loved film breakdowns on NFL Today (Jaws used to do them I think) so I figured it would be good if we had one for a particular team instead of just some random team.  

 

[win4ever]

2 hours ago, JetBlue said:

Great post and I pretty much agree across the board.  He has to take better care of the ball, period.   If he does that I am confident he can move the team and hopefully get the team into the endzone.   

I think his first play from scrimmage on sunday should be a bomb to Anderson off of Play Action.  

I also feel since he was the back up he threw to Anderson and Peake and the other back up receivers so he probably has a bit more of a comfort level with them right now.  Hopefully that will change as he gets the first team reps.    I do think he probably has some issues with Marshall; it seemed that he went out of his way to praise and stick up for Fitzpatrick in a way I have not seen too many receivers do.  I mean I never heard Jerry Rice talk that way about Montana lol.  I guess that is just Marshall being Marshall and now that Smith is the starter, he will show his support and "love" for him. 

Thanks.   

Yeah, if Geno could move the ball just a bit faster, he'd be so much better off.  

I want a deep pass on the first drive of the game.  With the Bills this year, we threw deep to Enunwa early in the game and it changed some of the defenses, because the defenders started to play the deep pass more, which opened up back shoulder passes.  

Peake and Anderson at least have some rapport with Geno, which showed because Peake was targeted by Geno more times than not in his series.  Yeah, that is something that could be an issue in the future because Marshall did a complete about turn on Geno.  He was gloating about him in the off-season, and then basically dumped him for Fitzpatrick by just constantly supporting Fitz even when he was a free agent.  

[maury77]

Win4ever, I always enjoy these threads you post. I'm not concerned about Smith and Marshall's relationship. I think they were rooming together last year before the IK incident and Marshall was really talking Geno up.

[SickJetFan]

Hmmm what was the score at that point?  Was AS playing prevent?

[win4ever]

1 hour ago, maury77 said:

Win4ever, I always enjoy these threads you post. I'm not concerned about Smith and Marshall's relationship. I think they were rooming together last year before the IK incident and Marshall was really talking Geno up.

Thanks.  

They were rooming together last year and Marshall was effusive about his praise for Geno before the season.  However, after Fitz became the starter, he did a complete 180 and complimented Fitz greatly, and even seemed to campaign for him when he was unsigned.  I like to see how next week plays out because this was such a short sample size.  

[thshadow]

For the strip sack - did Geno take the proper depth on his drop?  I wasn't sure if maybe he went a little too deep, which made the problem of the RT worse.

 

[win4ever]

8 hours ago, thshadow said:

For the strip sack - did Geno take the proper depth on his drop?  I wasn't sure if maybe he went a little too deep, which made the problem of the RT worse.

 

I don't think he went too far back, it seems like a timing play where he has to do the pump fake when Marshall cuts outside to try and draw in the defender and then throw the ball on the double move.  So the timing seems good to me, but he could have moved up in the pocket.  Although, the defender is by the RT so I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes though.  

[Barkus]

These posts are great, keep doing them! I started to get angry seeing the open wr fitz was missing so I stopped spending as much time reviewing them, lol.

[win4ever]

1 hour ago, Barkus said:

These posts are great, keep doing them! I started to get angry seeing the open wr fitz was missing so I stopped spending as much time reviewing them, lol.

Thanks.

This was a game I really didn't feel like writing about.  Just felt exhausted writing the same thing over and over again, because it's almost always the same thing.  Defense has single high safety, pre-snap read indicates this, and Fitz throws elsewhere.  

[BroadwayJoe12]

That's some really good stuff. While it's tough to judge any quarterback that was thrust into a game in which he's down multiple scores, in the fourth quarter and where the defense knows that he has to throw on every down, that series was pretty much a microcosm of Geno's short career: he shows that he throws an effortless, beautiful ball and makes some good/great throws, but then has those one or two plays where he's just sloppy with the football. Again, it's hard to judge based on that series alone, as he was forced to make/try to make a play on every down, but it'll be interesting to see how much, if any development that he's made over the last year. 

[win4ever]

14 hours ago, BroadwayJoe12 said:

That's some really good stuff. While it's tough to judge any quarterback that was thrust into a game in which he's down multiple scores, in the fourth quarter and where the defense knows that he has to throw on every down, that series was pretty much a microcosm of Geno's short career: he shows that he throws an effortless, beautiful ball and makes some good/great throws, but then has those one or two plays where he's just sloppy with the football. Again, it's hard to judge based on that series alone, as he was forced to make/try to make a play on every down, but it'll be interesting to see how much, if any development that he's made over the last year. 

Thanks.  

I honestly think he looked better than I've remembered in the past.  I went back and looked at his game against the Ravens his rookie year and it's quite possibly one of the worst displays on QB development ever.  If people remember that Miami game where they refused to throw, this wasn't that far back.  No one getting open and the defense in his face by the end of his drop back.   

The Arizona game, he actually looked like he was in control.  That 4th down interception was a mistake but it was the right read on the run, because they blitzed the side he was looking at first.  He just didn't get enough on the throw and Mathieu just made a great jump on the play.  That throw against our safeties is probably a completion.  Tomorrow (or today I guess) will be interesting to see how he adjusts and how he reads the defense.  I would like to see a bit more faster pace from this team, but I'm really interested to see his pre-snap reads.  Also would like to see how many times the defense is in single high safety because I'm guessing they'll start there and adjust if needed against Geno.  

 

[SR24]

It's nice to see Geno actually making reads instead of Fitz staring down marshall from the start of the play and throwing it in 1.9 seconds instead of letting the play develop

[Ex-Rex]

On 10/20/2016 at 9:00 AM, JetNation said:

Geno Smith looked mediocre against the Cardinals, coming in relief of Ryan Fitzpatrick.  He showed off some skills with his pre-snap reads, which seem to have improved from two years ago.  However, he did make careless mistakes with the football, and missed a wide open Brandon Marshall.  It needs to be scene the relationship between Marshall and Geno, because Geno ignored Marshall twice when he was open.  There could be some animosity from Marshall openly endorsing Ryan Fitzpatrick, so it might be something to note in the future.  Overall, Geno looked better than Ryan Fitzpatrick, but the game was already out of hand by the time Geno came in, so it’s hard to judge.

Geno Grade:  C-

That is the story of this guys career. One good play one bad one. Defenses can fool him rather easily because he simply is not that football smart. Game is too fast for him and in his fourth season it should have slowed down considerably, but it hasn't. He is a deer in the headlights. Always was always will be. Jets have two chances with him at QB, Slim and none.

[Ex-Rex]

19 minutes ago, SR24 said:

It's nice to see Geno actually making reads instead of Fitz staring down marshall from the start of the play and throwing it in 1.9 seconds instead of letting the play develop

He just can't do it with any consistency because he fails to see when the defense is "baiting" him. Game is too fast for Geno.

[SR24]

1 minute ago, Ex-Rex said:

He just can't do it with any consistency because he fails to see when the defense is "baiting" him. Game is too fast for Geno.

I'm gonna reserve my judgements til after the game. I want to see how he plays a full 4 quarters with a decent offense. I know he's not the franchise qb we all hoped for but he's never really had any talent. We'll see how today goes my expectations aren't high but ya never know. Hopefully gailey calls a lot of deep balls today 

[BUM-KNEE]

On 10/20/2016 at 4:00 PM, win4ever said:

Lol, I think you are like the only one that reads all of them.  Each week the "Bad Magic" one gets replies, but all the other ones fall off the page.  At one point, my wife said I should just do the bad throws since that's the only one getting responses, but I feel like that's unfair if I cherry pick all the bad throws.  I try to show that Fitz does have good qualities and makes good decisions at times because otherwise people would dismiss it at a dislike for the player.  

 

I enjoy reading your breakdown threads Win4ever.

Something of substance is alot more interesting than opinionated rhetortic, and I applaud your efforts here.