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Team Grades: The New York Jets Find A New Way To Lose

By Tyson Rauch

Good teams in the National Football League find a way to win, and bad teams find a way to lose. The New York Jets (2-10) are a bad team and on Monday night the team inexcusably found a way to lose 16-13 to the Miami Dolphins (7-5).

Offense Grade: C

The Jets offense absolutely mauled the Miami defense in the first half of the game as New York rushed for over 200 yards. The game plan was creative and featured packages for Chris Ivory, Chris Johnson, Bilal Powell, and Percy Harvin.

The problem for the Jets came in the second half when New York started to face the adjustments made by the Miami Dolphins. As expected, Miami started to sell out to stop the run yet the Jets inexplicably kept trying to pound the football. Why not try to take advantage of the play action pass? How about going after a corner (R.J. Stanford) that has been on the Miami Dolphins for less than a week?

The play calling went from creative to mind boggling and that cost the New York Jets the game.

Defense Grade: B-

The New York Jets defense kept the team in the game as the unit held Miami to 291 total yards and 5/13 on third down. Gang Green was stout against the run, yielding only 74 yards, and generated a pass rush that forced quarterback Ryan Tannehill into several poor throws.

Unfortunately for the Jets the defense could not capitalize on those errant throws as both Calvin Pace and Darrin Walls dropped interceptions. The inability to create turnovers continues to be the Achilles heel of the New York Jets defense.

Quarterback Grade: C

This was an odd night for Geno Smith as the New York Jets coaching staff completely took the football out of his hand. Smith was relegated to hand off duty as he only threw the football 8 times heading into the final drive of the game.  Geno missed a potential touchdown pass to Percy Harvin and received little help from wide receiver Eric Decker as he had two drops.Smith’s game ending interception was thrown under duress in a dire situation.

Special Teams Grade: F

Just an awful night for the special teams units as Nick Folk missed two field goals, Ryan Quigley had a punt blocked, and the group committed four costly penalties. A strong argument can be made that the special team’s miscues were the difference in the game.

Put the blame on the coaches

If you are going to play the blame game look no further than the decisions made by the New York Jets coaching staff. The offensive game plan in the second half was ludicrous and screamed of arrogance and insubordination. Rex Ryan was forced to start Geno Smith and it appeared like the head coach was rebelling by not throwing the football. How else can you explain repeatedly running the football into a stacked line of scrimmage? And when the Jets did pass the ball the offensive line appeared unprepared in blitz pickups and protection.  Clearly a recipe for failure, no? Why bother playing Geno Smith if you are not going to open the playbook? If you are going to coach scared to lose, you will do just that as evidenced on Monday night.

Another disappointing loss in what is turning out to be a brutal season for the New York Jets.

For more Jets news and updates, visit Jets Central.

Tyson Rauch is a freelance writer covering all things NFL. His work can be found on Examiner.com.

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