Adam Gase Hands Play-Calling Duties of the New York Jets Offense to Dowell Loggains in Loss
For the first time in his head coaching tenure, New York Jets head coach Adam Gase did not call offensive plays. Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains called plays in the Jets 18-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium in Week 7.
With the loss, the Jets are now 0-7.
“No, not at all, “quarterback Sam Darnold said when asked if there was a difference between Loggains and Gase calling plays. “We practiced it all week. So I was comfortable with it. It’s the same thing for us as a player. Getting a play call, and executing.”
Darnold was starting for the first time in two weeks after suffering a shoulder injury in Week 4. He was sacked six times and threw two interceptions. He threw for only 120 yards on 12-of-23 passing in the defeat.
Gase told reporters after the game Sunday that it was his decision to give up the play-calling and that he had been considering it for a couple of weeks. The Jets came into Week 7 last in the league in offensive scoring. The opportunity “allowed him to take a step back and look at the team as a whole. “
“All the situations you’re looking through every week,” Gase elaborated. “How come we are not consistent? Just felt like it was the time to do it and see how our guys would respond. It looked like things were going well in the first half.”
In that first half, the Jets held a 10-0 lead as they scored on two of their first three drives. That was unheard of in the previous six games.
The second half was quite a different story. While the Jets offense had 186 yards in the first half, they had only four yards in the second half. After they got to the 10-0 lead, they did not score any points for the rest of the game.
Gase had coached 71 games before Sunday and he called plays in all of them.
The last time Loggains called plays was in 2017 when he was the offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears.
Rookie running back La’Mical Perine saw his workload increase. He had 11 carries (a career-high) for 39 yards and one touchdown. The score was the Jets lone touchdown of the afternoon and a career first for the former Florida Gator.
“It wasn’t really no different,” Perine said Sunday. “We had a great week of practice. That’s what we started as a unit. It’s no different, it’s still football at the end of the day.”
Gase was non-committal on whether he would return to call plays next week when the Jets visit the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’m really trying to focus on one game at a time right now,” Gase said. “We’ll just see what happens.”
The Jets are the only winless team in the NFL.
