Recapping the New York Jets’ Loss to the Oakland Raiders: Running Game and Defense Let Gang Green Down

from: NYPOST.com
Geno Smith took over for an injured Ryan Fitzpatrick in the Jets’ loss to Oakland.

The Jets suffered their second consecutive loss on Sunday afternoon as the Raiders defeated New York by a score of 34-20.

A lot of things went wrong for the Jets on Sunday, but the biggest one was without question, Ryan Fitzpatrick getting injured on the first drive of the game. It seemed to take the life out of the team right away. And I think every Jets fan rolled their eyes when they saw Geno Smith take the field.

Even though Fitzpatrick had to leave the game, there was still no excuse for this loss. The team was bad all around.

1. The Running Game – The running game was flat out bad. Not having Nick Mangold was probably a contributing factor, but there is no excuse for Geno Smith to be the team’s leading rusher with 34 yards. Chris Ivory and Zac Stacy had a combined 28 yards. That is two weeks in a row where the Jets struggled with the running game and the Jets lost both games. The Jets are not going to win many games this year if they rely on their passing game because Fitzpatrick and Geno are simply not good enough. They must establish a running game first.
2. Defense – The Jets allowed 451 total yards to the Oakland Raiders. Let that sink in. They also let up 21 points in the first half. The Raiders offense is not that bad, but keep in mind that the Jets are supposed to have one of the best defenses in all of football, but that was clearly not the case on Sunday. The defense put the Jets in a hole early, and it was too much for the offense to make a comeback. Hopefully this was just a one week thing and they will be back on track next week. The defense had been good all year up to this point, so hopefully, they should get back on track for next week’s game.

Now with a 4-3 record, they trail the Patriots in the division by three games.  The Patriots are 7-0, and are showing no signs of slowing down. So the Jets shot at the playoffs will have to come via the Wild Card and for the Jets to do so, they would most likely need at least nine wins, but if they need ten wins, it is more than possible. For the Jets to win 9 or 10, they need to get back to playing their style of Football which is ground and pound. And with a favorable schedule in the next few weeks, the Jets should be looking to pick up a few wins. But first, let’s hope that they bounce back at home this Sunday against Jacksonville.