Barging through Saquon Barkley and ripping the ball out of Daniel Jones' hands with brute force, Jamal Adams scampered into the end zone for a touchdown - with all the vigor of a superstar.
 |
| AP |
Adams' "strip-six" came less than a minute into the third quarter of the Jets' Week 10 game, which they led 14-13 at the time, and ultimately won 34-27. That effort by Adams to rob Jones and take it to the house turned out to be the difference in that game. It may now be proving to be the difference in this Jets season.
On the heels of three straight disastrous losses, the Jets were 1-7 and on life support. The fan base had begun rebelling against head coach Adam Gase, Sam Darnold was stuck in a spooky slump and the season was quickly careening downhill.
Then Adams took it by the reins, playing his best game of the season against the Giants, en route to Defensive Player of the Week honors.
While the Jets squeaked out victory against their Big Apple brethren, there has been no such thing either of the past two weeks.
On the road in Washington and at home vs. Oakland, the Jets defense led by Adams has been dominant. Gregg Williams' unit allowed 17 points to the Redskins - 14 of which came in garbage time up by 30 - and just three to the Raiders.
Offensively, Darnold has been sharp, flashing the talent that gave hope for the future in the final weeks of the 2018 season. Gase's game plan and playcalling have been creative and spot on, the Jets scoring 11 offensive touchdowns in these three straight wins, a far cry from the three total in the preceding three losses.
When Adams ripped the ball away from Jones, the Jets ripped the bandage off an ugly wound. The reality is the scars of a treacherous start still remain. Those are the seven losses staring at them in the standings. But, at the least, some healing is now happening.
The next couple weeks will tell a lot about who this team really is. Matchups with winless Cincinnati and regularly hapless Miami, who already embarrassed the Jets once, present opportunities to prove this isn't a fluke.
And even though "playoffs" are far more pipe dream than realistically achievable, the Jets have a shot to go into a primetime game against AFC contender Baltimore just one game under .500. That'd be a far cry from 1-7 bottom-feeder. It'd be a testament to a turnaround, a team-wide chanelling of unflappable effort and belief, undeniably spurred by Adams.
 |
| Adam Hunger/AP |
Is six games into a season too soon to judge a new head coach?
That’s just one of the lingering questions following the Jets’ 33-0 beatdown at the hands of the Patriots Monday night.
A few points left no question.
- Sam Darnold had the worst game of his NFL career.
- The offensive line was overmatched and incapable of adjustment.
- Head coach Adam Gase seemed bereft of a game plan or remedy to what Bill Belichick’s New England defense was throwing the Jets’ way (Hint: It was Cover 0 blitz. Rinse, repeat).
- A week after getting their first win of the season against Dallas, the Jets regressed back to the offensive abominations of Luke Falk’s time under center.
With Darnold struggling just as much as Falk did, the Jets’ offense continually trotted out to what felt like a destined fate: No points or a turnover.
Darnold, the offensive line and Gase all factored into it. So did the ferocious and ruthless Patriots defense, which has been that all season.
Also consistent all season has been the struggles of the Jets’ offensive line, a unit poorly-addressed and patch-worked together by the previous GM. It should be priority No. 1 in the offseason.
Darnold went from AFC Offensive Player of the Week to the pits on national television. Yes, 16 games into his career, he cannot play the way he did Monday night. But you can’t harp on this abysmal performance without also looking back at that pristine one in the victory over Dallas - the movement in the pocket, sharp throws and good instincts. All of that disappeared in the face of the Patriots’ relentless pressure and unblocked free rushers.
Let's turn the focus though to Gase, who rode through much of the season’s first stretch on the excuse of Darnold being ill and then out with mono.
When backup QB Trevor Siemian was knocked out of the Cleveland game and lost to injury for the season, the Jets were forced to turn to the third-stringer Falk and the offense shut down.
To be reasonable, given the circumstances, it seemed only fair to give Gase a pass for the anemic play of the offensive unit, which garnered a total of only 9 points in three games.
But should it really have been that bad?
This season, the Steelers have won a game with third-string quarterback Devlin Hodges starting. The Saints haven’t skipped a beat since Teddy Bridgewater stepped in for the injured Drew Brees. Jacksonville’s offense has been acceptable with Gardner Minshew in place of the injured Nick Foles.
Facing similar adversity, the Jets were incapable of even moving the ball week-to-week. Falk looked in over his head and was cut once Darnold returned.
But whose fault really was that disastrous period in which the Jets were outscored 84-23?
This Monday night massacre had you reassessing - and taking a closer look at the head coach.
This is not Gase's first head coaching gig.
Nor was it his first time coaching against Belichick. It was, in fact, his eighth.
His overall record as a head coach is now a mediocre 24-30.
A supposed offensive guru, Gase’s Jets offense has scored two less touchdowns than his previous team, the winless Dolphins, this season.
And if you were willing to fall back on the three games with Falk as a pass for Gase, what do his three with Darnold starting now say about him?
The defense fueled the Jets in the Week 1 one-point heartbreaker of a loss to Buffalo. Darnold may not have been 100 percent but the offense was limited by an inability to stretch the field. See: Jamison Crowder’s 14 receptions for less than 100 yards. CJ Mosley left the game and the offense hadn’t scored enough to withstand the defense’s hemorrhaging of a 16-0 lead.
On the surface, the Jets’ one win of the season against the Cowboys looks good. But dive in a little deeper and you’ll see that alarming similarities to the Week 1 collapse nearly played out again.
With a first half performance in which the offense was humming, the Jets jumped out to an 18-point lead.
The second half though was a very different story, much more like that of the Buffalo game.
Dallas scored 13 unanswered points to make it a one-possession game. A Sam Ficken field goal late in the fourth quarter was the source of the Jets' only points of the second half. If not for a perfectly-timed blitz by Jamal Adams to stop a Dallas two-point conversion try, the game may have been headed for overtime.
Much of that was forgotten in the haze of beating a contending Cowboys team and with Darnold impressing in his return.
But even in victory, you’d be remiss to ignore that a deluge of unanswered points almost doomed the Jets - again.
Put it on the defense if you so choose, but what happened to the Jets’ offense in both those games that their final touchdowns came with 7:01 left in the third quarter (vs. Buffalo) and :27 left in the second quarter (vs. Dallas)?
Those droughts, bad as they are, look meager when any touchdown, any points, would have been a welcome sight Monday night.
Darnold, who said he was “seeing ghosts” in a soundbite captured while he was wearing a mic for ESPN, was left in the dark against the Patriots’ boogeymen.
To his clearly shaken young quarterback, Gase provided no tangible relief.
That’s from the alleged quarterback whisperer lauded for his ability to work with signal-callers.
The guy who has coached in this division before.
The guy, with a 24-30 record as an NFL head coach, who already needs to be under the microscope.
Don’t be fooled by the smoke and mirrors of that one glimpse of hope one week ago. The cold, hard reality is a 1-5 record and, with a softer schedule ahead, the reality check on Gase needs to start now.
