Changes Did Nothing To Alleviate Jets Fans Misery

NJ.com

Monday was as close to an Immaculate sports schedule as you’ll find in these parts, a veritable TV viewer’s paradise. Among the area’s nine MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL teams, only the Giants and Knicks were not in action.

Six of the seven teams that played won, including the tanking Nets in an exhibition. Guess which one didn’t?

The same trash franchise that has gone the longest without a playoff appearance of any team throughout the entirety of the four leagues. The New York Jets can change coaches, players—heck, they can even change uniforms—and they’ll still find ways to disgust its tortured fan base.

Gang Green kicked another winnable game away on Monday night, falling to visiting Buffalo, 23-20. Instead of tying the Bills for first place in the AFC East, New York’s third consecutive defeat dropped them to 2-4 with a tough contest at physical Pittsburgh next week.

There’s absolutely no reason to believe that all the issues that plagued this team during the three-plus seasons when Head Coach Robert Saleh was in charge will magically be repaired by Week 2 of interim HC Jeff Ulbrich’s regime. All the “details” that quarterback Aaron Rodgers bemoaned during Monday’s postgame press conference are almost ingrained at this point. Complain all you want about the refs—at times, the game was about as exciting as an investor conference call with all the wasted minutes from the zebras huddling up to sort out the gaggle of yellow flags strewn across the MetLife Stadium field, many of which were nitpicky at best or phantom at worst—but the Jets have a discipline problem, both pre-snap and post-play.

They also have run defense problems, blocking problems, and, whether Ulbrich will acknowledge it or not, they now have a kicker problem, as Greg Zuerlein doinked a pair of very makeable field goals off the posts.

Oh, and they’re still not coached very well either. Todd Downing took over the offensive play calling from Nathaniel Hackett, and while he opened the game with a better mix to allow the pass to set up the running game instead of vice versa, he soon fell into old habits, such as predictably running Breece Hall on first downs into crowded boxes out of heavy two tight end personnel packages, the equivalent of someone who keeps banging his head into a brick wall and then expecting the wall to move out of the way. The postgame analysis harped on a Rodgers pass down the middle of the field in the last few minutes that tight end Jeremy Ruckert couldn’t bring in. Um, why was he even in the game in such a critical situation?  

Meanwhile, Ulbrich refused to give up the defensive game planning/play-calling duties, so New York’s general unpreparedness at the start falls squarely on his shoulders. The Bills hit paydirt on three of their four first half possessions, accumulating 217 yards split nearly evenly between run and pass. The Jets entered the game ranked 29^th in rbsdm.com’s opposition success rate on first half runs despite facing a rather nondescript set of backs. With leading rusher James Cook inactive on Monday night, the Bills still managed to gash them to the tune of over 5 yards per carry before quarterback Josh Allen’s victory formation kneel downs.

The stats will show that the Jets’ offense was at its most productive this season, with Hall rushing for over 100 yards while two receivers, Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard, also went for triple digits. Except New York reached the end zone just once in four red zone trips. A Hall drop forced the Jets to settle for a field goal on their opening drive of the night, curious play-calling on three attempts from the Buffalo three-yard line stymied another possession, and Braelon Allen’s 4-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter was negated by a holding penalty on tackle Tyron Smith, who may have had one of the worst games of his stellar 14-year career. After that last setback, Zuerlein missed a 32-yard chip shot that would have broken a 20-20 tie. Zuerlein aborted another from 43 yards out in the fourth quarter, after which Buffalo drove the field for the go-ahead field goal with 3:45 remaining. Zuerlein’s blown attempt that could have won the Denver game doesn’t look like such an outlier anymore.

With all that went wrong on Monday, Rodgers and the Jets had the ball in their hands with a chance to win the game in the final two minutes for a third straight contest. Only another holding penalty put Rodgers behind the chains and his 3^rd-and-16 deep ball to Mike Williams was picked off by Bills cornerback Taron Johnson. According to a clearly frustrated Rodgers, Williams ran the wrong route, which affected his throw.     

But what sent Jets fans home stewing the most over all the missed opportunities was the barrage of penalties. It’s mind-jarring. The 11 fouls that cost New York 110 yards didn’t even encompass the total damage done—a Bills defensive pass interference that could have gone for around 40 yards was wiped out by an offsetting illegal formation. On one second quarter Buffalo snap, the Jets were flagged for failing to get a player off the field in time (the Bills weren’t even in a hurry-up) AND got hit with their third DPI of the night.

Monday night was a reprisal of so many games Jets fans have had to endure over this lengthy dry spell. Other area teams have had at least some measure of recent competitiveness, the bare minimum a fan should expect. Yet with all this change (and I despise bringing up this lazy cliche, but it still rings true), it remains the Same Old Jets until they prove otherwise.