Going into action against the Broncos, the Jets were riding high. On a five-game winning streak, while being the talk of the NFL, nothing could take them down, or so they thought.
After a 34-17 loss to the Broncos though, the Jets have come crashing back down to earth.
While still a threat in the AFC, they are not the favorites anymore, and they still have some work to do.
What they must do moving forward is never take an opponent lightly. They did this against Denver and look what happened.
Yes, the refs pretty much gave the Broncos 14 points on a fumble return from a miscue from Jerricho Cotchery that should have never been ruled a fumble in the first place, and Eddie Royal looked to be out of bounds on his long first-quarter touchdown reception, but this is not the point.
Even after these mistakes by the refs, the Jets were only down 17-14 after an amazing Thomas Jones rushing touchdown, one where he rolled over a Denver defender without hitting the ground and proceeded to take it to the house for his second touchdown of the game.
Instead of keeping the pressure on the Broncos though, the Jets decided to play stupid football.
Whether it was Jones barely being used after the second quarter when he was clearly the best option that the Jets had in this rain-soaked game, or the defense barely stopping anything all day, the Jets let a very winnable game slip from their grasps with uninspired play.
Part of this is on the players for barely showing up, and part of it is on the coaches as well for not adjusting to the flow of the game.
Instead of covering the tight ends, who tore the Jets up all game, they decided to stick to their coverage scheme of keeping Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall in check. While never a dumb idea, in this game, it was. The adjustments had to be made, and they simply were not.
The result was Denver marching down the field to the tune of almost 500 total yards of offense. The coaches can only do so much though, so the rest of the blame falls on the Jets defensive players for not doing their jobs at all.
Still though, after all of this, in the beginning of the second half, after an end zone interception by Dwight Lowery with the Broncos in the red zone, the Jets had their chances.
Marching down the field with Leon Washington leading the way, the Jets had a chance to make the score 27-21, which would have changed the complexion of the game.
Instead though, they settled for a short Jay Feely field goal, which set up the basis for the rest of the game.
From here, the Broncos, while not blowing anyone away with their play, did enough to keep the lead, and they held the Jets scoreless on another red zone trip in the fourth quarter.
Two red-zone possessions in the second half for the Jets equaled three points for them, instead of possibly 14. This ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back for the Jets, and a 34-14 loss at the end of the game was the result.
If the Jets want to play deep into January, they must punch the ball in the end zone when in the red zone. The results were seen when they did not do this against the Broncos, and they were not pretty in any possible way.
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