No unit had a better Sunday against the Texans than the Jets’ pass rush.
New York finished Week 12 with 13 pressures, seven quarterback hits and five total sacks on Tyrod Taylor. That winning performance helped the Jets hold the Texans to just 14 points and 106 net passing yards after Taylor finished with 158 yards but gave back 52 yards in sacks.
DE John Franklin-Myers led the team with two sacks on the day, while DE Quinnen Williams, LB Quincy Williams and DE Ronald Blair added one sack apiece. Franklin-Myers also intercepted Taylor off a tipped pass.
“If we can execute on that level that we executed on today, we can be a dominant defense,” Quinnen Williams said, via the team’s website. “We’ve got to be consistent week in, week out and not let this be a one-hit-wonder.”
Quinnen Williams delivered arguably the biggest sack of the game when he tackled Taylor for a 19-yard loss late in the third quarter. The Texans were within field goal range on 3rd-and-13 at the Jets’ 37, but Williams knocked Houston back to its own 44-yard line and forced a punt to keep the Jets’ 18-14 lead.
Franklin-Myers bounced back from a bad game in Week 11 to prove once more that he deserved his new contract. Franklin-Myers’ two-sack, one-interception performance was the first by a Jets player since 1995, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini. He and Quinnen Williams are now tied for the team lead with six sacks on the season.
“He’s worth his weight in gold, JFM is,” Robert Saleh said after the game. “To much is given, much is expected. He has a very high standard for himself and I know he was beating himself up all week.”
Shaq Lawson, Foley Fatukaski and Sheldon Rankins didn’t register sacks, but they still had a presence in the backfield. Lawson and Rankins finished with one pressure each, while Fatukaski had two himself. Those moments helped fuel how the rest of the defense played and even helped Franklin-Myers grab his interception.
This was a critical performance for a group that hadn’t tallied more than two sacks in a game since the Jets’ Week 8 win over the Bengals. The Jets successfully exploited a weak offensive line, which played a major role in New York’s third victory of the season. Now the key for Gang Green will be consistency in the pass rush. The Jets still face some daunting offenses to end the year and need to continue pressuring quarterbacks to remain competitive.
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