The New York Jets could not get their first win of the season in London. New York lost another close game, this time dropping 13-11 against Denver. It was perhaps one of the Jets' worst games of the season, as only one side of the ball looked ready to play.
New York's defense was the lone bright spot in the game. The Jets forced their first turnover of the season on the Broncos' opening drive, setting up the offense in excellent field position.
Unfortunately, the offense would only turn that opportunity into three points. That became a theme throughout the contest.
The Jets' defense also deserved praise for forcing a safety during the third quarter that briefly gave them a lead. But the defense could not will the team to victory by themselves, despite holding Denver to only 13 points.
But who is most to blame for New York's most recent defeat? And will any changes come after this embarrassing performance?
Below we will explore who is most responsible for the Jets' ugly Week 6 loss against the Broncos.
Justin Fields plays worst game of his career against Broncos
Justin Fields may be proving that the Jets should not bank their future on him.
Fields had an absolutely terrible game passing the football.
He went 9-of-17 for 45 passing yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Fields likely would have been better off scrambling more often. After all, he logged 31 rushing yards on only seven attempts.
But Fields' performance was far worse than that.
The speedy quarterback was sacked nine times on a day where he only completed nine passes. As a result, New York finished the game with an astonishing -10 passing yards.
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn was sensitive about the Fields topic during his postgame remarks. Glenn had a snapping response when asked by one reporter if Fields remains the team's starting quarterback.
“Come on, man,” Glenn said, via Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team. “What kind of question is that? Sometimes, this league is [up and down]. There are guys that have bad games. That doesn't mean you just bench them. Come on, you know better than that.”
Glenn may not like the question, but it is fair to question the team's quarterback position at this point.
-10 yards passing on the day is not simply a bad game. And it is not simply the result of Fields playing poorly.
The Jets failed spectacularly on offense, from top to bottom. There's no getting around that.
That leads us conveniently into our next topic…
Aaron Glenn's puzzling end-of-half sequence made a bad situation worse
Aaron Glenn deserves some of the blame for Sunday's loss.
The Jets did not call an inspired game on offense and made plenty of conservative choices that did not help them get back in the game.
New York's bizarre end-of-half sequence was a great example.
The Jets had the ball near midfield during the final minute of the first half. New York found itself at 4th-and-1 with roughly 30 seconds left on the clock.
The team clearly looked confused as time ticked down, with the Jets ultimately deciding not to run a play at all.
I do want to note that this was a difficult situation to coach through. After all, a failed fourth down attempt would have given the Broncos the ball in range to score themselves.
But still, the damning part of this example is that New York seemingly did not have a plan for this scenario.
The worst part is that a blunder like this further demoralized the team and ultimately did more harm than good.
After the game, Garrett Wilson said the following about the end-of-half sequence.
“I just didn't know exactly what the plan was,” Wilson said, per The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt. “Once I figured it out, I was disappointed.”
Speaking of Wilson…
Garrett Wilson barely involved when needed most
It should be no surprise that Garrett Wilson struggled after Justin Fields' terrible day.
Wilson led the team with eight targets. However, he was only able to turn them into three receptions for 13 yards.
He was not even New York's leading receiver, as Josh Reynolds showed him up with three receptions for 25 yards on just three targets.
This is an incredibly worrying development for Wilson, who is arguably New York's best offensive player.
The Jets have prioritized Wilson in past weeks, routinely getting him over 50 yards receiving per game. So perhaps the Broncos simply decided to take away New York's best player.
Regardless, the Jets handed Wilson a $130 million contract extension this offseason. Fans would like to see a player of his caliber take his game to the next level.
There's no denying that Wilson is in a tough situation, so it is too early to completely panic about his production. But that said, Wilson will continue to be under the microscope because of his large contract extension.
Hopefully the Jets get him much more involved during Week 7.
