Jets running back Breece Hall saw all of four carries in New York’s 30-10 Week 2 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. He also was on the field for only 16 snaps.
The Jets had said they wanted to put Hall on a pitch count early in the season, but he showed explosiveness in the Week 1 win over the Buffalo Bills, leading many to wonder why Hall didn’t play much in Week 2.
Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett tried to explain the reason behind the lack of work for Hall against Dallas.
“Everybody’s workload was very low this past week,” Hackett said. “I think we had a total of 49 watchable plays, and I think we had two false starts too, so we just didn’t have a lot of plays. That hurts us because we can’t get a lot of people involved. There were a lot of people that we wanted to get featured and going on early but if you don’t convert on third down (Jets were 1/10 on third down), especially those that are down and manageable, you’re not going to have those opportunities.”
The Jets evenly split the snaps for each of their three running backs. Hall played 16 snaps, Dalvin Cook saw 17 snaps and Michael Carter played 15. That was out of 47 official snaps for the Jets. The game also started getting out of hand in the second half as the Jets couldn’t move the ball. Of their six second-half possessions, the Jets turned the ball over four times (three interceptions, one fumble) and punted on the other two. Dallas scored four straight field goals to start the second half and an 18-10 halftime score became 30-10.
The Jets certainly would love to get Breece Hall involved more, but they have to convert third downs and keep the offense on the field a lot more than 17 minutes. Fortunately, they’re done dealing with Micah Parsons, though Matthew Judon is no slouch himself. Establishing the run is going to be key and that includes — should start — with Hall.