NOBODY’S 0-FER VS. THIS GANG!
Once again, Jets give life to winless team
CINCINNATI — Just when you thought the Jets might actually be better than the NFL’s bottom feeders, Adam Gase made an emphatic case that his team deserves a spot on the Mount Rushmore of Dreck.
Gang Green’s Era of Good Feelings lasted a grand total of three weeks before a humiliating 22-6 loss to the previously winless Bengals on Sunday. The Jets made history along this journey of junk by becoming the first team ever to lose twice in the same season to opponents that were 0-7 or worse.
Nearly a month after Gase suffered the indignity of losing to the 0-7 Dolphins, he watched a second rookie coach on the other sideline (Zac Taylor) get a celebratory Gatorade bath. Pathetic.
“You can’t look at the record, man,” said star safety Jamal Ad- ams, who left in a walking boot after suffering a foot injury. “That’s a good group over there. They didn’t put it together. Obviously, their record was 0-andwhatever.”
Well, it’s one-and-whatever (111, if you care) now thanks to the Jets’ smorgasbord of slop.
Gang Green was an undisciplined, disjointed outfit following a flawed plan. Poor logic and poor execution were the soundtrack to this miserable defeat that will go down in the annals. It had been 39 years since the last time this franchise lost to a team that was 0-10 or worse. On that day, the 0-14 Saints got the last laugh.
On this day, a team that was circling the drain in too many offensive and defensive statistical categories to count beat the Jets fair and square.
Note to the playoff dreamers: Wake up. That dream is dead.
“It sucks because we lost to Miami earlier this year when they were winless as well,” defensive lineman Henry Anderson said. “You don’t like to be that team that gives a team their first win of the season. It sucks.”
When it was over, Gase had good reason to be frustrated at the penalties (10 for 106 yards) and dropped passes (at least four, including three on the opening drive).
But he predictably didn’t take responsibility for an awful plan to air it out against the league’s worst run defense that had been allowing more than 166 yards on the ground. Gase inexplicably had a 3:1 pass-run ratio in the first half before finishing with 54 called passes and just 15 runs.
Sam Darnold (28for-48, 239 yards, 71.4 passer rating) was chucking it all over the field in the first half even though it was a one-possession game until just more than minute left before halftime. Gase curiously dialed up 28 passes and only nine runs before halftime to help dig a 17-6 hole.
“That’s just how the game was going,” Gase said.
Of course, the game was going that way because of Gase’s odd choice not to lean on Le’Veon Bell, who had just five carries for 22 yards in the first half, in a onepossession game.
When asked to expound, Gase quipped, “That’s what I called.” Well, he called a terrible game. The notion of not running against Cincinnati’s porous front is laughable on a million levels. These are games when the Jets needed to feature Bell, who could have carved up this swiss-cheese unit if Gase only gave him the chance. Bell insisted that he was “not surprised” that he wasn’t used more often early, but the thought bubble above his head told a different story.
“I feel like we definitely had something going with the running game,” Darnold said. “But with that being said… we’ve got to convert more third downs. So, the more opportunities we get on the field, the more opportunities we get to call different run plays.”
How can you not use such a dynamic weapon like Bell in this matchup?
The Jets finished with 62 rushing yards… or 104 less than what the Bengals had given up on average through 11 games. Bell had 32 rushing yards.
It’s maddening.
“We did a good job running the ball,” left tackle Kelvin Beachum said. “I felt that we had a good plan coming into the game. At the end of the day, we have to go and execute what’s called. But looking back at it, we just got to find a way to have a couple more explosive runs.”
The football gods seemingly handed the Jets a de facto second bye against this tomato can, but the tryptophan evidently was still in Gang Green’s system.
How could a team that scored 34 points for three consecutive games lay an egg to the league’s only winless club? How could Gase’s offense not even get into the red zone once?
Maybe the answer isn’t that difficult to uncover. Maybe the past few weeks for Gase’s team were a mirage. Maybe its success was destined to be fleeting.
“We didn’t expect…” Gase said. “We didn’t come here to lose.”
Maybe the Jets just stink.