There are no other words to describe what we saw from the Jets on Sunday against the Cardinals. Disgusting, point blank it was a disgusting performance by New York. They lost to Arizona 31-6 to put them at 3-7 on the season.
The Jets needed to win this game, and the rest of the league was blessing them as well. The Broncos, Bengals, and Colts all lost their games. Setting the Jets up to be only one game back of the wildcard with a win.
Instead, New York came out and were not ready to play at all. Their defense didn’t stand a chance all day, they couldn’t tackle, cover, stop the run, and had no chance of shutting down Kyler Murray. Murray put on an amazing performance against the Jets, they had no answers for him.
Offensively, The Jets were moving the ball early and Breece Hall was looking effective. Aaron Rodgers looked like he was set up to have a good game. The problem was though they couldn’t finish their drives with touchdowns, and their defense couldn’t get stops.
To start the game, the Cardinals drove right down the field with ease as Murray was in sync early with his receivers, which then eventually led to a big screen pass to James Conner who took it to the one-yard line from nearly midfield as the Jets defense couldn’t bring him down. Conner would then finish off the drive with a rushing touchdown to put the Cardinals up 7-0.
Like I said, the Jets offense looked good to start the game as Rodgers made some throws, and Hall looked energized in the running game. Unfortunately, for them though they could not finish the drive, and had to settle for three.
The defense did not wake up after that first drive as Arizona drove right down the field again. New York showed no ability whatsoever to stop their offense. It was too easy for the Cardinals, as they got the goal line. The Jets failed to keep containment on Murray as he rushed it in for a touchdown to put the Cardinals up 14-3.
To end the first quarter, The Jets offense continued to look sharp as they drove the ball down the field as the quarter came to an end. They had a chance to keep moving the ball down the field into the second quarter, but Arizona was able to get a stop forcing the Jets to settle for three again making it 14-6 Cardinals.
The Jets defense had a chance to get a stop to keep giving the offense a chance to find their way into the endzone. It was looking promising too. They had Arizona on a third and very long but Sauce Gardner missed a crucial tackle on Tight End Trey McBride allowing him to pick up the first down.
This was a huge miss from the Jets to get off the field as from that point forward the Cardinals kept moving the ball and it eventually led to a nine-yard touchdown pass from Kyler Murray to Rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. who beat D.J. Reed to score.
The Cardinals led 21-6 as now the Jets were in panic mode as the offense needed to come up with something on the next drive before this game got out of hand. The offense couldn’t do that as they went three and out. Giving the ball back to the red hot Arizona offense.
The Cardinals would finish off the half by continuing to move the ball right down the throats of New York. The Jets couldn’t stop anything, the Cardinals did whatever they wanted. Murray was having a field day just finding the open man on every attempt. The Jets couldn’t put any pressure on Murray.
As time expired, Arizona kicked a field goal to go up 24-6 at halftime. The Jets did start with the ball in the second half, giving them another chance to find some momentum to get back into this game.
They looked reenergized on offense basically the same as last game against Houston going into the second half. They drove the ball right down the field with urgency and got the ball into the redzone, near the goal line with a chance to score. Arizona was holding strong though as the Jets were left with a fourth and goal decision. They could kick it, and make it a 15-point game, or go for it with hopes of making it a 11-point game.
Either way, they would be down two scores, so they elected to go for it. It ended in disaster as Rodgers was stripped and sacked. The ball was recovered by the Cardinals as they stalled out the Jets, keeping it a 24-6 game.
The defense though in the second half, did not wake up from their disaster first half performance. The Cardinals kept doing whatever they wanted as they drove down the field once again in New York. A ten play 88-yard drive resulted in Murray rushing in another touchdown from 12 yards away to put the Cardinals up 31-6.
The rest of the half flew by as nothing significant happened, the Jets offense couldn’t get anything going. Arizona took their foot off the gas just trying to waste away the clock to end this game with a win. Leaving the final score as 31-6 for the Cardinals.
There was nothing positive out of this performance for the Jets. They would have been better off just not showing up and forfeiting the game. They basically didn’t show up anyways to play a game.
Which is bizarre considering they were a 3-6 football team with no room for error. They had a chance to get back into the playoff race and completely fumbled the opportunity. After an encouraging win against the Texans, a lot of people really believed that could be the turn around for New York.
That they could use that win as a boost of confidence to rally and go on a winning streak. It couldn’t have been more of the opposite as that win against the Texans means nothing now. The Jets are 3-7, so mathematically they are not eliminated.
Hypothetically, they could win out, or at least the last six out of seven games. They could finish 10-7, or 9-8 and make the playoffs potentially. But the way this team is playing, how bad they consistently look. It feels like there is no shot that is happening and the season is just simply over for them.
This Jets team isn’t just a disappointment who completely underachieved. They are just a bad football team. Bad teams lose football games and that’s what New York is doing.
There are no more excuses, no more hope that they will figure it out. The Jets are a bad team that will finish with a bad record. They are badly coached, they are undisciplined, there is no accountability, and the culture seems to be in disarray.
This is a mess right now for Gang Green, it’s been a mess for this organization for 13 years, and it won’t get better until serious changes are made to the management, and culture of the New York Jets.
The Jets will host the Colts next Sunday at 1 p.m. eastern with a chance to get back in the win column and keep that small hope alive of running the table from this point on. Mathematically, the season isn’t over but boy the season feels over.
