New York Jets Need Perfection from Defense to Stay in Playoff Race

Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan didn't need to return to MetLife Stadium for the New York Jets to be reminded of what kind of football team they are.

Their aggressive style of defense, their smashmouth style of offense, those are philosophies that have been embedded and engrained into the culture of the team since 2009 when Ryan took over. Those are philosophies that the Jets still apply today, with Todd Bowles as their head coach.

And those are philosophies that will have to apply down the stretch if the Jets want to keep ground in the playoff race. 

Consider this: The Jets defense ranks ninth in the NFL, giving up an average of 20.4 points per game. That's dominant, but it's also their lifeline. The Jets are 1-4 when their defense allows 20 points or more, and 4-0 when it gives up fewer than 20 points. The defense carries this team, and anything less than a shutdown performance just isn't enough.

Games	First 5	Last 4
Points/game	15	27.3
Yards/game	269.2	380
Pass yards/game	186.6	285
Rush yards/game	82.6	70
3rd down %	34.7	41.4
Turnovers	15	4

The Jets defense can't afford to budge a single inch more than they have on average in their first nine games of the season. They do so at their own peril.

The Bills scored 12 points off Jets turnovers on Thursday. Of course, who knows what would have happened if those turnovers hadn't happened, but the Jets defense did very well outside of a seven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter.

As the Jets learned on Thursday night, there's only so much they can overcome. Four turnovers proved to be too much for the Jets to fight through. 

"Turnovers are a part of the game. At the same time, you don't want to have turnovers on the offensive side of the ball," cornerback Darrelle Revis said after the game. "I'm not pointing at those guys, we could have made plays on defense and we didn't. As a whole, we have to clean things up and get better at situational football."

It's impossible to expect the Jets offense to play mistake-free football for the next eight games. They've turned the ball over at least once in seven of their first eight, and four times in two of those games. 

It's also impossible to expect perfection from the Jets defense, but that group has come much closer to realizing their full potential than the offense. The Jets defense has yielded more than 24 points in just two games this season and are one of only eight teams that have allowed 25 points or more in two or fewer games this season. The Jets lost both of those games.

The problem is, this defense is looking worse as the season wears on.

From Weeks 7-9, the Jets defense allowed more than 330 passing yards in each game. Considering how much money they spent to revamp the secondary, that's just an unacceptable number. On Thursday against the Bills, it was the league's No. 1 run defense that got gashed to the tune of 148 rushing yards. 

In the past three games, they've given up an average of 121.3 rushing yards per game. In the first six games of the season, that average was 71.5. That's nearly 50 rushing yards per game more over the past three games than in the first six. 

Even with the gaudy rushing figures of Thursday night, the Jets defense limited the Bills to just 13 first downs, 5-of-16 third-down conversions and 280 net yards of offense. 

They turned in a good performance, but not a perfect performance. It appears that, with the offense playing the way it has over the past few weeks, the defense can settle for no less than perfection if the Jets want to stay in the hunt for a postseason berth for the first time since 2010. 

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained via team news release.