Last weekend the Jets showed us what they are capable of with their furious comeback in the final two minutes to beat the Browns But as the shock of their historic, come-from-behind win begins to wear off, the truth is once again there for everyone to see: these Jets have yet to stamp their identity.
Is this the team that played well enough for much of the game to win against the Ravens and Browns, only to implode in the second half and put themselves in a losing position? Or did this team figure something out when it seized the tiniest of opportunities against the Browns and turned it into the most unlikely of wins?
The truth is, no one knows. Not even coach Robert Saleh.
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On Wednesday, Saleh and his staff went over the fourth quarter of the Browns game with his team. The point was to drive home a key contrast.
“How the great teams seize fourth quarter opportunities and win,” Saleh said. “And [how] teams that are always on the other side of winning, losing, always look back at the fourth quarter and [say], ‘God, we missed these opps.’”
And for most of the fourth quarter on Sunday against the Browns, Saleh’s team played like a group that hasn’t figured out how to win yet.
Saleh produced the evidence himself, noting two crippling mistakes that cost the Jets dearly on their first two drives of the fourth quarter. (He didn’t name names, but we will.)
The tone was set on the first play of the fourth quarter when Michael Carter’s 24-yard run negated by George Fant’s holding penalty. It was one of six penalties after halftime and the first of three in the final quarter. Instead of facing first-and-10 from the Cleveland 5, the Jets had second-and-15 from the 39. They ended up having to settle for a 57-yard field goal to tie the game at 17.
The Jets’ second drive of the fourth quarter ended when Garrett Wilson dropped a third-down pass that should have been a first down. The Jets were forced to punt down 24-17. And it didn’t get much better from there.
He lamented the defense’s inability to get off the field on the Browns’ two fourth-quarter touchdown drives and the missed assignments that cropped up at the wrong time; and the offense’s inability to move the ball when it mattered: the Jets got the ball again down 24-17 after Wilson’s drop, only to go three-and-out after tight end Tyler Conklin nearly fumbled away the game at their own 10-yard line. (Conklin says he owes rookie Max Mitchell dinner for jumping on the ball and keeping the Jets’ slim hopes alive.)
In the end, only one thing saved them: the Browns keeping the door ajar just enough for the Jets to get their fingers in the crack and throw it open.
“We lucked into a last opportunity, which doesn’t usually happen,” Saleh said. “And credit to the offense and credit to our guys to seize that moment. The trick is going to be can we find a way to seize those moments earlier in the football game, so we don’t have to rely on [luck at] the back end of it.”
Sunday’s game against the Bengals should tell us a whole lot more about what this Jets team knows and what it still needs to learn about becoming a winner.