Now what? At 0-9, it can still get worse for skidding Jets
NEW YORK (AP) » The New York Jets already have set a new low for the franchise. The scary thing is, it can get a lot worse.
They’re 0- 9 for the first time in team history, a dubious distinction that has them hurtling toward the unthinkable: a winless season.
For three quarters Monday night, it appeared Adam Gase’s group was going to actually pull off a victory. But a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter evaporated — along with the Jets’ hopes for a win — with New England kicking a field goal as time expired to send New York to a 30-27 loss.
And keeping 0-16 a strong possibility.
“There are seven weeks left in the National Football League season, so if you don’t come towork ready to go, this league will make that very long and very tough for you to survive,” said quarterback
Joe Flacco, who started Monday for the injured Sam Darnold.
“So we have to keep our heads up and play this thing out the only way we know how.”
The problem, though, is the Jets have shown only that they know how to lose.
Despite a mostly solid performance against the Patriots, Gase’s offense has struggledmightily formost of the seasonwhile ranking last in the NFL in several key statistical categories. Gregg Williams’ defense also has been inconsistent, with penalties and missed assignments keeping drives alive in key spots.
That all has even the most loyal of Jets fans stuck facing a strange dilemma:
Do they root for a win in the final seven games to end themisery and the potential humiliation of joining the 2008 Lions and 2017 Browns as the only 0-16 teams in NFL history?
Or do they simply keep rooting for more losses so they assure themselves the No. 1 pick — and likely Clemson quar terback Trevor Lawrence — in the draft next April?
“It is frustrating,” defensive lineman Folorunso Fatukasi said. “But we’ve still got a lot more work to do and guys are going to make sure that we’re encouraged to get this thing turned around somehow.” WHAT’S WORKING
Not a lot. And that should be obvious, given the team’s record. But the Jets’ kicking is one area that has been a bright spot.