SOAK’S ON THEM
Mistake-prone Jets the punch line again in blowing another lead
Another week, another blown lead for the Jets.
Gang Green lost their third straight game, this time falling 25-20 to the Falcons at a rainy MetLife Stadium after leading by a touchdown in the first half and taking a one-point lead into the fourth quarter. It was the third straight week they blew a lead.
The Jets are now 3-5 at the halfway point of their season. Almost all of the hope they created with a three-game winning streak earlier this season has been extinguished. Any chance of salvaging the season now rides on Thursday night’s game with the Bills at MetLife.
“This is a must-win, period, point-blank,” cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “We have to win this game if we want to turn this around.” They could start by finishing. Sunday’s game was another time the Jets could not close out an opponent. The Jets held a 17-16 lead as the fourth quarter began. But mistakes killed them again, just as they did last week in Miami and the week before against the Patriots.
“We played hard, for the most part,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said. “It’s disappointing not to win. It’s disappointing we didn’t close it out. Too many mistakes in the fourth quarter. Can’t happen. Can’t put the ball on the ground. Can’t have timely mistakes. Everybody has to play their brand of ball. Hard enough, not good enough.”
The fourth quarter started off with a mistake. Josh McCown was sacked on third-and-9 at the Falcons’ 23-yard line, losing 7 yayards. That made Chandler Catanzaro’s f ield-goal attempt attem 48 yards instead of 41. CatanzaroC missed, his second seco miss of the day.
On the Falcons’ first play, Tevin Tev Coleman ran right through thro the Jets defense for 52 yyards to the Jets’ 10. Several blown tackles by the Jets led to the big gain. Cornerback nerb Juston Burris, who was in the game because Claiborne Cla injured his foot in ththe third quarter, had the biggest bigg whiff.
“I should have took my shot, sho made the play,” Burris said. said “Obviously, it was a big gain. That’s on me.”
Three T plays later, Matt Ryan Ry hit Mohamed Sanu for a 9-yard touchdown then the failed on the twopoint po attempt to give the Falcons Fa a 22-17 lead, their ff iirrst of the game, with 12:22 left to play.
The Je t s a n swere d wi t h a 46-yard field goal from Catanzaro to make it 22-20 with 8:42 left. The Jets then forced a punt from Atlanta, but returner Jeremy Kerley muffed the catch and the Falcons recovered at the Jets’ 13.
The Jets defense held the Falcons to a field goal, but the Jets were trailing 25-20 with 5:19 left. The Jets had two more possessions but failed to move the ball.
A somber Jets looker room is now facing the reality that its season could be slipping away.
“It pisses me off that we’ve lost those games,” tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins said, “and I’m sure everyone else is pissed off because it’s frustrating. I’m frustrated. We’re frustrated. The fans are frustrated.”
Some cracks began to show in the Jets’ unity after the game, too. Running back Matt Forte voiced his displeasure with offensive coordinator John Morton going away from the rushing attack during the driving storm. The Jets had 22 rushes for 43 yards, an average of 2.0 yards per carry. Forte had just four carries for 7 yards, but he also had six catches for 45 yards.
“I’m def initely surprised by that,” Forte said. “We knew the weather was going to be like this. It continued to rain the entire game. I think we only ran the ball like 20 times. That should have been at least one person getting 20 carries or something like that with the way the weather was. I thought we were going to grind them out on the ground like that, but it ended up not turning out that way.”
Bowles said he is not worried about the Jets crumbling.
“Frustrated, not discouraged,” Bowles said. “It’s what we do. It’s our job for a living. We just have to stop taking body blows and start delivering them.”
The Jets had another good first half offensively with McCown throwing two touchdown passes. Robby Anderson’s 24-yard catch gave the Jets a 17-10 lead with 2:26 left in the second quarter. Matt Bryant made a field goal for the Falcons as time expired in the quarter to cut the halftime lead to 17-13. But the Jets did not reach the end zone again. The Jets have scored 13 second-half points in their past three games.
“Man, it’s really tough,” McCown said. “Just go look at the tape and see. Frustrating. You go out there and battle, battle the elements and move the football well at times and get in the end zone. [We have to] figure out what the heck we’re doing in the second half that’s not allowing us to play the same way. Got to fix that.”
The Jets have three days to fix it before facing the Bills on Thursday.
“We’ve got to find a way to get out of this skid,” linebacker Demario Davis said. “We’ve got to find a way to get a win. It’s a must-win league. You don’t want that ‘L’ column to get too big. We’ve got to find a way to get a win.”