McCown’s a backup, so give Hack a chance
17 5 9 3 3-14 1-1 299 64 4.7 145 33 4.4 154 3-14 168 11-28
0 5.0 8-7-6 6-47.3
0 0-0 144 5-95 2-49
0-0 10-84
1-0 31:50 21 3 14 4 5-14 0-0 391 65 6.0 109 26 4.2 282 3-25 307 19-36
0 7.2 6-5-4 7-45.4
0 0-0 59 4-7 2-52
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2-1 28:10
THIS is a Jets quiz for Gang Green Nation. Get out your No. 2 pencils and eyes on your own paper, please. Josh McCown is a smart football guy, has great leadership skills and enough talent to stick around the NFL for 15 seasons playing for eight teams, but not enough talent to wrap his arms around a starting job to call his own for long. So, here’s the quiz: Which Jets’ job is McCown least suited to hold going forward? 1. Head coach 2. Offensive coordinator 3. Quarterback coach 4. Starting QB 5. Backup QB If you answered 4, you win a week at Jets practice watching Christian Hackenberg’s passes killing worms by skydiving into the dirt and dodging his overthrows on the sidelines.
McCown is the classic “hold the fort” veteran that Bill Parcells used to sign to keep things respectable in his first year with the Giants, Patriots, Jets and finally the Cowboys until he could turn over the roster. McCown has done that for the Jets, and he played well in Sunday’s 35-27 loss to the Panthers by throwing for 307 yards, three TDs and no INTs, but the ball slipped out of his hands as he was being crushed in the fourth quarter, with Luke Kuechly’s 34yard fumble return for a TD putting Carolina ahead for good.
“Nothing to explain,” Todd Bowles said. “You can’t fumble the football.”
McCown is 38 going on 22 when it comes to rookie mistakes.
The INT with 35 seconds left in the first half against the Patriots with Tom Brady cashing in with a TD. The INT the next week with 39 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter that set up Miami’s winning field goal. The fumble Sunday when he’s experienced and smart enough to eat the ball and take a sack when the protection breaks down. Instead of losing yardage, he lost the ball.
That’s why he’s a journeyman.
“I was just trying to throw the ball away,” McCown said. “(Lawrence Thomas) was right there to my right and I was just trying to dirt it to him.” Josh Being Josh. It was also the Jets Being The Jets.
Another fourth quarter meltdown that included settling for a field goal after a first-and-goal from the 1, McCown’s fumble and allowing a 60-yard punt return for a TD. Hold the fort? For whom? Their 4-7 record is much better than the 0-11 I thought they would be at this point, but here’s the problem that haunts them:
They dedicated this season to developing their excellent nucleus of young talent and have made progress — except at quarterback, where Bowles refuses to get Hackenberg or Bryce Petty any playing time. I think the Jets have thrown in the towel on both of them. In that sense, this season has been the worst-case scenario. The Jets have slipped out of wild-card contention with their seven losses, but their four victories are too many to get them one of the top quarterbacks in the draft.
Bowles will be trying to get a contract extension from Ambassador Johnson and Christopher Johnson following a 5-11 or 6-10 season. After he said a few weeks ago that he looked at Hackenberg and Petty in the summer and McCown is his QB, that’s all you need to know