With eight games in the books, it all comes down to this: the Jets’ season rests -- very precariously --on the injured thumb of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s non-throwing hand.
Now 5-3 halfway through the 2015 campaign after Sunday's unsightly 28-23 win over Jacksonville, with at least five more very winnable games still on the schedule, Gang Green is nearly a lock for the playoffs -- as long as the team gets decent play from the most important position on the field.
Fitzpatrick was much better than decent on Sunday, despite essentially taking his snaps one-handed. But with surgery on his left thumb expected to happen right after Thursday night’s game against the Bills, Todd Bowles and company will be crossing their own fingers for their QB’s quick recovery.
It’s said that the decision to draft a quarterback will determine a franchise’s fortunes for the next five to 10 years. Over the past two weeks, the Jets have seen up-close what happens when teams make the right call on a signal-caller: the Raiders’ Derek Carr and the Jaguars’ Blake Bortles have given their long-downtrodden teams an enormous boost.
Conversely, former GM John Idzik’s play for Geno Smith in the 2013 NFL Draft continues to haunt the Jets and the idea of Smith back as the team’s starter if Fitzpatrick is forced to sit out post-surgery should send shudders down the spines of Gang Green’s faithful.
Smith has shown flashes of goodness (greatness is a pretty big stretch), and there’s a chance he’ll evolve into a solid NFL QB. But the third-year pro showed last Sunday that he’s not close to there yet.
Bortles, meanwhile, is already there. The surprise third pick of last year’s draft struggled mightily in his rookie year, although to be fair, the team he had around him was, in a word (or 2), the Jags.
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Jacksonville still has quite a few holes. In fact, the Jets D kept running through them at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, sacking Bortles a half-dozen times. But the second-year QB still managed to shred the home team’s secondary, which, even after all of the offseason additions, now appears to be a still-great (despite suggestions to the contrary) Darrelle Revis and a bunch of guys who aren’t sure if they’re on offense or defense. For the record, Antonio Cromartie, it’s your job to stop the other team.
And while we’re at it, Chris Ivory, it’s your job to run forward. Through the first five games of the season, Ivory was phenomenal at that task, battering opposing fronts. Over the past three contests, though, the RB has epitomized ineffectiveness behind an ailing offensive line. His stats over that time (to the squeamish, please avert your eyes): 55 carries, 84 yards.
Ivory also suffered his first fumble of the season Sunday, with the Jets clinging to a five-point lead in the game’s closing minutes. Brandon Marshall recovered it -- his second huge play of the final quarter, coming not long after an acrobatic TD catch that was a dead ringer for a trap.
The ball bounced right for the Jets on Sunday. Hopefully Fitzpatrick will have as much luck with his post-surgery prognosis.
