In another embarrassing performance, the New York Jets were shutout by the Miami Dolphins, 24-0, on Sunday afternoon to drop to 0-6 on the 2020 season with no end of their futility under head coach Adam Gase in sight.
It was the first time since the 1982 AFC Championship Game that the Dolphins shut out the Jets, who are now the only winless team remaining in the NFL.
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick passed for a trio of touchdowns against his former team, which he once led to a 10-win season with. Five years later, he’s only further exposing the Jets as, by far, the worst team in the NFL.
This is the fifth time in six games this season that the Jets have lost by double-digits and the third time they’ve been held to 10 points or fewer.
While it’s already been concluded that team owner Christopher Johnson’s comments last month labeling Gase as a “brilliant offensive mind” were shortsighted, each performance seems to dig the hole of the fallacy even deeper. It’s also fueling further speculation that Gase’s time with the Jets is nearing an end.
The Jets were without their starting quarterback, Sam Darnold, for a second-straight week, forcing veteran Joe Flacco to take the reins under center yet again.
Flacco passed for 186 yards and an interception on 44 pass attempts as the Jets offense was held to 263 yards of total offense on the day.
Gang Green was popped for 21 of their 24 points allowed in the first half, with Fitzpatrick connecting with tight end Adam Shaheen in the first quarter before scoring receptions to Preston Williams and Durham Smythe in the second.
Meanwhile, 10 of the Jets’ 14 drives were four plays or less, amassing just 13 first downs on the day.
It only gets worse for the Jets moving forward, as they’ll face the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, and New England Patriots before their bye week.
Race to the bottom
Through six weeks of the 2020 season, there’s no denying that this is one of the worst Jets teams we have ever seen.
But how bad can they be? Can they be as bad as the 1996 team that went 1-15 under Rich Kotite?
Heading into the season, not many thought so, but this team is a proverbial trainwreck that can’t get out of its own way.
For that, we’ll start comparing their week-by-week results to that of the 1996 team, which is the only team in Jets franchise history to win just a single game in a season:
Twenty-four years ago in Week 6 action, the Jets were blown out by the Oakland Raiders 34-14 to drop to 0-6 on the season — much like today’s Jets just did on Sunday evening.
The ’96 Jets were held to just 282 yards of total offense by Oakland as starting quarterback Neil O’Donnell went down with a separated shoulder in the second quarter, making way for Frank Reich, who completed 15-of-31 passes for 177 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.
His opposite number, Raiders quarterback Jeff Hostetler, was far more efficient — the former Giants Super Bowl-winning quarterback throwing for three touchdowns on 17-of-28 passing.
But it was the ground game that did most of the hard work. Jets running back Adrian Murrell rushed for 102 yards, including a 42-yard scamper in the second quarter, but he was outdone by Oakland’s Joe Aska, who posted 136 yards and a touchdown.
It was the only time in Aska’s career that he ran for over 100 yards over a 23-game career that saw him gain just 336.
