Whether You Believe It’s Luck Or Pluck, The Jets Own A Winning Record
After the Jets upset Pittsburgh on the road last week, I had several conversations with fellow fans that I’m sure will be continued after Gang Green dominated the fourth quarter to rout Miami, 40-17, on Sunday before a vocal crowd at MetLife Stadium.
The topic was, “Have the Jets been lucky, or are they developing into a pretty decent football team?”
You know what? Who cares?
The Jets exorcised multiple demons in one full Sunday swoop: They won their first home game this season in their third attempt; they snapped a 12-game losing streak versus AFC East teams; and, most importantly, at 3-2, this is their first winning record since topping the Lions in the 2018 season opener.
In these parts, that’s cause for a little celebration. That New York took advantage of a Miami squad that was forced to call on third-string quarterback Skylar Thompson, a rookie seventh-round pick, after Teddy Bridgewater was leveled by Jets rookie Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner on a cornerback blitz on the Dolphins’ first offensive snap changes nothing. I’ve seen plenty of games over the years where some random backup came off the bench to lift the Jets’ opponent to an unlikely victory (Contrary to popular opinion, Tom Brady did NOT lead a comeback to beat the Jets after linebacker Mo Lewis obliterated Patriots starter Drew Bledsoe in 2001).
And if you’re one of those shouting “Injuries!” as a substitute for “Lucky!”, because Miami wasn’t just hurting at quarterback, but at other premium positions as well, what NFL team hasn’t had any? Even the Jets, healthier in comparison, have had a rotating cast of characters on the offensive line all season, with left tackle Duane Brown making his Jets debut with a brace around his torn rotator cuff and guard Alijah Vera-Tucker moving to right tackle, the fourth of the five offensive line positions he’s played in his last six appearances in a Jets uniform.
No, as Brady said last week, “I think there’s a lot of bad football (this season) from what I watch.” When Cleveland running back Nick Chubb scored instead of falling down before the end zone at the two-minute warning, leading to a wild series of events that spurred New York to a miracle comeback from two scores down in Week 2, that’s bad football. When Pittsburgh went into the season relying on Mitch Trubisky and rookie Kenny Pickett to play QB, that’s bad football. And when the Dolphins were flagged 12 times on Sunday, including the intentional grounding call with Bridgewater in the end zone to give the Jets a safety, that’s bad football.
Or you could turn it around and say the Jets played better football. That particular blitz call was one that had never been made in Gardner’s 250 defensive snaps coming into the game. Right time, right place on the field, perfect execution.
It was unfortunate that Bridgewater was prevented from returning due to the NFL’s concussion protocols that required adjustments following the debacle surrounding Miami’s QB1 Tua Tagovailoa in the last two weeks, but no one gave the Jets much sympathy all those times when their quarterbacks were sidelined, including current starter Zach Wilson, who missed the first three games this season with a knee injury.
The fact is that the Dolphins were not only in the game at the start of the fourth quarter, trailing only 19-17, they had the opportunity to take the lead. A 34-yard Michael Carter II pass interference penalty, the third such flag on Jets corners that cost them over 25 yards, set Miami up in Jets territory. But the next series of downs was hindered by a needless pre-snap penalty, so Thompson did his best to get back the lost yardage so that Jason Sanders could attempt a 54-yard field goal.
Sanders barely missed it left, and then the Jets marched 56 yards on seven plays to go up by two scores. The Dolphins disintegrated from there, with the highlight a Carl Lawson strip-sack of Thompson that was scooped up by Quinnen Williams at Miami’s 17-yard line. The Jets 300-pound interior lineman then rumbled forward, trucking Dolphins speedster Tyreek Hill to the ground along the way before getting tackled at the five-yard line. Hill, Jets fans recall, spurned the good life in New Jersey in favor of Miami during trade talks with Kansas City in the offseason. As ESPN’s Rich Cimini noted, he’ll still get dinged with Garden State taxes for his 60 yards from scrimmage day’s work, which ended with him leaving the metropolitan area in a walking boot from getting stepped on during that play.
Jets rookie running back Breece Hall, who was three ground yards short of a rare 100/100 rushing/receiving triple-triple, took it in from there to put New York up by an insurmountable 33-17 margin. Hall is one of a bunch of young skill position players that had Jets fans hopeful about the franchise’s future. Wilson, though, is the barometer, as I’ve often noted since he was selected No. 2 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. In his second start of the season, he took another step forward, driving the ball accurately into the intermediate ranges. Not only did he avoid turnovers, I counted just one lousy negative play, a 17-yard sack where the Jets (and Wilson) didn’t process an obvious safety blitz by Brian Jones.
Jets Offensive Coordinator Mike LaFleur kept it simple, though I ached when I watch all those 1st-and-10 handoffs that went nowhere and his 4th-and-1 play call in the third quarter could have been better than a deep fade to Corey Davis. At other key points, however, LaFleur schemed guys open, including the 79-yard wheel route to Hall on the last play of the first quarter that set up the first of two Michael Carter touchdown dives.
The Jets simply have been better than the teams they’ve beaten, and that includes Cleveland, the only game where I believe luck played a significant role in the victory. Will they be better than the majority of the teams on the remainder of the schedule, starting with a road affair against a Green Bay team that has to be seething from blowing a lead to the Giants in London on Sunday? Probably not, but the fact that the Giants, with all their injuries exacerbating an already major talent deficit on paper, were able to go to 4-1 on the season says quite a bit about the state of the league.
Many of these teams just aren’t as good as a host of experts (and mere bloggers like me) thought.