Jets looked unprepared, played uninspired in 30-0 loss to Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Jets needed this game. Their playoff hopes were already on life support, but this was to keep the dream alive just a little bit longer. Beat the Tyreek Hill-less Dolphins, get Aaron Rodgers back next week, piece together a run.

Improbable. Unlikely. Farfetched — yes. You just assumed the Jets would fight with everything they had knowing they still had a mathematical chance.

… there’s a cliche about what happens when you assume.

The Dolphins dealt New York a 30-0 “ass whooping,” D.J. Reed called it. More alarming may have been how unprepared the Jets looked, how uninspired they played. Receiver Allen Lazard said in the locker room the Jets were “out-schemed” and “out-efforted.”

He’s not wrong. Saying that publicly, though, calls into question the foundation of this team. It makes you wonder if the Jets are actually headed in the right direction, or any direction at all.

“You put together the best game plan possible,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s not.”

The Jets haven’t had much luck this season. It started when Rodgers ruptured his Achilles tendon on the fourth offensive play of the season, and has only gotten worse as the days, weeks, months rolled on.

But that does not excuse games like this, efforts like this.

There is no excuse for this.

The loss to the Dolphins was everything wrong with the team right now. Zach WIlson (4 for 11, 26 yards) ran for his life (sacked four times, hit seven) before leaving the game in the first half with what the team first called dehydration, then a non-concussion head injury, then finally a concussion. Trevor Siemian replaced him and looked woefully inept (14 of 26 for 110 yards, two interceptions). Breece Hall had just 12 yards on six carries. Garrett Wilson wasn’t targeted until the third quarter.

The Jets' offense married their zero points with 103 total yards (fourth-fewest in franchise history). They were 5 of 13 on third down. They had only 11 first downs. Adam Gase, ridiculed by fans for his struggles in 2019 and 2020, never had a game with that few yards.

Usually, the team can rely on their defense, but even that was a mess. Tua Tagovailoa, without Hill, completed 22 of 24 passes for 224 yards. Eight of those passes, 142 of those yards, and the score went to Jaylen Waddle. Raheem Mostert rushed for two touchdowns. Reed admitted the defense gave up midway through the third quarter.

“You could see the energy and the emotion on guy’s faces was kinda down about the whole game,” Reed said. “I wouldn’t say I was too happy about that."

The Jets like to point toward what they don’t have as an excuse for what they can’t accomplish. It’s hard to fall for that anymore. The Browns, whose victory over the Bears on Sunday officially eliminated the Jets from the postseason, are as banged up as New York — maybe worse. They’re 9-5 and headed to the postseason. The Texans will likely be there, too. They beat the Titans without rookie phenom CJ Stroud. The Bengals, Bills and Rams have all been ravaged. Each is performing at a higher level than New York.

The Jets lost Rodgers, yes, but they’re the ones who didn’t add a viable backup. The Jets have no weapons outside of Garrett Wilson and Hall, but their draft and free agent mishaps are the reason why. They routinely blame the state of their offensive line — which Saleh pointed to multiple times in Miami — forgetting that group, when healthy, entered the season as undeniably the team’s greatest concern despite GM Joe Douglas making it a priority to rebuild when he took over as GM in 2019.

Douglas and Saleh have built a championship-level defense. Give them credit for that, but their failures everywhere else are why the Jets find themselves in this mess. They’re a better team with Rodgers — sure. But it’s become clear they are nowhere close to the contender they believed themselves to be after the "Hard Knocks" camera crew packed up their things in August.

“We wanted to be able to compete in the playoffs,” cornerback Sauce Gardner said. “I don’t know what to say. For real.”

Coaches can endure losing seasons. They happen. The death knell is when he loses the locker room. The on-field performance and postgame quotes illustrate players are dangerously close to turning. They’ve made off-the-record remarks in recent weeks. Now they’re saying them in front of cameras. They’re getting tired of the blame for this season being put on them — what they can’t do, who’s not there. They want to be put in a position to succeed and feel they are not. The frustration is at an all-time high.

There’s no better example than Garrett Wilson. The NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year a season ago pours his heart and soul into every snap. CBS cameras caught him emotionally distraught on more than one occasion, ranting first to Rodgers, then to himself. Wilson watches as other teams scheme their best players open. There’s zero creativity in the way Nathaniel Hackett uses his most dynamic weapon. Wilson knows that. It’s getting impossible for him to contain his anger.

This level of losing, failing to meet expectations, and frustration takes its toll. Eventually, players have enough. Those players ask to leave. It happened recently with safety Jamal Adams, who celebrated his trade from New York by smoking a cigar and dancing by himself on an Instagram live.

“I have to figure out how I can be better,” said a noticeably annoyed Wilson, who finished with three catches for 29 yards. “Run better routes, be better in the meeting rooms, figure out how I can be involved early.”

This was supposed to be the year for the Jets. Even when Rodgers went down you thought the surrounding talent was good enough to keep them afloat. Rodgers targeted a Dec. 24 return from his Achilles injury. All he needed was for the Jets to stay relevant while he rehabbed — keep the playoff hopes alive, then he’d get them there.

Rodgers did his part. SNY reported on Sunday that Rodgers would receive medical clearance this week, be activated off injured reserve and practice Wednesday through Friday, readying himself to play against the Commanders. The only thing that could prevent his historic comeback would be if the Jets were eliminated. Any chance — even slim — of the postseason and he’d fight to return.

The Jets, instead, imploded. They had their worst loss of the season when they needed a win the most. The 5-9 Jets are eliminated before Santa climbs in his sleigh. Old friend Joe Flacco assured them of that when he led the Browns back against the Bears.

Things like this don’t happen when you’re close. The Browns lost their quarterbacks and kept finding ways to win. Same thing with the Bengals and Vikings. Things like this happen when you’re a lot further away than you thought.

It’s beginning to look like that’s the case for the Jets.