For the most part, the best teams in the NFL have balance. It’s important to have more than one way to win a game. There will be weeks where your offense is down. In cases like that, it’s important to have a defense
that can pick up the slack and carry you to victory. In a game where the defense is struggling, a good offense can win a shootout.
The inverse can also be true. On truly bad teams even when one unit plays surprisingly a surprisingly strong game, the other unit can be weak enough to produce a loss.
It was true in Week 1 when a dazzling Jets offense wasn’t enough to overcome an awful defense. It was again the case yesterday in London as the Jets wasted a stellar defensive effort because the offense couldn’t function on a basic level.
Steve Wilks’ defense had been much-maligned through the first five weeks of the season and rightly so. The Jets defense was a mess. It found some answers in Week 6, though. There were personnel changes. Jermaine Johnson returned from an ankle injury that had kept him out for three games. Malachi Moore and Jarvis Brownlee also took bigger roles. There also seemed to be some changes to philosophy. At least by my eyeball test, it seemed like the Jets took on more of a bend but don’t break approach. Either way, it’s tough to argue with the results. The defense allowed only 13 points and put 2 on the board with a safety forced on an end zone hold (drawn by lighting rod for criticism Micheal Clemons no less).
It didn’t matter because of how bad the Jets offense was. The unit produced only three field goals. All three scoring drives were set up by short fields.
Most of the blame will correctly fall on the shoulders of Justin Fields. It was another distressingly bad performance by the quarterback. Fields completed 9 of 17 passes for only 45 yards. He took an incredible 9 sacks. And while a big sack day typically generates a lot of criticism of the offensive line, it is clear that Fields played a major hand in his own demise.
Fields has always flashed some ability to play at a high level through his career. Unfortunately those moments have been too infrequent. They have also been accompanied by low moments that have come too often and have been really low.
When the Jets signed Fields, the hope was that he could be developed to flash the high end stuff on a more frequent basis and reduce the frequency and depth of his bad games.
Unfortunately through six weeks it seems like Fields has regressed. The quarterback he was in Chicago wasn’t good enough, but he is playing at a lower level in New York. His current QBR of 36.4 is significantly lower than the 46.9 he posted in 2023, the year that convinced the Bears to give up on him.
Perhaps most disturbing is how little of an impact Fields is making as a runner. That was supposed to be his strongest trait and at least to some extent make up for his shortcomings as a passer. However, Fields has only 57 rushing yards on 14 attempts over the last two weeks.
The Jets offense has stalled because of Fields’ issues. There are of course other problems. We could discuss the wide receiver room which is perhaps the worst I have ever seen an NFL front office construct. I take Garrett Wilson out of the mix because he was inherited from the previous regime. The rest of the group is comprised of veterans pedestrian career production and a low level prospect whose only plus attribute is speed. Maybe other groups have performed as poorly, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a team put a group on the field with such a lack of even theoretical upside before.
Patrick Surtain II has been a notoriously difficult matchup for Wilson through his career, and we saw how well the offense functions when Wilson is essentially eliminated. Some of that goes to the receivers.
Make no mistake, though. Most of it goes on Fields.
I’ll also say this. Coaching isn’t helping this team.
I really would like to avoid a scenario where there is a legitimate case to fire Aaron Glenn and this coaching staff after one season. I want Glenn show me something, anything that gives me reason to believe he can fix this team.
A few weeks ago I would have told you there was no chance Glenn would be one and done. Now? Well, I still don’t think it’s likely. However, my confidence keeps dropping every week.
It goes beyond losing. There’s just a lack of professionalism from the coaching staff at the moment. The Jets wasted timeouts before fourth down plays for no reason.
We also must discuss an incomprehensible sequence before the half. The Jets took a major risk running a fake punt on their own side of the field. Had it been stopped, the Broncos would have been in great position for a devastating score right before halftime to go up two scores. Given the state of the Jets’ offense, the game might have been over right there.
The Jets converted. I’ll be honest. I didn’t agree with the fake punt call, but I at least understand the logic of trying to steal an extra possession in a game where the other team is more talented. And sometimes successful trick plays can spark an offense.
What happened? The Jets let the clock run out before even getting to midfield. Garrett Wilson was visibly exasperated by Glenn.
The head coach’s postgame comments didn’t help. Glenn claimed the Jets’ goal was to run out the clock rather than score to keep the ball away from Denver.
What?
You weren’t trying to score in an end of half situation? You took that enormous risk on the fake punt just to play keep away?
We could go on.
The only decision the coaching staff made that I will defend is the call late in the fourth quarter to bypass a 62 yard attempt by Nick Folk on the final drive. I was at the stadium yesterday. I saw Folk warm up. His tries from 57 yards to that end of the field were coming up well short. That kick was beyond his range. This has been talked about a lot online so I feel the need to give the context for that decision.
Beyond that? It’s tough to defend much else this coaching staff does at this point. It’s also tough to defend the quarterback.
It’s tough to win when you are getting such poor performances from your quarterback and head coach.
It can bring a loss even with a surprisingly strong defensive effort.
