Jets Not Ready to Tank Yet
They may be 2-7, but the New York Jets won’t be throwing in the towel on the season. And there is no sense at all from head coach Adam Gase that they are ready to tank.
Far from it, says Gase, who said that his team will be ready to play and win this weekend at Washington. At 1-8, Washington certainly seems to be in tank mode given how they are handling their season and their personnel.
But for the Jets, fresh off a 34-27 win this past weekend over the New York Giants, there is a bit of optimism. They likely welcome back linebacker Neville Hewitt this Sunday from injury and there’s a sense that the offense turned a corner in the fourth quarter against the Giants. Quarterback Sam Darnold had a solid game and, most importantly, didn’t turn the ball over once in beating their crosstown rival.
Now, the Jets are seeking consecutive wins for the first time since the fifth and sixth week of last season.
“You never want to take a step back, you want to be able to look at your season and say, 'Hey, we're getting better as we go,' and then you're playing the best football at the end of the year,” Gase said.
“That's why to me these last seven games are so important. Keep trending upward, we don't want to be peaks and valleys.”
Against a Washington team that has been just terrible this year, the Jets have the chance to build some momentum in the second half of their own season. There is no denying that a lot has gone wrong for Gase’s team, but the fact that the Jets beat the Giants now gives them some pep in their step.
And while many teams at 2-7 might begin to think about next year and positioning themselves for a better draft pick, the Jets want to build and accumulate some wins over the season’s final seven games. They have some winnable games during this stretch including the 2-7 Miami Dolphins, the 0-9 Cincinnati Bengals and Sunday’s one-win Washington.
All of which means that the Jets can potentially piece together a few wins and some momentum heading into 2019.
“Guys have just put their head down and gone to work. Once we hit Wednesday, we put last week behind us,” Gase said. “Our guys know, and we talked about it before, we got to get ready for the next one because that's the only one that matters.”
