Keidel: Jets Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves For Mailing Season In
By Jason Keidel
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With seven minutes left in the third quarter of the Jets' game against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night, the tandem in the television booth tried to summon some energy from a lifeless game. Or at least a lifeless team.
Doug Flutie said it felt like the Jets had largely played with, if not beyond, the Dolphins. To echo the sentiment, Mike Tirico said the Jets had indeed outgained the Dolphins, 241-207.
Yet there was an inverted, surreal stat on the scoreboard. It read 27-10, Miami.
Then Jarvis Landry turned a short pass into an instant highlight. A crossing pattern gone wrong.
MORE: Team Grades: Jets Drop To 4-10, Following Bad Loss To Dolphins
And perhaps that's the team's epitaph. Lifeless. In terms of talent, the Jets aren't terrible. They don't lack talent as much as temerity. The Jets play like these games don't matter. And because of that, they don't, and haven't for a while.
Though the NFL is more transient than the Port Authority, the pro sports iteration of a leased Buick, there wasn't enough of a personnel shakeup to justify, excuse, or explain the Jets' nosedive this season.
Sure, they miss Eric Decker. Yes, Darrelle Revis has morphed into a doormat for opposing receivers. But teams battle injury, age, and wage every season, all season. So not only are the Jets losing games, they are losing them before they begin.
There's absolutely no reason the Dolphins, a team the Jets know quite well, should have stomped them, 34-13, on Saturday. the fish humiliated the Jets on national television -- a stand-alone game for a team standing all alone in last place. Miami (9-5) entered the game with a 2-4 mark on the road, and, despite its winning record, had actually scored fewer points than it had allowed.
The Dolphins hadn't finished a season over .500 in eight years. But a game against the Jets is often a gridiron elixir.
By contrast, the New England Patriots just clinched the AFC East for the eighth consecutive season, an NFL record for any division. The perfect contrast and microcosm, of course, was a job offer the Patriots made to the Jets' head coach about 17 years ago. Each team pivoted in ghastly different directions. Bill Belichick spawned a dynasty, while the Jets have muddled in mediocrity -- at best -- ever since. The Jets have had five head coaches since Belichick's 24-hour turn, spin, and resignation as HC of the NYJ.
The Jets have had one quarterback start all 16 games just seven times, dating to Boomer Esiason in 1993. Millennials may not even recall Esiason's career before he joined WFAN. Lord knows, when it comes to Jets history, there's not much worth remembering.
The Jets have had 14 starting quarterbacks since 1999. Among the iconic names were Ray Lucas, Rick Mirer, Quincy Carter, Brooks Bollinger, Kellen Clemens, Greg McElroy, and Eugene Cyril Smith III (you call him Geno).
You'll find that NFL.com isn't prone to hard-charging critiques of the league's football clubs. Much like NFL Network, its hands-off reporting keeps the product in a kind of corporate nimbus. But not even NFL.com could keep the kid-gloves on when musing over the Jets.
"This was a middling, veteran-laden club masquerading as a playoff contender this season and when the best laid plans don't materialize, you are left with pricey, aging players who don't give 100 percent and excited younger players who just aren't experienced enough to contribute in a significant way. I counted zero players truly chasing Jarvis Landry on his knockout-blow touchdown in the third quarter, which underscored what a group of very loyal and cold fans sat through on Saturday in New Jersey."
That's like your dad spanking you in public -- when you're 30. When the NFL puts you on blast, you know the team is in trouble. Gang Green is gangrenous, as it so often is in December, checking out mentally by Thanksgiving, and physically by Christmas. A yearly, winter event as common as salt sprayed on our sidewalks.
The 2015 season, which ended 10-6 with whispers of a playoff run in 2016, feels like a rumor, a mirage, a fantasy or fable. If you started watching football this year, and primarily watched the Jets, you'd never believe they were a foul fourth quarter from the playoffs last year.
You can excuse a failed play, a poor half, or bad game. But there's no excuse for that grotesque performance on Saturday night, especially on the heels of the 41-10 drubbing the Colts handed out in the Jets' last prime-time game, also at home, just 12 days prior.
People paid good money, toiled in traffic, shivered on train platforms, and spent a precious weekend night at the Meadowlands. Take it from someone who lives five minutes from MetLife, there's not much visual splendor beyond the racetrack and stadium (unless you have an odd affinity for Bed, Bath & Beyond).
It's quite fitting that the Jets play in the industrial muck of the Meadowlands. They fit right in with the discarded tires and swamp creatures and the rancid residue where the marsh meets commerce. The Jets, like some campy old horror film, seem spawned by some man-made disaster. But unlike the vague mystery of bad cinema, we know who turned Gang Green into this industrial disaster.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
