Too soon? More venting needed first?
Early odds have the Patriots favored by either 7 or 7½, depending on where you shop.
The Jets are halfway to a winless season, which could land them the No. 1 pick in 2021 -- unless they mess it up by beating the suddenly bad Patriots.
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The New York Jets are halfway there. They are eight losses away from becoming the third 0-16 team in NFL history. You have to like their chances, considering that they treat the end zone like a HAZMAT area and face a formidable schedule over the final two months.
Ironically, their best chance to win a game could be against the team they almost never beat, the team that has tormented them for two decades.
As Cam Newton’s turnovers and Patriot losses mount, the chorus of voices calling for Jarrett Stidham to start grows louder. But Tom E. Curran explains why that’s the wrong move … at least right now.
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In two games, he’s 11 for 23 for 124 yards with three interceptions and one wiped out by penalty. The kid just can’t stop throwing it to the wrong team.
In order for a backup to supplant a starter, the backup has to at some point signal he’s ready to ascend. That he may give the team a better look. Or at least give some indication that it won’t be worse.
Certainly Newton’s got turnover problems. But at least he can run with the football, a feature which at least mitigates his tendency to give it away. The only attribute Stidham has is throwing. And if he doesn’t know where it’s going, what’s the conversation?
For the better part of two decades, the Jets bided their time and tried to wait out the Patriots. Year after year, the Pats would go 14-2 or 13-3 or some such tribute to gaudy dominance. Year after…
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“Someday,” Jets fans said.
“The Pats won’t be the Pats forever,” they reasoned.
“Their time is coming,” they figured.
So the Pats’ time came at a time when the Jets can’t possibly enjoy it. They got flattened by the Chiefs, 35-9, on a day when Andy Reid took mercy on their souls and pulled all of his first-stringers when there was still plenty of time to have more fun. The Jets entered as 19 ½-point underdogs and it never felt like they were in any real danger of covering the spread.
The last time the Pats seemed this vulnerable was 2000, Belichick’s first year, when they were 5-11. The Jets have had a better record than the Pats exactly one time in the ensuing 20 years, 2002. They will not finish with a better record than them this year.
But there may be no better opportunity for the Jets to win a game this year than next Monday, when the Pats limp into MetLife Stadium. Now, it is entirely possible that you, as a Jets fan, would prefer the Pats bring their ghosts to Jersey and let them haunt Sam Darnold, keep the left side of the Jets’ hyphen clean, do their part to nudge the Jets along to 0-16.
But if the idea of 0-16 disgusts you in any way … well, this really may be it. There are a couple of losing teams ahead for the Jets — the Bengals and the Chargers — but raise your hand if you don’t think Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert don’t enjoy sweet dreams every night knowing they’ll be able to take aim at the Jets’ miserable defense some Sunday soon.
No. Next week is it. Next week is the time.
