QB White, safety Maye injured as Gang Green's momentum fades
INDIANAPOLIS » It was fun while it lasted.
Not only did the good feelings that came from Sunday’s big Jets win over the Cincinnati Bengals quickly vanish, but unfortunately, so too did the man who helped deliver most of them.
Quarterback Mike White suffered a game-ending forearm injury on the second drive of the game — one that ended in a touchdown — and while backup Josh Johnson played well, it simply wasn’t enough to overcome a porous display by the defense in a nationally televised 45-30 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday Night Football.
Carson Wentz led the Colts to touchdowns on six of their first seven drives — the only time they didn’t find the end zone was when the Jets defense came up with a goal line stop on Indianapolis’ first drive of the second half, already up 28-10 — and ultimately helped lead his team to a whopping 532 total yards against a defense that now seems like it will be without safety Marcus Maye, who is lost for the season with an apparent Achilles injury that head coach Robert Saleh said doesn’t look good.
“It’s huge. Marcus is, you look at that secondary, he’s the vet,” Saleh said. “You’ve got a lot of second year and first year players on that back end, and Marcus is kind of that settling force back there and obviously a settling force back there. But, I’m more concerned for Marcus than I am what we’ll do defensively to try to fill that void. He’s a fantastic young man, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. I’m sick for him.”
A Jets defense which will now be without Maye, who was seen leaving the stadium in a walking boot and using crutches, has now allowed 99 points and nearly 1,100 total yards in their last two road games that are sandwiched around an apparent home anomaly against the Bengals — including a whopping 54 and 551, respectively, to the New England Patriots in Foxboro just two weeks ago — and were gashed for big gains early and often on Thursday, including 78-yard touchdown run for Jonathan Taylor in which he was untouched.
“Obviously, it wasn’t good enough, especially when a team runs the ball the way they did,” Saleh said of his team’s defense, which allowed 260 yards on the ground.
“We knew that they were going to try to get their run game started with the way they’ve been talking all week about getting (Taylor) going again. They’ve got an unbelievable offensive line, and obviously we weren’t up to the task.”
Linebacker C.J. Mosley echoed similar sentiments.
“They just executed better than we did,” he said. “They got the blocks that they needed, they got the gaps that they needed, their running backs ran hard and they kept running hard…we pride ourselves in stopping the run game, and we knew going into this that if we didn’t stop the run game, it was going to be a night like that we had. It’s hard to give up 260 rushing yards and win the game, that’s probably going to be impossible to do unless you get turnovers, which we didn’t get.”
As for White, he couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly when he suffered the injury that took him out midway through the first quarter after rookie receiver Elijah Moore hauled in his first career NFL touchdown catch, but said that he was unable to grip the ball after experiencing numbness in several fingers on his throwing hand.
“I couldn’t aggressively grip the ball enough to be out there and help my team,” said White, who completed seven of his 11 pass attempts for 95 yards, that one touchdown and no interceptions.
“Throughout the course of the game, we kept trying different things; compression sleeve, heat, all that good stuff and we tried to throw at half time. It progressively got better throughout the game, it feels better now but just during the course of the game, I just couldn’t get enough effectiveness with my grip and power to be able to help the team.”
Johnson, the team’s journeyman 35-year-old backup who Saleh says got the nod to dress in Thursday night’s game over recently re-acquired Joe Flacco due to the short week of preparation, became only the fifth quarterback in the last 30 years to not start a game and still throw for over 300 yards; he went 27-for-41 for 317 yards, three touchdowns and a latefourth interception in relief of White, and conceivably could be an option to start next Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills if White can’t fully recover in time, Flacco isn’t an option yet or rookie Zach Wilson’s PCL sprain hasn’t fully healed.