This Is What The Jets’ Brain Trust Came Up With During Their Bye Week?
You could have given Head Coach Robert Saleh eight weeks off to prepare for the Patriots instead of the Jets’ one-week bye and I don’t think the result would have been much different than Sunday’s 54-13 embarrassment in Foxboro.
As it is most weeks, the main game story focused on rookie quarterback Zach Wilson, who as of this writing, was awaiting the results from an MRI on his right knee following a somewhat late hit from Patriots linebacker Matt Judon in the second quarter. Wilson was done for the day and, most likely, the next few weeks, at minimum.
However, despite the fans’ despair from losing their QB, more than anything, we need to talk about this coach.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini tweeted during the game that whereas one team was playing chess on Sunday, the other was playing checkers. Cimini was too kind—it was more like Saleh’s Jets, now 1-5 on the season, were playing with rattles.
Because only an infant can’t process things when what they want to do isn’t working.
In those two weeks between games, Saleh promised that he would look under the hood and fix his club’s offensive issues early in games. They had yet to score in the first quarter, accumulating a grand total of 79 yards in five games.
Lo and behold, after the Patriots required just four plays to reach the end zone on their opening drive (more on that below), New York took the field with the same two-tight-end personnel packages that haven’t succeeded all season. Two handoffs behind those notorious road graders Ryan Griffin and Trevon Wesco gained a whopping three yards to put Wilson in a third-down spot. Of course, no one picked up blitzing Patriots defensive back Myles Bryant and Wilson was sacked.
All that time off and the answer was to keep trying to jam a square peg into a round hole?
Gang Green did have a decent second possession, but after kicker Matt Ammendola pushed a 48-yard field goal attempt wide right, New York’s cumulative first quarter score read, 44-0, through six games, the first time a team has been thusly shut out since the 2008 Lions, who went 0-16 that year. What wonderful company.
If only the Jets’ offense was the sole culprit in Sunday’s debacle. In my Friday game preview, I worried how the defense would address the hamstring injury to linebacker C.J. Mosley, who in practice acts like a coach on the field. I knew his absence would have a negative impact on a team as thin at the position, but I can’t say I could foresee the abomination that ensued.
New England literally toyed with the Jets’ D, scoring on all but one possession. The trick plays, like the 25-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Kendrick Bourne to Nelson Agholor to conclude the Pats’ opening drive—maybe those are harder for a young defense to prepare for.
But what about routine screen plays? They’ve killed the Jets all season and the Patriots kept hammering away with them as if Saleh had no possible adjustments up his sleeve to stop them. The 54 points surrendered were the fourth-most in franchise history and highest total since a 56-3 trouncing in New England in 1979 (another nightmare from my memory file).
In past games, the Jets’ defense at least tightened up a bit after halftime. It didn’t accomplish much other than to the statistical measures that gave the public a false sense that the unit wasn’t really all that bad, but we can at least credit the team for playing hard to the final whistle.
You can’t say the same about Sunday. The Patriots ran it up, and no matter how you view their Head Coach Bill Belichick’s sportsmanship, it’s on the Jets to make simple plays to keep the score down.
Under prior Head Coach Adam Gase, such blowouts, where the Jets would play like they’d given up, were commonplace. It’s too early in Saleh’s tenure to start worrying that this mentality has already started to seep in, but the results don’t lie. In five of six games, the Jets have never started a second-half offensive series where they weren’t down by multiple scores. So much for, “All gas, no brake.”
At some point—not necessarily after six games, since this is his first head coaching gig—the analysis of Saleh’s performance seems to be destined toward a “He’s not The Guy” column (Don’t worry, I’ll get to General Manager Joe Douglas soon enough). Saleh was hired in January to be the chief executive, so the staff malfunctions are on him. He’s the one married to a 49ers-style offense despite the poor fit with his current personnel, which has in turn stunted Wilson’s development. He’s the one playing guys out of position, like rookie wide receiver Elijah Moore on the outside instead of in the slot where he had a successful collegiate career; or Marcus Maye more as a box safety than at free safety; or the rookies he converted from safety to linebacker.
To be clear, Saleh is the one responsible for the Jets always coming out of the gate looking like they were unprepared to play.
Earlier in the week, Saleh was asked a question about why he always defers the opening kickoff when he wins the coin toss. He explained that he was setting his team up for the possibility of “lapping,” by scoring at the end of the half and then taking the ball to start the third quarter.
It sounded logical, except here’s the reality: Other than the Jets’ Week 4 victory over Tennessee, it’s been their opponents who have produced points in the last minute of each first half; and, after New England took advantage of the Jets’ utterly predictable and unsuccessful fourth-and-1 dive at the two-minute warning, Gang Green’s last two opponents have scored on both the possession following the opening kickoff deferral AND in the final minute of the half.
To me, that sounds more like Saleh is the one who has been getting “lapped” by the other coaches in this league.