You can be angry at the Jets for losing to the Dolphins on Sunday, but you can't say that they didn't do it colorfully? After heading to halftime tied at 3, the two teams combined for 49 points in a wild second half worthy of the long history of entertaining games between the two teams. In the end, the Jets made too many mistakes to come out on top and lost to the Dolphins for the second time this season.
The two biggest blunders came on consecutive kickoffs in the third quarter. After a 55-yard Jay Feely field goal put the Jets on top 6-3, Ted Ginn exploited poor Jets tackling for a 100-yard kickoff return that quickly changed the tenor of the game. The Dolphins added another score on a fumble return by defensive end Jason Taylor, Mark Sanchez scored on a one yard run and the Jets kicked off to Ginn again and once again he made them pay. The Dolphins receiver, who lost his starting job this week, went 101 yards this time and no Jet even got close enough to miss a tackle. The Jets added another touchdown before the quarter ended, which meant that the two teams combined for 37 third-quarter points even though the Dolphins ran only six offensive plays.
That was a big problem for the Jets because the Dolphins couldn't do anything against their defense for most of the game. They sacked Chad Henne six times and held Miami to 104 total offensive yards, but the mistakes on special teams and offense kept them from taking advantage of that dominance in any meaningful way. Making matters worse was that the defense failed to come up big on one fourth quarter drive that the Dolphins turned into a touchdown.
But that would have been okay if not for the three ugly third quarter plays that pushed a win out of reach for the Jets. Yes, they had a shot to win the game on a final drive that failed thanks to a sack and incompletion, but you can't hang this loss on the offense. The offense had its best overall game in quite some time as Dustin Keller and Braylon Edwards each made big plays in the passing game to help Sanchez look good and we've already mentioned how good the defense looked, but when you give up 21 nonoffensive games you don't deserve to win.
That's something the Jets should keep in mind if they decide to open their mouths and start talking about how they're the better team than the Dolphins, no matter what the scoreboard says. The better team doesn't hand games over to their opponents and they don't lose to the same team twice in four weeks.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
