New York Jets Offense Will Continue to Struggle with No Running Game

After awhile, Rex Ryan's "ground-and-pound" idiom induced eye-rolling among the New York Jets fans and media who watched their offense continually stall out year after year. 

If there's one thing these past five games have revealed about these Jets, though, it's that Todd Bowles could probably use some words of wisdom from the former Jets head coach to his successor.

Over the past five games, the Jets have rushed for a paltry 390 yards on 123 carries (3.2 YPA) and three rushing touchdowns. Compare that to a five-game start in which the Jets rushed 163 times for 760 yards (4.7 YPA) and six touchdowns, and you can see why the Jets offense has spun out of control. 

That's especially true with a quarterback in Ryan Fitzpatrick who struggles when the game is put in his hands. Fitzpatrick is 13-43-1 as a starter when he attempts 30 passes or more, and he is 25-17 as a starter when he attempts 29 passes or fewer.

Quite simply, Fitzpatrick is the kind of quarterback who needs a little more help from his supporting cast to get the job done. He's not an elite quarterback, and the Jets knew that before they signed up for him to be their starter. He's getting a lot of help in the form of Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker at wide receiver, but even with pass-catchers as good as those two, the Jets still need their running game to carry the load.

The Jets are 4-1 when they rush for more than 100 yards and 1-4 when they rush for fewer than 100 yards. They are also 5-1 when attempting 25 rushes or more, and 0-4 in the other games. 

So, clearly, a consistent and productive running game is of paramount importance to the Jets' success on offense. The question is why have they been struggling?

It's a mix of factors. For awhile, Chris Ivory was dealing with a tight hamstring, but was not listed on the Jets injury report this week headed into the game against the Houston Texans. His earlier struggles could be attributed to the ailment, but if we're to believe the Jets injury report, that's not the case anymore. 

Could some of the problem be their lack of commitment to the running game? In their last five games, the Jets have averaged 24.6 rushing attempts per game for 78 yards per game. In their first five, the Jets averaged 32.6 carries per game for 146 yards per game. That's eight more carries per game for 68 more yards per game.

So, it's not even so much about the volume as it is about the effectiveness of those runs. Sure, with another eight carries per game, the Jets might have more rushing yards to their name. They wouldn't, however, be a more effective running team. That would require the Jets getting more yards per carry than the paltry 3.2 they're averaging over the past five games.

It's easy to criticize the passing game, because the quarterback gets the ball every snap, but there aren't very many quarterbacks in the NFL who could overcome the Jets' lack of production in the running game. So far, Fitzpatrick has not been one of them.

The problem is he doesn't need to be one of them. He just needs to be able to take advantage of the increasingly favorable looks he's seeing. Knowing that the Jets want to run the ball to set up the passing game, opponents wisely continue to stack the box against them. These are the situations where Fitzpatrick needs to capitalize and make something happen in the passing game.

In turn, Fitzpatrick's inability to make defenses pay for stacking the box is not forcing opponents to adjust. That means defenses have no reason not to stack the box. 

It takes a team effort to establish the run, but if the passing game can start to work in unison with the running game, the Jets offense might still get back on track in 2015.