Run defense slips five spots to 16th in league rankings

The New York Jets, who feature running backs Bilal Powell (4.7 per carry), Matt Forte (4.4 per carry) and Elijah McGuire (4.0 per carry), average 103.3 yards per game, which is ranked 19th in the league.

“Like a lot of runs that happen, somebody is in the wrong spot, in the wrong gap,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said.

When means they got blocked out of their spot. They aren’t trying to give up their spot. The players must defeat the blocker to stay in their gap.

“That’s usually what takes place when a run gets manufactured, especially an explosive one,” Quinn said. “We’re more of an eight-man front team. When you get out of the gap, there are going to be consequences to that. When we get to playing, it’s better to be on third down, but also stop some drives too. Then they get another shot at it, another shot at it, and another shot at it.”

The Bills were led by LeSean McCoy and quarterback Tyrod Taylor as they rushed for 117 yards.

Against Miami, Jay Ajayi had 130 of the 138 yards.

Against New England, running backs Dion Lewis (76), Rex Burkhead (31), Mike Gillislee (31) and James White (19) all did some damage against the Falcons’ run defense.

Quinn doesn’t believe its an issue of not being physical enough up front on defense.

“I know you certainly could see it that way when you look at just a stat number as it goes,” Quinn said. “But I thought Ish (Kemal Ishmael) really tackled well, and I thought Keke (Keanu Neal) really tackled well.

“Inside, I thought Grady (Jarrett) and (Dontari) Poe were square and strong inside. So those things are what I was looking for in the game. At the end, no, I’m not happy with the result of the numbers of rushes and the yards, but the tackling was improved.”