It’s been very long awaited but we can finally say that New York Jet football is back! We can also all collectively take this day to get a reality check on our expectations for the 2015 season. And we can also all collectively take a sigh of relief and realize that preseason performance is one of the most useless things in professional sports. Don’t believe me? The 2008 winless Lions went 4-0 in the preseason. So yes the Jets did not perform well last night against the Lions. Yes the defense fell flat last night. But lets all remember this is only preseason and there is a lot of reasons for the flat performance.
Lets start with the first reason the Jets didn’t perform well and that’s distraction. Just days ago the biggest story in the NFL since deflate gate broke with Geno Smith getting suckered punched. This pushed Ryan Fitzpatrick into the starting role, and Bryce Petty into the 2nd string. In addition to this it created non-football things for the defense to have to discuss and think about. What I’m saying is the whole situation took away from the football game planning.
The second point has to be injuries. Defensively, Mohammed Wilkerson was injured, Calvin Pryor was injured, and Sheldon Richardson barely played. So I can easily understand why the lions were able to run the ball so well. Offensively, Devin Smith, Chris Owusu, and Geno Smith were all injured. The Geno Smith injury is so big because the backup quarterbacks did not have the necessary timing and reps with that string of Wide Receivers, the team is hurt right now, and hopefully they get healthy soon.
Lastly there were a few bright spots. Marcus Williams getting an interception, Bryce Petty got his first NFL action, the 1st team defense was able to make stops in the Redzone, and Fitzpatrick while unable to get the touchdown, was able to drive down the field in response. With time things will start to come together.
At the end of the day, what all fans need to remember is that this is only the preseason. Even if in the game there are only a handful of good plays that’s still a good sign of better things to come. Teams are still working out the kinks, and the Jets are no exception to that. And yes the team got it’s butt kicked, however, take a deep breath, relax, and just remember that it’s only the preseason. We can wait until the regular season to hate on the Jets.
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