The Jets got back to work Monday after their big win over the Broncos on Sunday with one thing in mind: Do it again.
Winning streaks have been rare around the Jets in recent years. They won three in a row last year and two in a row in 2016, and that is it for the past two seasons. This year, they followed an impressive Week 1 win over the Lions with three straight losses — a skid that was snapped with Sunday’s 34-16 win.
The Jets know their next step as a team is to start stacking wins.
“We’ve got to grow up,” left tackle Kelvin Beachum said. “It’s the maturity game for us.”
Beachum said the Jets are realistic about Sunday’s win, in which they went big-play crazy to beat the Broncos. It’s hard to rely on getting two touchdowns of more than 75 yards every week. In order to truly be a winning team, the Jets have to play more consistently.
“It’s great to get a win, but at the same time we have to keep things in perspective,” Beachum said. “We left a lot of yards out there on offense. We could have been more efficient with the plays we had. It’s not often that you get runs like that in a game where you can run for 60 or 70 yards for a touchdown. That’s just not the National Football League. We’ve got to find a way to sustain drives and put drives together.”
The Jets don’t have to look far in the past to see when they fell on their faces after a big win. The 48-17 win over the Lions in Week 1 had the Jets thinking big. But they followed that up with a 20-12 loss to the Dolphins and then two more losses.
“If we learn from that particular experience as a team the first time around, we should come out and do things better this time around,” Beachum said.
Under Todd Bowles, the Jets have not been able to find that consistency. In his first season, the Jets won five games in a row, but they have not come close to a streak like that since. Bowles said they are stressing consistency.
“We’re trying to find that week after week,” Bowles said. “That’s the biggest thing after a game. We’ve got to make sure we carry it over to the next game, and make sure we continue to do things to get better. We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep grinding at it.”
Safety Jamal Adams said the Jets know they can’t get carried away off of one win.
“Just staying level-headed as a team,” Adams said when asked what the key to consistency is. “You have to come prepared and you have to come with your A-game. You can definitely fail if you don’t show up. We’ve just got to stay grounded, man, and continue to work and continue to be good at the little things.”
The Jets face the Colts and Vikings at home in the next two weeks, giving them more opportunities at MetLife Stadium to build a winning streak before hitting the road at the end of the month to play the Bears.
Sunday’s win relieved some pressure around the Jets and keeps their goals for this season alive.
“It was pivotal to win at home,” Bowles said. “We were 1-3; 1-4 would have been difficult for us; 2-3, we got the win [Sunday]. We have another tough one next week against Indy. We’ll try and defend home turf.”
The Jets know if they are to reach the playoffs this year, they are going to have to play like they did Sunday more often than once every four weeks.
“It’s really all about stacking [wins],” Beachum said. “If we can do that consistently we’ll be able to be in the position from a record standpoint that we desire.”
