JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jets know the word is out.
After Monday’s 33-0 thrashing at the hands of the Patriots, the Jets expect to see other teams copy some of the schemes Bill Belichick used against them — specifically the zero blitz.
The zero blitz, or cover zero, is a defense with no safety help in the middle of the field and seven rushers coming. It puts faith in the pass rush to get to the quarterback and defensive backs to cover one-on-one. It is risky, but the Jets could not make the Patriots pay last week. Now, they know they are going to keep seeing it.
“It’s up to us to make a team pay, if they want to bring the house,” quarterback Sam Darnold said.
Darnold was intercepted four times and fumbled once against the Patriots. He and the offensive line looked confused by the blitzes. They know they have to get it fixed.
“That’s what this league’s about,” center Ryan Kalil said. “You’ll get tested on things that you failed to take care of in previous games until you fix it. We talk about that all the time.”
Kalil knows the Jets have yet to reach 100 yards rushing in a game or have a run of 20 yards yet this season, but he believes the rushing offense is close to breaking out.
“We’d like to see some more explosive runs,” Kalil said. “I think we’re due for one of those to really pop, and I know Le’Veon [Bell] is hungry for one as well. We’re close. We just have to be a little bit better on our details and our finishes and it’s there.”
Bell’s longest run this season has been for 19 yards. The offensive line has had some revolving pieces due to injuries and ineffective play. They are without left tackle Kelvin Beachum (ankle) again this week.
“The results aren’t what we want, especially from a record standpoint,” Kalil said. “I think it does feel like things are meshing and we’re doing a lot better job of a lot of things that we weren’t earlier in the season. We just keep building on that and work on getting this win this week.”
The Jets ruled out TE Chris Herndon (hamstring) on Saturday. … LB James Burgess was signed from the practice squad and LB Ukeme Eligwe was signed to the practice squad.
For more on the Jets, listen to this episode of the Jets podcast, “Gang’s All Here”:


