Only Jets can lose so much by winning

Sam Darnold, who is apparently going to be around for a while, threw a short pass over the middle to a proud old football warrior named Frank Gore with just over two minutes left to play in Los Angeles and the Jets had one more first down and were about to win their first game of the season, which meant as big a loss as the New York Jets have ever had. Win game, lose Trevor Lawrence.

Give Darnold and the Jets defense all the praise they deserved against a Rams’ team that used to be in first place in the NFC West, and all the fight the Jets showed as an underdog as big as Joe Namath’s Jets were against the Colts before Super Bowl III. That was the biggest win in Jets history. Around 7 Eastern time Sunday night, Jets fans felt as if they had just witnessed their biggest loss. Because barring some kind of miracle — the Jaguars winning one of their last two games — Lawrence is likely on his way to Jacksonville next season.

So the Jets now have as many victories this season as Lawrence has had losses in his Clemson career, a career during which he became one of the great college quarterbacks of all time. And the win they just got in Los Angeles cost them Lawrence. In the end, just three losses away from having the No. 1 pick in the next NFL draft, the Jets showed everybody that they couldn’t win for losing.

After all the losing they have done this season, after all the creative ways they found to lose, especially against the Raiders a couple of weeks ago in Jersey, the Jets somehow found a way to look like the biggest losers in the world on the day when they finally won a game. In so many ways, it was the most Jets thing they have ever done.

“We just executed,” Darnold said on television when it was over, before heading for the locker room. “Our defense played their butts off.”

They did. And he did. And when Darnold needed to make one more throw and get one more first down at the end, he got it. You know who wasn’t playing to bring Trevor Lawrence to MetLife Stadium on Sunday? Darnold wasn’t. Maybe he’s the kid who now stays in the picture.

“It means the world to us,” Darnold said. Finally Darnold said, “We did our job today.”

And, in all likelihood, he kept his.

The Jets were ahead by a touchdown on the Rams and then 10-0 and then 13-0 before some awful, Jets-like clock management gave the Rams the chance to get on the board with a field goal before the half. Later, when the Jets had a chance to make it 27-10 and maybe close the Rams out right there, third-and-goal, Darnold tried to squeeze one in to Chris Herndon, flashing in front of Darnold, running to Darnold’s right. But Troy Reeder knocked the ball away. The Jets had to settle for a field goal. It was 23-10 and then 23-17 and then the Jets had the ball back. Did nothing with it. Gave it right back.

This is where the Jets were supposed to remember who they were, and act like losers. Again. It is, after all, who they have become. And then an amazing thing happened, considering the stakes and considering all the loser football they have played since September, and with a chance to finally win a game. The Jets showed up.

The Jets showed up and watched the Rams turn into them with the game on the line. The Rams crossed midfield, and they were the ones who seemed to be remembering who they were. They were going to win again and the Jets were going to lose again and order would be restored to the football universe and before long Trevor Lawrence and his Fabio hair was going to be on his way to Jersey. The Jets had thought that Darnold was going to be their new Namath. But then everything that could go wrong for Darnold did. Now Jets fans were sure Lawrence was going to be the one.

If their team could just lose on Sunday and lose two more than that. Only it was the Rams who committed two devastating penalties when they were on their way to making it 27-23. First a hold. Then an illegal block in the back. Suddenly it was third down and the Rams, who were in a Super Bowl against the Patriots not so long ago, were facing a third down, and the prospect of being the first team to lose to the Jets this season. The 0-13 Jets. Them.

You know it’s a bad loss when the losing coach — Sean McVay in this case — responds to it this way when the game is over:

“I’m sick to my stomach.”

McVay’s own play-calling should have at least made him a little queasy. On third down, Goff threw long down the left side. Incomplete. Now it was fourth down. But it was only fourth-and-four, with four minutes left. For some reason, Goff tried to go deep again, down the right side, to Gerald Everett. Marcus Maye, who was a great Jet on Sunday, was with him every step of the way. For a moment the ball seemed to be on its way into Everett’s hands. Then Maye reached up and knocked it away. t which point I got an anguished text from a noted Jets fan named Larry David. It read this way:

A“Jesus. We’re going to win.” Followed by an all-caps expletive. Before long the Jets were in a victory formation, on the day when they almost certainly lost Trevor Lawrence. This is what they do to their fans. They make them feel like losers on the day when their team finally gets a game. Beat L.A., lose Lawrence.