Jets head coach Todd Bowles spoke to the media after the game. One of the topics was his decision to punt late in the fourth quarter with the Jets down 9 points.
Coach Bowles speaks to the media following #NYJvsBUF. https://t.co/48MbHErA6z
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 10, 2017
Bowles indicated he was looking to change field position. The Jets had three timeouts. He said that if the Jets didn't pick up the first down, the Bills could have pinned them deep. The Jets wouldn't have enough time to get down the field to score twice.
Is this a valid explanation? I can't see any way to defend Bowles' decision. The fact of the matter is the only viable scenarios for the Jets to win involved them scoring on that drive. They didn't have enough time to punt the ball away and lose their timeouts. It feels like Bowles valued the field position battle more than the battle to win the game.
Bowles spoke about other issues in his postgame press conference. He hinted that the decision to make Christian Hackenberg the second quarterback had nothing to do with Bryce Petty's injury. The Jets apparently think Hackenberg is better than Petty.
He also stated that Jeremy Kerley didn't have enough of the playbook down to be active for this game.