After the New York Jets grabbed an impressive prime-time Week 2 victory over the Buffalo Bills 37-31, it seemed as though all was right. Sure, the Jets had lost Week 1 to the Cincinnati Bengals by a single point, but the Bengals are a good team and they had bounced back nicely. Then, Week 3 rolled around, and it left a massively sour taste in basically everyone’s mouths, even if you aren’t a Jets fan. After the brutal 24-3 loss, Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk reported that Jets head coach Todd Bowles said the team had a “come-to-Jesus” meeting.
“Every time you lose like that, you have to have a come-to-Jesus meeting,” Bowles said in comments distributed by the team. “We talked about accountability and just understanding where we are in the season and who we are and what we need to be, pretty much. … Throughout the course of the season, there will be a bunch of turning points. It’s not going to be the last time we face adversity. There are going to be several times down the road where we face adversity. We just have to learn from our mistakes.”
Obviously, it seems like the meeting was pretty cut-and-dry. The Jets were essentially terrible (specifically on offense) against the Kansas City Chiefs, but everyone fully understands the one player who probably really needed to pay attention during the meeting.
That would be none other than quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who undoubtedly had the worst game of his entire career. The Jets starting quarterback completed just 2o-of-44 passes for 188 yards, no touchdowns and six (yes, six) interceptions. His quarterback rating was an 18.2, while his QBR was a 5.0. He threw multiple interceptions in the end zone at times when the team was down by just two touchdowns. Realistically, this was a game that the Jets very well could have won, but were just unable to finish off drives, and Fitzpatrick was unable to avoid turning the ball over.
The good news for Jets fans, is that it’s not time to start jamming the panic button just yet. The bad news? The Jets draw a pretty brutal schedule on the horizon, facing the Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals over the next three weeks. Obviously, coming out of that stretch without a win and sitting at 1-5 would cause heads to start rolling in New York, especially considering how talented the Jets roster is.
On the flip side, if the Jets are able to pull off two wins, or even sweep that set, then people may quickly forget about the 21-point loss the team just suffered to the Chiefs. All things can be fixed by winning football games, but unfortunately, while Jets fans may have hoped that the team could pick up a few games on the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots, that hasn’t been the case either.
The Patriots are 3-0 without Brady, get him back after one more game, and the Jets are 1-2 and hoping to avoid falling into the pit of the AFC East over the next few weeks.
