LAS VEGAS — The New York Jets’ season has turned into a game of Mad Libs. Modify a few nouns or adjectives here and there, maybe, but at the end, the story is still the same.
The defense plays well. The offense can’t finish drives. The offense doesn’t get into the end zone. Zach Wilson makes some confounding decisions. Greg Zuerlein has a busy day, kicking field goals, the only source of offense. Thomas Morstead has a busy day, punting, because the offense can’t consistently move the ball. Penalties kill drives. The defense does its job. The Jets are still in the game at the end. Then it’s over.
Robert Saleh calls out the self-inflicted wounds in his postgame news conference, but feels the Jets are close. He won’t blame the quarterback or the offensive coordinator. The defensive players bite their tongues and talk about how the team would win if they could only score points themselves, or hold their opponents to zero points instead of 3, 6, 10 or 16. The offensive players are at a loss for words.
Rinse, repeat. It’s all the same — and Saleh doesn’t seem to have an itch to make the sort of change that might jolt the offense into competence. He won’t bench Wilson. He won’t take play-calling away from offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The Jets lost to the Raiders 16-12 on Sunday, a team so dysfunctional it fired its head coach, general manager and offensive coordinator a few weeks ago, with one of the worst defenses in the league and a fourth-round rookie starting at quarterback. And it was the same as it ever was.
If Saleh isn’t going to grab the reins of the Jets offense and make the necessary changes before the season fades away into nothingness — just another year without the playoffs — then maybe the players will need to take control of the situation themselves.
“They asked me today: Are you OK to speak to the media?” tight end Tyler Conklin said after the game. “I said, yeah, I’ll speak, but what do you guys expect me to say? That’s the thing, it’s a broken record at this point. We’ve gotta figure it out. We can’t keep going out here and doing this over and over again. Letting the defense down, our team down.”
The Jets scored on their first three drives on Sunday night, all field goals. They punted on five consecutive drives after that, followed by another field goal, an interception by Wilson and then the clock running out on the final drive. The Jets haven’t scored a touchdown in 11 quarters. They’ve scored 13 offensive touchdowns in nine games.
“It’s frustrating,” running back Breece Hall said. “I’ve been saying that since the first week.”
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson appeared emotionally distraught after the game, on the verge of tears.
“I don’t know what y’all want me to say,” Wilson said. “I’m tired of this, man. I want to play better. The offense wants to play better. Every week we’re trying to make it happen. It’s frustrating.”
The first words that came out of Saleh’s mouth at his news conference after the game were the same ones he’s said just about every week, win or lose. All anyone wants to know is why his offense has somehow gotten worse from last year, when he parted with Mike LaFleur as his offensive coordinator and revamped his offensive coaching staff.
Saleh may not want to make a change, but it sure sounds like the players are ready for one. This week, that might come in the form of a “players-only” meeting, the cliched get-together for teams that find themselves falling apart at the seams.
