The Jets dropped their fifth game in a row on Sunday, a setting that had an all-too--familiar ring to it. In rainy conditions, the Jets failed to get their offense going, benched their quarterback, lost multiple players to injury and were called for multiple costly penalties.
Backup tight end MyCole Pruitt scored the game’s only touchdown in the second quarter as the Jets frustratingly trailed by one score for the last 40 minutes but could never recapture the lead. In an effort to spark the offense, the Jets benched quarterback Tim Boyle for Trevor Siemian, but still weren’t able to put together a scoring drive when they needed to.
The Jets, who led 2-0 after the first quarter following a safety, got the ball back with under two minutes remaining and down by 13-8 but their last-ditch drive stalled near midfield.
Here are the key takeaways…
- The Jets opted to give Dalvin Cook more work early on in this game, and it initially looked like a good idea, as he had 33 yards on four touches in the first quarter, giving the offense the kind of early jolt Breece Hall hadn’t been giving them.
Hall had averaged just 2.1 yards per carry in the first quarter since he dashed for 26 yards on the first snap of the season. Unfortunately for the Jets, the Cook gambit backfired early in the second quarter when his lost fumble set up the only Atlanta touchdown.
Hall wasn’t much better himself, though, with his longest run of the day negated by a holding penalty. He averaged just more than a yard per carry despite the offensive line being healthier than it has for several weeks.
- The Jets’ defense was solid for most of the first half with Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder going just 1 for 5 in the games opening quarter. Quinnen Williams and Ashtyn Davis blew up an Atlanta run in the end zone to give the Jets a 2-0 lead heading into the second quarter. The good defense continued into the second half, but the Falcons were playing with the lead, so they were content to take whatever the Jets were giving them. Ridder only completed one pass to a wide receiver all day.
- Boyle led a strong 12-play, 66-yard drive in the second quarter but the Jets' red zone woes resurfaced, and they were forced to settle for a short field goal.
- The Jets activated Duane Brown but started rookie Carter Warren at right tackle instead. While Brown did see some action as an extra tight end, Warren allowed a sack and had a penalty in the first half. He then blew the protection on third-and-10 on the final drive, leading to another sack which basically put an end to New York’s hope.
- Other than Warren’s false start, the Jets didn’t have any penalties heading into the last four minutes of the first half, however, in that last four minutes they had seven penalties called against them ruining a drive, negating a turnover and helping Atlanta drive downfield for a late field goal. While one might assume this was more evidence of poor discipline from the Jets, nearly every call in that sequence seemed extremely harsh, much to Robert Saleh’s frustration. They ended up with 11 accepted penalties to Atlanta’s six.
- With the offensive line about as healthy as it’s ever going to get and both Boyle and Siemian unable to get anything going, it’s unclear where the Jets go from here. Could they opt to go back to Zach Wilson on the basis that maybe all the offensive issues weren’t down to him and hope he could fare better behind a more experienced line than the one he was playing with when he was benched?