Helmet Stickers: New York Jets @ Cincinnati Bengals

What a difference a week makes, this time last week we were riding high. A victory against a divisional opponent that left us just one game back of first place. This week we are coming off one of the most atrocious performances in recent memory. It's true that we had to expect there to be dark days, we have a relatively young team and we are led by a first year signal caller. It wasn't going to be easy and as John pointed out in his post-game coverage, the Bengals presented several tough match-ups for the Jets. We lost every single one of them!

So this isn't going to be the easiest post to write. In fact I asked the question yesterday on my personal twitter account, who should win the helmet stickers? as outside of one player I really had no idea. I got a lot of responses naming the player I had in mind and then one other player. For that reason, there will be no honourable mentions. I don't think anyone deserves the recognition of having an honourable mention for yesterdays performance. So I'm going to dive straight into the stars.

Third Star: Muhammad Wilkerson, 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 pass defended, 1 sack, 1 interception

Don't let the statistics blind you, Wilkerson did not have a great game. He was losing the battle at the line more often than not. He wasn't dominating as he usually is and he didn't cause half as many problems for Dalton who was largely kept clean all game. However to his credit, he still came down with some important plays. If you can have a bad day at the office and still come away with a sack, interception and tackle for a loss you are doing alright. Maybe we have lofty expectations for Mo, but that's only because he has set them himself. Wilkerson has been out best player this year by far but this wasn't a great game for him. He's still young, we forget that, he's still learning, I think we forget that too. He did enough to warrant a star and if you were box score checking you would think he had a great game, he didn't at all.

Second Star: David Nelson, 8 receptions, 80 yards

It's hard to give any offensive player a star when we were limited to just 9 points on three field goals, but Nelson has really come on since joining the Jets. I love his competitive spirit, he will always go up and contest the ball and more often than not he will come down with it. He can also run after the catch and he shows the ability to break tackles. He doesn't have elite speed, but he has enough and for a while yesterday I was just watching his routes, and he runs them really tight and really crisp. Always finishes them, and his awareness to work back to the ball if Geno doesn't look his way straight away is fantastic. He was targeted 12 times yesterday, which tells me that Geno trusts throwing to him. Unfortunately he stared him down a couple of times, just like he stared him down last week on the pick 6. That's on Geno not David.

First Star: Nick Folk, 3/3 FG, 45, 47 and 50 yards

I got a lot of heat for giving Folk the first star earlier in the season and then I got a lot of heat for not giving him a star later in the season. When I asked for suggestions on Twitter yesterday, 100% of replies that came back included Nick's name. He has been a revelation so far this season and you don't get much more reliable. When you can consistently hit kicks from 40+ yards you are doing something right. When you can nail them from 50 yards, you are a very valuable asset to have on your football team. I'm sure some will say he is a kicker, it's his job....well everyone has a job to do and Folk is the only one who's turned up and done his job every single week of this season. For those who are counting, Nick Folk has attempted 19 field goals this season, and he has been successful on 100% of those kicks. Take a bow son, you deserve this one.

First Star = 10 points

Second Star = 6 Points

Third Star = 3 Points.