If the season ended today – and, boy, are the Jets glad it doesn’t – they would rate as the seventh-best team in the A.F.C. The problem for them is, only the top six reach the playoffs. Their hopes of winning the division were all but squashed Sunday night by a 37-16 loss to New England, a defeat that forced the Jets to recalibrate their expectations. Once again a wild-card berth – and the road games that come with it – appears their best chance at making the postseason.
“We win this game, we’ve got a stranglehold on the division,” Jim Leonhard said. “We let it slide.”
The Jets expected more from themselves. They expected a soaring win, not a crushing loss. They expected to sack Tom Brady, not allow five of Mark Sanchez. In the stunned silence of a frustrated locker room, Matt Slauson tried not to dwell on the defeat, all because the next part of their season begins in earnest on Thursday.
That is when the Jets play the Broncos, who have won two straight. The swift turnaround, coupled with the high altitude in Denver, makes it a tricky game for the Jets.
“The worst thing we can do now is let the Patriots beat us again by us hanging our heads this week,” Slauson said.
Rex Ryan will not allow any head-hanging, and neither will the players. But Sunday night’s loss revealed cracks in the Jets’ offensive line, cracks that must be addressed in a short work week. Will the Jets be able to rebound and continue that push toward the wild card?
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