Jets finally get a much needed victory in a one score game
Before you start, I don’t care about the draft pick. There are already a lot of fans groaning on the internet about the Jets winning a game against another three-win team in the Jacksonville Jaguars and saying they should have lost the game for a better draft pick. Stop it. I will say it again, […]
Before you start, I don’t care about the draft pick. There are already a lot of fans groaning on the internet about the Jets winning a game against another three-win team in the Jacksonville Jaguars and saying they should have lost the game for a better draft pick. Stop it.
I will say it again, in case you didn’t hear me the last time I said it. Players do not care about a team’s draft status. Fans might care. Ownership and general managers might care (of which the Jets have a terrible owner and no GM). But players care about what they put on tape and playing for the other guys in the locker room. Not about what spot the team drafts. And for the fans who care, why? There is no Joe Burrow. There is no Trevor Lawrence. There is only a lot of question marks waiting in the 2025 NFL draft class.
So, with that mind, the New York Jets got a hard-fought road victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars by a final of 32-25. It wasn’t easy. It certainly wasn’t pretty. Put it goes in the victory column, nonetheless. Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams turned back the clock to their Green Bay Packers days in the second half with Adams ending the day with nine receptions for 198 yards, two touchdowns and 2-point conversion. When the game was on the line late in the fourth quarter, it was Rodgers to Adams that got them into scoring position.
Rodgers not only had a good day throwing the ball, 16/30 for 289 yards and three touchdowns, but he added six carried for 45 yards rushing.
This was a huge game for the Jets and it has nothing to do with the record. The Jets have a lot of young players that need to learn how to win games and need to learn that they can win games. I’m not naïve enough to say that a win against a three-win Jaguars team is going to flip a switch, but it does matter. Sauce Garnder, who sealed a game with his first (yes, first) interception of the year, sounded like a man who had a weight lifted off his shoulders after the game.
This is a Jets team that was 0-7 this season prior to this game in one-score games. That is a stat that weighs on a team. As any close game comes towards the end, players start to look for what is going to go wrong, instead of how to win.
Sure, there were some questionable decisions at the end of the game, like scoring a touchdown with over a minute to play in the game instead of milking the clock and sealing a victory. But the Jets defense was able to finally rise to the occasion after the offense did their part. Something Jets fans expected to see all year.
On the day where it was reported that the New York Jets would start interviewing potential GM candidates, showing that your young core can learn how to win and will fight for every win, even in a meaningless matchup between two, three-win teams, is important.
