The NFL international slate kicks off tomorrow morning as the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings head to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Sam Darnold will face his old team while getting his Vikings off to an historic start to open the 2024 campaign.
The Vikings have started off the season with a 4-0 record thanks to magnificent quarterback play from Sam Darnold. Darnold left the Jets after the 2020 season and his since bounced around from Carolina to San Francisco before finding a home in Minnesota.
New York selected Darnold with the third overall pick back in 2018, but their expectations for him never came true. Since losing Darnold, the Jets had yet another quarterback failure in Zach Wilson and are now onto Aaron Rodgers. So was it the Jets fault for Darnold's miserable three years in the Big Apple?
Gang Green has opened up the season with some big ups and downs to say the least. They will come into this matchup with a 2-2 record after a brutal loss to the Denver Broncos. The defense has been just what everyone envisioned with a dominant start to the season. They combined to allow only 13 points in their last two games, yet the Jets only won 1 of those 2 games.
The offense was the problem last game. We've seen it year after year, the Jets offense struggles to be any bit effective when there is weather problems. Last week, with the rain being a constant factor, the Jets couldn't get anything going offensively. The fact that they couldn't score more than 10 points against one of the subpar teams in the NFL is not a good sign going forward.
Now we can blame it all on the offense, but I believe some of the blame has to go to the coaching staff. There needed to be a blip in the game plan, especially with the weather, but there wasn't. This falls directly on Robert Saleh and Nathaniel Hackett. The coaches need to adapt to certain conditions because every game isn't going to have luxurious weather especially come the later months.
Another thing to point out was the Jets offense not all being on the same page. There were a couple plays late in the game where Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson were visibly not reading the same play book. Breece Hall had the worst game of his career by far didn't help much either.
The offense needs to quickly get their act together before they fall behind even more. With a win last Sunday, the Jets could have been sitting in the top seed in the AFC East, but luckily they are still in the playoff picture. I know it's early, but it's been 14 years since the Jets last made their fans somewhat happy.
This is a make or break year for a lot of people in the Jets organization. The players need to start playing more like it. Getting a win against Minnesota in London is the perfect way to start. If the offense and coaching staff can fix their mistakes, I see no reason the Jets aren't smiling on their long flight back to the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment