Gang Green Nation
I have watched a lot of bad Jets football over the last 30 years. I have seen stretches where the Jets had similarities to the hapless Rich Kotite teams of 1995 and 1996.
Adam Gase’s two seasons with the Jets were mostly terrible. The fact Gase won even nine games in that stretch is a testament to the team’s some real luck with its schedule and in late game situations.
The Jets were inept in John Idzik and Rex Ryan’s final season. There were some laughable performances, namely a five touchdown loss to the Bills in Detroit. The Jets were coming off a bye. The game had to be moved because snow shut Buffalo down, and didn’t even allow the Bills to practice.
I’m sure I could come up with other examples of truly dreadful Jets football over the last three decades. Maybe in the heat of the moment we have compared a Jets team to the Kotite Jets.
I don’t think a Jets team has ever done a full on Kotite imitation to the extent the 2025 Jets are.
It isn’t enough to be bad. It’s that you fail even when the deck is stacked in your favor.
The Cowboys entered this game averaging 8.5 net passing yards per attempt. That wasn’t just the worst in the league. It was the worst in the league by 0.8 yards per attempt. There was as big of a gap between the worst Dallas and second worst Miami as there was between number two and number seven. Dallas’ number was a full 1.4 yards per attempt worse than what last year’s worst team Jacksonville allowed.
The Jets averaged 5 net passing yards per attempt in this game, and that is with some pretty significant stat padding against prevent style defenses in garbage time. The game was over by halftime, at which point the Jets had a total of 43 passing yards.
Looking to the defensive side of the ball, the Jets were taking on an offensive line of backups. The result? They recorded one single sack, also registered when the game was out of reach, and three quarterback hits all game.
You can’t be surprised at this point when the Jets allow a third and long conversion or miss two tackles in the backfield on a successful third and one conversion. You can’t be surprised when the Cowboys gift them multiple penalties on the opening drive, and the Jets settle for a field goal. You can’t be surprised that the Jets start moving the ball, and disaster strikes on a Breece Hall fumble. You certainly can’t be surprised when the Jets allow a pair of touchdowns to put the game out of reach in the last two minutes before halftime, and one is the result of a 95 yard drive.
Do you know the play that surprised me the most watching this game? You probably don’t remember it because it was inconsequential to the outcome. It was on a third and nine...
