6 Things I Learned From Week 7 of the NFL Season

The Jets Need to Keep Running Chris Ivory

On Thursday, the Jets played a close, tough game against the Patriots, surprising the majority of football watchers. How? Because they ran the football, and they ran it well.

Not enough people are talking about Chris Ivory this season. With Chris Johnson entering the picture in New York this offseason, many thought Ivory would take more of a complementary role in the Jets' offense. But those people probably didn't realize that Chris Johnson's been a below-average runner over the last four seasons, and offered little to the Jets ground game.

That showed through six weeks of the NFL season. According to our Rushing Net Expected Points metric, entering their game against New England, Ivory was the far superior runner - he ranked 7th among the 36 running backs with 50-plus carries, while CJWhateverK ranked 24th. While Johnson had played 6.44 points below expectation, Ivory was playing 4.98 points above expectation.

Thursday night exemplified this. Ivory ran the ball 21 times to Johnson's 13, and showed over three times the efficiency, per our metrics.

The Jets clearly need a running game to move the ball, and Ivory - not Johnson - is the answer to helping that.