ALL THE RAGE
Gang Green’s frustrations reach boiling point amid lost season
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The scenes around the quiet visitors’ locker room late Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium painted a portrait of a team that has come to the sobering realization all hope for a successful season has expired.
Jamal Adams, the emotionally combustible second-year safety, stood motionless, facing his locker with a towel around his waist and one around his neck, gripping the walls and looking like he wanted to ransack the entire room in a rage.
Guard Brian Winters, wearing a faraway stare of utter despair and disgust, sat on the bench in front of his locker in a state of undress, half in his uniform and half out, long after teammates around him had showered and changed into street clothes.
Linebacker Darron Lee had a scowl on his face and was shaking his head as he swiftly left the locker room.
The Jets are 3-6 after Sunday’s 13-6 loss to the Dolphins that looked a lot more like a pillow fight than an NFL football game — a game that set offensive football back generations.
Their third consecutive loss came to a Dolphins team that entered the day having lost four of its past five games.
Their offense scored six points against a Dolphins defense that had allowed an average of 33.4 points in that five-game span.
They lost to a Miami team that
produced a total of seven first downs in the game with a backup quarterback, Brock Osweiler, throwing for all of 139 yards. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers sometimes produce seven first downs in a single offensive possession.
It didn’t help that the Jets’ prized rookie quarterback, Sam Darnold, delivered his worst performance as a pro, throwing four interceptions, the second of which was returned by Dolphins rookie linebacker Jerome Baker for the game’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Yes, it’s bad for the Jets right now. So bad they are anything but a lock at home next Sunday to beat a 2-7 Bills team that lost 41-9 to the Bears on Sunday in Buffalo.
The more the Jets stagger down this path of hopelessness, the more apparent it seems head coach Todd Bowles will be replaced after this season, four years in with no playoff appearances.
“I’m pissed off,” Adams said once he finally dressed and gathered his emotions. “I’m sick of los-
ing. Enough is enough. I’m fed up with losing. I don’t know what else to say. It’s not Coach Bowles’ fault. He takes a lot of … things, but it’s not his fault.”
But yes, it is Bowles’ fault — at least in part. This team has not — and is not — getting better under his watch.
A week ago in Chicago, the Jets were without their two starting receivers (Quincy Enunwa and Robby Anderson) and fresh off having lost their most productive running back (Bilal Powell) for the season and had little realistic chance of beating the Bears.
On Sunday, against a Dolphins defense that cannot hold a candle to the one the Jets faced in Chicago, they had Enunwa and Anderson back on the field and also had running back Elijah McGuire. And their offense was as equally inept in Miami as it was in Chicago.
Bowles, too, curiously waited until it was too late to replace center Spencer Long on Sunday as his shotgun snaps to Darnold were more errant than a wild baseball pitcher who had lost the plate.
There was a clear undercurrent inside the losing locker room after the game of some potential friction between the defensive players, who had just stifled the Dolphins offense, and the offensive players who were, well, offensive.
Left tackle Kelvin Beachum made it a point to start his postgame interview this way: “Can I say something? First and foremost, I think our defense played extremely well today. To give up six points … our defense balled out. One of the best defensive performances I’ve ever been a part of. Kudos to our defense. We didn’t deliver for them. This game is on us.”
To a man, every offensive player sounded like a guilty spouse who had been cheating on his significant other and was hoping to save the marriage.
“My confidence is high on this team,” Adams said. “It doesn’t matter who had the bad game. It’s a 53-man roster and we didn’t come to play. We didn’t finish the ballgame, and it’s the same, same, same stuff. It’s frustrating. Enough is enough.”
Adams insisted the team is “still tight,” adding that any in-house fracturing “is not going to happen.”
“We got to find an answer,” Anderson said. “It’s got to change. It’s my third year here. I understand the emphasis on restructure [and] rebuild, but I think everybody’s tired of that. I think that that’s an excuse. We’ve got to challenge ourselves and improve and make it happen. It’s professional football.”