Jets Take Flight In Beating Steelers for the Signature Win of Their Rebuild
At this point, the New York Jets will have a losing record for a fourth straight season. That can’t be changed.
What can be different than the last three years is how this team closes out the season. Sunday’s 16-10 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers showed a team that is playing out this season to win and finish strong. It was a signature win for the Jets in a final half of the season that has certainly seen a turnaround.
The Jets, terrible pun intended, are ready to take flight.
Since a Week 9 loss at the then winless Miami Dolphins, the Jets have done something appropriate for a team based in New Jersey and made a U-turn on their season. In their last seven games, the Jets have five wins, Sunday’s tough and dogged result improving their season record to 6-9. And while that still means no postseason for a ninth straight year, there is a sense of hope and purpose here that the Jets are building something from the ground up.
Having beaten the Steelers on Sunday, the Jets have beaten two teams during this stretch with legitimate playoff ambitions at the time they met (the other being a 34-17 win over the Oakland Raiders in Week 12). They’ve won some very winnable games against some bad teams and lost at the Cincinnati Bengals when they should have won.
“I’m happy that our guys were ready to go. They prepared the right way,” Jets head coach Adam Gase told reporters after the game.
“They had to play a team that was playing for a lot. It’s hard to play these games sometimes when it’s that kind of situation because nobody wants to get knocked out of the playoffs, whether you’re not in yet or you are in the playoffs. It’s a fight to the end. You’re going to get whatever anybody has. We knew we were playing a team that was desperate for a win.”
Through it all, the Jets have responded to all the talk in and around the team and simply improved their product on the field. This is now the most wins in a single Jets season since 2015.
It isn’t much. What it is, however, is progress.
While the ultimate goal of this team was a return to the playoffs in 2019, what has instead born out is a foundation of promise. Quarterback Sam Darnold kissed his early season struggles goodbye with significantly improved play and composure over the second half of the season. The offensive line, while still a way’s away from being where it needs to be, has improved.
And the defense, never the real issue on this team, has seemingly grown on a weekly basis despite a rash of injuries that has left the two-deep unrecognizable from the start of the season.
They have also become a team that is tough to beat at home, even if the swarm of Steelers fans made MetLife Stadium feel like Pittsburgh.
“I think it was important that we were looking to have a winning record at home. That’s something that we wanted to establish, that were a tough team to beat at home,” Gase said.
“Being able to start like this in year one and say were 5-3 at home is a positive thing for our program.”
The Jets are building, contrary to popular opinion two months ago, and now head into their season finale at the Buffalo Bills next week a team with not just momentum this year but a sense of purpose beyond that. This is a team that had to overcome a lot this year, including numerous self-inflicted wounds.
Yet here they are, having gotten up each time they have been knocked down, looking to compete another day. A testament, certainly, to something that is being built the right way on One Jets Drive.
