Flacco Can’t Cure Jets Anemic Offense
Photo: Michael Henriquez NY Beacon In Miami
Photo: Michael Henriquez NY Beacon In Miami
By Andrew Rosario
What started off as a season that had Jets fans beaming with excitement and capturing the attention of the entire NFL, the New York Jets were poised to do something they hadn’t done since 2010. Make the playoffs. Gang Green began the season 7-4 and were playing playoff type defense. This despite a quarterback carousel that saw the #2 draft pick Zach Wilson struggle getting benched for back-up Mike White who gave a spark but succumbed to an injury. It forced second year head coach Robert Saleh to lean on veteran Joe Flacco. It didn’t matter as the team would lose it’s last 6 games finishing the season at 7-10. The inept offense failed to get into the end zone in their last 3 games. Flacco (18-33, 149 yards) did the best he could with an offensive line that had him on the run all day. His costly grounding penalty late in the game pushed them out of field goal range with game tied at 6. Like teams of the past the Jets committed a costly defensive penalty when linebacker Quincy Williams was called for a horse collar tackle. It led to the game winning 50-yard field goal by Jason Sanders. The Fish were starting third string quarterbacks Skylar Thompson as both Tua Tagovailoa (concussion protocol) and Teddy Bridgewater (thumb bruise) were inactive. Thompson was adequate enough finishing the day completing 20 of 31 passes for 152 yards. The win propelled the Dolphins to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 as the New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills. That’s the good news for Dolphins nation. The bad news is they have to travel to Buffalo next weekend for their first round playoff game.
Saleh, as he had done repeatedly during the losing streak, focused on the positive despite being disappointed on the outcome of the season. He maintained he wanted his team to play “meaningful” games in December/January. They did just that but came up short when it counted. “It’s frustrating because you know you’re right there,” he began. “You know when you’re rolling on all cylinders at 7-4, pretty healthy. Then one thing leads to another and you lose six in a row.”
The organization now has to make a decision on Wilson but Saleh didn’t sound like he was ready to give up on him. When asked what he would recommend Wilson do in the off season, Saleh said, “get away from football for a couple of weeks. Read a book, go fishing and remove football from your mind.” When asked why he is so positive about the team going forward, he said, “because we’ve got a good team. 7-4 wasn’t a mirage. We’ve got championship caliber defense, we’ve got a bunch of guys who are going to get healthy and get back here, an offensive line that’s going to get healthy and get back here and l know we’re going to get the quarterback position right. When we do, it’s going to be about finishing. And it’s going to be about finishing all offseason.”
The only thing the New York Jets were good at finishing this year was losing their last 6 games in a row. Another season of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. All of their faithful, die hard fans have seen that before.
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