TURNING THE PAGE
Jets finish with loss to Pats as Gase exits for good
Whatever happens next, it won’t be this:
No more punt-heavy, runheavy games with the offense coached like it’s 1999.
No more dinking and dunking and kicking when creativity and aggression is required.
No more phony personal fouls that the old defensive coordinator earned with his reputation for dirty hits.
And maybe, just maybe, no more beatdowns at the hands of Bill Belichick and the Patriots.
The Jets ended the blessedly brief Adam Gase-Sam Darnold chapter of the franchise with a snowy, sleepy 28-14 loss to the Patriots in Foxborough. The history of the franchise under the Johnsons’ ownership is a good reason to pump the brakes on any optimism about the future — in 21 years under the Johnsons, the team has won more than 10 games exactly once.
If the Jets continue to be bad under new leadership, at least they will be bad in a different way. Adam Gase was fired four hours after the game.
He said he expected to meet with acting owner Christopher Johnson last night or today. “I’m not gonna predict anything,” Gase said after the game. Gase was fired with two years remaining on his contract and a 9-23 record with the team.
The Jets finished at 2-14 for the season.
The Patriots (7-9) slightly hurt their draft position but looked better than they have in a long time; playing the Jets can do that for you. It’s New England’s worst record in 20 years. Last year’s 7-9 marked the Jets’ best record since 2015. That season was also the last time the Jets beat the Patriots.
If Darnold was auditioning for his job Sunday, it didn’t go well. The third-year QB threw two second-half interceptions that sealed the loss, both poor decisions under minimal pressure. “Trying to do too much, forcing it in there, guy made a good play,” Darnold said. That encapsulates Darnold’s baffling decision making for much of this year.
“I definitely didn’t play well this year,” said Darnold, who ended the season with nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions. The season went so poorly that his 266 yards Sunday were a season high, by far. It was only the fourth time this season that Darnold threw for 200 yards.
“Whether I stay, whether I leave, I’ll deal with it when it comes,” Darnold said of his uncertain future. Darnold has one year remaining on his rookie contract; the Jets have until early May to decide whether to pick up his fifth-year option for 2022.
Darnold refused to throw Gase under the bus all season, and that was no different after Sunday’s finale. He blamed the season on his poor play and said he felt he let Gase down. Slot receiver Jamison Crowder, the Jets’ most reliable pass-catcher this year, called Darnold a “baller” Sunday. Crowder did make an impressive and bizarre play saving Darnold from a third interception against the Patriots, stepping in front of a ball not intended him that was clearly going to be picked off.
Crowder’s quick thinking led directly to a Darnold touchdown to Chris Herndon on the next play.
It was Darnold’s first-ever touchdown in three games against the Patriots. (He missed the team’s other three games against New England in his three seasons with various injuries and illnesses.)
With a Browns victory over the Steelers on Sunday, Gang Green now has the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. The 2010 season was the last time the Jets made the playoffs, and that year’s divisional round still marks the last Jets win in Foxborough.
the flavor-of-the-month NFL assistants and college head coaches. The names in that report included Eric Bieniemy (Chiefs OC), Matt Eberflus (Colts DC), Wink Martindale (Ravens DC), Arthur Smith (Titans OC), Brandon Staley (Rams DC), Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and Dan Mullen (Florida).
There are several Gases on the market, too. Longtime Cowboys coach Jason Garrett ran a terrible Giants offense this year — only not the NFL’s worst because of the Jets — and Jim Harbaugh has not exactly looked like a genius at Michigan.
Not mentioned in the report was Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, whose work with Josh Allen has made him into a popular head coaching candidate.
The second half of the equation is just as tricky. What to do at quarterback? Under Gase, Sam Darnold has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL, whether you look at his production or his tape. Douglas could bet that Gase’s coaching was the problem. In that scenario, he could bring in a cheap veteran on a short contract to compete with Darnold, or just roll with Darnold. It would be a low-risk bet with Darnold still having a year on his rookie contract. (The Jets have until May to exercise the 2022 option in Darnold’s rookie deal.)
Or Douglas could go all-in on one of the college quarterbacks who isn’t Trevor Lawrence. That could mean taking Justin Fields (Ohio State), Trey Lance (North Dakota State), or Zach Wilson (BYU) at No. 2 overall, or trading down for one of them.
Even if Gase rarely took any blame for the Jets’ struggles, he could be self-effacing in his own way. He once called himself a “f---ing jackass” and said “I’m no scientific rocket” about his own limitations, which now have the Jets starting over from nearly scratch this offseason. As another man who struggled with cliches in New Jersey would have put it: The Jets are at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.