Recap: Jets Give Horrible an Even Worse Name In Blowout Loss

OK, good news first…

Wait, you thought I was serious?

Well … um… cable was out on a block in northern Westchester for a few hours Sunday afternoon, so the six Jets fans in the area didn’t have to suffer through the carnage; no Jets players tore an MCL, ACL or any other CL getting tangled in Charger safety Eric Weddle’s Noahesque beard; and, finally, the Jets only had the ball for 21 minutes -- imagine how much worse QBs Geno Smith and Michael Vick could’ve been with more time.

After a 1-3 record against middling competition over the first four weeks of the season, the Jets took the field in the triple-digit heat at Qualcomm Stadium Sunday against one of the best teams in the NFL and promptly laid an egg. Their biggest offensive play of the day? A very questionable pass interference penalty against San Diego that allowed the visitors to cross the 50-yard-line for the first time all day -- with less than eight minutes left on the game clock. Word is that the official who made that mercy call was given a game ball by Rex Ryan.

The Jets’ biggest defensive play? An interception in the end zone by reserve cornerback Phillip Adams, who snatched the ball away from Chargers WR Keenan Allen while in midair. Remarkably, it was the Jets’ first interception of the year. Adams may be buried on the defensive depth chart, but he appears to be the Jets’ best receiver. Occurring early in the second quarter when San Diego was on the verge of a 14-0 lead, it was the kind of play that can change the momentum of a game.

It didn’t, because, just one play later, Jets RB Chris Johnson lost a fumble, leading to a Chargers TD about 100 seconds later.

Like the pick by Adams, any time the Jets actually made a good play on D, it was all for naught. They sacked Chargers QB Philip Rivers three times, but, again, those weren’t momentum-changers, totaling only 11 yards lost. Rivers, who would probably lose to Tom Brady in a footrace and only narrowly beat out 47-year-old Tony Siragusa, was able to slip oncoming rushers again and again to find San Diego receivers along both sidelines for solid gains.

Meanwhile, the Jets made Branden Oliver—an undrafted rookie running back who had basically done nothing over the first quarter of the season for a Chargers running “attack” that was one of the league’s worst -- into a star. Oliver wears #43 because the Chargers have kept Darren Sproles’ old jersey locked away for the past four years in hopes that they’d save a few bucks when they got another wider-than-tall back on their roster (if you looked closely enough you could even see where they’d ironed over “Sproles” on the jersey’s back). He was positively Sprolesian on Sunday, tallying 182 combined rushing and receiving yards in making the Jets D look nearly as bad as the Jets O.

Pete Zwiebach writes about the Jets for NBCNewYork.com. Zwiebach lives in New York City with his wife and two kids, who without fail manage to block his view of the TV whenever a game-changing play occurs. 

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