NY Jets season already beginning to unravel in Week 2

NY Jets were mentally and physically dominated in their Week 2 loss to the 49ers.

The NY Jets in 2020 have experienced eight quarters of poorly-executed and uninspired play. For the second game in a row, they had fallen so far behind they had to ditch the gameplan. The Jets were again down three touchdowns at halftime.

You can’t dig such big holes and expect to come back.

To win this past Sunday’s game, the Jets had no margin for error.  The offense lacked execution with a depleted arsenal of minimal talent at the skill positions, while the defense excelled at missed tackles, mental errors, and a lack of containment.

The Jets won the opening coin toss and chose to kick. The move resulted in San Francisco pinned on their 20-yard line.

12 seconds in, Raheem Mostert’s 80-yard run for scrimmage broke the spirit of the Jets defense. No players were in position, at the point of attack or on the back-side, and no one held the right angle against the blistering sprinter.

On the offensive side, the game seemingly ended with Breshad Perriman‘s second-quarter ankle injury. The injury-depleted Jets left this game further injury-depleted, losing Perriman, Connor McGovern, Arthur Maulet, and Quincy Wilson.

As for the coaching acumen of “offensive genius” Adam Gase, when they had a chance to get back in the game down 14-3, why did he — after making the bold move to go for it on 4th and 1 —  remove future Hall of Fame power runner Gore out for practice squad Josh Adams?

In his post-game comments, Gase defended the game-killing decision by saying that Gore had just rushed three plays in a row. And why, week after week, does the “quarterback whisperer” call for passing plays thrown short of the first-down marker?

The only defensive players to deliver on this Sunday afternoon were Marcus Maye (four tackles), Quinnen Williams (seven tackles, two sacks), and Jordan Jenkins (four tackles, one sack).

Henry Anderson (zero tackles) committed two killer penalties — and had ex-GM Mike Maccagnan not foolishly lavished on the on-dimensional defensive end $24 million, would’ve been dumped last season.

Blessuan Austin (two tackles) from Rutgers has an inspirational story overcoming two torn ACLs, but the cornerback is not an NFL-level tackler at this point.

The defensive low point came in the third quarter when Mostert’s replacement, Jerick McKinnon, on a 3rd-and-31 on their five-yard line, ran up the middle for 55 yards.

The NY Jets’ offense remains a completely inept mess.

Sure, the offensive line has improved. But that means little when there is no offensive continuity. There can be no vertical game when the quarterback is off his game and when the receivers can’t separate from the coverage.

The Jets dressed just four receivers. Fans and analysts screamed for Gase to involve the tight ends for plays over the middle. And the team did activate all four tight ends at game time, but where were all the two-tight end sets?

Ryan Griffin had zero receptions (plus one 22-yard catch erased by offensive interference) while Chris Herndon had one reception for just five yards.

Gase gushes over his “unicorn,” but Herndon played awful football, with flat-out drops including not securing a very makeable touchdown. It’s time for him to step up live up to the hype.

Sam Darnold (21-of-32, 179 yards, 90.5 QBR) looked good early, then got overwhelmed and struggled. In the second half, he did appreciably better than Jimmy Garrapollo’s stand-in Nick Mullens.

The highlights were 21 carries by Gore and six catches for each of Chris Hogan and Braxton Berrios, including the latter’s first NFL touchdown with 1:23 remaining in the game.

In all fairness, the Jets went into this season imagining a lineup of Le’Veon Bell, Breshad Perriman, Jamison Crowder, Denzel Mims, and Chris Herndon.  And they never had time to fuse in their pandemic training camp.

But the 49ers came into this game without George Kittle, Richard Sherman, or Dee Ford, and then endured devastating injuries to Jimmy Garoppolo, Nick Bosa, Raheem Mostert, and Solomon Thomas.

The worst news of all is that the Jets have 14 more games.

If this miasma continues, it will affect any future season ticket sales. Ownership has taken this fanbase for granted, and now even the most ardent fans have survived just fine without pregame cookouts in the swamps of Jersey.