Coming off of an embarrassing 45-14 loss to their divisional rivals, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets came into a Week 11 matchup against the Miami Dolphins with divisional revenge on their minds. As a team that is struggling to get any wins in general, divisional wins have been even harder to come by for Gang Green–and Sunday's game was no different. The Jets-Dolphins matchup produced a close game but also left New York with as many question marks as it came into the game with–if not even more.
It was an improvement, however, on the aforementioned blowout loss to the Bills as the Jets managed to keep this one close with a 24-17 final score. A loss is a loss, but we came away with some Jets Week 11 takeaways anyways. One good, one bad, and one downright ugly.
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Jets Week 11 Takeaways
3. Elijah Moore is a stud (good)
On his way to 140 yards, eight catches, and a touchdown, Moore was the best player on the Jets' offense all game long. With Joe Flacco peppering him with targets, the rookie out of Ole Miss had his best game of the season and kept New York in the ballgame. Moore was even matched up with Dolphins stud cornerback Xavien Howard on multiple occasions and still was able to come away with separation and a catch most of the time.
If Moore is going to build off of this game, he will be doing so with a new quarterback…or an old one? Flacco will be back to the bench when the Jets take on the Philadelphia Eagles, as rookie quarterback Zach Wilson makes his return to the field following a month-long absence due to a knee injury. It will be up to Wilson to pick up right where Flacco left off and continue to feed Moore.
2. The Jets should have run the ball more (bad)
Even with the injury to Michael Carter–which we will touch on later– the Jets still had the opportunity to run the ball down the stretch but they mainly abandoned that idea and tried to stay in the game with the pass. That is a bad idea, especially with the rookie Wilson set to return under center. Attempting almost twice as many passes as runs in a game is a failure on the coaching staff.
Maybe they knew that backup running back Tevin Coleman wasn't bringing the type of “juice” that Carter was bringing to the game, but that is no excuse. They must now lean on Coleman as Carter is set to miss time with a high-ankle sprain, so they needed to ride what they had. Instead, Flacco almost got the team back in the game with his passing but that can't be expected every week. The loss of Carter was a big one for a team that has struggled to run the ball all year long. That leads us to our final takeaway from Sunday's Jets-Dolphins game…
1. Michael Carter was lost for a while (ugly)
As mentioned before, this loss is a big one for the Jets. No other back on the team is averaging even within a yard of Carter, and the rookie was even soaking up some passing-game work. Now the Jets will depend on a committee of Tevin Coleman and Ty Johnson in an attempt to replace the star rookie runner for at least the next couple of weeks.
Neither of those players is the quality of runner that Carter is, however, and the Jets are set to go through some growing pains without their featured back. Safe to say, it is not necessarily the best time for Wilson to be returning to the field, especially against a red-hot Philadelphia Eagles squad. Maybe it will be a perfect time, however, as Wilson must now “sink-or-swim” with the squad he has. If nothing else, it gives the Jets a more clear picture of the rookie's future as the face of the franchise.
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