Back from bye, Gang get boost by standings
The Jets have lost four of their last five games. They are two games under . 500. Analytics websites have their chances of making the playoffs somewhere below 1 percent.
Still, the Jets reported back to work on Monday with hope. That hope comes from looking at the standings, where they are only one game out of a playoff spot in a very mediocre AFC.
At 4-6, the Jets are tied with five other teams in the conference. There are two teams at 5-5 and two teams at 3-7. Basically, every team outside of the Browns is still alive.
“I think it energizes us more than anything,” quarterback Josh McCown said. “We can’t look ba c k , o bv i o u s ly. Every team that has lost any game this year, across the league would look and wish they had it back, especially if you are in the AFC. But you hit it on the head, more than anything, it energizes us to know that we’re still in the thick of things here with the last six weeks to play, and we just have to go out and play good football.”
It seems crazy that the Jets are in this position, but the Bills and Dolphins have fallen apart and the Ravens, Bengals, Texans, Chargers and Raiders are just as inconsistent as the Jets.
The Jets’ remaining schedule makes any playoff talk still feel overly optimistic. They have games against the 7-3 Panthers, 8-2 Saints and 8-2 Patriots remaining. Still, the Jets insist they are confident they can go on a run.
“I feel like we can beat any team that we line up against,” linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. “It’s just a matter of which New York Jets team shows up — the one that plays dominantly in every phase of the game or the one that might shine offensively and not show up defensively. If we want to win all these games, we have to find a way to shine in all three phases. Otherwise, chances are slim for us.”
Coach Todd Bowles is not interested in talking about playoff chances. His message to his team is simple: Win all your games and the playoffs will be there. He knows with six losses already the margin for error is gone.
“I believe we have to win them all and let that take care of itself,” Bowles said. “We just have to win. If we win, we’ll take care of ourselves.”
Seeing how close the Jets are to a playoff spot has to make them think about some of the missed opportunities t h e y ’ ve had this year. From losing in Tampa Bay before the bye week to blowing leads against the Patriots, Dolphins and Falcons, the Jets have had a few losses they surely feel like they should have won.
“That’s always one of the hardest things to do because you look back and you see plays where if I would have done this better, we could have been here or if we would have done this right, we would have been higher,” Jenkins said. “You can’t really look at that because that will just drain you.”
One interesting scheduling wrinkle for the Jets is that they are almost done with divisional play. They have only the f inale with the Patriots. But the Bills and Dolphins, teams the Jets are fighting with for a wild-card spot, have played only the Jets. They each have four division games left — two with each other and two with the Patriots. Those games could eliminate them from wild-card contention.
“I think everybody knows that we still have a chance at a run for the playoffs right now,” defensive end Leonard Williams said. “The good thing is we played most of our division games already and everybody else in our division really hasn’t. We’re really focusing on winning out the rest of our games and knowing they all still have to play each other and knock each other out. We definitely still have high hopes and people are coming to practice with high energy and still pretty positive about the rest of the season.”