SAVING GRACE
McCown's effort good enough to keep kids on the bench, Bowles off hot seat
JOSH McCown engineered this winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs that killed two chirping birds with one stone:
The bird that has been chirping for Christian Hackenberg and/or Bryce Petty.
And more importantly for the Jets franchise, the bird that has been chirping that the Jets will need to fire Todd Bowles and find themselves a new head coach. Because they do not. The Jets, 38-31 winners, finished the fourth quarter and grew up a little bit at the same time on a day when Bowles stayed true to himself and disciplined immature second- year linebacker Darron Lee (late to a Saturday walk-through) and chronic discipline headache Muhammad Wilkerson (late to a Saturday team meeting).
Bowles moved swiftly and decisively to nip any potential mushrooming discipline problem in the bud with the dreaded Coach’s Decision.
Bowles is much more respected in his locker room than Ben McAdoo has been in his, and every last Jet understands and accepts that it is Bowles’ way or the highway. “You don’t let it linger,” Bowles said. And: “Some things are etched in stone that you can’t do, and we go from there.”
Lee needs to grow up, and Bowles is the man to help him do that. Wilkerson, for reasons known only to Wilkerson, has resisted the culture change that Bowles has effected from a toxic year ago — One Team, One Goal — and deserves to encounter culture shock elsewhere if he doesn’t wake up ... shape up or ship out, in other words.
The first quarter resembled too many previous fourth quarters when Alex Smith found Travis Kelce with a pair of touchdown passes, but the Jets never flinched. Because Bowles never flinches.
“His message never changed, he never wavered, he never complained, and I think that was huge for us,” McCown said, “and I think that kind of steadiness for us is bearing fruit right now. It’s why we won the game today,
because of how he handles himself day in and day out.”
Later, at his locker, McCown applauded Bowles for hiring offensive coordinator John Morton.
“He’s the same guy every day, and I think that’s what you have to have in this position especially when you’re in a big market where it’s so demanding, you got somebody that won’t flinch,” McCown said. “For us, to have a guy like that in front of the room, especially with a young team, to watch a guy who’s so steady is great for us.”
It was Chiefs 31, Jets 30 when the moment-of-truth drive began, McCown said: “Hey let’s effin do it, let’s go do it — and let’s not talk about how we were close.”
McCown, third-and-6 at his 29, maneu- vered long enough in the pocket to hit rookie Chad Hansen for 12 yards.
“Chad did a good job of staying alive,” McCown said. McCown, third-and-7, found Jermaine Kearse, who shed Steven Nelson for a 51-yard gain. McCown’s second QB keeper TD with 2:15 won it. He is playing as if he does not want to lose the job.
“That’s not the motivation,” he said. “I’m just playing like I want to win the game.”
The journeyman quarterback has overachieved. The head coach has overachieved with a team that was expected to achieve the first-overall pick of the 2018 draft.
“Todd sets the precedent for us in attitude, emotions, toughness, all that,” running back Matt Forte said. “You say why is he the right guy for the job? It’s because he teaches it right, he coaches it right and also he leads it right. As a head coach, you want a great leader, that guy who can inspire guys, teach ‘ em, coach ‘em, on and off the field.”
Morris Claiborne, in his maiden season as a Jet, has grown quite fond of Bowles.
“I just love the type of man that he is ... he shoots us straight every single day,” Claiborne said. “Nothing is a lie, and nothing is like BS coming out of his mouth. You can tell he means what he says.”
So if the owner sat down with you and asked: “What should we do about Todd for next year?”
“You gotta keep him,” Claiborne said. “Hands down.”