Forget about the final score, which wrongly indicates a one-possession outing. Yesterday’s setback was one of the worst in the Jets’ history, period. For all their travails, there can be no excusing their 18-26 loss to the considerably overmatched Dolphins. It didn’t matter that they were on the road, and that they trekked to Hard Rock Stadium mired in a three-game rut while facing injuries to key players. Once the contest was under way, they should have been in position to assert their superiority.
As things turned out, however, the Jets couldn’t even rely on motivation to spur them to victory. In fact, they proved hard-pressed to keep up with the Dolphins, whose status as co-doormats of the National Football League was validated by some shaky action on both sides of the field. And not only couldn’t they capitalize against opponents with seemingly more to gain by tanking as opposed to competing. Instead of stamping their class, they wound up trading head-scratching moments that stunted any rally they tried to mount.
Certainly, no one sequence was more indicative of the Jets’ foibles than that with 6:29 left in the fourth quarter. Down nine and intent on gaining ground quickly, they went on a shotgun formation in their seven-yard line. Whatever plan they had became immaterial, however, as center Jonotthan Harrison’s snap flew to the right of quarterback Sam Darnold, who may or may not have been prepared, leading to a safety. A lack of effort? Perhaps absence is a better word; no supposed stalwart in green and white even bothered to try to prevent the ball from bouncing to the end zone.
In the end, the Jets were left to rue their many miscues. Head coach Adam Gase noted that “everybody feels like crap. You don’t put in this much time and effort to come out here and lose.” Interestingly, the same theme pervaded Dolphins counterpart Brian Flores’ post-mortem. “Anytime you win, it feels good,” he said. “That’s why we put in all the work.” Which, in a nutshell, sums up the difference between the victors and the vanquished: They both tried, but the former tried harder.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
