Different coach, same results. You cannot teach old dogs new tricks. One play in the final two minutes of Monday nights game can tell the story of the 2024 New York Jets in a nutshell. It is wide receiver Mike Williams running the wrong route and subsequently falling down.
The Jets, playing their first game with interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich replacing the ousted Robert Saleh, had an opportunity to upset the Buffalo Bills despite an abundance of head scratching mistakes including an excessive number of penalties and a pair of huge missed field goals by place kicker Greg Zuerlein. Aaron Rodgers found Williams downfield for what looked like a massive gain that would have put the Jets inside the twenty-yard line. But as Williams started to come back to the ball, he stumbled and fell down. That allowed Bills cornerback Taron Johnson to dive in front of Williams and get a game-clinching pick.
That is the Jets this season. An opportunity for something memorable was in their grasp, and once again, for the third game in a row, they tripped all over themselves getting to it. The Bills were able to run out the clock after that interception and won 23-20.
The Jets understood the stakes coming into the game. If they pulled off the victory, they would be 3-3 and in first place in the AFC East. A loss and they would be two games behind the Bills, with a disappointing 2-4 record. Even though they are only in Week 6, you could cut the tension with a knife. It felt like a must-win game for the Jets, especially after everything they have been through, including the coaching change shaking up the organization to its core.
There are not any more coaching changes on the horizon. The Jets lost, and now they have a big hole to dig themselves out of. It does not do them any favors that they cannot get out of their own way and stop creating self-inflected wounds.
The Jets were certainly not clicking on all cylinders but they were moving the ball consistently, mostly through big plays by their stars. Running back Breece Hall came out of his slump and resembled the player we had seen in his first two seasons. Garrett Wilson snagged a sweet touchdown in the back of the end zone and had a solid first half. The Jets did not stop at just firing Saleh. They changed play-callers from Nathaniel Hackett to Todd Downing, and the difference was notable.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Jets’ biggest play of the first half came down to luck, though it is getting to a point in which Rodgers Hail Marys’ seem like a skill. On the final play of the first half Rodgers wound up and threw it to the end zone, and his teammate from the Packers, Allen Lazard, came down with a 52-yard touchdown. That was his fourth career Hail Mary, and his first with the Jets. Perhaps he knows what he is doing on those plays. Rodgers said he use to practice them when he was Bret Favre’s backup.
That kept the Jets within striking distance even with Josh Allen going off in the first half. He had a quarterback sneak for a touchdown, two other passing touchdowns and was making spectacular plays everywhere on the field. He scrambled to his right and fired a bullet to running back Ray Davis for a stunning 42-yard gain.
“Fighting through adversity, getting in at halftime, regrouping, saying let’s just control one play at a time,” Allen said. “We didn’t score as many points as I’d like in the second half, but found a way.”
Allen threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score and Tyler Bass redeemed himself for an earlier miss by kicking a go-ahead 22-yard chip shot field goal with 3:43 left to help the Bills (4-2) snap a two-game skid. They have never lost three straight in the Allen era.
“It was a gritty win led by Josh,” coach Sean McDermott said.
The Bills had the best player on the field by far. But the Jets have plenty of talent on their side as well, and they were desperate. They just could not stop making critical mistakes.
The Jets have a new coach but the same culture. There was a key sequence in the third quarter when a holding penalty brought back a Braelon Allen touchdown, Wilson had a touchdown in his arms but was sandwiched in the end zone and dropped it, and then on fourth down Zuerlein bounced a 32-yard field-goal attempt off the crossbar. Then in the fourth quarter Zuerlein, who missed a last-minute field goal that could have beaten the Denver Broncos in Week 4, had another attempt go off the crossbar from 43 yards out. The game was tied 20-20 but the Jets had blown opportunities to get more points. There is a good chance that the Jets might try out some kickers this week.
The Jets have been off all season when it comes to execution. A key penalty on either side of the ball, being a bit off on a timing route, missed field goals in key situations, it has all added up for the Jets and it did not change Monday night just because they had a new coach.
“Yeah, it was a weird week,” Rodgers said.
The Bills had their share of mistakes too. Bass missed an extra point and a 47-yard field goal. Buffalo’s offense was nowhere to be found in the second half. Yet the team still drove down and got a go-ahead field goal with 3:43 to go. And Jets defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw, who got called for a controversial roughing the passer penalty on that drive, and adding insult to injury, got a 15-yard penalty for improper conversation toward an official after the field goal.
New York had a shot in the final minutes, and the drive was kept alive by a questionable replay reversal that turned an apparent Rodgers fumble into an incomplete pass, and a defensive pass interference call. But a huge holding call brought back a Hall first down. Then Rodgers’ deep pass to Williams was intercepted after Williams lost his footing.
Allen picked up a first down on a third-down run and the Bills killed the clock after that.
“Our No. 1 goal is making the playoffs and you do that by winning your division,” Allen said. “We understand the gravity of this type of game, us being 4-2 with a 2 1/2-game lead with a head-to-head win, as opposed to being 3-3 and in second place.”
The Bills go back home to western New York and host Will Levis and the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
The Jets go on the road to face C.J. Watt and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.
