A SAM-TASTIC
Jets not happy but must keep losing
THE JETS are exactly what we thought they were.
With 0-16 still a possibility and coming off their first embarassing loss of the season in Oakland, the winless Jets are following a script Jets fans hope will lead them to a top pick in the draft and a chance to select the franchise QB that’s eluded the franchise for generations.
The Suck for Sam campaign is very much alive. Sunday’s 45-20 loss to Oakland kept the Jets winless, lifeless, and right where they need to be in pursuit of a someone like Sam Darnold, the USC golden boy, or UCLA gunslinger Josh Rosen, or Wyoming QB Josh Allen. The Jets are not playing well right now, but they might be the only ones upset about that. These are the three players Jets fans are most concerned about.
Darnold threw for 397 yards and three touchdowns this weekend. Rosen threw for 463 and four. Allen got roughed up in a loss to Oregon. These are the numbers Jets fans are looking at after two weeks.
If you’re a Jets fan, you’re hoping for 14 more Sundays like the one they just put together against an Oakland team that’s on its way to where the Jets hope to be one day. The Jets are now preparing for two straight games at home in front of a stadium that, weirdly, will probably be hoping for continued ineptitude.
Jets fans know exactly what lies ahead this season. It has the potential to be ugly, but the uglier the better. The people in the seats this weekend should be fine with that. Jets fans know what they’ve got right now. Todd Bowles said Monday he’s still figuring this lot out. “We’re still learning about the identity part but I know we got a lot a fight in us,” he said. “We’ve just got to not make the mistakes we’ve been making.”
Bowles isn’t happy with the way the Jets are giving up big plays. He didn’t care for the tackling Sunday. He can’t be happy about a run defense that’s been trampled for 370 yards the last two weeks. Bowles said he’s “disappointed” in his defense. During the next two home games, there will no doubt be plenty of fans wanting more of the same.
Josh McCown is the starting quarterback of a team that has to be looking straight through him, hoping for better days ahead. Next up are home games against the Dolphins and the awful Jaguars. These next games might just be measuring stick games of how bad the Jets can be.
“Every week we hope it’s this week that we start playing the kind of football that we know we’re capable of playing,” he said.
Ask a Jets fan. If they’re still paying attention to this team, they probably have a pretty good idea of what the Jets are capable of. And more than likely, it’s a lost season, a high draft pick, and a significant change of fate. “We can get better,” Bowles said. Really? There are plenty of Jets fans who sure wish they won’t.