There was no victory for the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium Sunday in their season opener…and after a 24-9 loss to Baltimore, there were no moral victories, either.
"There's no moral victory. Not even close to a moral victory,” a solemn Robert Saleh said after his team’s loss. “But I do know that if we do what we're supposed to do, if we come out and play the way we did with the energy and juice like I talked about. We got to get it fixed. Like I told you, we're young at the skill spots, we're young at critical positions, and we've got to grow quick."
The Jets were missing their biggest skill player, Zach Wilson, but that wasn’t where the blame needed to go, as Joe Flacco was 37-of-59 for 307 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. The Jets also got over five yards per carry on the ground between Michael Carter and Breece Hall.
And it wasn’t the defense, which held a motivated Lamar Jackson in check for much of the day, keeping Lamar to 217 yards in the air and just 17 on six carries on the ground and sacking him twice.
No, the problem was that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish…or, in the Jets’ case, how you can’t.
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“You’re not going to beat a veteran team when you’re not capitalizing on the momentum you gain, and come up empty-handed time and time again like we did today,” Saleh said. “It’s impossible to win. We moved the ball well, but five trips into their territory came away with nine points. We're missing kicks, we're missing extra points, and we’re not going to win football games.”
Indeed, the trouble started on the opening drive, when the Jets had third-and-10 just on their side of the midfield line…and had to punt after Flacco was called for intentional grounding trying to throw the ball away. The next three drives yielded a five-and-out (a drive that didn’t get a first down outside of a penalty), a pick, and a three-and-out, and the fifth drive went 44 yards to the Baltimore 27 before stalling out…and seeing new kicker Greg Zuerlein miss his first attempt as a Jet wide left.
Zuerlein did finally get this first Jets points just before the half, kicking a 45-yarder after another drive stalled at the Ravens’ 27, but in the second half, the Jets had three more drives down into Baltimore’s territory, the first two ending in a Flacco fumble and a turnover on downs after a fourth-and-goal at the six.
It wasn’t until their final drive, which started on the Baltimore 43, that the Jets got their first TD of the season…but by the time Tyler Conklin hauled in Flacco’s TD pass, the Jets were down two touchdowns and had all of a minute left on the clock.
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Oh, and new kicker Greg Zuerlein missed the PAT, his second missed kick of the day, which would have been window-dressing on the scoreboard but a positive finish to the game at least.
“We had a lot of momentum and were optimistic about where the team is heading, but this was a punch in the face,” Flacco said. “There’s things we can look at and say we did well, but we can’t keep saying that.”
As for the defense, well, they did play well, with “a lot of juice and energy” according to Saleh – but they were burned by three big plays: a 32-yard DPI that set up Baltimore’s first TD drive, the resulting 25-yard TD pass on a third-and-five, and a 55-yard TD pass that made it 24-3.
Saleh said it was because the Jets “got a little nosey in the back end,” but the fact remains that those big plays set up and/or scored 14 of Baltimore’s points. Still, while this was a game the Jets “absolutely lost,” the head coach is confident that if they can keep up this kind of effort and production, the results will come.
“This is, in my opinion, a game we absolutely lost,” Saleh said. “And there’s no moral victory, make sure you guys understand that, but I do know that if we do play with that type of mentality and we do play with that type of effort that we played today with, we're going to be fine, just got to clean it up."
Added Flacco: “Every time we take the field, we have to truly believe we’re capable, because we are.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN