As you may have expected in a game between the Jets and Panthers, this was some dreadful football.
The thousands of empty seats in MetLife Stadium on a perfect football-weather Sunday told you all you needed to know about the waning interest in the winless Jets at this point.
And their performance, in a 13-6 loss to the Panthers, did not fail to meet the low expectations.
None of the fans who opted to eat their purchased game tickets to stay home and rake leaves or clean out their garages felt even a hint of FOMO.
They missed nothing.
Except for the one-week-too-late benching of starting Jets quarterback Justin Fields, who was replaced by veteran backup Tyrod Taylor after the first half with the offense utterly anemic.
And even that didn’t work.
The Jets are 0-7, the only remaining winless team in the NFL. They’ve failed to score a touchdown in either of the past two games and they’re creeping perilously toward the dubious 0-17 watch.
“It’s tough,’’ Taylor said of being 0-7. “Trust me, no one feels it more than we do. I mean, we’re in it. We’re putting in our blood, sweat and tears, week in and week out, and ultimately it hasn’t resulted in a winning performance.
“This organization deserves to win. The players in this locker and the work that we put in week in and week out deserve to win as well.’’
The thing is, you have to score touchdowns in order to win, and the Jets are not good at scoring touchdowns.
Not even the quarterback change head coach Aaron Glenn made at halftime did the trick. Taylor (10-of-22 for 126 yards) looked more like a serviceable NFL quarterback, but he threw two INTs in the second half that prevented the Jets from scoring.
“We needed a spark,’’ Glenn said of the quarterback change. “I felt it was the right time to do it.’’
Now what?
Fields has played poorly more often than he’s been competent. But Taylor hardly lit up the yard, either.
“When it goes into next week, I’m not ready to sit here and say what’s going to happen with our quarterbacks,’’ Glenn said. “That’s something I have to look at. Offensively, we have a lot of work to do, and that speaks for itself. We all know that.’’
The Jets finished the first half trailing 10-3, having accumulated 97 yards of offense.
Fields, who was coming off a passing performance that produced minus-10 net yards in last week’s 13-11 loss to the Broncos in London, wasn’t much better at home on Sunday through 30 minutes.
He was 6-of-12 for 25 net passing yards in the first half, thanks to three Carolina sacks for 21 yards in losses. So, for those of you scoring at home, Fields had 15 net yards of passing in six quarters entering the third quarter.
All eyes turned to the Jets sideline when their offense took the field for the first time in the third quarter to see if Glenn would have the audacity to trot Fields back onto the field with the starters.
Despite his unwavering support of Fields, Glenn didn’t send him back out in the third quarter.
“I can’t blame him,’’ Fields said of Glenn’s decision to bench him. “We only scored like three points in the first half. So, it is what it is. That’s life. Of course, I wish things would have gone a little bit different, not only for me, but for this team.’’
When Taylor entered, the Jets trailed 13-3 after the Panthers took the opening drive of the second half and converted it into a 29-yard field goal.
Taylor’s second possession showed some semblance of hope until he threw a long pass to Josh Reynolds into the end zone that was intercepted by Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn, who made an acrobatic one-handed pick as he fell to the ground with 34 seconds remaining before the fourth quarter.
Taylor then led the Jets to a 47-yard Nick Folk field goal that cut the Carolina lead to 13-6 with 6:26 remaining in the game.
That left it up to the Jets defense to make a stop on the Panthers offense, which was now led by 37-year-old Andy Dalton, who took over for starter Bryce Young when Young went out with an ankle injury.
The Jets defense held and got the ball back for Taylor with 4:41 remaining.
But on the second play of the ensuing series, Taylor, trying to connect again with Reynolds, was picked off by Horn again.
The Jets defense held Carolina to another three-and-out and the Jets got the ball back again, with 2:49 remaining and three timeouts in hand.
That series didn’t end well, either. Taylor was sacked for a 7-yard loss on the first play of the possession and the Jets went three-and-out and, with three timeouts remaining, punted, giving the ball back to Carolina with 1:44 remaining.
The Jets would never get the ball back.
And so ended another entirely dreary day of football on a beautiful fall day that warranted better.
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