Same old song for the Jets, a team stuck on reruns
The Jets lose their fifth consecutive game as their season continues to spiral. Plus, what left is there to say?
What’s Up with the Jets? 🛩️
The Jets lost their fifth consecutive game and fell to the Falcons at home, 13-8 (box)
New York’s offense was unable to score a touchdown for the third time in their last five games – they’ve scored just 10 touchdowns in 12 games all season
QB Tim Boyle struggled, going 14/25 (56 percent) for 148 yards, no touchdowns and an interception before being benched in the third quarter
QB Trevor Siemian become the fourth quarterback to play for the Jets this season, going 5/13 (38.5 percent) for 66 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions and three fumbles (one lost)
WR Xavier Gipson had his best performance on the offensive side of the football, hauling in five catches for 77 yards on the day
The Jets have now had losing streaks of five-plus games in back-to-back seasons, and are 4-14 over their last 18 games dating back to last year
New York is now 24-53 under Joe Douglas as general manager and 15-31 under Robert Saleh as head coach
Play of the Week 📺
It was another miserable performance by the Jets offense, but that is the expected at this point. Early in the game, for once, Nathaniel Hackett actually dialed up a trick play, something that fans of this team have been pounding the table over for months now.
Down 7-2 in the second quarter, the Jets called (and executed!) a flea flicker down the field from Tim Boyle to Xavier Gipson in one of the few exciting plays for this offense all season long. It pushed the ball down the field and opened up a scoring opportunity for this team.
It will surprise no one that the drive ultimately ended in a field goal.
The Jets are a team stuck on repeat ✍️
What is there left to say about the New York Jets, a team that has been stuck in reruns for close to two months, at this point?
Every week it’s the same thing over-and-over again, and for anyone covering this team or simply talking about them it gets harder and harder to come up with anything that hasn’t already been said for weeks on end.
Sunday afternoon’s game vs the Falcons was just the latest chapter in a saga full of repeats for this team. Sure, there was more shuffling at the QB position, but did any of it every look different even for a second? The story was the same it’s been every single week: the defense does what it needs to do, the special teams is fine, the offense is a bumbling mess, and the cameras show a lifeless Robert Saleh who looks like he’d rather be anywhere else on the planet other than the Jets sideline.
There truly is nothing left to talk about with this team. It’s the reason that it’s been more difficult than ever to be a fan of this franchise, and it’s directly why this newsletter wound up having a nearly two-week long unexpected sabbatical. It got to the point where I’d rather spend the time with my family around the Thanksgiving holiday than waste a single second writing the same article for the sixth week in a row.
That being said, there are a lot of you who have supported this newsletter since the day it launched and I do feel that sense of responsibility to keep the content flowing now that we’re back from the long holiday break. But man, if it isn’t going to be rough trying to find new ways of summing up this team over the final five games; yeah, that’s right, there’s still five more weeks of this monstrosity.
The sad reality is that not a single thing is going to change, either. Maybe the defense will start to wear down as we saw in spurts vs the Bills and Dolphins, but ultimately this script is not going to change for the rest of the year. This is an offense and a coaching staff that is completely stuck in the mud, having no answers and at times not even showing an ability to know what the questions even are. Week after week, be prepared to see more of the same.
We’ll have to find new ways to cover this team down the stretch – likely diving in deep on individual performances and narratives vs the actual games themselves, which are all slightly different versions of the same damn font. At some point we can break down topics like Breece Hall’s performance over the last several weeks, which looks like it is beyond just a bad offensive line and teams anticipating the run. Specific breakdowns like that are likely the only thing worth a damn to continue to talk about.
Other than that, though, you’re probably better off watching reruns of ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Friends’ instead of continuing to rewatch “The One Where the Jets Don’t Score A Touchdown” every single week. At least that’ll be entertaining.
Next Week’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Jets (4-8) vs Texans (7-5)
Where: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ
When: Sunday, 1:00 PM EDT
Where to Watch: CBS
Around the NFL 🏁
The 49ers blew the doors off of the Eagles in Philadelphia, 42-19, thanks to a three touchdown performance from WR Deebo Samuel
The Patriots epic tank job continued, falling to 2-10 on the season after a miserable 6-0 loss to the Chargers
Former Steelers RB James Conner scored a pair of touchdowns vs his former team as the Cardinals upset Pittsburgh, 24-10
Steelers QB Kenny Pickett is expected to miss time after exiting the game with an ankle injury
The Dolphins offense trounced the Commanders thanks to four combined touchdowns from Tyreek Hill and De’Von Achane
The Lions improved to 9-2 for the first time since the 1962 season thanks to a 33-28 victory over the Saints
Saints QB Derek Carr exited the team’s loss with multiple injuries
The Texans held off a late comeback attempt by the Broncos in a 22-17 win, but lost star rookie WR Tank Dell to a broken fibula
This was the month I’d circled back in the summer to make a trip to the US. Falcons, Texans and Commanders at home, were surely all expected wins... Dross