Jets fall to 0-9 in crushing fashion
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – For once, the Jets were on the verge of making the Patriots the punchline in front of a national television audience.
The Jets were in full control. For three-and-a-half quarters the only winless team in football had dominated the team that has tormented them for most of the past 20 years. They were on the verge of dragging a desperate New England squad into the cellar of football irrelevance with them.
Then it happened. When it mattered the most, the Jets did what they do best. They found a way to lose.
The Jets blew a 10-point lead in the final six-plus minutes of the fourth quarter Monday night, falling to the Patriots 3027 at MetLife Stadium. Former Jets kicker Nick Folk delivered the knockout blow, a 51-yard field goal as time expired.
The Patriots sprinted to midfield, dancing and jumping as their celebratory screams reverberated throughout the massive empty stadium. Jets players and coaches walked around them, with the look of a dazed boxer trying to figure out what just happened.
“They played their ass off,” Jets coach Adam Gase said of his players. “Just not finding ways to win.”
The Jets’ history is filled with appalling, soul-crushing moments like the one seen Monday night. But this year’s team has lost like no other before it.
The Jets are now 0-9 for the first time in franchise history and have lost nine straight games in a single season for the first time ever. This was also the Jets’ ninth straight loss to the Patriots – they haven’t beat them since December 2015 – their longest stretch of futility ever against their New England enemies.
For so much of Monday night, it felt like this one would end differently.
Backup quarterback Joe Flacco, filling in for injured starter Sam Darnold, played a remarkable game. He completed 18 of 25 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns.
And the Jets, who had scored more than 20 points only once this season, took a 27-17 lead in the final minute of the third quarter when Flacco found receiver Breshad Perriman for their second TD connection of the game. Then it all went so, so wrong. The Jets have had more costly losses to the Patriots – at 0-8, a win wasn’t going to save their season.
And they’ve certainly had more embarrassing ones – there was no “butt fumble” or “seeing ghosts” moments on this night.
But this was an especially cruel way to lose. After two months of humiliation, the Jets finally were putting it all together. Until they weren’t.
“There are obviously a lot of emotions right now in the locker room,” Flacco said. “And guys are fighting really, really hard to go out there and get wins. We want to do it for each other and we just haven’t been able to do it.”