10 most heartbreaking losses suffered in NY Jets history

The trade-off to the NY Jets not playing meaningful games for the better part of the last decade is that their fan base hasn't had to endure many heartbreaking losses.

The status and positioning of the Jets franchise have gotten so bad the last several years that, to some, the heartbreak has only come in victories that have ruined draft positioning.

Things may work out for the best in the long run, but somehow, the inept two-win Jets in 2020 found a way to beat two playoff teams in the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns to spoil their chances of securing the first overall pick.

In 2021, the Jets' closely-contested wins over the Texans and Jaguars ensured that the franchise wouldn't have the first pick again. It's a sad state of affairs when Jets fans are relegated to lamenting their team's victories during a season.

As the ancient saying goes, it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Most Jets fans would gladly prefer being in the hunt and falling short than the apathy the fan base has experienced during multiple lost seasons.

The possibility may seem foreign to recent generation Jets fans, but there was a time when the franchise played meaningful games every year and broke hearts in epic fashion more times than anyone can count.

Some of the current Jets' fan base experienced those moments in the not-so-distant future. But long-time Jets fans still have battle scars in their soul from decades of memories, watching the team get ever so close to the sun, only to see their dreams melt away as they crashed and drowned into the sea of despair.

All Jets fans wear their fandom of the franchise as a badge of honor. To many, the ridicule from others only strengthens their resolve and loyalty for the green and white, and now sometimes black.

While some Jets fans would love to erase the franchise's toughest losses over the last few decades from their memory banks, the experience of reliving those moments strangely brings back memories of happiness during what were much better times for the franchise.

Rapper 50 Cent once said in his hit track Many Men nearly two decades ago, "Sunny days wouldn't be so special if it weren't for rain. Joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain."

A day may come when Jets fans experience the ultimate joy of winning it all, and by doing so, it will make people appreciate the pain of losses in years gone by.

Many heartbreaking Jets losses in team history didn't make this final list, and narrowing it down was particularly challenging. The list here also doesn't include disheartening moments in the franchise's history, like Bill Belichick resigning as "HC of the NYJ" or the team's many draft blunders over the years like passing on Warren Sapp or Dan Marino.

This list is all about in-game heartbreaking losses on the field.

There have been so many heartbreaking losses for the NY Jets since the 1969 season that this overall list can be in the dozens. Plus, there's also a clear distinction between worst and heartbreaking losses.

The 1993 Jets getting blown out by the Oilers 24-0 in the season finale in a game where Gang Green failed to punch their ticket to the playoffs, while Buddy Ryan punched Kevin Gilbride, doesn't qualify. The 1993 season for the Jets did produce several gut-wrenching losses, however, the season-ending debacle in Houston doesn't count.

Like any list, there are different degrees of subjectivity involved. Most of this comes from a personal touch.

For example, a heartbreaking loss that didn't make the top-10 for me is a Jets Monday Night Football loss to the Bears in 1991, where New York squandered a 13-3 lead in the fourth quarter in dubious fashion.

Holding a seven-point lead with less than two minutes to go in the game, Blair Thomas fumbled away the football on his own end. Chicago went on to tie the game and force overtime.

The Jets would drive for a potential game-winning score in overtime, but more doom struck as Dan Dierdoff infamously rang out the words on ABC, 'he better make this one." Seconds later, Pat Leahy would shank the 28-yard field goal attempt.

The Bears would drive down the field to win 19-13 in overtime. It was a "you had to be there" moment. Luckily for the Jets, the team recovered and had a happy ending in '91, when they beat the Dolphins to make the playoffs and simultaneously knock out Miami.

Now that you have been teased with a sample of some torment from the ghosts of Jets past, proceed with caution. Let's take a trip down memory lane and look at the top-10 heartbreaking losses in New York Jets' history.

10. Rex's Revenge

Most modern-day Jets fans will point to the team's season-ending 22-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2015 as one of the lowest moments of their fandom.

Longtime Jets fans might look back at this demoralizing defeat as just a walk in the park in comparison to the franchise's other moments of disappointment over the years. But recency bias wins out here. 

The 2015 season is the last time the Jets were in contention, and the fan base had hope. The Jets in 2015 was a fun ride while it lasted. However, fleeting it turned out to be.

Todd Bowles looked like a potential savior as the team's new head coach. Mike Maccagnan, believe it or not, was NFL Executive of the Year. He brought the band back together, reuniting the Jets fan base with one of its greatest players ever, Darrelle Revis.

The wide receiver tandem of Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker brought back memories of other great receiving duos of Jets past like Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet in the late '90s.

Ryan Fitzpatrick hit lightning in a bottle and had one of the greatest single seasons of any quarterback in Jets' history. The team appeared to be on the brink of something special. 

Let's reset the scene back to January 3rd, 2016. The Jets were 10-5 heading into Orchard Park with a chance to make the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. New York was red hot, riding a five-game winning streak, which included two exhilarating overtime victories at home over the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

Standing in the Jets' way of making the playoffs was the individual who previously led New York to the brink of football heaven twice, Rex Ryan.

The boisterous former head coach of the Jets and his Bills team were 7-8, eliminated from playoff contention, but in a prime position to spoil their division rivals' playoff hopes. And that's exactly what transpired. 

Rex Ryan's defense flustered Fitzpatrick into throwing three interceptions, one that he threw into the end zone with the Jets in scoring territory. The Bills' offense controlled the clock for nearly 40 minutes of possession and, by doing so, limited the Jets' opportunities to score.

The Jets did get one last shot to score, and it's a moment that fans still haven't forgotten. Down five on their final drive of the game, with under 20 seconds left, Ryan Fitzpatrick would find a streaking Kenbrell Thompkins deep down the sideline.

Bills defensive back Mario Butler would separate the football from Thompkins' grasp at the last second. But surprisingly enough, Thompkins still had an opportunity to corral the football, and had he done so, would have been in the clear to score the game-winning touchdown.

Like the Jets' hopes on that fateful day in Buffalo, the ball and the playoffs fell tantalizingly out of Thompkins' reach.

Rex's revenge is eerily similar to Chad Pennington's seven seasons earlier. Two beloved and sometimes underappreciated figures in Jets lore came back to haunt their former team.

Pennington led the Dolphins to a division title after being discarded by the Jets and replaced with Brett Favre. He accomplished this by beating Favre and his former team in the season's final week.

Ironically enough, it was Pennington's revenge against the Jets that precipitated the arrival of Rex Ryan to New York. 

9. The Eric Allen Game/1993 Season

The truth is that there were at least four heartbreaking losses in the 1993 Jets season alone that could have all qualified for this list and spot. And each heartbreaker contributed to the team just barely missing the playoffs that season.

The history books will point you to the Jets' final week shutout defeat at the hands of Houston as the game that knocked New York out of the playoffs, but the Jets' had several baffling heartbreaking losses during the year that led to their eventual elimination.

A week before the infamous Buddy Ryan right hook game, there was the Jets losing to the Bills 16-14 in Buffalo, after kicker Cary Blanchard missed three field goals, one in the closing moments. Thurman Thomas fumbled into the end zone in that same game but was credited with a touchdown run instead.

It wasn't the first inexplicable loss in controversial fashion on the road by the Jets that season. In Week 6, the Jets blew a 17-0 lead and lost 24-20 to the Raiders at the final gun after backup Vince Evans rallied Los Angeles to an improbable victory.

The game ended in controversial fashion when the game clock magically froze with the Raiders at the one-yard line in the final seconds. The "malfunction" and the officials gave the Raiders enough time with no timeouts at their disposal to run another play and score the go-ahead touchdown.

For this list, the heartbreaking loss that qualifies above all others from the 1993 season is what many Jets fans remember as the Eric Allen game.

If you are not a Jets fan or like punishment, I highly recommend seeking out and watching the Jets/Eagles game on CBS from October 3rd,1993. The legendary duo of late greats Pat Summerall and John Madden was on the call for what was one of the wildest games of that era.

The Eagles lost superstar quarterback Randall Cunningham to injury early on, fell behind 21-0, and then 28-14 late to eventually tie the game with future Jet Bubby Brister, only to fall behind 30-28 on a safety.

And with the Jets up 30-28 with possession looking to put the game away, Eric Allen would intercept Boomer Esiason and proceed to zig-zag all over the field to return the football 94 yards for what was the eventual winning score of 35-30.

It's one of the greatest defensive plays in NFL history. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of the Jets. 

Words don't do this game justice. To fully understand how awful of a loss this was for the Jets, you would have had to go back in time and relive it. The game also featured one of the greatest single-game performances by a Jets tight end ever.

Johnny Mitchell dominated the action, nabbing seven receptions for 149 yards and three touchdowns. On that day, he was an unstoppable force, and it appeared that the second-year pro would be a megastar for years to come.

However, Mitchell, like the Jets' fortunes in 1993 and most of the seasons in the 90s, would never deliver on their promise.

8. NY Jets blow playoff spot and two-score lead against eventual Super Bowl champion Ravens

Christmas Eve hasn't always been very kind to the Jets. See Victor Cruz's 99-yard touchdown against Gang Green in 2011, which helped effectively end the Jets' run towards a potential third AFC Championship Game. 

Back on December 24th, 2000, the Jets were 9-6 heading into Baltimore's nest to face the 11-4 Ravens. New York needed a victory to get into the playoffs. Baltimore, in 2000, sported one of the greatest single-season defenses of all time and would go on to eventually win the Super Bowl.

Despite the Jets' success in the 2000 season, the odds were heavily against them beating the Ravens on the road. But 2000 was unlike any Jets season before or since.

The NY Jets had the type of season in 2000 that defied convention and logic. It was the year after Bill Parcells stepped down as head coach and headed upstairs to run the team while Bill Belichick ran away.

Al Groh was left holding the bag, but it was a pretty good team he inherited. Vinny Testaverde was back from his Achilles injury in 1999. Back in action after helping guide New York to 12 wins en route to an AFC Championship.

The Jets had an unprecedented four first-round picks, and all of them ended up being key contributors for the franchise — specifically, John Abraham and Shaun Ellis, who provided immediate dividends to the defense.

There was a lot of magic to the Jets in 2000. Especially early on, they rallied late in Lambeau Field to beat the Packers. The Jets did the same thing to beat Bill Belichick and his new Pats team 20-19 on Monday Night Football.

New York then traveled to Tampa and engineered an improbable comeback to beat the Bucs and their former ally Keyshawn Johnson in the closing seconds, when Curtis Martin connected with Wayne Chrebet on a game-winning touchdown pass.

All great wins, but nothing would compare to the Monday Night Miracle when the Jets rallied from 30-7 down to beat the Dolphins 40-37 in overtime. 

So even though the odds were stacked against the Jets with a playoff berth on the line in Baltimore, and even though New York had faltered heavily down the stretch, losing two straight before playing the Ravens, there was still a feeling that the impossible could become possible.

And when the Jets stormed out to a 14-0 lead early on, thanks to two Testaverde touchdown passes, it seemed like the Jets were ready to defy the odds yet again.

But in a game where New York scored 20 points against a historic defense that routinely shut out opposing offenses all year long and outgained Baltimore 524 to 142, the Jets still found a way to lose.

The Jets yielded a safety, gave up two punt returns for touchdowns by Jermaine Lewis, and turned the ball over six times. One of those turnovers resulted in a demoralizing interception that turned the game on its head.

With the Jets up 14-12, and Dan Henning's brilliant five wide receiver look against the Ravens working to perfection, Vinny Testaverde, who threw for 481 yards on the day, would toss a crucial interception that Chris McAlister returned 98 yards for the score.

The Jets relinquished the lead on that play and would get back to within three later on, but the back-breaking returns by Lewis doomed the 2000 Jets for good.

The Ravens' 34-20 unorthodox come-from-behind victory exemplified how unique and special their 2000 team was. They found ways to win games by any means necessary.

For parts of the 2000 season, the Jets did the same. But when it counted most, they found a way to lose their most important game of the year in the most puzzling fashion.

7. The Fake Spike Game

Very few regular-season losses in Jets history have had the impact or infamy of the team's 28-24 loss against the Dolphins on November 27th, 1994. Not only was the game damaging to the Jets' playoff hopes that year, but it led to one of the worst tailspins by a franchise in NFL history. 

On the morning of the big game in '94 with Miami, Jets fans were excited about the possibility of their team taking control of first place in the AFC East.

The franchise hadn't won a division title since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, and before 1994, the last time the Jets approached the final quarter of a season residing in first place was 1985.

First-year head coach Pete Carroll's Jets team was having an up-and-down season to that point, but Carroll's infectious energy had the fan base believing that their time to take over the AFC East was at hand.

The 6-5 Jets had swept the Buffalo Bills, a rival who had dominated them and the division, and was coming off of four straight Super Bowl appearances. The game against Miami was New York's first legitimate opportunity in years to rise to prominence.

The fan base was ready for the big moment. The game with the Dolphins drew at the time, the largest crowd to watch the Jets at home (75,606). 

Things started so well for New York against Miami on that fateful Sunday. The Jets dominated both sides of the ball and had a 17-0 lead in the third quarter.

The Dolphins would get on board with a score to cut the lead to 17-6, but the Jets would answer immediately with an impressive scoring drive that gave them an 18-point lead. The Meadowlands was going crazy. The Jets were up 24-6 at home with the game seemingly in hand.

However, there were two instances earlier in the game where the Jets had the ball in first-and-goal situations and only came away with a field goal. Sequences that came back to haunt the Jets.

The tables turned late in the third quarter and the final frame as Dan Marino led a furious comeback, leading two touchdown drives and converting a two-point conversion to cut the Jets' lead down to just three points. 

New York's offense, which had controlled the game for three quarters, and had yet to punt the ball away, fell asleep at the wheel.

Up three late in the fourth looking to stem the tide, the Jets would fumble the football on three consecutive plays on offense in a bizarre sequence. The Jets would recover all three fumbles, but the team failed to shut down Miami's comeback bid. 

However, New York would get a temporary reprieve. After punting the ball back to Miami, O.J. McDuffie would fumble the ball, and the Jets would recover at the Dolphins' 38-yard line. The Jets now had the ball in prime scoring position, up 24-21, with 5:46 left in the game.

The prosperity wouldn't last for New York, as two plays later, Boomer Esiason would be intercepted deep down the middle of the field by J.B. Brown.

Despite the Jets continuously and comically shooting themselves in the foot. Their defense would force the Dolphins to punt with three minutes left. However, New York's offense could not pick up a first down and ice the game. They kicked the ball back to Miami, and the rest, as they say, was history. 

Dan Marino, with 2:34 left in the game, drove his team 84 yards in eight plays. It was the final play, Mark Ingram's fourth touchdown reception, that would go down in infamy.

With under 30 seconds left in the game, Marino would rush his team to the line of scrimmage, gesturing that he was going to spike the football to halt the running clock. The Jets' defense fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Marino faked the spike and instead hit Ingram for the go-ahead touchdown with 22 seconds left.

The Jets players and their home crowd were devastated. The Jets' offense, led by Boomer Esiason, who threw for 382 yards on the day, would make one last-ditch effort to rewrite the history books on a hail mary attempt that laughably sailed out of the end zone. 

The 28-24 loss to Miami was one of the most disappointing and deflating losses in Jets' history. On that specific Sunday, in one fell swoop, the New York Jets went from battling for first place at home against the Miami Dolphins to losing 33 of their next 37 games.

The Jets crashed and burned gloriously — and they did it in dubious style.

6. Vinny's Achilles

For longtime Jets fans, the team's 1999 30-28 opening day loss to the New England Patriots is one of the most painful memories in the team's history. 

Losing a close game at home to one of your bitter rivals is a bad way to start your season, for sure, but on September 12th, 1999, the New York Jets lost more than just an ordinary regular-season game.

Their entire dreams and hopes of winning a championship were killed when the team lost their star quarterback Vinny Testaverde to a season-ending Achilles injury. 

The feeling that day in Jets nation was funeral-like. 

1999 was supposed to be the Jets' year. After winning 12 games, their first division title since the merger, and getting to the AFC Championship Game, the stars were aligned for Gang Green, and John Elway had retired after winning his second consecutive Super Bowl with Denver.

The AFC was wide open for the taking, and New York, with Bill Parcells and his phenomenal coaching staff along with Bill Belichick, seemed poised to bring the Jets their first championship in 30 years. 

Heading into the 1999 season opener, the expectation level was the highest it had ever been for the Jets. The fan base's optimism was at an all-time high. By the time the day ended, their spirits were crushed. It didn't take long for the good vibes to vanquish. 

In the second quarter of the Jets opener, the always durable Vinny Testaverde went down in agony in a non-contact injury after a routine handoff.

Testaverde had suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture without a single player touching him. If any Jets fans didn't believe in curses back in 1999, they did after that day. 

With Testaverde gone, Parcells would lean towards former second overall pick Rick Mirer to replace Vinny. Mirer, a quarterback Parcells passed on drafting when he was in New England in favor of Drew Bledsoe, would lead New York to an abysmal 1-5 record as the team's starter. 

After Mirer flopped, the Jets would eventually stabilize their quarterback position with Ray Lucas and win seven of their last nine games to go 8-8. But the damage was done in Week 1. Testaverde's injury was effectively the end of the Parcells era with the Jets.

Belichick would also part ways with New York at the season's end. Not only did a potential championship go up in smoke on opening day, but potential championships walked out the door when the season concluded.

The opening day loss to New England was as bizarre as Testaverde's injury. Due to emergency quarterback rules back then, teams could designate one player as their emergency option at the position.

On this dark day in Jets history, Parcells had listed Mirer as his emergency quarterback. The Jets were forced to insert punter Tom Tupa into the game and play him at QB until the fourth quarter.

The rule stated that if the emergency QB entered the game before the fourth quarter, neither the starter nor backup could play again. Because of this, inserting Rick Mirer immediately after Testaverde went down would have left the Jets without a punter for the entire game.

As it turns out, the Jets would have been better off keeping Tupa in the game. Tupa, a former quarterback, did have 13 games of playing experience at the position in the NFL, and on that dreadful opening day in 1999, Tupa played great.

He went 6-of-10 for 165 yards and threw two touchdown scores. Tupa kept the Jets in the game, and the team took a 28-27 lead late in the fourth quarter, but Mirer struggled mightily when he came on in the fourth quarter.

Mirer completed only 4-of-11 passes for 28 yards and threw two boneheaded interceptions. The Pats would win the game on a late 23-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri. 

A victory over the Pats in Week 1 wouldn't have repaired the short and long-term damage already done, but even the football gods wouldn't allow the Jets to have a ray of sunshine on what was one of their darkest days ever.

5. The Doug Brien Game

If you weren't a Jets fan or alive on January 15th, 2005, consider yourself very fortunate not to have experienced their 20-17 divisional playoff game overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Although Herman Edwards finished under .500 at 39-41 as head coach of the Jets during his five-year run with the club, there was a lot of excitement for the fan base during that era, particularly in Edwards' first few years with New York.

The "you play to win the game" coach made the playoffs in three of his first four seasons, and all three of those playoff berths were clinched in the final week of the regular season. The Jets played many exciting and meaningful games during Edwards' run.

There was plenty of drama attached to Herman Edwards during his tenure, and the Jets won some big games dramatically. But by the same token, there were instances where they lost games due to Edwards' baffling in-game decision-making.

No game further exemplified the latter than the Jets' heartbreaking playoff loss to the No. 1 seeded 15-1 Steelers in Pittsburgh. It's a game that everyone thought the Jets had no business winning, yet they almost did twice. Somehow, the Jets found a way to lose in the most excruciating way possible.

To properly set the stage, a week before, the 10-6 wild card Jets had nearly blown a playoff win on the road against the San Diego Chargers in epic fashion. New York, led by the NFL's leading rusher Curtis Martin, had taken a 17-7 lead into the fourth quarter against the Drew Brees/LaDainian Tomlinson-led Chargers.

It was a wacky game that saw the Jets line up twice with only 10 men on defense. The Jets also had a scuffle on the sidelines between coaches when Herman Edwards seemingly tried to punch his running backs coach, Bishop Harris, after an argument over in-game substitutions.

As the game progressed deep into the fourth quarter, San Diego cut the Jets' lead to one score and mounted one last drive deep into Jets territory down by seven.

Facing a 4th-and-goal at the 3-yard line, a desperation pass by Brees into the end zone would fall incomplete, securing an apparent Jets victory.

However, an inexcusable roughing the passer penalty by linebacker Eric Barton where he reared back and drove an elbow to Brees' head after the pass was thrown, negated the Jets' win in regulation. 

The epic blunder by Barton gave the Chargers new life, and San Diego scored to tie the game and forced overtime. The Jets, however, got a break in the extra session when kicker Nate Kaeding missed a chip shot game-winning field goal.

On the heels of that misfire, Chad Pennington and the Jets' ground game would drive all the way down to the Chargers' 11, and Doug Brien, who had missed a 33-yard field goal earlier in the contest, would connect from 28 yards out to win the game 20-17, sending the Jets to Pittsburgh for the Divisional Round.

In Pittsburgh, despite New York's struggles on offense, with a banged-up Chad Pennington, the Jets, thanks to a dynamic 75-yard punt return for a touchdown from Santana Moss and an opportunistic defense, were hanging tough with an excellent Steelers team.

The game was tied at 17 late in the fourth quarter. The Jets would mount a long drive down the field into Pittsburgh territory for a potential go-ahead score, but conservative play-calling would lead to a 47-yard field goal attempt with two minutes left in the game.

Doug Brien's kick would hit the crossbar and fall short. 

Typically, missing one potential game-winning kick that would send your team to the AFC Championship would be painful enough, but the true misery would come moments later, when David Barrett picked off Ben Roethlisberger, returning the interception to Pittsburgh's 37-yard line, setting the Jets up for another potential game-winner.

The Jets would pick up a first down on a Curtis Martin catch-and-run and get down to the Steelers' 25-yard line. New York would get the ball down to Pittsburgh's 23.

But with six seconds left, rather than attempting to advance the ball further, the Jets would call a timeout to run an ill-advised QB kneel that lost two yards, setting up Doug Brien for a redemption kick from 43 yards out with four seconds left.

Brien would not only miss his second fourth-quarter field goal, but this time, he completely shanked it far to the left.

In overtime, the Steelers would drive down the field, and kicker Jeff Reed would connect from 33 yards to eliminate the Jets from the playoffs. Herman Edwards would never recover from this defeat.

At the end of the 2005 season, in an unprecedented move, the Jets traded him while he was under contract to the Kansas City Chiefs. This would also be the swan song for two all-time Jets greats, Curtis Martin and Kevin Mawae.

Their final playoff appearance in green and white.

Both Martin and Mawae's Jets careers would come to an end a year later. Doug Brien, a career 80 percent field goal kicker, would kick in only three more NFL games the following season for the Bears, going 1-for-4 before retiring.

4. The A.J. Duhe Game

Most Jets fans, long-time and recent, have experienced several instances where it has appeared that they have gotten the short end of the stick from the NFL. Whether that be in controversies like SpyGate, or just the way officials have called certain Jets games over the years.

It's common for fans of sports teams, especially those like the Jets who haven't had much success, to feel like the system is rigged against them.

However, the one game that could be used as 'Exhibit A' to support the argument for a potential conspiracy against the franchise is the 1982 AFC Championship Game on January 23rd, 1983, between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets.

Dubbed the 'Mud Bowl' because heavy rain in South Florida — combined with some questionable groundskeeping at the Orange Bowl — had transformed the field into swamp-like conditions.

As legend has it, Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins purposely didn't cover the field because of their team's distinct speed disadvantage against the Jets.

The Jets, heading into the 1982 season, led by the late Walt Michaels, were coming off a 10-win playoff season, but the upcoming campaign was sidetracked by an eight-week player strike. New York worked around the adversity and finished the year at 6-3.

The Jets qualified for the playoffs and won two straight road games over the Bengals and Raiders to advance. They were one game away from the Super Bowl when the skies opened up and drowned the Jets' chances of winning it all.

In one of the ugliest playoff games in NFL history, due to the field conditions, both the Dolphins and Jets offenses were stuck in quicksand, producing only one score combined.

The unlikely hero in this drench-filled debacle was Dolphins linebacker A.J. Duhe, who had intercepted only two career passes in six seasons before the AFC Championship.

Still, in this pivotal game, he picked off three of Richard Todd's passes, one that he returned for a late touchdown to seal a 14-0 victory for Miami.

Over the years, the Jets have had their fair share of championship game losses — four in total counting the controversial Mud Bowl in Miami. It was a day when Mother Nature and Don Shula teamed up to deny the Jets their first trip back to the Super Bowl since 1969.

3. The NY Jets' double OT playoff loss to the Browns in the 'Marathon by the Lake'

For longtime Jets fans, this is the one game that forever haunts their memories. The Jets' excruciating four-hour, 23-20 double-overtime loss in the divisional playoff round to the Cleveland Browns on January 3rd, 1987.

In the post-Super Bowl III world, the 1998 and 2010 New York Jets are considered by many to be the two best single-season teams in franchise history. Rightfully so, but the 1986 Jets are firmly in the discussion as well.

Back then, this Jets team was coming off an 11-win season in 1985, and in '86, the team raced out to a 10-1 start. New York had an extremely balanced attack on both sides of the ball.

On offense, the Jets had a Pro Bowl quarterback and running back from the year prior in Ken O'Brien and Freeman McNeil to go along with one of the league's best deep threats ever in wide receiver Wesley Walker and other Pro Bowl players in wide receiver Al Toon and tight end Mickey Shuler.

Defensively, the Jets "New York Sack Exchange" with Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko continued to wreak havoc on opposing defenses.

The All-Pro pass rushers were the 1986 equivalent of Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald — two dominant forces. Linebacker Lance Mehl also had a career year in '86, making the Pro Bowl. So there was no shortage of impact players on the Jets that season.

But after storming out the gate in 1986, injuries hit the Jets hard, and the team faltered down the stretch. The Jets would lose their last five games to fall to 10-6 as they subsequently lost position atop their division and the AFC.

They entered the playoffs as a wild card team, and doubt started to creep in. But the Jets would begin to erase that doubt, blowing out the Kansas City Chiefs at home 35-15 in the first round of the playoffs.

To shake things up and halt the losing skid, quarterback Ken O'Brien was benched in favor of Pat Ryan. O'Brien would return to the lineup a week later to relieve an injured Ryan. 

The following week in Cleveland, it wasn't a pretty game by any stretch. Both teams struggled mightily to move the football, but with 4:14 left in the contest, Freeman McNeil broke a 25-yard touchdown run, giving the Jets a 20-10 lead.

Up two scores, with time winding down, the Jets were on the verge of advancing to the AFC Championship Game to play the Broncos, a team the Jets had easily defeated earlier in the season.

It was easy to foresee a potential New York vs. New York Super Bowl scenario, and the Giants would eventually win Super Bowl XXI 39-20 over the Broncos.

But as great as the Giants were in '86, Jets fans knew that they were fully capable of beating any team in the league at their peak during that season. 

Unfortunately, on this dreadful Sunday in Cleveland, the Jets found a way to beat themselves and break their fan base's hearts.

Down 10 points, Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar led a frantic comeback, thanks to the most infamous penalty in Jets history.

Facing a 2nd-and-24, backed up on their own 18-yard line, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Mark Gastineau, who had 2.5 sacks on the day, roughed up Kosar after an incompletion and was flagged for roughing.

The penalty would give Cleveland new life, and Kosar captained the Browns' offense to New York's one-yard line as the two-minute warning hit. A Kevin Mack touchdown run with 1:57 remaining would cut the Jets' lead to 20-17.

Despite still having two timeouts, Cleveland would unsuccessfully attempt an onside kick. The Jets' Marion Barber would recover the football on the Browns' 45-yard line. In typical Jets fashion, the team botched the sequence of events that ensued.

New York ran two running plays that barely got back to the line of scrimmage, but they accomplished the goal of forcing the Browns to use their remaining timeouts. However, on third down, with 1:48 left, the Jets inexplicably ran a pass play where Ken O'Brien was sacked.

By rule, back then, any sack in the last two minutes of a game, the clock would stop until the ball was reset. By not running the ball, New York lost the opportunity to take more time off the game.

Despite all this, the time and field position was still on the Jets' side. After punting the ball away, the Browns would get the ball back on their own six-yard line with 1:03 remaining, having no timeouts, only needing a field goal.

But hold up, the Jets were called for holding on the punt. So the Browns would accept the penalty and force New York to punt again. Cleveland's strategy paid off as a punt return would get them out to the 32-yard line.

During this sequence, more time had come off the clock, down to 53 seconds, but the Browns had gained nearly 30 extra yards, setting themselves up with a shorter field to get into field goal range.

The catch, however, was that their kicker Mark Moseley had already missed two field goals. So a field goal of any length was no sure thing, which would prove out later.

The Jets' comedy of errors in their collapse continued on Cleveland's very first play from scrimmage. The Jets would be called for a 26-yard pass interference penalty that instantly put the Browns near field goal range at the 42.

One play later, Bernie Kosar would connect on a deep pass to Webster Slaughter down to the Jets' five-yard line. With the clock ticking away rapidly and the Browns excessively celebrating the big play, Kosar would rush his team to the line of scrimmage and throw a near-interception in the end zone to Jets defensive back Russell Carter.

The Jets almost won the game in the hysteria, and Cleveland dodged a bullet. With 11 seconds left, the Browns opted to kick the short game-tying field goal rather than attempt another pass into the end zone.

With the game tied at 20 heading into overtime, the torture would continue for the Jets. New York's offense couldn't get anything going in the extra session despite having several opportunities to win the game in overtime.

The Jets even got a gift when the Browns drove all the way down to their six-yard line in the first overtime. Still, Moseley missed a 23-yard field goal wide to the right.

Sudden death became an inevitable and prolonged one for the Jets as Mark Moseley connected on a game-winning 27-yard field goal in the second overtime.

In sports, one team's misery is another team's fortune. Even though Cleveland would suffer a heartbreak of their own eight days later against Denver in the AFC Championship Game, the Browns' triumphant comeback against the Jets is one of their franchise's greatest moments.

On the flip side, It was one of the darkest days in the history for the New York Jets and still is.

2. 2010 AFC Championship Loss 

Some could argue that the Jets' 2009 AFC Championship Game loss to the Colts a year before could have made this list. But when you look back at that season, New York was fortunate to sneak into the playoffs that year.

Their 2009 journey to the AFC Championship Game against Indy was an improbable run. The Jets got close and even had a lead against the Colts, but the disappointment level in that defeat couldn't match some of the franchise's other heartbreaking playoff losses over the years.

If anything, the 2009 Jets run, despite the end result, gave the franchise great hope moving forward.

A year later, the Jets were legitimate Super Bowl contenders because of a well-rounded offense with an elite offensive line and a fantastic and balanced defense spearheaded by Rex Ryan.

New York was the talk of the NFL, and their head coach did plenty of talking, but the team had the talent to defy the doubters and back it up. The Jets won 11 games in 2010. 

Part of the story of the 2010 Jets playoff run is how they ate a giant piece of humble pie late that year, when in a clash for first-place on Monday Night Football. The New England Patriots humiliated the Jets 45-3 on national television.

In one fell swoop, the Jets went from contenders to pretenders. Prognosticators and critics buried the Jets and their chances of competing for a championship after that game. Rex Ryan and the Jets, symbolically and figuratively, buried the football from that crushing lopsided defeat.

However, New York would take a while to recover from that humbling experience. They lost the next week to Miami, and if you include the humiliation by the Pats, the Jets lost three of their last five games to finish the season.

But when the playoffs rolled around, the Jets would exact revenge on not only the team that beat them in the AFC Championship the year before, but most importantly, a 14-2 New England Patriots team on their own home field.

It's remarkable to look back now and realize what the 2010 Jets accomplished. They went into Indianapolis and New England, and in successive weeks, they beat Peyton Manning and Tom Brady on the road, with a second-year QB in Mark Sanchez.

Getting to an AFC Championship is challenging enough, but doing it against all-time great players and a coach like Bill Belichick on their field tells you all you need to know about how good the Jets were in 2010.

There was still one hurdle left to climb after the Jets moved heaven and earth to get back to the AFC Championship Game. The Jets had to win a third straight game on the road, in a place where the franchise had struggled mightily over the years, Pittsburgh.

A month earlier, the Jets had gone into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers 22-17 on the road for the first time in their history. So there was hope going in that the Jets could do it again. 

Just like their two previous playoff games against Indy and New England, the Jets fell behind early on the scoreboard against Pittsburgh. But unlike their victories against the Colts and Pats, the Jets weren't able to bounce back quickly.

The Steelers stormed out to a 24-0 lead late in the second quarter. Nearly all hope was lost, but then the Jets started to rally. They scored 19 unanswered points to get within five points of Pittsburgh. The Jets fought back valiantly to put themselves in a position to complete the improbable comeback.

But it wasn't meant to be.

The Jets defense needed to get one more big stop against a Pittsburgh offense they had shut down in the second half, but on a crucial third-down play, Ben Roethlisberger connected with Antonio Brown on a first down completion that iced the game.

Time had run out on the Jets, and little did the fan base know that it would mark the end of an exciting era of Jets football. One of the most magical two-year runs by the franchise came to a demoralizing halt that day in Pittsburgh.

The franchise has come nowhere near the glory they almost experienced at the turn of the last decade.

1. 1998 AFC Championship Loss

The New York Jets' AFC Championship loss to the Denver Broncos on January 17, 1999 carried a lot of significance on the day it happened 23 years ago.

But like the Jets' 2010 AFC Championship loss to the Steelers 11 years ago, the weight of that defeat has grown exponentially over time. Especially considering what followed immediately afterward and since.

Back in 1998, two years after the Jets were the laughingstock of the NFL going 1-15, Bill Parcells had brought the Jets their first division title since the merger.

The Jets won 12 regular-season games and got to an AFC Championship against the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. It was an amazing turnaround. The Jets were a great team in 1998 on the field and the sidelines.

As the AFC Championship Game transpired, the Jets seemed prepared to seize the day and had a 10-0 lead in the second half against Denver. The franchise was less than 23 minutes away from reaching their first Super Bowl in 30 years.

But the game completely turned on the Jets in the second half. It was a credit to the legendary John Elway and that championship Denver team that they were able to storm back and win the game outright 23-10, but what was most disheartening from the Jets' perspective was how they lost the game.

The team's most reliable veteran players like Curtis Martin, Keith Byars, and Vinny Testaverde had a miserable day at Mile High. The Jets turned the ball over six times.

When it counted the most, with the greatest of stakes involved, the Jets didn't hold up to the pressure of the atmosphere. It was a bitter end to what was a beautiful season.

Had the Jets held on to beat the Broncos, they would have been the clear favorite against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. The Jets had crushed Atlanta earlier in the season. Getting over the Mile High hurdle against Denver would have promised the Jets a Super Bowl Championship. 

What transpired the following year, what made the Jets' AFC Championship loss to the Broncos even more painful, even though New York had come up short against Denver, was that the expectation level was through the roof for the next season.

With John Elway retiring, the stage was set for the Jets to win the AFC. But as fate would have it, the very next game of consequence the Jets played saw them lose their star quarterback Vinny Testaverde for the season due to a non-contact Achilles injury.

By the end of the 1999 season, Bill Parcells stepped down, and Bill Belichick tore up the succession plan by abandoning the Jets and creating a dynasty in New England.

As a result, the Jets' loss to the Broncos became even more bitter because they never got a fair chance to get back to the mountain top they were on when they headed to Denver.

Jets fans hope that there will come a time when the team once again plays important games that will leave lasting memories. Maybe the new memories in the biggest moments will have happier endings than these 10 games provided.