Eight turnovers. Six interceptions.
The New York Jets, a postseason hopeful, helped defeat themselves Sunday afternoon, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in a forgettable game for Jets’ fans, but a memorable, frameable victory for those who love Kansas City.
Forget about adjustments. Those were intercepted, too. Turned over. The Kansas City Chiefs completely shut down whatever game plan the Jets had contrived.
“Every time you lose like that, you have to have a come-to-Jesus meeting,” said Jets’ head coach Todd Bowles.
“It’s hard. It hurts for me to play that poorly,” said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who in the game before against Buffalo threw for 374 yards, completing more than 70 percent of his passes.
[Expletive] I don’t know,” said Bowles when asked about the play of Fitzpatrick. “He threw interceptions, we turned it over. It was the entire offense. It was the defense, it was the special teams. It wasn’t just Ryan.”
Bowles was accurate. The Jets didn’t make plays. There were no abundance of Matt Forte carries to boast of. He had 30 against Buffalo.
There were no spectacular Quincy Enunwa third-down receptions. No Fitzpatrick to (Eric) Decker passes. None to Brandon Marshall that resulted into substantive yardage.
The Jets averaged 29 and 1/2 points in two games, eight quarters going into KC, but could only manufacture one three-point field goal within 60 whole minutes against the Chiefs. There’s no consistency.
“It was a [expletive] game plan. [Expletive] execution. [Expletive] all around. I’m disappointed. Pissed off. Mad,” said Bowles, so angry after the loss on Sunday that he felt the need to express his displeasure in the rawest form.
Bowles’ message to his now 1-2 team was about accountability and understanding, where they are in the season, who they are and what they need to be. After all, there are 13 games remaining. The season is still young. “We have to understand that we have a ways to go. We’re not where we want to be, and we have a lot of work to get to where we need to be,” noted Bowles. A statement of sorts that was also made before the last preseason game in August, but let’s focus on this Sunday’s game against the 2-1 Seattle Seahawks, who are showing signs of reverting back to their old, Super Bowl, postseason form.
Though their quarterback Russell Wilson, who has required medical attention during the past month because of injuries, was able to score 37 points in Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, they had only scored a combined 15 points in their first two games of the season. This game will be their first east coast game of the season. The time change combined with Wilson’s knee and ankle ailments could possibly affect Seattle’s output, but will the Jets and Fitzpatrick be able to build off of their mistakes to affect their outcome?
“Unfortunately and fortunately, I played bad before,” Fitzpatrick said. “And I know how to rebound from it.”
