Geno Smith Is Key To New York Jets Win Over Minnesota Vikings

The New York Jets will be back at it on a short week this Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings on the road, and New York will be looking to pick up its third victory of the season. It was the running game led by Chris Johnson that carried the Jets on Monday Night Football against the Miami Dolphins, but that wasn’t enough to get the win.

In Week 14, the Jets need to continue to run the football like they did against the Dolphins, but they also must mix in the passing game a bit more, and that means letting Geno Smith throw the football.

Against the Dolphins, the Jets ran the ball 49 times, a season-high, and threw it a season-low 13 times. While the Jets were running the ball well for the most part, the predictability of their play-calling became apparent in the second half. Most teams when they are running the ball so effectively will then use it to set up the play-action pass, but that was not the case for the Jets, as they only threw the ball basically in third-and-long situations.

For most teams, third-and-longs don’t generally result in much success, and that is true for the Jets. The Dolphins were able to send blitzes at Smith, and sacked him twice because they knew the Jets were clearly passing the ball.

Against the Vikings, Marty Mornhinweg will have to try and find a better balance of run and pass, or it will be the same story as Week 13: the Jets will lose another game, putting them closer to the first pick in the draft.

Nick Ziegler is a New York Jets writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ziggy26x and add him to your network on Google.