Dolphins 24 Jets 0: Hopeless

“Hopeless” is really the only word that can accurately describe the current state of the New York Jets. The Jets fell to 0-6 with an uncompetitive 24-0 loss to the Dolphins in Miami.

I said this last week. I will say it again. Over the last ten years we have seen some awful Jets football, but this season has a special quality that resembles the Rich Kotite years. It is one thing to be bad. What set the Kotite years apart were the many moments where you couldn’t actually believe what you were seeing was possible on an NFL field.

We had plenty of those today. The Jets took a first down off the board on an obvious offensive pass interference penalty on a third down play. They followed that up with a shotgun snap Joe Flacco wasn’t ready to receive. This forced a punt that Vyncint Smith had a great chance to down deep in Miami territory. He whiffed, and the ball went into the end zone for a touchback.

There were plenty more miscues. The Jets totally busted coverages on two of three Miami touchdowns. Flacco took an incomprehensible intentional grounding penalty to turn a third and 1 into a fourth and 14. He later took an even more incomprehensible sack that lost 28 yards. Smith couldn’t even catch a kickoff cleanly.

The Jets now look more like blooper reel that football team.

We are past the point where the talent level can come anywhere close to explaining how miserable the team’s performance is. These players are failing to execute simple football acts. Even if you are a bad NFL player, you are still better at playing the game than well over 99 percent of the general population. What we are seeing speaks to a lack of preparation and effort.

It is ironic today’s opponent was the Miami Dolphins. This of course is Adam Gase’s former team.

A year ago the talent level in Miami was so low that many wondered whether the Dolphins would go down as the worst team in NFL history. There were points early in the season were some openly questioned whether the league should step in to do something about a team that seemed to be so blatantly tanking.

In that context it is difficult to argue the current Jets have appreciably less talent than those Dolphins.

What the Dolphins had was a coaching staff that got players to buy in, work hard, and hold themselves accountable. The team consistently improved throughout the season. First the Dolphins started playing closer games. Then their breakthrough came unsurprisingly against Gase’s Jets as they registered their first win. The 2019 Dolphins weren’t a good team. They finished 5-11, but they showed a team that lacks quality NFL players can be competitive and even win some games with the right leadership.

Almost one year has passed since that win the Dolphins registered against the Jets. For me that was the point of no turning back for Adam Gase. I called for his firing immediately after the loss. I was highly skeptical of the hire from the second it was made, but that loss proved definitively to me that the Jets could not win with this coach. I said at the time that every minute Gase remained the head coach of the Jets was a waste.

Here we are a few weeks shy of one year later. You can tell me whether you think the last twelve months have felt like a waste of time. I know my answer.

The only question I have is how much more time the Jets will waste before making the obvious move.