Jets reach new heights of unwatchability, badness with embarrassing 31-6 loss to Eagles
It was a bad, bad, bad day for the New York Jets.
They faced the Philadelphia Eagles and lost in every conceivable sense of the word. It wasn’t just the score (they lost 31-6), but everywhere else it counts.
The Eagles held the Jets to just 128 total yards and 61 passing yards. (The Eagles had 265 total yards with 181 passing.) Philly ran all over substitute quarterback Luke Falk, more than tripling its sack total. The Eagles sacked Falk 10 times, after coming in with just three over four games. The Eagles had more sacks than the Jets had points! Woof.
Falk also threw two interceptions, while Eagles QB Carson Wentz threw zero.
But it wasn’t all bad! The Jets also broke a few of football’s saddest streaks: consecutive non-converted third downs, and consecutive possessions without scoring a point.
The Jets snap a streak of 20 third-down failures. Baby steps. #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) October 6, 2019
Jets had 39 consecutive drives without an offensive TD until the Smith score.
It also snapped stretch of 31 consecutive drives without a point.— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) October 6, 2019
Ending those streaks? Good! Starting those streaks to begin with? Very bad!
The Jets’ fourth-quarter touchdown was just their second offensive touchdown of the season. Coming into Sunday, they had more defensive touchdowns than offensive TDs, which put them in an exclusive club.
The Jets are the first team since the 1997 Colts with more defensive TD than offensive TD through the first three games of a season, per Elias. The last team with more def TD than off TD through four games was the 1990 Steelers. #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) October 6, 2019
There are plenty of reasons the Jets are bad and somehow getting badder, but it doesn’t seem like head coach Adam Gase is helping. In fact, he seems to be actively making it worse. Here’s one example: QB Sam Darnold, who is recovering from mono, wasn’t ruled out until Friday, and Gase told reporters that the team had prepared for both Darnold and Falk starting in practice. It turns out that Darnold got all the first-team reps on Wednesday and Thursday, and Falk got none.
The #Jets gave Sam Darnold all the reps with the starters last week, leaving Luke Falk in a tough spot once again, this time against the #Eagles. pic.twitter.com/cTssgDA6yk
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 6, 2019
That’s a mind-blowing lack of foresight, no matter how “smart” the Jets think Falk is. When you take Falk’s lack of preparedness — which was engineered by Gase — and combine it with Gase’s blundering play-calling, you get a game like Sunday’s, which continued the Jets’ years-long descent into suckitude and irrelevance.
If Jets lose today, they'll be 1-13 in their last 14 games and 14-39 since they went to Buffalo with a chance to make the playoffs in Week 17 of the 2015 season.
— Darryl Slater (@DarrylSlater) October 6, 2019
If Darnold comes back in Week 6, things might get better for the Jets. Who knows how long Gase will last. If he can’t find a way to prepare his team better so it can avoid embarrassments like Sunday’s, it might not be for much longer.
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