The Jets went to Denver feeling pretty good about themselves, they wound up leaving a crushed team after an embarrassing performance.
In the immortal words of Jim Mora, “playoffs?”, not this team.
Not the Jets, not this season. Any talk of a surprise appearance in the postseason went up into the Mile-High air with a brutal 23-0 loss to the Broncos, Sunday afternoon at Sports Authority Field.
The chances of the Jets actually reaching the playoffs were already remote, but they’ve deserved credit for staying in the hunt this long.
This week, however, they did the most to almost wipe away any good standing with the fans. It was ugly from start to finish against the Broncos.
How ugly was it?
There were two first half turnovers by quarterback Josh McCown, the defense couldn’t stop the Broncos on third down, and head coach Todd Bowles and his staff couldn’t stop the bleeding.
The Jets were shut out for the first time since 2014. The offense couldn’t get anything going, they accumulated only 100 total yards of offense.
To put that into perspective, the Jets racked up 488 total yards in their win over Kansas City Chiefs last week. The offense didn’t show up against Denver, that’s the bottom line.
It was, by far, the worst loss of the season for the Jets. But, the news didn’t get any better afterwards.
McCown took a beating throughout the game. In the first half, he had to miss a few plays with a back injury. In the third quarter, however, McCown left the game again, for good, with an injury to his left hand.
Bowles announced McCown broke his left hand, his status for the remainder of the season is currently unknown. But, fans should get ready to see more Bryce Petty.
McCown was emotional afterwards and it’s tough to think the 38-year old quarterback could be done for the season. It’s even tougher to think this is the way his season could end for him, with the Jets going out the way they did.
Bowles has done a terrific job of keeping the Jets afloat this season. Their record dropped to 5-8, but those five wins is still two or three more than most thought they’d get.
But this week wasn’t one of his better ones. The Jets were outcoached and outplayed by a team which had previously lost eight games in a row.
Bowles also saying afterwards this game was “not a setback, it’s a loss” was a head scratcher.
Think back to last month when the Jets lost in Tampa, 10 days after a big win over the Buffalo Bills. This week felt the same as it did then. They had an opportunity to build off a win against a good, although struggling, Kansas City team. This wasn’t a game they should’ve loss. It was another letdown.
A setback is defined as a reversal or check in progress, it certainly seemed as if the Jets, again, took two steps backwards after feeling so good about the step they just took forward against the Chiefs.
How the Jets finish up this season will be intriguing to watch, especially if they’ll have to go the rest of the way without McCown.
Progress has been the keyword with this team. So, does one game wipe away all of the good the Jets have presented? Not necessarily, but, if they’re not careful, it could trigger a chain reaction which ultimately lead right back to the evaluation of their head coach.