The New York Jets have been the worst team in the NFL the entire season, and their 0-11 record coming into Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders was more than enough proof.
However, football is a game of chances, and on the Week 13 showdown, the Jets had a huge chance to erase their winless season and come up with a big W. Unfortunately, that huge chance blew up on their face after a terrible defensive play-call caused them to concede a game-winning TD to the Raiders.
“We just played the call that the coaches call and we've just got to execute,” Jets safety Marcus Maye said (via northjersey.com). “But you've got to help us out at the same time and just be in a better call in that spot. It's a tough situation for our young guys, being out there on an island.”
The last play-call put the Jets' defense in a “cover zero” formation, which gave them no deep safety help whatsoever. This play also meant that players would be on a man-t0-man coverage and every player who doesn't have a man is blitzing. Not so bad right? But given the game situation, surely defensive coordinator Gregg Williams could've thought of something else.
Anything, really.
The Jets were leading 28-24 with just 13 seconds remaining and the Raiders still had 46 yards to go. A more conservative play-call would've been more fitting to help the team secure win number one. Instead, Williams decided to go on an all-out blitz to try and sack Raiders QB Derek Carr. The play was so unconventional that per NFL Next Gen stats, it was the first instance all season long that a team actually sent eight or more pass rushers at the quarterback.
None of those rushers came even close to Carr, as he threw a beautiful pass to Henry Ruggs III who simply breezed by rookie corner Lamar Jackson for the game-winning TD.
It's back to the drawing board for the Jets, who have four more chances to get that elusive W before the season wraps up.
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