New York Jets Dominate Early, Beat the Dolphins 27-14 at Wembley Stadium

It took a long trip to get it done, crossing over five time zones, but the New York Jets got it done. The Jets were clearly the more prepared team, getting out to a big lead early, and holding on to take down the Miami Dolphins 27-14.
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Photo Credit: (Aug. 23, 2013 - Source: Al Bello/Getty Images North America) via Zimbio.com

It took a long trip to get it done, crossing over five time zones, but the New York Jets got it done. The Jets were clearly the more prepared team, getting out to a big lead early, and holding on to take down the Miami Dolphins 27-14. With that, the Jets run their record to 3-1 heading into their bye week, and the Dolphins return to the states with lots of problems.

The story for the Jets in this one was Chris Ivory. Ivory looked fresh after not playing a down in last week's game, and he was dominant. Like I always say, he runs like he is mad at the grass, and that remained the case when that grass was in the UK. Ivory carried the ball 29 times for a career high 166 yards and a touchdown, posting a whopping 5.7 yards per carry.

When the Jets can run the football, they are a tough team to beat.

The Jets' passing game opened back up with Eric Decker back in the lineup. He was at times used as a decoy, but did make an impact, catching four passes for 46 yards and a touchdown to put them up 20-7 in the first half. Having Decker around just makes the rest of the passing game easier to exploit. Decker forces defenses to watch him, so they can't put all of their eggs in Brandon Marshall's basket.

The Jets' offensive line was in control. They didn't win the battle, they controlled the battle. Ryan Fitzpatrick was not sacked once, and the Jets averaged over four yards per carry on the ground. There were a lot of eyes on Brian Winters today, playing for Willie Colon at right guard. Ndamukong Suh was held at bay for most of the game, limited to only three tackles. That is how you get it done as an offensive line.

On defense, the Jets made the life of Ryan Tannehill very difficult. They posted three sacks and picked off two passes, but hurried and hit him countless more times. The way to make a quarterback uncomfortable is to get in his face, and that is exactly what the Jets did.

One guy that was all over the field for the Jets was Buster Skrine. He officially recorded four tackles, but was spending his afternoon in the backfield laying the wood on Tannehill. He is going to prove to be a wonderful signing by the Jets.

The biggest issue that the Jets need to clean up following this one is the penalties. 14 for 163 yards is unacceptable, and they won't get away with it against good teams. Two straight pass interference calls resulted in a Dolphins' touchdown, otherwise the game would have been a bigger blowout. The lack of discipline must improve.

The only player the Jets had no answer for was Jarvis Landry, especially in the punt return game. He posted 67 yards on three punts, averaging over 20 yards per punt. That type of field position will be come a problem when the Jets face the better opponents they will face in the coming weeks, namely New England.

With all of that, it's very hard to complain when the Jets post over 400 yards of offense, and the they head into the bye week at 3-1. They do need the break, with David Harris, Calvin Pryor, and Bilal Powell all getting banged up during the game. They have time to heal, though, thankfully.

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