his first game<\/a>, though, this six-play outing did not draw rave reviews.<\/p>\nIt was an ugly viewing for fans. Fields completed 1-of-5 passes for 4 yards and scrambled once for 5 yards.<\/p>\n
After a poor opening drive from Fields, the Jets started to ignore the passing game. To open their second drive, the Jets called six consecutive run plays. They finished the drive with nine runs and two passes, with neither pass play yielding a first down.<\/p>\n
Was Fields as bad as he looked upon first watch?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s run back through his six plays against the Giants.<\/p>\n
Justin Fields film breakdown<\/p>\n
Play 1: 1st & 10 at NYJ 42<\/p>\n
Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand dials up a flood concept for Fields on a play action bootleg. It gives Fields an easy 1-2-3 read: deep, medium, shallow.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t see without the All-22, but it seems likely that Garrett Wilson is covered on the deep option, as we see two defensive backs bracketing him. Jeremy Ruckert is blanketed on the crosser. Fields makes the right decision and dumps it to Mason Taylor for a 4-yard pickup on first down.<\/p>\n
Pretty easy play for Fields, and he executes it properly.<\/p>\n
Play 2: 1st & 10 at NYG 46<\/p>\n
Fields goes for a hard count and gets a slight jump from Kayvon Thibodeaux on the Jets\u2019 right side. It prompts him to make a change to the play.<\/p>\n
We cannot know for sure without being in the Jets\u2019 locker room, but my guess is that Fields changed the play for two reasons. Knowing that Thibodeaux was coming (not dropping into flat coverage) and also seeing that the Giants\u2019 corners were backing off, I think Fields audibled into a quick-hitting concept that he believed would allow him to easily target Garrett Wilson (outside right) on a short pass.<\/p>\n
Post-snap, Fields immediately looks Wilson\u2019s way. However, the corner on Wilson does not continue bailing downfield as Fields seemed to expect. Instead, the corner squats in place, sitting directly on top of Wilson\u2019s route.<\/p>\n
With Wilson shut down, Fields hesitates for an extra hitch. He tries to progress to Breece Hall, who is open for a checkdown that would yield a decent gain on first-and-10.<\/p>\n
Fields makes the right decision to target Hall. However, Armand Membou allows quick inside pressure to Thibodeaux, which rattles Fields. With Thibodeaux bearing down, Fields tries a jump pass and misses high on a wide open checkdown from five yards away. He is lucky that Hall tapped the ball down, or it would have been a pick-six.<\/p>\n
While Fields gets some slack for the shoddy pass protection, it is still a negative rep. He made an audible that didn\u2019t work, and while he eventually found the correct option regardless, he responded poorly to the pressure. That is still a throw you would like him to hit; at the very least, he cannot miss high in that part of the field.<\/p>\n
Play 3: 2nd & 10 at NYG 46<\/p>\n
Joe Tippmann throws off Fields\u2019 rhythm with a high snap. Tippmann had multiple of these in his short appearance, which is discouraging after he dealt with snap issues throughout 2024.<\/p>\n
Fields proceeds to do his best Zach Wilson impersonation by throwing a screen pass at Garrett Wilson\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
Sure, Tippmann\u2019s snap threw off Fields\u2019 rhythm, but he still had more than enough time to reset himself and deliver this easy throw into an uncontested window. Whiffs like this are back-breaking for an offense.<\/p>\n
Even if this particular screen probably would not have gotten far anyway, you do not want to see your quarterback missing screen passes. This particular miss was dangerously close to being a live ball, which makes it even more brutal.<\/p>\n
Play 4: 3rd & 10 at NYG 46<\/p>\n
Similar to the first down play, the corner does a great job of anticipating Wilson\u2019s route and squatting on top of it, which puts him in perfect position to contest the pass. With the corner multiple steps ahead of Wilson, there really isn\u2019t anywhere for Fields to place this ball that would result in an easy catch.<\/p>\n
However, the great coverage does not excuse the throw. Fields could see the entire way that the corner was squatting with inside leverage and that Wilson had outside leverage toward the sideline. Fields should have placed this ball high and outside to give Wilson a chance at going up and catching it back-shoulder away from the defender.<\/p>\n
Instead, Fields darts it low-and-inside in a spot where Wilson has no chance.<\/p>\n
This is either poor ball placement or a display of poor accuracy in which Fields actually did try to go back-shoulder and flat-out missed. I lean toward the former, as Fields\u2019 mechanics suggest he was trying to place the ball where he did. <\/p>\n
Maybe Fields expected Wilson to come back toward the ball, but that would just be an incorrect read. It\u2019s on Fields to read the defender\u2019s leverage and place the ball accordingly. Wilson saw the inside leverage and correctly positioned himself for a back-shoulder pass. Fields failed to make that read.<\/p>\n
Fields needs to place this ball in a better spot to give his playmaker a legitimate chance at making something happen.<\/p>\n
Play 5: 1st & 10 at NYG 45 (Difficult to judge from broadcast view)<\/p>\n
(Due to the limitations of the broadcast view, there will be quite a bit of guessing in this section. I will update this section when the All-22 film comes out.)<\/p>\n
After the previous three-play stretch led to a punt, the Jets came out on their next drive with six straight handoffs. This scramble was the seventh play of the drive.<\/p>\n
We shouldn\u2019t criticize this play too harshly before seeing the All-22 to confirm. However, it seems like Fields likely had much better options than a 5-yard scramble.<\/p>\n
Mason Taylor motions to the right side of the field. After giving a slight chip on Kayvon Thibodeaux, Taylor leaks into the flat. The corner on Wilson eventually turns to the flat and appears to track down Taylor, but we can see that there is initially no defender in Taylor\u2019s area. If Fields hit Taylor quickly and led him outside, he could have turned upfield and at least matched Fields\u2019 eventual 5-yard gain, if not significantly exceeded it with a great YAC play.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Breece Hall also leaks into the flat on Taylor\u2019s side, and it is quite clear that nobody is in his area. On the initial angle, we can see all three linebackers bailing into deep coverage, and later in the clip, all three of them can be seen pursuing Fields from beyond the first down marker. With the Giants\u2019 left corner seemingly on Taylor, that leaves nobody for Hall on the checkdown.<\/p>\n
I am also curious to see if Josh Reynolds was open on his corner route at the bottom of the screen, as he gained an initial step on his man. Additionally, if Reynolds\u2019 man stuck with him, it probably means Jeremy Ruckert was wide open in the flat with nobody close to him. If Reynolds\u2019 man dropped off to cover Ruckert, then Reynolds was probably open.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of guessing going on here without the full view, but we have to wait until later in the week for the All-22 film to come out, and I wanted to break this game down while it was still fresh in fans\u2019 minds. Because of the broadcast view\u2019s limitations, I will clear Fields of harsh judgment for now.<\/p>\n
Still, the play is suspect from what we can currently see. You don\u2019t want to see your quarterback declining open passes in favor of short scrambles, especially when he is as well-protected as he was on this play. But if the All-22 absolves him, I will let it be known.<\/p>\n
One thing is for sure: We can see a great rep by Membou here against Thibodeaux. It\u2019s a nice response after Thibodeaux cooked him earlier.<\/p>\n
Play 6: 3rd & 2 at NYG 20<\/p>\n
The Jets ran three more times after Fields\u2019 scramble and came back to him on third-and-2.<\/p>\n
Fields makes a good call to target Wilson here. His best receiver is running a slant against off coverage with only two yards to go.<\/p>\n
This incompletion falls more on Wilson than Fields.<\/p>\n
Wilson needs to cut this route flatter. By drifting upfield, he allows the defender to undercut him for the deflection. Needing just two yards, Wilson did not need to go vertical here. Once he clears the linebacker, you\u2019d like to see him straighten out along the 15-yard line, keeping the defender on his back so Fields could dart the ball into his chest.<\/p>\n
While it looks like Fields\u2019 pass is behind Wilson, it would have been risky for Fields to put it further out in front, as he does not want to lead Wilson into the safety who is waiting to crash down on anything inside.<\/p>\n
If Wilson had just cut this route flatter, the ball probably would have been on point. When Fields begins winding up, he is still expecting Wilson to run horizontally around the 15-16-yard line. It is not until Fields is on the cusp of releasing the ball that Wilson starts drifting, resulting in the defender beating him to the spot.<\/p>\n
Pin this one on Wilson.<\/p>\n
Takeaways<\/p>\n
In the same way that we should not overreact to six good plays, we should not overreact to six bad plays.<\/p>\n
Six plays are six plays. That can be less than one drive\u2019s worth in a full game. Every quarterback has had one bad drive in an otherwise great game \u2013 and one great drive in an otherwise bad game. Drawing conclusions about such a tiny sample size, good or bad, is a reckless thing to do.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean we cannot criticize six plays for what they are, though.<\/p>\n
Fields was poor in this brief outing. At least three of his six plays were negative. He nearly threw a pick-six on a panicked under-pressure throw, dirted a screen pass, misfired to Wilson on third down, and seemingly opted for a short scramble while multiple receivers were open (we\u2019ll get back to that one later in the week when the All-22 comes out).<\/p>\n
The Jets\u2019 passing woes were not all his fault, though. Membou\u2019s allowed pressure affected the pass to Hall, while Tippmann\u2019s high snap contributed to the screen. The final incompletion seemed like it was Wilson\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
Still, Fields left a lot to be desired in this outing. It was a brief glimpse into some of the familiar issues that have held him back throughout his NFL career.<\/p>\n
The sky is not falling, but it is not bright blue, either. To muster legitimate faith that Fields could have a breakout season, you would like to see Fields showcase strong evidence that he is stomping out the issues that have held him back. This was not a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Fields\u2019 second appearance with the New York Jets is in the books. Just like his first, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[798,487,198,7,3228,2310,226,2313,493,280,54260,1917,255,2321,2097,6,14401,3916,7824,3234],"class_list":{"0":"post-295470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-armand-membou","9":"tag-breece-hall","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-free-content","13":"tag-garrett-wilson","14":"tag-jets","15":"tag-joe-tippmann","16":"tag-justin-fields","17":"tag-mason-taylor","18":"tag-nanias-all-22","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-new-york-jets","21":"tag-newyork","22":"tag-newyorkjets","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-ny-jets-film","25":"tag-ny-jets-players","26":"tag-ny-jets-videos-highlights","27":"tag-standard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115044381358421046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}