Woeful Jets secure a familiar East finish
The Jets are finishing in last place.
Again.
It’s now official: New York will end the season alone at the bottom of the AFC East. The Jets were locked into that spot Sunday, their 31-24 loss to Miami sending them to 3-11 on the season and four games behind the Dolphins in the standings with only three contests remaining.
This will be the fifth time in the last six seasons that the Jets finish last in their division. The only other team on such a dismal pace is Jacksonville, which lost to Houston to fall to 2-12 and into last place in the AFC South, now well on its way to a fifth last-place finish in that six-year span.
The Jets’ last offensive play of the game Sunday was a microcosm of the season: They needed 10 yards to keep the drive alive, and got 9. A couple kneel-downs by Miami later, it was over.
It can’t be a surprise that the latest rebuilding project for the Jets wasn’t a speedy mission for firstyear coach Robert Saleh.
Saleh’s is the fourth regime the Jets have tried during their current playoff drought, which is now up to 11 seasons and counting. NEWTON EXTENDS RUN >> Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton scored on a 4-yard run in the second quarter of Sunday’s 31-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills to extend his streak to five straight games with a rushing touchdown.
Newton joined Kyler Murray in becoming the only two QBs in the Super Bowl era to score TDs rushing in five consecutive games. Murray set the record last season.
Newton has scored in each of his five games since signing with Carolina.
NO KICKS FOR PANTHERS >> Struggling Carolina (59), en route to its fourth straight loss, was dealt a blow a little over an hour before kickoff when kicker Zane Gonzalez had to be helped off the field after hurting his quadriceps.
The injury left Carolina minus a real kicker. The Panthers passed up a fieldgoal attempt and failed to convert fourth-and-9 from Buffalo’s 24 to end their second possession. Carolina converted one of two 2-point attempts. FORMER BILLS STAR JACOBS DIES >> Former Bills linebacker Harry Jacobs, who was a key member of Buffalo’s 1964 and ’65 AFL champion teams, died on Friday. He was 84.
Jacobs was battling numerous illnesses and living in a nursing home just outside of Buffalo.
He played for the Bills from 1963 to 1969. He began his career with the Boston Patriots in 1960 and finished with the New Orleans Saints in 1970. Alongside fellow linebackers Mike Stratton and John Tracey, Jacobs helped solidify a dominant Bills defense that allowed the fewest points in the AFL in 1964, 1965 and 1966, and shut out the highscoring San Diego Chargers in the 1965 AFL Championship Game.
From Canton, Ohio, he spent his college career playing at Bradley University in Illinois.