What a week.
The Jets had to be shaking their heads after this one. It is hard to even keep track of everything that happened. But here’s a try:
- They blew a 16-point lead to the Bills and lost their season opener Sunday.
- They signed a new kicker Tuesday after their last kicker missed two kicks in the loss and traded with archnemesis New England for Demaryius Thomas.
- Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa was ruled out for the season with a neck injury Wednesday.
- Quarterback Sam Darnold was ruled out indefinitely after being diagnosed with mononucleosis Thursday.Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams got into a war of words with Browns star Odell Beckham Jr. on Friday.
- Starting linebacker C.J. Mosley (groin) and rookie defensive lineman Quinnen Williams (ankle) were ruled out for this game on Saturday.
All of this left you waiting for locusts to hit Florham Park on Sunday.
After taking all of these body blows, the Jets (0-1) now get to face the Browns (0-1) on the national stage of “Monday Night Football.”
The message around the Jets has been that this current adversity can help them later in the season, but it’s hard to see that right now.
“We lose one and the world ended, obviously. Am I lying?” safety Jamal Adams joked. “The world kind of ended. … Obviously, we’ve hit adversity and it’s going to show us what we’re made of. I like it. I actually like it. It’s a lot of adversity early on. It’s going to make us closer as a group, as a staff, as an organization. There’s no better way to do it than on Monday night. So, we’ll be fine.”
The Jets are on the ropes, and you wonder if Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr. and friends will be the ones to knock them out Monday. The Jets are without their leaders on offense (Darnold) and defense (Mosley). This would have been a tough game with those two. Without them, it feels like a no-win situation.
Coach Adam Gase was asked what he expects from his team.
“A group of guys to put their head down, do their job,” Gase said. “We don’t need anybody to try to do anything crazy. We need 11 guys on each phase, one play at a time, doing their job. That’s what we need. If we do that, that is going to give us our best chance. We all know this game is going to come down to the fourth quarter. It is going to be tight one way or the other. We are either going to have it or we are going to stop them. Everybody has to do their job.”
The Jets’ early schedule is a killer — with two games against the Patriots, a game with the Eagles and a game with the Cowboys coming up. A loss Monday is going to fuel the talk of an 0-6 start.
It is a new week. It can’t be any worse than the last one for the Jets.