Monday Morning Quarterback: New York Jets vs. Buffalo Bills

Oct 26, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets quarterback

(7) throws the ball against the Buffalo Bills in the first quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Ho hum, folks. Another Monday morning to talk about a loss.  The Jets fell to 1-7, with yet another defeat, this time to the Buffalo Bills, by the score of 43-23.  This one, however, was about as ugly as it gets.

First of all, we talk about the obvious problem. Ball security. You cannot turn the ball over six times and expect to win an NFL football game. Ever. Plain and simple. No matter how good your defense is, when they are put in a hole that many times, they are going to break. The Jets defense, to its credit, kept them in the game for a while. But eventually, they tired, and the Bills put them away. The sport really is not hard to handicap. Turn the ball over, you lose.

It’s a good thing that the Jets weren’t playing any kind of juggernaut offense, because if they were, the game would have been over in the first quarter. Three interceptions in a row?!?! Anyone who reads this column knows that I have been a Geno Smith defender all season, but that was ridiculous.

Three interceptions, and they were all on him. They were throws that didn’t have to be made, but they were. Just because they wanted to get Percy Harvin involved deep, doesn’t mean you throw it to him when everyone in the stadium knows that he isn’t open. Same with the intended pass for Jeff Cumberland, and the one to Eric Decker. Geno Smith was fixed on his receivers, and it didn’t seem to matter much whether the receiver was actually open or not. Geno did not put the Jets in a position to win. Not even a little bit.

Michael Vick had to come into the game. Rex Ryan and company had no other choice to make. For the time being, the Jets were still in the football game. The defense was standing on its head, but the offense was doing nothing. Check that, less than nothing. The quarterback was in the midst of giving the game away. If Rex hadn’t made the change, I think he would have needed to duck out of the way from flying objects hurled by Jets’ fans, and rightfully so.

The defense, to it’s credit, was working hard early in this one. Three turnovers allowed on the Jets side of the field turned into only seven early points. That took a great deal of hard work by the Jets defense to keep the Bills off of the scoreboard. We cannot take that away from them, they played hard. But after a while, they simply got tired out, thanks to the shaky play of the Jets offense.

Oct 26, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets quarterback Michael Vick (1) throws the ball during the second quarter against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Vick played well when he entered, and did energize the team. His first series resulted in a 13 play touchdown drive that brought the score to 14-7 Bills. He was making good throws, and using his legs to create plays for the Jets offense when receivers were covered. Vick led the Jets to 10 more points before the end of the first half, and the score was a mere 24-17 in favor of the Bills.

The defense held to a three and out to begin the second half, and Vick’s offense responded with a three and out of its own.  Had the Jets driven down the field to score in that situation, the game could have had a different result despite all of the turnovers.  They couldn’t hold the momentum, so it went back to the Bills, and away the game went.

Also, Vick accounted for three turnovers, two fumbles and an INT, and that was three too many turnovers for the Jets to have a chance to win. In the latter part of his career, Vick was known as a turnover machine, and that began to show as the game went along. Vick cannot be so careless with the football when running with in. Fumbling four times, recovered twice by the opponent, is unacceptable.

Let’s look at the offensive gameplan. What was it, exactly? Not sure what Mornhinweg was thinking with the plan for this week. In the beginning, you could see that Geno was not on his game. But, they continued to throw the football. In fact, from the time Geno threw the first interception, until the moment he was pulled, the Jets called only one rushing attempt. How do you not try to establish the run, force the defense to crowd the box, and hit some short pass plays? Marty Morninweg did not set the bar high for Jets play calling this week.

Finally, the Percy Harvin debut. Not bad! He came into a rough situation, not only learning all the plays, but getting the language of the policy. The Jets used him in the return game, as well as on offense. He rushed the ball four times for 28 yards, and added three pass receptions. It was most definitely a solid debut.

That’s it from here…..feel free to comment on the thread.