New York Jets Must Revert to Run-First Roots to Save Offense

It has been quite some time since the Jets fielded a team they could be proud of. A team with a true identity, with strengths they can hang their hat on when everything else fails. 

When Rex Ryan was getting his team to conference title games and making Super Bowl predictions that could be taken seriously, he had one offensive weapon in his arsenal: a running game. When his passing game would fall apart or the defense would have a (rare) lapse, Ryan and the Jets could always lean on their "ground and pound" run game to bring everything back to normalcy. 

The 2014 Jets may be the roster Ryan "has always wanted," but these teams do not resemble anything that can be traced to an offense associated with a Ryan-coached team. If the Jets are going to get back on track—or even be considered a competitive NFL team—they need to lean on the running game as heavily as they did in the days of Mark Sanchez's rookie season. 

In Sunday's 31-0 loss to the Chargers, the Jets managed just 16 carries between Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson (Bilal Powell had one carry as well). The scoreboard forced them to play in a pass-first catch-up mode for the majority of the game, but the Jets have not been a run-first team all season—and the results are glaring. 

"Ground and pound" used to be a cute way of saying "our offense is not good enough to throw at a normal rate." Four years after the term was retired, the Jets find themselves with an offense that is just as anemic as those led by a rookie Sanchez. 

Those offensively challenged offenses of yesteryear were able to keep the rest of the team together in large part because of the running game. Those offenses never set scoring records, but they at least sustained drives, kept the (top-ranked) defense rested and, most of all, gave the team an identity they could rally around. 

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Those 2009 and 2010 teams knew they had limitations, but dang it, they were going to win the battles they knew they could win in the trenches. 

Instead, the 2014 Jets are trying to pretend to be something they are not. When they try to, the Jets are an effective running team. Even in the blowout loss, Ivory averaged 4.9 yards per carry. Instead, the Jets are in such a hurry to get away from the ultra-conservative, run-first days that they are assuming they are a more talented passing team than they are. 

Rushing totals are often misleading because of how they are tied to the score and results of a game, but the Jets' numbers in the ground game in their lone win of the season against the Oakland Raiders are difficult to ignore. Posting 212 yards on the ground is impressive by collegiate standards, never mind in an NFL game. 

No matter what the score is, the Jets are an effective running team:

Situation	Attempts	Yards	Average
Leading	40	209	5.2
Tied	22	87	4.0
Trailing	62	271	4.4

The Jets simply do not have the personnel necessary to run even a balanced offense. On Sunday, the Jets trotted out a receiving corps that included some starters who would not find a spot on many NFL rosters. Meanwhile, the offensive line has been as leaky as a rusty faucet, as both Geno Smith and Michael Vick spent most of their Sunday afternoons running away from defensive linemen and throwing the ball out of bounds. 

They were operating without their top man, Eric Decker, but the fact that the Jets are a tight hamstring away from offensive disaster speaks to how weak the Jets are in the passing game. Running the ball is not just an effective way to milk clock and keep the turnover numbers down—at times, it is the only way the Jets can gain positive yards. 

A simple uptick in Ivory's carry total will not suffice in this situation. As difficult as it is to rebuild a mentality five games into the season, the Jets need to embrace a new, tougher mentality if they are going to be competitive in the coming weeks. Ryan misread the true identity of his undermanned Jets team; he cannot afford to wait another minute to fix his mistake.

This offense is not just a few tweaks away from being nursed back to full health. This is unit that needs a complete overhaul in philosophy and personnel. What better time to start this massive project than the present?