New York Jets Losing On and Off The Field

By Thomas Willoughby

The first jersey I spotted was at 9.37, at Marylebone Station. Jets. Not unsurprising, given they were the designated home side this weekend. But that felt quite late to spot an NFL jersey compared to previous years. Yes, I know, I was getting there early. But, from my days as a season ticket holder, I recall getting to games hours in advance. Seahawks/Raiders, we got there at about 10am. 6pm kick off, that one. It lobbed it down, too. What were we thinking?

I digress. The New York Jets have been quietly plugging away at building themselves up as a viable team to support here. In 2021, they launched their official fan group, and an unofficial group formed in 2014. It’s tough to tell whether this effort has actually translated into a significant boost in interest, though.

UK Jets

The New York Jets hold Global Market rights in the UK and Ireland. Officially, that entitles them to the ability to build their brand here through events and the like. Unofficially, that’s a commitment to playing games here fairly regularly, which they have. They are, unfortunately, in a vicious cycle. They can’t win games, so they can’t attract new fans, which means their games here are filled with opposition fans, which makes it more difficult to win games. You see where the issue is.

As the designated home team, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was decked out in green and white, with only an endzone to indicate the Denver Broncos presence as a participant. If you looked to the stands, you’d assume the opposite. Orange Crush flooded the bowl. The green and white flags so graciously left on every seat by the hosts remained under seats or taken off their sticks altogether for the bulk of the stadium. On the Jets’ first third down. When they might have expected relative quiet, Justin Fields and company were met with a wall of deafening noise. North London was Broncos country for one Sunday only.

That’s not to say the Jets were silent. The stadium would respond to calls from the big screens for more noise at the start of Denver drives, but there was a struggle from their fanbase to naturally create a loud environment on Denver 3rd downs. Whatever optimism the home (“home”) fans might have had going into the game dissipated as the afternoon progressed. By half time, all they really had to celebrate were Broncos penalties.

Nobodies favourite

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, really. The New York Jets, as part of their UK push, have now played three games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over the past five seasons, which includes them coming over both last year and this. They’ve hardly lit up London on their previous visits, their only win prior to this weekend coming in 2015. If you’re trying to build a fanbase, the best way of doing that is by winning. The Jets don’t really do much of that. When tickets are as expensive as they are, and the home team are as win-shy as they are, I’m not sure you can really blame the UK branch of Gang Green for being outnumbered here.

The beauty of the London games is that element of neutrality. While the days of the teams on the field being under-represented in the stands feel like they’re behind us, there will always be a good number of folks dressed in Patriots, Ravens, or Lions gear. As the game wore on, it became clear the plucky, awful Jets weren’t winning any of those over.

Fields of Screams

Not that they really earned that support. The Jets offense, utterly putrid for all four quarters, simply refused to get going. Justin Fields came into the NFL as a mobile, elusive QB. He found himself sacked 9 times across the day. That takes him up to 19 for the season. It’s not entirely on him, of course. I’ve a colander in the cupboard with fewer holes than the Jets’ offensive line. It did feel like poor Justin was under pressure before the ball had even been snapped half the time.

But he held onto the ball for far too long, far too often. Is anyone actually open when Fields has time to throw? Not really. But, when he does throw, his receivers drop the ball. Fields ended the day 9/17 for 47 yards. That’s horrendous. Taking yards lost through sacks into account, the Jets’ passing offense accumulated a total of -10 yards on the day. I, in the stands, contributed more to the Jets’ offense than Justin Fields did.

Nothing really summed up the Jets and their offensive woes than their final sequence at the end of the first half. At 10-6 down, a field goal isn’t going to put the Jets in front, but it’d bring them within a point in an already tight game. On 4th and 1 at the Broncos 35, the Jets have 2 options; either go for it and try to set up a new set of downs, or attempt a long field goal. They chose neither, and just let the clock run down. They lost by 2 points.

The negatives and the positives

That’s the Jets 0-6 on the season. Questions, not unfairly, were asked of Justin Fields’ status as the starter to head coach Aaron Glenn after the defeat. Which he took offense to, for whatever reason. When your quarterback fails to notch more than 50 passing yards in a game, when your team is winless through 6 games, and when you’re just about bottom of every major offensive statistic, I’m not sure it’s unreasonable to ask if change will be coming.

The Jets gave their fans plenty to cheer about on the day, mind. Its defense held the Broncos to less than 250 yards total, and, really kept them in the game. Jermaine Johnson, having missed 3 games through injury, caused plenty of havoc off the edge. And Sauce Gardner is unreal. Unless I missed something, he lined up over Courtland Sutton the whole day, and was targeted once, which was successfully defended. The defense is really good. It’s basically always been. It’s just the offense that needs fixing. That fix might well start with the first overall pick they’re probably going to have by the end of the season.

There is a future

As the stands emptied around 5.30pm, some 3 hours after the game kicked off, the look of dejection was drawn across the faces of everyone in New York green. On the underground coming away from the ground, I noticed a father and son pair, the younger wearing a Justin Fields jersey, the elder, a Zach Wilson jersey. They looked gutted. The Jets future in the UK has one child on board, at least. Though he might not want to go to a game until he can get a new name on a jersey.

Features Image Credit: Kin Cheung-AP Photo

THOMAS IS A WRITER, AND REGULAR GUEST ON THE TOUCHDOWN REVIEW SHOW PODCAST, FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. YOU CAN FIND HIM @WILLO290592 ON TWITTER

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