Four Takeaways From Jets Win Over Miami

Brandon Marshall, No. 15 (Tim Ireland – AP)

The New York Jets will take a 3-1 record into their bye week as they defeated the Miami Dolphins by a score of 27-14 in London on Sunday morning. And with every win, there are stand out performers along with some things to improve on. Here are my takeaways.

1. Chris Ivory – Chris Ivory was nothing short of spectacular against the Dolphins. He finished the game with 166 rushing yards on 29 attempts which averages out to 5.7 yards per carry. Ivory also had one rushing touchdown. After missing last week’s game against the Eagles, Ivory really made up for his missed time as he was absolutely dominant. The only criticism I have for him was his fumble late in the game. Luckily it didn’t cost the Jets the game. But other than that one miscue, Ivory put on a one man show.
2. Defense – The Jet defense was also something to speak of as they only allowed the Dolphins to 226 yards of offense and just 59 of the yards came on the ground. The Jets also picked off Ryan Tannehill twice. Other than the two drives that Miami scored on, their offense was nowhere to be found thanks to the defense. Other than their two scoring drives, the Dolphins mostly had three and outs.
3. Penalties – The Jets committed 14 penalties for a total of 163 yards, which is completely unacceptable. And two of the penalties were back to back pass interference penalties, which pretty much handed the Dolphins a touchdown. The Jets had a problem with committing penalties in the preseason but seemed to clean up their act in the first few games. But they have to clean up their penalties before their next game in two weeks. The Jets will lose to good teams if they give up that many penalty yards.
4. Ryan Fitzpatrick – Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t too bad. He was 16/29 on passing attempts as well as 218 passing yards and a he threw one touchdown. But there were times in the game when he looked flat out bad. First of all, he threw the ball deep too many times. It was self-evident that he did not have the arm strength for that because all of his throws were underthrown. He was lucky that he only threw one interception as that total could have been higher. He needs to be smarter with the ball.

At the end of the day, the Jets are 3-1 headed into their bye week. This is better than what most people expected, even myself. My prediction for the Jets this year was 9-7, maybe 10-6. At this point in the season, I had the Jets at 2-2 and maybe even 1-3. I thought the Jets would take advantage of their weaker schedule as the season went on to get them to 9 wins. But at the pace the Jets are playing at, it would not surprise me if the Jets finished with 10 victories, and dare I say 11?