Cardinals 28 Jets 3: Ugly Night in Arizona

The Jets fell to 1-5 tonight after losing to the Cardinals 28-3 on Monday Night Football. A game like this and a losing streak like this make it difficult for me to break the game down by individually pointing to performances. I am going to take a broader approach to this recap.

The Bad

Offense: There just isn’t anything working for this team right now. Of course it starts at the quarterback position. It always does. Ryan Fitzpatrick continued his trends of making bad reads, locking onto receivers, and just plain missing throws. The problems don’t end with him, though. The offensive line is starting to look like the liability many of us feared it would be. Years of neglect are shining through. They couldn’t open holes, and left Fitzpatrick under constant pressure. More than half of the line committed penalties. Nobody can make a big play outside of Brandon Marshall. The backs aren’t churning out extra yardage. It is just a mess.

Defense: For a team that is supposed to be built on defense, it would be nice if the unit wasn’t going out and putting the Jets into an early hole each week. David Johnson’s long touchdown run was just a mess. You had Darron Lee going too far up the field, Leonard Williams perhaps not filling his gap, Erin Henderson whiffing on a tackle, and Marcus Gilchrist nowhere near the play. You had another touchdown where it seemed like Steve McLendon might have been too busy trying to drive his blocker than be in the right gap and Lee getting caught in traffic. A vaunted defensive line suddenly can’t get sacks. The secondary can’t make a play, and Buster Skrine was getting beaten all night in coverage, with penalties, and not making tackles. It just is unit wide ugliness.

Coaching: The way this team is using Sheldon Richardson is just too cute. Yeah, maybe he has the athleticism that he can hold up playing linebacker. Why not use a 300 pounder to attack the defense, though, where it is most vulnerable. Use him to create mismatches on the offensive line. If I am playing the Jets, I am thankful every time the Jets aren’t having this kind of athlete get after the quarterback. This team cannot do much in the second half of games. And it is worth asking why the team is even using a roster spot on Geno Smith on this point. Why not play him? Could this quarterback situation get worse? Fine, I get it. You brought Fitzpatrick back because you hoped he could build on his 2015. You didn’t think the odds of Geno succeeding were great. If at this point you still have so little faith in Geno that you still think Fitzpatrick gives you the best chance of success, why even use a roster spot on him? Heck, why not let him catch on with another team that might actually use him?

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I’m not sure there is much else to say at this point.