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Mainejet
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Break up the Jets! After Gang Green was a popular pick before the season to finish with the league's worst record, Todd Bowles' team is shockingly even with the Patriots in the AFC East at 2-2. Even more exciting for Jets fans, it's the rival Giants who are 0-4 and challenging for the first pick in the draft. Can the Jets be competitive and keep this up?
They are better than most people expected heading into the season, but color me skeptical they'll flirt with .500. Their two wins simply haven't been very impressive, while their losses have been far more comprehensive. Beating the Dolphins looks good on paper, but Miami also beat itself with mistakes and sloppy play; any team in the league would have comfortably dispatched Gase's team in Week 3.
As for their win against the Jags on Sunday, the Jets required a fluky 75-yard touchdown from Bilal Powell on which the Jaguars' defense mistakenly believed it had touched down the runner, only for Powell to get up and run for a score. The Jets did run the ball well against the league's 32nd-ranked run defense by DVOA heading into the week, but the final numbers overstate their real effectiveness by virtue of that play.
The Jets also tried their best to throw away the game. Powell slipped on a pass attempt to convert a late third-and-6 that would have been short of the sticks anyway, leading A.J. Bouye to an interception which gave the Jags great field position. The Jaguars scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, only for Arrelious Benn to be whistled for a totally unnecessary holding penalty, forcing the Jags back into a game-tying field goal try.
Josh McCown then fumbled on the final snap of regulation, fortunately falling on what would have been a critical mistake that would have given the Jags a shot at a game-winning field goal. Then, late in overtime, the Jets bizarrely decided to spike the ball on third down with 34 seconds left to set up their game-winning field goal try when they just as easily could have kneeled to keep the clock running. Had Chandler Catanzaro missed for the second time, the Jets would have given the Jaguars a free 30 seconds to try to win the game themselves. (If the Jets weren't confident they could have gotten their kicking unit on the field and run a field goal try with 30 seconds, they have bigger fish to fry.)
The Jets might very well have a winning record this time next week -- they're about to travel to Cleveland for a game against a hapless 0-4 Browns team. After that, though, the schedule stiffens. The Jets will face the Patriots, Dolphins, Falcons, Bills and Buccaneers before their Week 11 bye, and the Panthers, Chiefs and Broncos immediately afterward. For a team whose margin of error in beating the Jaguars was razor-thin, it's difficult to see the Jets winning many of those games.
