A quick ‘no’ was Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s answer when asked after Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati if he, at any point, considered pulling Joe Flacco and inserting Mike White at quarterback.
He would have had good reason too if he did think about it, however, as Flacco threw for a 285 yards, but it was a ‘pedestrian’ total that came on just over 50 percent completions, and he added two interceptions, two lost fumbles, and a third that the Jets recovered to boot.
And the fans certainly let Flacco know about it, booing him heavily and calling for White – especially in the second half, when the Jets’ five drives ended in one field goal, two interceptions, a fumble, and a turnover on downs. Flacco surely heard it, but also surely made no friends with the fans when asked about it post-game.
“When you’re not winning football games and you’re struggling, fans are here to watch their team win, so you get the frustration,” Flacco said, “but we’ve got more important things to worry about than listening to that stuff. It’s our job to go play, and that’s going to happen.”
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The Jets’ offensive line didn’t help matters much in the final 45 minutes, especially after George Fant was lost with an injury, and the Jets’ O also committed some costly penalties and sputtered when Garrett Wilson went out of the game for a bit with a rib injury.
“He didn’t get much protection, up and down no different than Baltimore,” Saleh said of Flacco’s day. “I’m sure there are a lot of plays he wants back, and I’m sure he’ll say himself it wasn’t good enough.”
“I thought we had a couple opportunities early where they were playing man, and we got two field goals,” Flacco added, “but we kind of just stalled a little bit when they mixed things up on it and made it difficult for us.”
That said, though, it’s on Flacco that he gave the ball away four times, two on fumbles, and “got greedy” on his first of two picks.
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“I probably got greedy trying to force it down the field against Tampa-2 coverage, probably should’ve just continued progressions and maybe check it down and live to fight another day,” he said.
“It’s frustrating as hell; any time you turn the ball over four times and only get one takeaway, you’re not going to win,” Saleh added.
One of those opportunities: third down conversions, on which the Jets went 7-of-18; even though three of the other 11 led to field goals, two of the Jets’ turnovers came on third down, the other two came on fourth downs after failing to convert a third down, and the one actual turnover on downs came after they failed to convert a third-and-five and fourth-and-five.
“We had plenty of opportunities in the second half to grab the momentum, and we just couldn’t take advantage of those,” Saleh said bluntly. “We got all those third down opportunities, and those are the ones you have to find a way to convert and keep drives alive. We couldn’t convert in crunch time.”
Saleh is “expecting” Zach Wilson to be cleared this week, and be in line to start in Pittsburgh next Sunday, but until that is made official, Flacco is going to keep plugging.
“We’ll see. You guys know more than I do,” Flacco said when asked about Wilson. “I’ll keep my head down, keep working, and keep doing whatever I need to do for this football team, no matter what it is.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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