Is there a more ‘hit-or-miss’ day of the week than Sunday? For a slim part of the year, they’re great for football, food and family. But in other ways, they’re dreadful. Your long awaited packages won’t come, Chick-Fil-A won’t whip you up a tender chicken sandwich, and most recently, the Jets don’t show up to play.
That has certainly been the case these past two weeks, and the unfortunate trend is on pace to continue through the remainder of 2017. With the Jets limited on offense with Bryce Petty at the helm, and a two more tough matchups against Los Angeles and New England, the Jets are looking more deflated than a Tom Brady football.
The Mailman Mentality
Up until Week 14, the Jets were laser-focused. The playoffs were an attainable feat, and Todd Bowles was making a strong case for “Coach of the Year.” But the team’s road woes caught up with them quick as they failed to put up any points against Denver, and then choked against New Orleans. In simple terms, the Jets haven’t been able to deliver, thus embracing the mailman mentality.
I can’t lie, I just made that up, and if someone else has already coined the term, apologies. However, it only seems fitting for the Jets and the disparaging end of the year collapse.
While sure, they put up 19 points against the surging Saints, not a lot of credit can be given to the offense. Petty was a lousy 19/39 for a quiet 179 yards, a touchdown and two picks. The leading receiver was rookie running back Elijah McGuire, who had three receptions for 48 yards and a touchdown. Robby Anderson, Jermaine Kearse and Austin Seferian-Jenkins all kept quiet again, with only 81 receiving yards among them. Where the heck was the offensive package we’ve had delivered to us all year long?
To this point, it has been the #Jets best overall defensive game (no coincidence without Mo Wilkerson) but offense is completely anemic. Petty is wildly overmatched so far
— Joe Caporoso (@JCaporoso) December 17, 2017
Who Takes the Blame?
Well, the blame can be split a few different ways. Firstly, and most obviously, some of it falls on Petty. He continued to make plenty of ill-advised throws which were either off target or unexpected by the receiver. He also was too cautious about throwing it deep. Anderson couldn’t exploit the Saints deep secondary without Petty throwing a few bombs his way. Instead, Petty played the short yardage game, and that didn’t work out too well.
In that regard, some of the blame also has to fall on the offensive line. Again, they were horrendous. While they only allowed one sack on the day, they couldn’t give Petty a lot of room to work with. He either remained under high pressure in the pocket, or when he scrambled, there wasn’t much room to run.
And lastly, it falls on OC John Morton. Jets offensive play calling seems too predictable. Run, run, pass. Run, run, pass. Oh! And…run, run, pass. It was no wonder why the Jets struggled to move the ball, there was no mismatch in the offensive game plan. The Saints were quickly able to adjust, and the Jets offense immediately became stagnant, leaving it up to their defense to keep them in the game.
Expedited Shipping Please
With the Jets going up against two more offensive work horses in the Chargers and Patriots in Week 16 and 17 respectively, we can only hope that the suffering becomes minuscule. Chances are that the Jets fail to deliver again in these games, especially with the Petty getting another start, and Morton’s playbook unlikely to see any revisions. The aroma of it all brings a scent that smells like 2018. Sure, the Jets want to finish strong, especially with a multitude of jobs on the line, but it looks as though this team will not truly deliver until 2018. In that case, I’ll pay the extra for expedited shipping of the 2018 season.
– Kyle Hirshkind is the Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage Jets and covers the New York Jets. Like and follow on Follow @kylehirshkind Follow @FPC_Jets
