Week 9 TNF Recap: New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts

 

Week 9 Thursday Night Football Recap

New York Jets (2-6) @ Indianapolis Colts (4-5)

Well, shit.

I should really be more careful about what I say and the way I phrase it when I'm writing these things. I should have just pretended like the Away team doesn't no-show on Thursday. Then maybe the Jets wouldn't have no-showed.

Poor Mike White. Here's his chance to beat an actually-vulnerable team in a totally winnable game— And he gets some fluke wrist/forearm injury. I haven't read yet what the nature is, but he finished the night on the sidelines looking like someone had ripped his heart out right in front of him. Like that Simpsons gif of the girl with Bart. Or that scene in Dumb and Dumber.

But I'm not putting this one on the offense or Josh Jackson. They played about as well as you'd expect, especially once you consider their backup quarterback went down. The only person that liked seeing that was Joe Flacco. (Do we really think his heart is that mean? Maybe. He was making some sus faces on the sidelines the last couple weeks.) This one is on the defense.

By the end of the first half, the Jets were down 28-10 after drives ending in a punt, a touchdown, a fumble, and a field goal. And their starting quarterback only played the first two drives. No, it was the defense who couldn't stop a run play short of ten yards. Four consecutive drives the Colts methodically march down the field and score. Nyheim Hines was doing so much damage to the Jets defense I wasn't sure Jonathan Taylor was even playing. And then he finishes with some of the gaudiest rushing stats you'll ever read: 19/172/2TD at an average of 9.1 yards per carry. What the fuck.

What a pitiful showing. Here I was fully thinking that I wasn't sure they'd beat Cincinnati in eight of ten more contests because I wasn't really sure how their defense got any stops on the Bengals— And then they don't even try to get a stop against the Colts in the first half.

The second half was a different story, but it wasn't a better or even a hopeful one.

The Colts were up so big and Frank Reich's team was playing so much better— Do you remember how I wrote about how the Rams and the Texans were like the Good and Bad teams I experienced that one year in Pop Warner? We got another showing of it this week – only this time it didn't just look like an exhibition because the Good team was beating up on the bad team so badly. This one looked like an exhibition because coming out of halftime, Frank Reich was in Practice Mode as a coach.

There are probably a lot of people who are wondering why the Colts went for it on 4^th and goal coming out of the half. I haven't listened to anyone talk about this game. If I'm being honest, watching the games has derelicted my dutry of listening to people talk about them. Whoops. I'll get stronger as I get more practiced time.

And that's why Frank Reich went for it on 4^th and goal.

His team was up so big and so early he was at risk of his players losing their heads and taunting, or worse pulling their heads out of the game and getting hurt. And even worse than that is the critical problem that he wasn't going to have any teachable film for them to work on this week. So he goes for it on 4^th and goal and he calls a bullshit play to give the Jets life.

You can look at the decision a lot of ways. I see it as a sportsmanship decision. The Jets are no fun to play against if they aren't in this game. You go up 35-10, the Jets are going to pack it in. Because you know it's not the Jets offense that has you down this far. And you know that your base defense still needs a lot of work – and you're not learning anything about your team by going into Prevent for an entire second half. But... if you can let the other team think they're still in this thing, you can keep your foot on their neck while also putting teachable film on tape.

That didn't happen.

The Jets offense waited through two more drives where the Colts just pounded it down their throat – until they were down 42-10 – to come to life. But the game had been over for a long time by then.

I had pretty well checked out by the 3^rd quarter.

I went in to this game wanting to watch Mike Williams and how he looked with another week to prepare as the starter and another week of familiarity with his wide receivers. More than anything, though, I wanted to see if the offense stayed in rhythm with him and whether it continued to look as polished as it did last week.

The early returns were promising. And then everything fell apart.

Josh Johnson, bless his heart, is not an interesting quarterback to watch play the game. He didn't look ready. And by the time he got warmed up, it didn't matter anymore. And boy did he take a beating.

So this one kind of sucked. I wanted to learn things, and the only thing I feel like I really learned is how valuable using your running back in space in the passing game can be. Evidently Josh Johnson was flat ignoring Michael Carter, and that was something of the difference in Week 8 with Mike White and Week 9 with Johnson.

Well, bummer.

Keep an eye out for the Game Rewatch Rankings later in the day. I'll talk at you soon, alright?