After Jets head coach Todd Bowles drew up a perfect blitz to cause the first of Andrew Luck's four turnovers on Monday night, the smirk on his face was priceless, as was the miniature fist bump he gave to one of his assistants afterward.
It was almost as if this was too easy, but as we're coming to find with Bowles, this is what he does best. Through two games, his defense has forced 10 turnovers. Last year, the Jets forced 13 in 16 games.
"The defense played absolutely lights out, played championship football today," guard Willie Colon told The New York Post. "If there's a game ball given out, every guy on that defense deserves a game ball."
They also had championship coaching.
On that blitz that caused Luck's first interception, we got a glimpse of the manic rushes Bowles can create with the talent he has on the field. The most unbelievable part is that Quinton Coples, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound rush linebacker, and Leger Douzable, a 6-foot-5, 284-pound rush end, covered two of the easiest reads Luck had on the play.
He eventually tried to drop the ball over Douzable's man, but the impact of the rush from slot corner Buster Skrine forced an off-balance and off-target throw that eventually got tipped into the air.
The Jets have had training in this kind of scheme before, but Rex Ryan's unit from 2014 did not have the pieces on the outside to make this work. Perhaps he's still sore about the way the team spent when he left and maybe he should be.
But through two games, Bowles could be giving Ryan's 2009 and 2010 defenses a run for their money with the same kind of devious blitzes and simulated pressures.
