The poor Jets can’t win for losin’

It seemed that their winless streak was finally over. With just seconds to play, the Jets were up 28-24 against a Raiders team with post-season aspirations. The Raiders were at midfield with no time-outs left. What could go wrong?

What can you say? They are the Jets. With time for only one play, the Jets made the unusual decision to blitz. Derek Carr threw up a rainbow as hard and as far as he could throw, then said a prayer. His Hail Mary was answered about 50 yards downfield when lightning-fast Henry Ruggs ran down the pass perfectly and pulled it in securely for the winning score.

The Jets fired their defensive coordinator after the game, presumably for his bizarre blitz call.

In other Pro news:

(1) If you didn’t think the Browns were for real, consider this: they scored 38 in the first half against a good Titans team, and are now 9-3.
(2) The lowly Giants stunned the Seahawks to take over first place in their division. (OK, they are merely 5-7, but first place is first place. It gets you into the post-season no matter how bad your record is. At that point it’s a fresh start.)
(3) Your fantasy team was lookin’ good if you had Darren Waller on the squad. He received the ball about as well as a 260-pound tight end possibly can. He piled up 200 receiving yards and two TDs. It’s only the 6th time in history that a tight end has managed a 200-yard game.

This week’s NFL scoreboard

In college news:

Who cares? Same old crap. The Fab Four all ran up the scores against sub-.500 opponents. About the only interesting development will occur in two weeks when Notre Dame and Clemson get a re-match for the ACC title. If Clemson wins, both teams should stay in the playoffs. If Notre Dame wins, it would be a second loss for Clemson. That might be enough to drop them out of the top four, or it might not. #5 A&M is hoping for a miracle.

Meanwhile, Sagarin’s computer rankings indicate that both Georgia and Florida are better than either Notre Dame or A&M. True or not, that fact will not even get them a free latte at Starbucks.

9 thoughts on “The poor Jets can’t win for losin’

  1. Mayfield threw 4 TDs in the first half. Last Brown to do that was some guy named Graham… in 1951.

    1. I didn’t see the game but I was watching the score. Every few minutes I updated, the Browns had a bigger lead, which amazed me. I think it was in the 30’s by halftime! If they make it to the playoffs, they’re a formidable foe.

  2. Right now the Jets are worse than the Bungles, which I didn’t think was possible. Cincy gets 5 players ejected yesterday, loses their awful backup QB & has to put in the even worse 3rd string guy, who immediately throws an int. to put away the game. You can’t get any worse than that… yet the Jets found a way! Makes me wonder if they deliberately put everyone on a blitz to ensure the #1 pick.

    1. I think you may have hit the nail right on the head. Running a play that gave the Raiders a chance to win would be a highly rational, if unethical, decision under the circumstances. If that is what happened, it seems ungrateful to throw the defensive coordinator under the bus. But of course if it was a deliberate attempt to throw the game, the last thing they can ever do is admit it. So that means the defensive coordinator is either an idiot or a selfless team player willing to do what is best for his organization even if it damages his reputation. I wonder which one he is?

  3. Frankly, college football is a joke this year, and the championship will mean even less than usual. Never should’ve played the season.

  4. The Jets’ loss was stupendously bad. They had a cover-0 blitz on when all they had to do was play prevent, as there was only 13 seconds left and the Raiders had no time outs left. They left a single cornerback in man-to-man coverage on perhaps the fastest player in the league.

    ESPN ran the numbers: in previous similar situations over the past 15 years (250+ plays) nobody had ever before tried to rush more than six players until the Jets did.

    Will be interesting to see how their defensive coordinator rationalizes this, as defensive players and even the head coach appeared to throw him under the bus.

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