Week 9 TNF Preview: New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts

 

What a great day for the Jets to be playing.

One thing that I too-briefly, even abortedly, touched on in Week 8's Game Rewatch Rankings was the idea that – or the question of whether – teams play differently for their backup quarterback.

I want to ask whether they play better, but that word is inadequate. What I mean is whether they play truer to the letter of the playcall than to its spirit. That's awkward. A better way to wonder at this would be to ask whether, because they haven't worked with him as much, the receivers run more textbook routes and patterns for the backup because they don't have the mindmeld that lets them play how the quarterback wants it.

I'm not sure that's what I saw with Cooper Rush and Mike White and Trevor Siemian. I'm honestly not sure I know what I saw.

But I do have to wonder whether it means something that the consensus is that this is the first week the Jets have looked like they have a competent offense.

We'll get to see tonight whether the Week 8 performance was a fluke or whether these Jets can continue to fly high on that side of the ball. I'm studying the Jets offense today; but I have to write about something – so let's talk the Thursday Night Matchup:

Week 9 Thursday Night Football

New York Jets (2-5) @ Indianapolis Colts (3-5)

This feels like it's about to be one of those Everybody Gets a Primetime Game games. Except the Jets are frisky and competitive. New York knows that Indianapolis has their sights on the Playoffs, and they also know that they're not in last place in their Division. I imagine they come out playing just as hard as the did against Cincinnati and Tennessee. So many ns in that sentence.

But... Indianapolis isn't the leader in their Division, so maybe the Jets forget to wake up for this one.

I would like it if I could say for sure what version of the offense we're going to get – the Jets in the second half last weekend, or the Jets against New England. Throughout their contest with Cleveland, I kept telling myself the Cincy defense was too good to be getting pushed around like it was. I want to say that the Colts defense is good enough that it should stifle Mike White – but I don't know that I believe it.

The Colts defense is still highly underrated. They're low on the scoring rankings – I'm going to write about that once I've binged all this season's games – but they've also played very well since beating Miami.

If there's a question about Indianapolis going into this one (and at 3-5, there are plenty of questions), it's whether Carson Wentz is planning on playing a good football game this week. The Away team usually no-shows in these Thursday Night contests, but we haven't gotten a bad one this season, either. Maybe we won't. Maybe the players and coaches have (finally) adjusted to the fact of this game. Maybe bad teams are tired of being embarrassed during their only showcase game.

Or maybe we've just gotten lucky so far and I'm hyping us up for a bummer game tonight.

All of that was to try to talk myself into believing that Wentz will look good tonight. I don't remember anything that he did last week which I liked. There might've been something, but I don't remember it. There needs to be a lot of Jonathan Taylor, but there needs to be a lot of the Jets' Carter, too.

Maybe this game is going to be end up being ground and pound and lots of defense. These two head coaches get conservative because they don't want their quarterbacks to lose the game— Except as I write it, I don't believe it. Here's what I do believe is going to happen.

I think both of these teams knows the other wants to run. I think the Colts are going to run, and I think the Jets are going to come out passing. And I think neither defense is going to be surprised and both teams are going to go on a lot of short drives and play for field position in the first half. Then both teams are going to pivot and things will get going. The Jets will start running and the Colts free Wentz up to go nuts – and somehow it works.

This game ends up in the 30s, and I think the Jets are going to take it. The Jets are more interesting with a quarterback controversy, and it will give me more data to evaluate how a team should play with their backup quarterback.

Jets take this one 34-31 – maybe in Overtime.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm going to be learning how to balance film study, note-taking, and still having something to say every day. We'll see how that goes. I'll talk at you seen, alright?