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When it comes to the Jets’ offense, much of this week’s focus — if not this entire year’s focus — has been on the team’s quarterback situation.
After a career year in 2015, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick signed a one-year deal with the Jets on the eve of training camp, immediately re-claiming his status as the team’s starter. Last year, Fitzpatrick completed nearly 60 percent of his passes for 3,905 yards with 31 touchdowns to 15 interceptions. His strong performance helped drive New York to a 10-6 record in Todd Bowles’ first year as head coach.
This year, however, has not gone nearly as well. Fitzpatrick has been particularly turnover prone in 2016, tossing a league-high 13 interceptions. He threw six picks against the Chiefs in the Jets’ 24-3 loss in Week 3. He eventually lost his starting job to Geno Smith in Week 7, but Smith suffered a torn ACL in the middle of his Week 7 start against Baltimore.
In the two games since, Fitzpatrick has earned the backing of Bowles, though the quarterback has completed just 53.2 percent of his 62 passes for 421 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Fitzpatrick, however, did suffer an MCL sprain last week against the Dolphins. While Fitzpatrick has been limited in the Jets’ first two days of practice, Los Angeles is still expecting to see him rather than second-year quarterback Bryce Petty behind center on Sunday.
“We don’t know what the status of the quarterbacks are, but we expect to see Ryan,” Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said early in the week. “And we expect to see him at his best, because this is an important game for them.”
“Right now, we’re still expecting Fitzpatrick to play. He got hurt and came back into the game, and finished out the game,” middle linebacker Alec Ogletree
said. “But we’re going to prepare how we prepare every week and get ready to play our style of football.”That brand includes wanting to force more turnovers. In the Rams’ current four-game skid, the club has only one takeaway — a fumble early in the matchup with the Giants in London.
“I think our biggest thing now is just creating more turnovers, and being able to help our offense out and give them more offensive possessions,” Ogletree said.
If there were ever a favorable matchup for Los Angeles to do just that, it would be this one. The Jets have the most giveaways in the league at 19 — 14 interceptions and five fumbles. They also have the No. 31 turnover differential at -11.
As Ogletree put it, the defense wants to do its part to put the other side of the ball in better position to score.
“If we can do that as a defense, I think that will help us be a much better defense,” Ogletree said.
Perhaps Fitzpatrick’s best offensive weapon is wide receiver Brandon Marshall. The well-traveled wideout, now in his 11th NFL season, has caught 40 passes for 585 yards with just two touchdowns. This after making 109 receptions for 1,502 yards with a league-leading 14 touchdowns last year. It may have to do with the play of Marshall’s quarterback, but he’s caught a career-low 46.5 percent of his targeted passes so far this season.
Still, at 6-foot-4, he can pose significant problems for a defense.
“We’ve played guys his size,” safety Maurice Alexander
said. “Our corners, they’re very confident and they compete very well. So, we’re just going to play him as we do every week.”
