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LAS VEGAS – The New York Jets’ season has turned into a game of Mad Libs. Maybe change a few nouns or adjectives here and there, but in the end the story is still the same.
Defense plays well. The offense can’t finish the drive. The offense doesn’t come in the end zone. Zach Wilson makes some confusing decisions. Greg Zuerlein has a busy day, kicking field goals as his only source of offense. Thomas Morstead is having a busy day punting, as the offense can’t move the ball consistently. The penalty ends the drive. The defense does its job. The Jets are still in the game at the end. Then it was over.
Robert Saleh talked about his self-inflicted injuries in the post-game press conference, but he thinks the Jets are close. He won’t blame the quarterback or the offensive coordinator. Defensive players bite their tongues and talk about how the team would win if they could only score points themselves, or hold their opponents to zero points instead of 3, 6, 10, or 16. Aggressive players are at a loss for words.
Rinse, repeat. It’s all the same — and Saleh has no desire to make the kind of change that could jolt the offense into efficiency. He will not bench Wilson. He won’t take away play-calling from offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The Jets lost 16-12 on Sunday to the Raiders, a team so dysfunctional it fired its head coach, general manager and offensive coordinator a few weeks ago, playing against one of the worst defenses in the league and a fourth-round starting quarterback. With the newbie of. , And it was the same as it was before.
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Jets fall to Raiders, Zach Wilson throws costly INT
If Saleh isn’t taking over the reins of the Jets’ offense and doing what he needs to do to fix it before the season ends — another year without the playoffs, as has happened before — then maybe Players will have to take control of the situation themselves.
“They asked me today: Are you ready to talk to the media?” tight end Tyler Conklin said after the game. “I said, yes, I will speak, but what do you guys expect me to say? That’s the thing, it’s a broken record at this point. We have to find out. We can’t go out here and do this again and again. Our team was worn down, frustrating the defense. I wish I had answers to (reporters’) questions about why we couldn’t score in the red zone, why we got so many penalties, all of that stuff, but there’s really no good answers to give you guys, Apart from this we have to do this. Understand this properly.
The Jets made all field goals on their first three drives on Sunday night. They then had five consecutive drives, followed by another field goal, an interception by Wilson and then time expired on the final drive. The Jets have not scored a touchdown in 11 quarters. He has scored 13 offensive touchdowns in nine games. Wilson has thrown five touchdown passes in his last five games to tie for another season. For comparison, Josh Dobbs has six touchdowns in two games in the 12 days since being traded to the Vikings. At the end of Sunday’s game, the Jets had five punts, four field goals, eight penalties, 14 first downs and zero touchdowns. Five of these first downs came on the final two drives of the game.
“It’s disappointing,” running back Bryce Hall said. “I’ve been saying this since week one.”
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson looked emotionally distraught after the game, on the verge of tears.
“I don’t know what you all want me to say,” Wilson said. “I’m tired of this, man. I want to play better. Aggressive wants to play better. Every week we are trying to make it happen. It’s disturbing.”
This is as disappointed as I’ve seen Garrett Wilson after a loss. pic.twitter.com/80rnhVV9Cb
– Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) 13 November 2023
The first words out of Saleh’s mouth at the post-game press conference were the same ones he has been saying every week, win or lose. Everyone wants to know why their offense has gotten worse since last year, when they parted ways with Mike LaFleur as their offensive coordinator and revamped their offensive coaching staff.
He has made many excuses. The Jets haven’t been able to find a solution.
“The hard part for me is when I’m watching the game — it’s easy to see the play-caller, the head coach, the quarterback,” Saleh said. “But we are getting the ball rolling. Today we got the ball rolling. But it’s just penalties, penalties on the O-line, penalties on the tight end, penalties on the running back. Just stupid, stupid things that we need to clean up otherwise it’s not going to change. But we can clean it up and at least give ourselves a chance to play clean football, see what it looks like. “I still believe it will look great.”
The Jets got into the red zone once on Sunday, and they didn’t convert. That’s the expectation right now for the NFL’s worst red-zone offense. But the defense did its job again, and another impressive performance went in vain. The Raiders were 5 of 15 on third down, quarterback Aidan O’Connell threw for 153 yards and the Jets held star wide receiver Davante Adams without a catch in the second half. He forced two turnovers, including a forced fumble late in the fourth quarter to stop a potential Raiders scoring drive. Then Zach Wilson turned right and passed it back to him when he telegraphed a pass to wide receiver Allen Lazard, allowing linebacker Robert Spillane to jump in front of him for the game-deciding interception.
Spillane with the pick!!!!#NYJvsLV , 📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/JNj1wO8bpE
– Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) 13 November 2023
Wilson wasn’t the problem on Sunday, but he remains a problem. Wilson threw for 263 yards, but 92 yards came on the final two drives. Play-calling didn’t do him any favors – at times, it seemed like Hackett was afraid to let Wilson do anything but hand it off or check it off. Breece Hall had 47 yards on three catches, but was not targeted until the fourth quarter, even though he is the Jets’ most dynamic player with the ball in his hands.
“This is something we definitely need to look at,” Saleh said.
The Jets defense – which ranks third in the NFL in points added expected, according to TruMedia, and seventh in points allowed – is being held to an impossible standard. If it gives up any points, or doesn’t score any points of its own, the Jets will likely lose. They also know this. This is not a 4-5 team defense. This is a playoff-caliber defense stuck with a mediocre, sophomore offense.
“I wouldn’t say it’s surprising,” cornerback Sauce Gardner said of the 4-5 record. “We are not playing filler football. This is just a fact. There is no surprise in this.”
Defenses know there is no margin for error in an offense played this way.
“Yeah, but that’s how we’re trained,” Gardner said. “The coaching is that if they can’t score, they can’t win. When you adopt him, we always keep him on us.”
Coach Saleh on QB Zach Wilson’s performance. pic.twitter.com/HZxPShxYj6
– New York Jets (@nyjets) 13 November 2023
Saleh may not want to make any changes, but it seems the players are ready for it. This week, it may come in the form of a “players only” meeting, a cliché for teams that find themselves in a tough spot.
“Yeah, it’s all on the table,” Garrett Wilson said. “We are trying to find out. I can see something like this coming to an end soon because it’s bound to happen. I’m going to take it upon myself. We have some guys in this locker room that know how to lead and we’ll see what it’s like making the trip back to New York, what we talked about. We have to do something.”
Conklin took it further.
“We’re definitely at the point where something has to be done,” Conklin said. “We can’t go next week and throw the ball out there and expect it to get better. I don’t know what we have to do, but we have to do something this week to get on the same page.”
It is now the 11th week. The Jets have played nine games. Crime is worse now than ever. This should be a playoff team. Instead, the Jets are losing to the Raiders, and barely beating the Giants.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Conklin said.
(Photo of Garrett Wilson and Nate Hobbs: Sean M. Hafey/Getty Images)
