NY Jets end the Adam Gase era with a sluggish, fitting loss

The NY Jets fell to the New England Patriots in Week 17 to end the Adam Gase era.

The NY Jets‘ 2020 season came to an end not with a bang, but with a miserable, predictable whimper.

The Jets fell to 2-14 courtesy of a sluggish 28-14 loss to the New England Patriots, finishing with that record for the first time in franchise history. In many ways, this game was indicative of the Adam Gase era which has all but come to an end.

The Jets played uninspiring, static football for four quarters and limped to the finish line. In a game that Gase knew would be his last, he returned to his conservative offensive approach.

Sam Darnold finished 23-of-34 for a season-high 266 yards, one touchdown, and a pair of interceptions. It was another poor performance from Darnold who very well could have played his final game in a Jets jersey.

Darnold looks lost. His mechanics are a mess, his decision-making is a disaster, and he has lost any ounce of confidence that he still had going into the year. For the sake of both parties, it’s probably best to move on in the offseason.

The running game was led by the duo of Ty Johnson and Josh Adams who each rushed for over 40 yards and averaged north of 4.0 yards per carry. Both figure to feature in the backfield plans in 2021 in some way, especially the former.

Chris Herndon continued his quiet late-season resurgence hauling in three grabs for 84 yards and an excellent leaping touchdown. Herndon will be back next year, and it’ll be interesting to see what he could do with a new coaching staff.

A high-ankle sprain suffered by Mekhi Becton was the lone major negative to come out of this game, but the injury likely won’t affect his offseason. Still, not something you want to see in the last game of the year.

The NY Jets season has finally come to an end

And with that, the Jets’ season is over. 17 woeful weeks and 16 despairing games have come and gone. Gase will be fired before long and the search for a new head coach will begin.

That new coach will likely bring with him a new quarterback and renewed optimism for the 2021 season.

But the stench of this disgrace of a season won’t disappear quickly. The Jets have a lot of work to do — fortunately, they have the resources to make major changes this offseason.

For now, this was a fitting way to end perhaps the most deplorable era of Jets football.

Time for the offseason.