Jets Week 7 Anti-Game Ball: Coaching Staff

The Jets lost yesterday so as tradition dictates we must give out an anti-game ball.

Almost every anti-game ball article I have ever written through the years has had comments saying it should go to one particular coach or the coaching staff. I generally avoid doing this for the same reason I try to avoid giving it to the quarterback. Coaching failures, like quarterback play, are at the root of most causes. You could probably come up with a plausible argument to give the coaching staff the anti-game ball after every loss. If we do that, there’s no point in even having an anti-game ball. So I try to save it for special occasions.

The Week 7 loss was a special occasion. The Jets lost by 41. That is never acceptable. Beyond that, the team looked throughly unprepared to play. Even worse, the team was coming off its bye. That’s how the Jets looked with two weeks to get ready for the game. That’s how effective the coaches were at fixing the problems with the team during the bye week.

There were also numerous curious strategic decisions from early game play calling to putting Jamien Sherwood at MIKE linebacker in place of CJ Mosley to not challenging New England’s receivers close to the line of scrimmage.

It doesn’t get much uglier than this. The Jets looked lost in every phase. When there are system-wide issues like this, it’s tough to not blame the coaching staff.

So with that the Jets coaching staff gets my anti-game ball this week. Those of you who have wanted this for the last two months get your wish.

Who gets your anti-game ball?