The New York Jets blew a 16-0 lead to lose to the Buffalo Bills in their season opener, and Jets’ fans will likely turn on head coach Adam Gase after the dismal showing.
What looked like an easy victory turned into a horror show for the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. The Jets built a 16-0 lead in the third quarter only to watch it all vanish as the Buffalo Bills scored 17 unanswered points to stun the Jets in a 17-16 win.
The way the Jets lost this game was baffling, especially since the Jets won the turnover battle 4-0, got a defensive touchdown, and dominated the game for the first three quarters. Gase deserves his fair share of criticism for a strangely conservative game plan which force fed the ball to Jamison Crowder, who caught 14 passes on 17 targets for 99 yards, but the real culprit for this loss is no longer employed by the organization.
There were three big issues with the Jets’ team in this game outside of Gase’s questionable play calling: poor performance from the offensive line, an abysmal showing from the secondary, and two missed kicks from the newly acquired Kaare Vedvik. Each of those issues can be tied directly back to Mike Maccagnan, the Jets’ former GM.
Maccagnan did a lot of good things in his Jets’ tenure, including making the deal that landed Sam Darnold in the draft and signing Le’Veon Bell and C.J. Mosley in free agency, but he had a lot of big missteps in the spring. Despite having secondary issues a year ago, the Jets didn’t add any corners in free agency outside of Brian Poole, with Maccagnan re-signing Darryl Roberts to start. Roberts was routinely torched by the Bills in this game, including the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The offensive line struggled mightily in pass protection, with Darnold running for his life for the majority of the game. Maccagnan made one addition to this unit, trading for Kelechi Osemele, but stood pat otherwise, forcing his successor Joe Douglas to coax Ryan Kalil out of retirement to fill the center hole. The unit didn’t even practice together until late in camp, and perhaps those chemistry issues explain why the Jets ran such a conservative game plan.
Last but not least, the Jets were burned by kicker Kaare Vedvik, who missed a PAT and a field goal that came back to haunt them when they needed points in the fourth quarter. Vedvik is the Jets’ third kicker of the new year since Maccagnan opted not to re-sign Pro Bowler Jason Myers despite having over $100 million in cap space. Maccagnan instead re-signed Chandler Catanzaro, who has since retired, without competition and it came back to bite them.
The Jets went for two in this game after scoring their lone offensive touchdown, a sign the coaching staff already lost faith in Vedvik. All of the sins of Maccagnan’s past came back to bite the Jets, which may explain why Gase was so eager to force him out in the first place.