Jets Embarrassing 28-9 Loss to Bills Ends Circus Season

Well the season is finally over. Mark Sanchez had the exact opposite game from his impressive performance in the season-opener against the Bills. The New York Jets (6-10) had their worst season in the Rex Ryan era and a few heads will likely roll, but let’s review this dreadful loss. Sanchise No More Mark Sanchez had an absolutely awful game against a dreadful Buffalo defense. I guess you could consider it a normal Sanchez game after the season he’s had: 17/35 for 205 yards and one interception. Those statistics don’t tell the whole story as if you watched the game you could tell that he just didn’t seem comfortable in the pocket. He was only sacked once and had a relatively good pocket for the whole game, but he just seemed jittery and couldn’t deliver a good pass. The interception was unforgivable as it appeared to be thrown directly to the defensive back, who easily returned it for a touchdown. It will be tough for the Jets to hand Sanchez the starting job for next season, and I think they’d be wrong to do anything other than bring in a legitimate competitor at the very least. They will likely look to the free agent market and almost definitely draft a quarterback at some point. Unfortunately, free agency and the draft are both lacking known quality at the quarterback position. Defensive Woes While I firmly believe that part of the problem with the defense is their likely mindset that if the team will lose if they give up even 10 points. That doesn’t change the fact that they allowed offensive three touchdowns to a Bills offense that had only scored four touchdowns in their past three games. C.J. Spiller usually gives the Jets fits because he is so fast and elusive in the open field. The run defense that had struggled so much this season did an excellent job holding Spiller to only 59 yards on 24 carries and the entire Buffalo backfield to 109 yards on 31 carries. Ryan Fitzpatrick completed under 50 percent of his passes but he didn’t make any mistakes, wasn’t sacked and got some help from Spiller. The biggest play of the game came toward the end of the first half when a quick slant to Spiller went 66 yards for a touchdown. A defensive back got picked by another receiver on the play and Spiller just outran the rest of the defense. Besides the big play by Spiller and a solid day by Stevie Johnson (6 catches for 111 yards), Buffalo doesn’t have any overwhelming statistics but capitalized off of New York’s mistakes. The first big one came in the fourth quarter when Buffalo started a drive up 14-9, a big catch by Johnson accompanied by a roughing the passer penalty amounted to a 52-yard play. Just a few plays later former-Jet Brad Smith took a direct snap in for a score against his former team. The final touchdown drive began just over midfield because the Jets went for it on fourth down and didn’t earn the first down. While the game was just about over at this point, the defense still allowed the Bills to go right down and score on just one pass play and nine runs by three different players. It’s easy to understand that these guys had just had enough of the season and knew the game itself was also over, but a lack of effort is still disappointing when these guys should be playing for pride and hoping to have a job next season. Looking Ahead As I mentioned at the start, there will be some bloodshed from this team, and most likely from just about every team that had a below average season. There will be plenty o front office moves but I expect Rex Ryan to return next season as he will likely get rid of the circus that he brought on himself. Expect numerous players to be released or not re-signed and plenty of the coaching staff will be overhauled as well. We will go through each one and why they should or shouldn’t be brought back in 2013. The one positive from the loss: the Jets don’t have the tiebreaker over any of the other 6-10 teams so they should be picking eighth overall in the upcoming draft this spring. Have a great new year and hopefully this won’t be too painful of an off-season. Rodgers That   Follow Dan Rodgers on Twitter: @dhrodgers52 Stats and information courtesy of ESPN.com