Jets aim to hit brakes on their five-game skid

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Jets begin December here, playing out the string on another lost season, desperate to end a fivegame losing streak.

At 3-8, they are not going to the playoffs. They are playing for pride … again. A third straight losing season seems like a certainty, but they face the 5-6 Titans hoping to come away with their first win since mid-October.

“We want to get the win,” linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. “Losing sucks, especially losing consistently like we have. We all hate it. No one likes losing. I don’t care what I’m doing. I don’t like to lose. It irks me when we lose and it irks a lot of guys when we lose. We want the win. It’s just a pride thing. We just want a win. We’re tired of losing.”

This five-game skid has been extremely ugly for the Jets. They have not rushed for 100 yards in any of the five games. They have not forced a turnover. They have scored just five touchdowns. They have not scored more than 17 points in any of those contests.

The losing and the way the Jets have been losing seems to have sealed coach Todd Bowles’ fate. It appears he will be fired at the end of his fourth season. Even in such desperate times, Bowles would not admit that he has a desperate team.

“We need to win all the time,” Bowles said. “Every week is a desperately win week, it’s not just this week it just seemed to be the week that we haven’t won yet. So we’re trying to get a win under our belt. Winning cures a lot of things and solves a lot of things. It doesn’t make everything right, but it’s a step in the right direction in cleaning up some small things so we can get better.”

The only intriguing thing about this game is who the quarterback will be. Sam Darnold has missed the past two games with a sprained right foot. Josh McCown has filled in for the rookie. This week, Darnold returned to practice in a limited fashion. Bowles would not say who his quarterback will be against Tennessee, but McCown seemed to have an edge because he practiced fully Friday.

Even without his usual practice time, Darnold said he could still play.

“For me, I don’t think it would be that much more difficult. For me, it’s just about going out there and executing,” he said. “I think just continuing when Josh or Davis [Webb] is in there, during practice, continuing to get the mental reps that I need.”