How much more can this Jets team endure before it cracks?
The avalanche feels like it’s one misplaced snowflake away from crashing down and swallowing everything and everyone in its path.
Sunday’s game at Seattle (8-4) has the distinct feel of a breaking point for the Jets (0-12), who are two-touchdown underdogs in a game that feels like the point spread should be double that.
If there’s one thing to admire the Jets for in Adam Gase’s terrible two-season failure as their head coach, it’s this: He hasn’t lost the locker room.
It has been an admirable trait worth noting for a team that has won seven games and lost 21 under Gase and is careening toward becoming just the third team in NFL history to finish 0-16.
The Jets haven’t had a lot going for them this season. They definitely don’t have a lot going for them Sunday.
Let us count the clouds that hover over this cursed franchise as it flies some six hours to play a Seahawks team that last week was stunned by the Giants and their backup quarterback, and afterward had players admitting they didn’t take the Giants seriously enough.
What’s going to happen to the undermanned and talent-challenged Jets if the Seahawks actually take them seriously?
Adam Gase at Jets practice Robert SaboIt’s likely to be not good.
*Not good for a Jets team that has allowed 30 or more points in each of its seven non-division games this season, outscored by an average of 33.4-17.6.
- Not good for a Jets team that is coming off its most excruciating loss of the Gase era — last Sunday’s 31-28 defeat to the Raiders, who beat them on a 46-yard touchdown pass with 5 seconds remaining.
- Not good for a Jets team that fired its defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, the day after that loss, essentially as a result of the irresponsible Cover Zero blitz he called on the game-winning play — despite the Raiders having no timeouts and just 13 seconds remaining.
- Not good for Frank Bush, the Jets assistant head coach/linebackers who was elevated to take Williams’ place as the interim defensive coordinator, having his baptism-by-fire game against Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson and his Megatron-like receiver DK Metcalf.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind,’’ Bush said this week. “It’s a challenge for us, and yeah, it’s going to be a tough day up there. But … if we go up there and play hard and do the things we were supposed to do, hey, I like the idea of us being able to compete with them.’’
At this point, merely competing is all we can ask of the pathetic Jets.
- Not good for a Jets offense that will be without productive, bright-spot rookie receiver Denzel Mims, who was tending to a family emergency at home in Texas this week and will miss the game.
- *Not good for a Jets offense that isn’t even sure its most dependable receiver, Jamison Crowder, is going to play after he turned up on the injury report Friday with a calf issue.
- Not good for a Jets offense with veteran running back Frank Gore, its leading rusher, still in concussion protocol as of Friday.
- *Not good for a Jets offense that’s bracing for its first meeting against the team’s former safety, Jamal Adams, who was traded to Seattle in the summer after an acrimonious contract squabble and is going to want blood to go along with the expected Seahawks victory.
Don’t put it past Adams, who has 7.5 sacks this season, to ghost Gase in pregame warmups, or take a football up to the press box and spike it at the feet of Jets general manager Joe Douglas if he has the opportunity. Adams is vindictive.
Linebacker Jordan Jenkins, the longest-tenured Jet and arguably the toughest player on the team, is out for this game with a shoulder injury that has simply gotten so painful he cannot play with it.
Along with Jenkins, safeties Ashtyn Davis, who had been starting, and Bennett Jackson are both out with injuries, leaving the Jets tissue-thin at safety.
“We’re looking for volunteers,’’ Gase said, only half joking.
The Seahawks, of course, are coached by Pete Carroll, who got a raw deal from the Jets a few lifetimes ago — fired by Leon Hess after only one season (1994) and replaced by Rich Kotite, whose record for futility (1-15 in 1997) is threatened to be surpassed by this team if (when?) it finishes 0-16.
Indeed, nothing has gone right for the Jets this season. Even their nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, cornerback Pierre Desir, isn’t on the team anymore. He was released last month after performing poorly and will be remembered as Douglas’ biggest free-agent miss of 2020.
Some things you cannot make up.
