Jets season up in flames after hideous loss to Panthers

PANTHERS 35 - JETS 27

In what has become a disturbing pattern this season, the New York Jets once again proved they are the best team in the NFL when it comes to finding ways to lose in excruciating fashion. Mistakes, penalties, more mistakes and misfortune spelled doom for Gang Green on Sunday in a game that looked ripe for a tremendous upset, the Jets found a way to let the Carolina Panthers slip from their grasp in a disheartening 35-27 loss.

At 4-7 the Jets playoff hopes are all but dead. While the expectations were not for this team to get to the playoffs this season, it doesn't change the fact that this season has spiraled into utter disappointment.

The bottom line is the Jets blew another fourth quarter lead, and when they had an opportunity to stage a comeback, the flushed that down the toilet on more dumb penalties. All of this falls on the shoulders of head coach Todd Bowles, who once again demonstrated he can't get his team ready to play a full 60 minute football game.

Here are some of the lowlights revisited:

1) Austin Seferian Jenkins dropped touchdown in the first quarter. This was as bad as it gets. Jenkins was wide open in the end zone with nobody around him. All he had to do was haul in the pass and the Jets would would have a 7-3 lead. But, no, Jenkins drops the pass from quarterback Josh McCown. What made matters worse for the Jets was the drop resulted in a fourth and one at the Carolina 13. Let me repeat, the Carolina 13-yard line.

The obvious call was to go for it. Instead Bowles settled for the field goal. Being conservative was the wrong thing to do in that situation.

2) Penalties killed the Jets all day. New York leads in the NFL in penalties, and it seems like no team in the National Football League has hurt itself more with dumb mistakes than the Jets. Take for example the roughing the passer penalty called on DeMario Davis with 13:20 to go in the first half. Instead of the play resulting in a first and ten at the Carolina 31-yard, the 15-yard penalty pushed the ball up close to mid-field. Of course Carolina scored a touchdown on this drive to take a 10-3 lead.

If that wasn't bad enough, perhaps the most egregious penalties came much later in the game. First, Jordan Jenkins was called for offsides on a critical fourth and two at the Jets' 32 yard line. Instead of the Jets defense getting off the field, the penalty gave Carolina a fresh set of downs. Oh, and of course, the Panthers scored a touchdown to go up 18-17.

Finally the killer came late in the fourth quarter with the Jets down 32-27, needing a stop to get the football back with just over two minutes to go in the game, and lineman Mike Pennel gets flagged for roughing the passer, as dumb a mistake as any player could make in a critical situation.

3) Josh McCown. A lot of people want to keep talking about how great McCown has been for the Jets this season, and I beg to differ. He has been a turnover machine when it comes to fumbles and critical game-killing interceptions. Sunday's loss was no exception. With the Jets leading 20-18, and with the football after Carolina went three-and-out, the Jets had a golden opportunity to put the game away in the fourth quarter. But no, McCown fumbled the football while trying to throw it away on a sack. Luck Kuechly picked up the loose ball and rumbled home for a touchdown to give the Panthers the lead back at 26-20.

4) Special Teams: The Jets gave up an inexcusable, 60-yard punt return to Kaelin Clay to blow the game open. There is not much more that needs to be said there.

5) Play-calling: As I addressed earlier with regard to the Jets decision to not go for it on fourth and one at the Panthers 13, the Jets play-calling at the Panthers 1-yard line, when still trailing 18-17 was absolutely inexcusable. Instead of running the football up the gut with either Bilal Powell or Matt Forte, the Jets decided to pull plays out of Pete Carroll's playbook. Three plays on the one yard line, all three passes. What in the heck was that? And even after the Jets got hosed on the Austin Seferian Jenkins touchdown that wasn't, they still tried to throw into the end zone. Why wasn't Todd Bowles telling his offensive coordinator to run the ball? Another poor example of Bowles prowess as a head coach, and his lack of understanding of the moment.

5) The officials just hate the Jets: Ok, even as the Jets did everything in their power to lose this game, and succeeded in doing so, the one play a lot people will remember is the Austin Seferian Jenkins touchdown that wasn't. Wait, you mean the one from the Patriots game? Nope, this was a whole new episode of Replay Madness at the Meadowlands. On second and goal from the one yard line, McCown heaved a pass toward the corner of the end zone that Jenkins caught with his fingers and brought into his body for the touchdown. Jenkins rolled on his back with the ball pressed to his stomach, and the officials still called it an incompletion. That is right, even with full control of the ball, the officials called it an incompletion because of some slight movement.

Whoever is reviewing these plays in New York should be removed from his position, because he clearly isn't doing it very well. The horrible reversal marked the third time this year that Jenkins got completely jobbed by the referees on a touchdown catch. While the catch in the Patriots game was at least debatable, there was no debate that Jenkins had a touchdown on Sunday against Carolina. The NFL has to review its protocol for catches, because nobody knows what they are calling anymore.

At the end of the day, it was another horrendous loss for a football team that just doesn't know how to win. Yes, the Jets won more games this year than anyone expected, at least for those who expected 0 to 1 victory this year, but it leaves no excuse to the fact that Todd Bowles can't get this team ready to finish games off. That is a huge indictment, and one that should weigh against him when this season is over.