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ORCHARD PARK — The Jets attended a coronation on Sunday.
They witnessed the Bills winning the AFC East for the second straight year. Buffalo clinched the division crown with a 27-10 win over the Jets at Highmark Stadium. The Bills used a dominating defense and got just enough from Josh Allen late in the game to secure the win and a home playoff game.
The Jets ended Robert Saleh’s first season as head coach 4-13 and looking up from the bottom of the division at not just the Bills (11-6), but also the Patriots (10-7) and Dolphins (9-8). The Jets went 0-6 against those teams this season, the second straight year the Jets failed to win a game in the division.
“Clearly, we’ve got a long way to go if we want to close the gap with Buffalo and New England and Miami, for that matter,” Saleh said.
In Sunday’s loss, the Jets gave a spirited effort on defense but statistically the worst performance on offense in franchise history. They managed 53 total yards, the lowest total every by a Jets team. The previous low was 72 against the Bengals on Dec. 12, 1976 at Shea Stadium. The Jets went 1-for-14 on third down and could basically get nothing going all day against the No. 1 defense in the NFL.
“We’ve got to close this gap,” Saleh said. “It’s going to take everybody in the locker room. It’s going to take all the coaches. It’s going to take every decision that we make from now until the start of next season, whether it’s scheme, player, it doesn’t matter. It’s about closing this gap in the division and getting to a place where we’re competitive every single game.”
The Jets were competitive somehow on Sunday despite their anemic offense. After spotting the Bills a 10-0 lead, the defense, which allowed the most yards and points of any team this season, kept the Bills from scoring on eight of their next nine possessions. The Bills held a slim 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter before Allen broke through with a few big plays and put the Bills in the end zone twice.
“Really, really pumped up for the defense,” Saleh said. “I thought they played their absolute butts off.”
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson ended his rookie year by going 7-for-20 for 87 yards and one touchdown. The Jets could not establish any sort of running game, gaining just 48 rushing yards and the Bills got nine sacks as the Jets’ offensive line had a long day. The sacks led to a loss of 82 yards, which is what gave the Jets such an incredibly low total of yardage.
Wilson threw a 40-yard touchdown to Keelan Cole. If you remove that play, Wilson had just 47 passing yards and the Jets managed just 13 yards on 45 plays. On the positive side. Wilson made it through his fifth straight game without an interception. Wilson threw nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions this year.
“I’ve got to play better,” Wilson said. “I’ve got to do my job. I had some really frustrating plays on my end where I was just trying to do too much — three-and-out, three-and-out, and in my head I’m like, ‘Make a play,’ and I’ve just got to just do my job.”
It is the second straight season the Jets have lost at least 13 games. It was the fourth time in franchise history the Jets lost at least 13 games and the first time since 1995-96 that they lost 13 in back-to-back years.
The Jets enter the offseason encouraged by what they saw from their young players this season. Jets general manager Joe Douglas enters this offseason armed with plenty of cap space and nine draft picks — four in the first two rounds — to improve the Jets quickly.
Saleh acknowledged the Jets did not do good enough this year, but he is excited about the future.
“At the end of the day, it’s about winning, period,” Saleh said. “Winning four games in this league is not good enough. But, at the same time, we all knew that this was going to be a roller coaster of a season with the youth movement that we had. We all knew there were going to be some ups and downs. We beat two division winners. We had the Super Bowl champs on the ropes. We had a one-score game [in the fourth quarter] with Buffalo after losing (45-17) the first-time around.”
The Jets have not made the playoffs in 11 seasons, the longest drought in the NFL. Their last meaningful December game came six years ago in the same stadium they were in Sunday. None of these players were on that team. The goal for the Jets in 2022 is to have playoff hopes alive in December.
Maybe someday, the coronation will be theirs.
“I don’t think it’s something that happens overnight,” defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said. “I don’t think it’s something that one person can spearhead. Each guy has to come in with that mindset and it has to be a collaborative effort to push forward to the heights that we want to reach. I feel like we’ve got the guys to do that. I feel like we have the people in place to not only cultivate what we already have but to continue to bring in the right pieces and continue to push this thing in the right direction.”
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