Jets Meaningless Win Allows Jacksonville To Say, “Tanks”

Why can’t the Jets have a tank like Jacksonville’s?

That’s tank with a small “t”, not Jaguars running back Tank Bigsby.

When the two teams met in Jacksonville on Sunday, the Jets (4-10) won the game, 32-25, but once again lost the battle for Draft position, which is, at this stage of the season, the more meaningful result. I’ve lost track of how many times in my fandom where Gang Green screwed up the greater good for the immediate satisfaction from these kinds of late-season victories.

I know full well that NFL players and coaches try to win every game, but you wouldn’t have known it from the way Sunday’s contest transpired. As I watched, it seemed like every time that the Jaguars offered to open the door for New York to take control, the Jets would respond, “No thank you. After you. And now hold my beer.”

That went all the way down to the wire, when Jacksonville, defending a 3^rd-and-5 from just past midfield, lost track of Jets wide receiver Davante Adams near the left sideline. After all, Adams had only torched them for 157 yards and two touchdowns, including a 71-yard bomb on the prior possession, before taking Aaron Rodgers’ short pass all the way to the 1-yard line with 1:08 remaining. Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd is a veritable hero for not following Adams across the field on a rub route, instead sticking with lumbering Jets tight end Jeremy Ruckert to double team him in the middle.

From there, the smart play would have been for the Jets to force Jacksonville to burn their two remaining timeouts, run the clock down to close to 20 seconds, and then kick a field goal. But no one can ever accuse the Jets of taking the smart path—they instead handed off to running back Breece Hall, who skipped into the end zone past the accommodating Jacksonville defense. After the game, Jets interim Head Coach Jeff Ulbrich said he wanted to “be aggressive” while all Rodgers cared about was finally leading the team past the 30-point barrier for the first time this season.

Both stupid reasons. The consequence was to give the ball back to a Jacksonville offense that had already gained 398 yards. With Mac Jones at quarterback. That’s Mac Jones, who rarely throws the ball more than three yards downfield.

That Jones, from the Jets 47-yard line, overthrew his receiver so badly that even cornerback Sauce Gardner could catch it for his first interception since his rookie season didn’t justify Ulbrich’s clock management.

At least the FOX announcers took the Jets to task all game long, not just the final decision. They ridiculed New York for undisciplined penalties, drops, and missed tackles. Rodgers had to waste two timeouts in the last two minutes because he couldn’t get the play off in time…when the game clock was already stopped! You know, the stuff that has been going on all season long that Ulbrich—and his predecessor Robert Saleh through his firing after Week 5—promised would get “fixed.”

On the game’s opening possession, the Jets had the Jags stopped in the red zone, except Garnder was flagged for an obvious hold in the end zone right in front of the official. Jacksonville scored on the next play when they got speedy wide receiver Brian Thomas isolated on slow safety Chuck Clark. It was no contest. Bigsby then fumbled the ball away on the first snap of their next drive, only it was negated by a defensive holding penalty on edge rusher Will McDonald IV. That series ended when Jones, not to be outdone in the gaffe department, had another overthrown deep ball picked off, this time by safety Jalen Mills. I would have had Jones throw screens until the Jets defense stopped one of them.

And back-and-forth it went until the Rodgers-to-Adams connection went nuts and made Jets fans wonder where that had been the last two months since the trade with Las Vegas. And in the next breath they remembered, “Oh, right. They’re playing the Jaguars.”

Well, Jacksonville will get the last laugh when they’ll be picking in the top five at April’s NFL Draft while the Jets, who could have moved up to No. 5 with a loss, will hold the eighth slot should the standings go unchanged over the season’s final three weeks.

You might think it’s not a big deal but understand that the NFL is the last pro sports league to scoff at requiring a lottery for the Draft order, so this one outcome could mean a missed opportunity for the Jets to select one of the better college QBs. And, if you’re wondering, I’m still upset over New York’s two late wins in 2020 that cost them the No. 1 overall pick for Trevor Lawrence. Even if he hasn’t panne3d out as Jacksonville had hoped, he has still been way better than Zach Wilson.

So I just knew the Jets would win this one (see Friday’s post for proof, though I missed the point spread when they went for the touchdown instead of the field goal at the end) because it was in their best long-term interest not to, whether they cared or not.

Just another addition to the Same Old Jets lore.