New York Jets loss to Green Bay Packers was "inexcusable"
"Inexcusable. Everything that happened was inexcusable," was how New York Jets receiver Santonio Holmes summed up his team's performance last Sunday, after they fell 9-0 to the Green Bay Packers.
"We had plenty of opportunities," head coach Rex Ryan said. "We didn't execute very well."
The New York Jets saw their five-game win streak come to an end after looking very sluggish coming out of their bye week. Momentum had clearly evaporated as the Jets struggled all game making several miscues on both sides of the ball.
The Jets managed to keep the Packers offence, led by Aaron Rodgers, more or less in check, and conceded fewer points than they had all season, but the offence could not get anything going. Every time the offence would take a positive step forward they would
take two back.
Besides Sanchez frequently over-throwing or under-throwing his receivers, or receivers dropping passes, the running game stalled as well. Seventeen of the 119 yards the Jets gained along the ground came on a fake punt by Steve Weatherford. After the officials
initially ruled that Weatherford had run for a first down, the decision was reversed after Packers Coach Mike McCarthy challenged the ruling on the field.
"The two most shocked guys were me and Westhoff, when he started running with it," Ryan said about Weatherford who apparently made the decision to run without clearing it with the coaches. "It was like, 'What are you doing?'"
To further compound the woes for the usually reliable Jets special teams, Nick Folk missed a 37-yard field goal which would have tied the game at 3-3.
The Jets also entered the game with a league-low four turnovers after six games, but were victimized for three turnovers by the Packers. The Jets challenged the Brad Smith fumble believing Smith was down before the ball came loose, but the play was upheld.
Then, after Cotchery lost a one-on-one battle for the ball with Tramon Williams, a play where the advantage is usually given to the receiver, the Jets challenged the ruling again only to see the play upheld.
"The thing with Jerricho is, I looked at it and I still think he caught it," Ryan said about the interception call. "It was said that he never caught it."
By the time a similar incident occurred involving Dustin Keller, who had a pass ripped away by Charles Woodson, the Jets were out of challenges.
"You have grown men playing a sport we love to play," Holmes said. "The object of the game is to put points on the board by any means, and we went out and had zero points in the game.
"Unacceptable by us as a team – offence, defence, special teams."
Besides the lack of execution on the field and some tough calls from the officials, the Jets' coaching staff didn't help their own cause by burning all three of their second-half time-outs on a single Packers possession with over four minutes to go. By the
time Jets got the ball back they felt pressured and made mistakes, with no way to stop the clock and regroup. It led to the offence turning the ball over on downs allowing the Packers to get their third field goal and put the game out of reach.
"I just want to execute better and to stop the self-inflicted wounds," Ryan said about his team's performance. "Penalties and dropped balls will get you beat, simple as that."
The Jets (5-2) now get set to take on the 2-5 Detroit Lions and will be hoping to bounce back with a big performance.
According to offensive lineman, Damien Woody, the team's poor showing against the Packers "was just a bump in the road."
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