EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. _ The New York Jets put themselves in position to stop all the negativity on Thursday night. They had the lead in the fourth quarter, and a chance to get that elusive first win of the season.
Then they imploded. And there's a whole lot of blame to go around, starting with head coach Adam Gase _ who now appears to be a dead coach walking.
The Broncos beat the Jets 37-28 at MetLife Stadium in a strangely thrilling, but difficult-to-watch game.
Sam Darnold returned after a seemingly devastating injury, but couldn't do enough to beat a depleted Broncos team. The Jets defense was an absolute disaster, making terrible mistakes in coverage and committing crushing penalties _ including the most costly of all: Quinnen Williams fourth-quarter personal foul that was the wrong type of game-change.
An the offense was absolutely miserable where it mattered most, in the red zone, as the Jets never came close to scoring on any of their red zone possessions.
It was a disaster. But it was total team effort, which was fitting of this Jets team.
It was a wild game, from the get-go. But things got especially crazy in the fourth quarter, starting with a pick-6 from Pierre Desir that gave the Jets hope. Desir was an absolute disaster for most of the game, but his 35-yard touchdown return narrowed the gap to 27-25 with 10:56 left in the game.
And then Brian Poole set the Jets up to take command of the game with another interception with 8:37 remaining, giving the offense the ball at the 44 with 8:37 remaining. A touchdown would have been huge. Instead, they had to settle for a field goal after the drive stalled. But they had taken a 28-27 with 6:23 left, their first lead since the first quarter.
All they needed was a big stop from the defense. And that's exactly what they got when Williams sacked Rypien with about five minutes left. It should have forced the Broncos to punt deep from their own territory, but Williams was called for a facemask on the play. And suddenly the Broncos had life, and they made they most of it.
Broncos kicker Brandon McManus drilled a 53-yard field goal with 3:08 remaining to give Denver a 30-28 lead. The Jets turned the ball over on downs at midfield just before the two-minute warning, but they still had three timeouts. And then the defense did the one thing it couldn't do: give up a 43-yard touchdown run to Melvin Gordon on first down. Game over.
It was a brutal end for the Jets: but it showed exactly what is wrong with this team. Everything.
And now it's hard to imagine how or when this team gets a win.
