Cam to can it
USA TODAY/ANDREW SAVULICH tle out of his game,” said Leonard Williams. “So I think we did a pretty good job of that.”
BURRIS EXITS EARLY
Cornerback Juston Burris left Sunday’s game with a concussion and is in the league protocol. Defensive lineman Steve McLendon suffered a stinger.
Running back Matt Forte, who was questionable for the contest because of swelling in his surgically repaired right knee, was active but ineffective. He finished with 10 carries for 26 yards.
MONDAY morning quarterbacking comes with the job description, but even those punch drunk on Gang Green Kool-Aid were wondering about Jets offensive coordinator John Morton’s play-calling during a goal-line sequence that loomed large in a crushing 35-27 loss to the Panthers on Sunday.
There was no need to secondguess a curious trio of calls that unofficially crushed the pie-inthe-sky playoff hopes of a team that just doesn’t have the requisite talent to be a legitimate contender. It was painfully obvious in real time.
Morton dialed up three consecutive pass plays after having firstand-goal from the freakin’ 1-yard line that failed.
The rookie play-caller has done yeoman’s work this season stitching together an offense that lacks true difference-makers, but this was an indefensible plan that triggered the Jets’ latest fourth-quarter meltdown.
“There are opportunities to run just depending on the look,” said Josh McCown, whose team was trailing 18-17 at the time. “They piled in the box. So, Johnny Mo makes the call as best he can for what he sees fit. They did a good job covering things. In any game, you can walk away and look at what you would have or should have done and things you could have done better. That’s part of playing the sport. But we went with the calls that we had.”
I don’t have a Ph.D. in offensive coordinating, but those weren’t good calls.
“He calls the game,” Todd Bowles said of Morton. “When I feel like I need to add input, I add it.”
Morton called a designed rollout to get the ball to Bilal Powell or Austin Seferian-Jenkins on first-and-goal from the 1 less than one minute into the fourth quarter. Powell was taken out of the play after getting hit at the line of scrimmage. Seferian-Jenkins was covered.
“So, I strung it out as long as I could, hoping somebody would get open,” McCown said. “I had to throw it away.”
It was an odd choice to cut off half the field by having his 38-year-old signal-caller roll to his right.
On second down, McCown made a near-perfect pass to Seferian-Jenkins, who beat cornerback James Bradberry on a fade in the back right corner of the end zone. The tight end’s diving grab was ruled a touchdown to seemingly give the Jets a 22-17 lead, pending a two-point conversion attempt, until the replay Gods intervened. The play was overturned after officials concluded that Seferian-Jenkins, who dropped a touchdown on the Jets’ first drive of the game, didn’t have control of the ball as he slid out of bounds.
“I thought it was a touchdown when I had originally made that play,” said Seferian-Jenkins, who had been victimized twice on overturned touchdowns earlier this season. “They didn’t think it was a touchdown. I agree with their call. It is what they call. … It’s tough. Obviously if you make those plays, we might have won that game. I think we win that game.”
The replay booth got it right. It was not a touchdown, setting up a critical third and goal. Morton scanned his play sheet and went with a pass designed for Robby Anderson on the left side. It didn’t work.
“They blanketed it,” McCown said. “So, I scrambled and tried to get Matt (Forte) there. Matt was supposed to be in protection, so it was good awareness for him to get out.”
McCown’s pass for Forte, who had been critical of Morton’s runpass imbalance a few weeks ago, fell incomplete to cap an awful sequence and blown opportunity. The Jets settled for Chandler Catanzaro’s 19-yard field goal to retake the lead, 20-18, one minute into the fourth quarter.
“Hindsight is 20-20,” Bowles said of Morton’s play calls during the momentum-changing goalline sequence. “We had a touchdown if we hold on to the football. We didn’t hold on to the football.”
The HC of the NYJ didn’t exactly want to dissect the rationale behind each call. “None of the plays worked,” Bowles said. “So, it really doesn’t matter.”
Here’s the elephant in the room: The Jets don’t have enough game changers to be playoff contenders this season. They never have.
It’s a credit to Bowles and his staff that they’ve won four games given the current roster makeup. he Jets’ failure to get in the end zone from the 1-yard line triggered a nightmarish fourth quarter that included a strip sack and fumble returned for a touchdown, a punt return for a score and a bone-headed roughing the passer penalty that crushed any hope of a miracle.
“When you win games, you’re a playoff contender,” said Bowles, whose team has dropped five of its last six. “When you lose games, you’re not. Right now, we’re not a playoff contender. We got to go back to the drawing board.”
No matter how many times Bowles stares at that drawing board, he won’t magically get better players for the remaining five weeks. The margin for error for this group has always been razor thin.
The Jets needed to run the ball at least once from the 1-yard line.
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