Aye Caramba! The Jets Stink Versus Vikings

VIKINGS 37 - JETS 17 

The Jets have nobody to blame but themselves for Sunday’s loss 37-17 to the Minnesota Vikings, an afternoon that was defined by mistakes in all three facets of the game as the Jets dropped to 3-4 on the season.

For a young team like the Jets, this kind of performance is expected, especially against a team like the Vikings. But what made Sunday’s defeat so frustrating is the Vikings were ripe for the picking. The Jets could have won this game had they played smarter. 

While the turnover sheet shows the Jets turned the football over four times, the amount of mental and physical mistakes created a laundry list of problems for Gang Green.

It seemed to all start when punter Lachlen Edwards received a horrible snap on a simple fourth down early in the second quarter and it just kept down hill from there. Edwards botched the punt, giving the Vikings the football at the Jets 40, and inspite of an inspired Jets defensive stand, Minnesota still got points out of it to take a 10-7 lead.

Then the mistakes kept coming. A botched snap by Spencer Long resulted in a loss of possession. Fumbles by Andre Roberts on punt returns proved costly; huge drops by Jets receivers in big spots were uncanny, unconscious play by Parry Nickerson, and bad turnovers by Sam Darnold. The mistakes kept coming like a geyser.

 After the Vikings scored a touchdown on their opening possession of the third quarter to make it 17-7, Darnold made a horrible mistake when he tried to gun the ball down field, only to have it picked off by Hunter Smith. Smith brought the ball back 52-yards to the Jets nine yard line, setting up another Viking field goal to make it 20-7.

Then, the really awful mistakes started to happen. The Jets got a gift when Roberts returned the ensuing kick-off 53-yards into Viking territory, but New York found a way to shoot themselves in the foot when Eric Tomlinson and Isaiah Crowell dropped passes that would have been easy first downs.

 Instead of marching down field for a much-needed touchdown, the Jets had to kick the field goal to cut the Viking lead down to 20-10.

The next big mistake came minutes later when Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins threw the football behind himself for a clear fumble. Nobody on the Jets knew what was going on. Parry Nickerson was the closet Jet to the football and didn’t realize the ball was alive until Stefon Diggs fell on it. Had Nickerson paid attention, he could have scooped up the ball and scored.

After both teams exchanged touchdowns to make it a 27-17 ball game, the Jets still had a shot with nearly nine minutes to go in the game after the defense forced a Viking three-and-out, but even that was asking too much.

On second and 10 from the Jets own 43-yard line, Darnold threw a costly interception to Holton Hill on a pass intended for Andre Roberts. The Vikings would make the Jets pay when Cousins found Aldrick Robinson from 34-yards out on a fourth down and eight to blow the game open at 34-17.

Ironically, the Jets could have gotten out of this mess. Two plays before Cousins hit Robinson in the end zone, Cousins tried to dump a pass off down the middle that Parry Nickerson had in his hands and dropped. It could have. No, it should have been a Jets interception. Instead, his drop gave the Vikings life, which they took advantage of.

Clearly the number of missing bodies from this game hurt the Jets. They Jets were without Marcus Maye, Trumaine Johnson and Buster Skrine, forcing the Jets to give more playing time to Nickerson and Darryle Roberts. For his sake, Roberts did ok in the Jets secondary, but they missed the hard hitters in the lineup.

Offensively, the Jets never got going. Without Quincy Enunwa who is out for a month with an ankle injury, and without Terrell Pryor, who the team inexplicably cut just hours before the game, Darnold was throwing to guys he wasn’t used to. Andre Roberts, Deontray Burnett and Charone Peake shouldn’t be catching passes from Darnold. In Peake’s case, he caught a pass and lateraled it to a Viking player by accident.

As a result, Darnold had his worst game since the Jacksonville game four weeks ago. The quarterback was 17-of-42 for 206 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.  

At 3-4, the Jets loss to the Vikings was a missed opportunity, a reminder that this football team is still light-years away from being a good team. New York heads to Chicago next week to face an angry Bears team. If the Jets don’t clean up the mistakes, it will be ugly next week.