INDIANAPOLIS — He may be the Accidental Quarterback.
He’s also about as good a quarterback as the Jets could possibly have asked for through two games of a season that is so far satisfactory beyond the Jets’ wildest imagination.
Better? Ryan Fitzpatrick knows something else.
“I have to be better than this,” the Accidental Quarterback said. “And I know I will be.”
Fitzpatrick was awfully good anyway Monday night, during the Jets’ 20-7 win over the Colts. The quarterbacking matchup between Fitzpatrick — starting only because of Geno Smith’s broken jaw — and Andrew Luck, one of the league’s fair-haired boys, looked to be a mismatch on paper.
And, actually, it was. While Luck was slogging through a three-interception, one-fumble nightmare of a night (replete with a woeful QB rating of 52.8), Fitzpatrick was terrific: 22 for 34, 244 yards, two touchdowns and one pick.
“We kept grinding on offense,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said, “and eventually, we broke through.”
Still, Fitzpatrick was visibly unimpressed by what he’d done, believing he should have done more with the five turnovers his defense gave him, believing he should have done more to keep those defenders rested and fresh on the sidelines by extending drives and scoring more points.
“We have to go back and look at staying on the field more,” said Fitzpatrick, who compiled a fine QB rating of 93.3. “I have to be better on third downs [the Jets were only 4-of-12] and making it tougher on the other defense.”
Still, in a telling sign of the confidence Fitzpatrick possesses, he led the Jets on an 80-yard drive immediately after the Colts had closed the gap to 10-7. On that drive, he was 4-for-6 for 56 yards, including a beautiful 27-yard toss to Quincy Enunwa (Enunwa’s first NFL catch) and the clincher — 15 yards to Brandon Marshall for the score.
“That’s a big drive for us,” Fitzpatrick said. “Our offense had stalled too much and was caught in a rut not making a whole lot of plays. It was a gut-check time for us, we had to go out and do something.”
And they did just that.
“I think offensively we didn’t play as well as we wanted — that may be an understatement,” Fitzpatrick said. “The important thing was how we responded and closed out the game. It’s an important growth area for us.”
