OK, what now?
With 10 weeks left in the season (11 if you count the bye week, which the Jets will probably somehow lose), even the faintest playoff hopes have faded. Teams that are 1-5 almost never make the postseason. This 1-5 team, which still has two games to play vs. the Patriots, should just pack up and go home.
Wait, is that an option?
Through the first five games of the campaign, Gang Green did two things well in a season in which they haven’t passed well, run well, kicked well, returned well, held on to the ball well or played pass defense well (or, really, played pass defense at all). They were very tough against the run, and they didn’t commit many penalties.
Then came Monday night.
The visitors racked up 14 penalties in Arizona (of which 10 were accepted), including a half-dozen in the game’s first 10 minutes. In fact, I think Buster Skrine somehow got flagged again on the flight home.
Meanwhile, David Johnson ran all over the Jets D, which was so ineffective at bringing down the second-year running back that it was as if the defenders thought they were playing flag football. Oh yeah, they also maintained their consistency against the pass, continuing their streak of unparalleled ineptitude against Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald.
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On offense, the Jets were bad enough that Geno Smith got in the game. Need I say more?
While no one in Green Land has even the slightest bit of confidence that Smith is the answer, it made sense to give him a shot Monday night -- if that’s what you can call a fourth-quarter appearance in a game decided long before he got on the field.
After all, Ryan Fitzpatrick has played as poorly as any QB in the league in 2016. Fitz hasn’t been much in the first half of games, and he’s been far worse in the second, where he’s thrown 10 of his 11 interceptions -- and nary a TD pass.
With this season basically over less than a third of the way through, at least --and least is the operative word here -- GM Mike Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles have plenty of time to look ahead to next season. And about the only thing more certain than that the Jets won’t make the playoffs this year is that Fitzpatrick won’t be the starting QB in 2017. And, of course, neither will Smith.
And what about core guys like Nick Mangold, Darrelle Revis, David Harris and Matt Forte? Will they all be back, and, if so, how much will they have left in the tank?
Or how about the defensive line? Perhaps no team in the NFL has as talented a trio upfront than Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson and Leonard Williams. Yet opposing QBs have felt so little pressure that they actually look bored standing in the pocket.
Coming off a 10-win season, the Jets appeared to be a team on the rise, even with the death spiral of a schedule they were facing in the first stretch of the year. Now, they just look like, well, the Jets.
