The Jets’ Defense Deserves An Apology
After seeing both the Dolphins and Bills lose on Sunday, the Jets had a chance to put themselves a half-game out of first place in the AFC East with a win on Monday night. Unfortunately, New York had its three-game winning streak snapped after losing to the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 27-6.
Doing All That They Can
The Jets' defense claimed its latest victim last night, holding Chargers QB Justin Herbert to a season-low 65.4 passer rating. Herbert joins a list of quarterbacks consisting of Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Jalen Hurts who Gang Green has been able to slow down so far this season. Unfortunately, New York did not get the outcome that they had hoped for, but the defense is the last place to point the finger at.
If you had told me that the Jets held the Chargers to under 200 yards of total offense and Herbert finished with the numbers that he did, I’d assume that New York would have been in this game until the very end. Instead, they lost by three scores. Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed handled business as usual, while the Jets’ pass rush was out for blood. More specifically, Bryce Huff and Jermaine Johnson stood out once again.
While the Chargers ended up with a team total of 27 points, the Jets’ defense was really only responsible for about 13 of them. A punt-return touchdown given up early in the game, along with one of Zach Wilson’s two lost fumbles that gave the Chargers the ball at the Jets’ goalline, ultimately contributed to 14 points on the scoreboard for Los Angeles.
The defense did all that they could in this one performing similarly to how they produced in games against the Patriots and Giants. Along with last night, New York is now 1-2 in these matchups and could easily be 0-3 if it wasn't for a little luck at the end of the Giants game.
The Jets are currently ranked as the league’s 9th-best defense in terms of yards and 8th-best in terms of points allowed. However, this defense is in for a long second half unless the offense can start finding ways to hold their own.
Jets Are An Offensive Embarrassment
After barely squeaking by the Giants, all of my worst fears became a reality last night after seeing much of the same ineptitude offensively. I said last week that consistency from the offense over the next few games would be the biggest indicator when taking this team seriously or not in playoff conversations. Well, the offense was consistent yesterday, consistently bad.
New York was only able to put up six points, allowing eight sacks, and was an abysmal 3/17 on third down. Everyone took a turn contributing to the lack of offense last night whether it was Zach Wilson not playing well, the play-calling itself, a damaged offensive line, as well as fumbling and committing foolish penalties that just killed drives.
When looking at these factors, the biggest points of emphasis to blame are on the coaching staff and Zach Wilson. The penalties last night were just inexcusable and added to the fact that the Jets just kept shooting themselves in the foot. Every time they seemed to have something going, either a penalty or a lost fumble ended any chances of the Jets scoring. Saleh and Hackett are going to have to figure things out fast before their seats begin to heat up again like they did after the Patriots game earlier this season.
New York’s third-year quarterback clearly still has a lot of issues that need to be worked on if he’s going to have any sort of career in the NFL. He continues to show each week that he has no awareness in the pocket and holds on to the ball for way too long. We’ve also seen him have no situational awareness at times, along with his inability to read the field.
If the Jets can’t make it work with Zach then it would be in their best interest to just remove him from the equation. Wilson did have an improved three-game stretch before the bye week but that’s not saying much seeing as anything can be viewed as “improved” when you're sitting at rock bottom.
I don’t expect any changes to happen anytime soon, but if this continues, then this coaching staff is going to have to do something and Wilson will be the first to go.
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