The scene inside the Jets locker room tells the whole story

[joewilly12]

The scene inside the Jets locker room tells the whole story

By Mark Cannizzaro

November 5, 2018 | 1:19am

 

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Sam Darnold reacts during the Jets' loss to the Dolphins on Sunday.Getty Images

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MARK CANNIZZARO

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The scenes around the quiet visitors’ locker room late Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium painted a portrait of a team that has come to the sobering realization all hope for a successful season has expired.

Jamal Adams, the emotionally combustible second-year safety, stood motionless, facing his locker with a towel around his waist and one around his neck, gripping the walls and looking like he wanted to ransack the entire room in a rage.

Guard Brian Winters, wearing a faraway stare of utter despair and disgust, sat on the bench in front of his locker in a state of undress, half in his uniform and half out, long after teammates around him had showered and changed into street clothes.

Linebacker Darron Lee had a scowl on his face and was shaking his head as he swiftly left the locker room.

The Jets are 3-6 after Sunday’s 13-6 loss to the Dolphins that looked a lot more like a pillow fight than an NFL football game — a game that set offensive football back generations.

Their third consecutive loss came to a Dolphins team that entered the day having lost four of its past five games.

Their offense scored six points against a Dolphins defense that had allowed an average of 33.4 points in that five-game span.

They lost to a Miami team that produced a total of seven first downs in the game with a backup quarterback, Brock Osweiler, throwing for all of 139 yards. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers sometimes produce seven first downs in a single offensive possession.

 

It didn’t help that the Jets’ prized rookie quarterback, Sam Darnold, delivered his worst performance as a pro, throwing four interceptions, the second of which was returned by Dolphins rookie linebacker Jerome Baker for the game’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Yes, it’s bad for the Jets right now. So bad they are anything but a lock at home next Sunday to beat a 2-7 Bills team that lost 41-9 to the Bears on Sunday in Buffalo.

The more the Jets stagger down this path of hopelessness, the more apparent it seems head coach Todd Bowles will be replaced after this season, four years in with no playoff appearances.

“I’m pissed off,” Adams said once he finally dressed and gathered his emotions. “I’m sick of losing. Enough is enough. I’m fed up with losing. I don’t know what else to say. It’s not Coach Bowles’ fault. He takes a lot of … things, but it’s not his fault.

 

Jets report card: This offense is an utter embarrassment

But yes, it is Bowles’ fault — at least in part. This team has not gotten — and is not getting — better under his watch.

A week ago in Chicago, the Jets were without their two starting receivers (Quincy Enunwa and Robby Anderson) and fresh off having lost their most productive running back (Bilal Powell) for the season and had little realistic chance of beating the Bears.

On Sunday, against a Dolphins defense that cannot hold a candle to the one the Jets faced in Chicago, they had Enunwa and Anderson back on the field and also had running back Elijah McGuire. And their offense was just as inept in Miami as it was in Chicago.

Bowles, too, curiously waited until it was too late to replace center Spencer Long on Sunday as his shotgun snaps to Darnold were more errant than a wild baseball pitcher who had lost the plate.

There was a clear undercurrent inside the losing locker room after the game of some potential friction between the defensive players, who had just stifled the Dolphins offense, and the offensive players who were, well, offensive.

Left tackle Kelvin Beachum made it a point to start his postgame interview this way: “Can I say something? First and foremost, I think our defense played extremely well today. To give up six points … our defense balled out. One of the best defensive performances I’ve ever been a part of. Kudos to our defense. We didn’t deliver for them. This game is on us

'Fed up,' 'pissed off': Jets' anger is now boiling over

To a man, every offensive player sounded like a guilty spouse who had been cheating on his significant other and was hoping to save the marriage.

“My confidence is high on this team,” Adams said. “It doesn’t matter who had the bad game. It’s a 53-man roster and we didn’t come to play. We didn’t finish the ballgame, and it’s the same, same, same stuff. It’s frustrating. Enough is enough.”

Adams insisted the team is “still tight,” adding that any in-house fracturing “is not going to happen.”

“We got to find an answer,” Anderson said. “It’s got to change. It’s my third year here. I understand the emphasis on restructure [and] rebuild, but I think everybody’s tired of that. I think that that’s an excuse. We’ve got to challenge ourselves and improve and make it happen. It’s professional football.”

[joewilly12]

Todd Bowles losing the locker room again.......................

[jetstream23]

11 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

Todd Bowles losing the locker room again.......................

Amazingly, people are starting to realize that his one moderately successful year in 2015 was likely due to Fitzpatrick catching some lightning and carrying him.  When your best season out of 4 is your first, you're in trouble.  This is his team now, the players he wanted.  Our defense was stellar yesterday but Todd Bowles is the Head Coach, the coach of the whole team, and this is starting to look like a very, very Rex-like tenure.

[GREENBEAN]

I hope Sam doesn't want to break up with us.

We need a positive influx of offensive legitimacy. That will be the cure. There is no way that we can keep going with this coaching staff. We hire a regime, build a stout O line (the biggest issue we have)  and draft a blue chip offensive weapon for Sam to play with and all things will change. 

I just hope the damage isn't too deep this season. We still have a long way to go and a lot of pain to endure. 

[Augustiniak]

the difference is, you finally have guys like jamal adams who are calling out management for putting together such an unbalanced team.  how do you think the defense felt about jermaine kearse not knowing where he was on the field when he caught that pass, or the offense having to burn a time out in the first series of the 2nd half, or all the bad snaps for a month and they couldn't figure out how to help the youngest starting qb get the ball without an adventure.  it will take a house cleaning to fix this, they will need to bring in a head coach who has presided over developing qbs before and who also will lean on the gm to not skew the offseason focus on the defense again.

[Jetster]

12 minutes ago, Augustiniak said:

the difference is, you finally have guys like jamal adams who are calling out management for putting together such an unbalanced team.  how do you think the defense felt about jermaine kearse not knowing where he was on the field when he caught that pass, or the offense having to burn a time out in the first series of the 2nd half, or all the bad snaps for a month and they couldn't figure out how to help the youngest starting qb get the ball without an adventure.  it will take a house cleaning to fix this, they will need to bring in a head coach who has presided over developing qbs before and who also will lean on the gm to not skew the offseason focus on the defense again.

Are you talking about the same defense that let Baker Mayfield look like Drew Brees, that defense? Or the one that let the Bears just walk all the way down the field after the offense scored to get within one score last week? Or the defense that has a 6th pick DT, a 6th pick safety, a 2nd round safety, a 1st round LB, 3rd round LB, and a free agent LB in Avery? 

Look, the defense is good enough to win with but shutting down Brock Osweiller (how many teams has this kid been on already), isn't something to hang your hat on frankly. 

If the Jets had put that same effort into drafting offensive players, they could have Brandon Cooks, Davante Adams or Jarvis Landry, John Brown or Devonte Freeman, Todd Gurley, Michael Thomas, Will Fuller or Sterling Shepard, and then they could have had their choice of Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson to solve their QB woes. 

But in 2014 the Jets decided to AGAIN go with ANOTHER Defensive minded coach in a league that has been tilted toward offense for years now. How many years does it take an organization to realize your not going to shutdown Brady, so your chances are better if you can OUTSCORE him. 

Plus, your team even in losses at least are entertaining & exciting. Jet fans have been screaming for an offensive minded coach for years now & when you see that group mentioned above & that if the Jets went into drafts thinking fix the offense & find a young QB that is a LOT OF TALENT we passed by for defense or complete whiffs like Devin Smith. 

Instead, we could have all suffered for a couple years & then added a QB like Mahomes to hand off to Todd Gurley or play action to Michael Thomas. I can't believe how far we've fallen with Bowles & his 1950s defensive philosophy of building an NFL team in this day & age. 

We actually have less overall talent right now then we had when Kotite was fired. No matter who comes here, Harbaugh? Defilipo?, they'll definitely need some time. What a sh*tshow we have here right now. 

[jeremy2020]

Quote

Adams insisted the team is “still tight,” adding that any in-house fracturing “is not going to happen.”

...as it is literally happening as he speaks..

[joewilly12]

22 replies8 retweets44 likes

 

 

[Jetster]

This is the perfect time for a change. Players are frustrated. You fire Bowles, especially if we lose to the Bills, Jet fans might kill him with their bare hands but that's how you find your young leaders in the lockerroom. Who rises after the Ax comes down? This team aint winning nothing in 2018. What type of effort do you get after Bowles is gone & who takes advantage of the substitute teacher (who ever that may be?). Not one guy on this team isn't expendable other than Sam Darnold..NOT ONE.

[jeremy2020]

Just now, Jetster said:

This is the perfect time for a change. Players are frustrated. You fire Bowles, especially if we lose to the Bills, Jet fans might kill him with their bare hands but that's how you just the leaders in the lockerroom. Who rises after the Ax comes down? This team aint winning nothing in 2018. What type of effort do you get after Bowles is gone & who takes advantage of the substitute teacher (who ever that may be?).

C'mon, we all know they'll beat the Bills and the halls will ring with the Bells of victory. You'll see people hop back on the hope wagon only to watch it spontaneously catch on fire and drive off a cliff the next week.

[bealeb319]

Week after the bills is our bye isn't it?

Sent from my LGUS991 using JetNation.com mobile app

[JustInFudge]

You know, the attitude with this team after losses is always, no big deal.  We're tight.  We're going to get this right.  We're going to fix it.  It's just 1 loss, yada yada yada.  And they never do.

Maybe someone should take an opposite approach to losing and make it unacceptable and admit there are issues and work do something about instead of treating it as status quo.  We'll do better next time.

Guess what?  Those type of people, never do.

 

[RutgersJetFan]

2 minutes ago, bealeb319 said:

Week after the bills is our bye isn't it?

Sent from my LGUS991 using JetNation.com mobile app
 

If only you were holding front of some sort device that could answer this question for you.

[Vader]

1 hour ago, jetstream23 said:

Amazingly, people are starting to realize that his one moderately successful year in 2015 was likely due to Fitzpatrick catching some lightning and carrying him.  When your best season out of 4 is your first, you're in trouble.  This is his team now, the players he wanted.  Our defense was stellar yesterday but Todd Bowles is the Head Coach, the coach of the whole team, and this is starting to look like a very, very Rex-like tenure.

Rex, without the winning 

[darkprime]

19 minutes ago, Jetster said:

This is the perfect time for a change. Players are frustrated. You fire Bowles, especially if we lose to the Bills, Jet fans might kill him with their bare hands but that's how you find your young leaders in the lockerroom. Who rises after the Ax comes down? This team aint winning nothing in 2018. What type of effort do you get after Bowles is gone & who takes advantage of the substitute teacher (who ever that may be?). Not one guy on this team isn't expendable other than Sam Darnold..NOT ONE.

If (when) the Jets lose to the Bills, it's time to fire Bowles.  Let an interim head coach have the bye week to get things in order to compete for the rest of the season.

[TheGreenGhost]

16 minutes ago, JiF said:

You know, the attitude with this team after losses is always, no big deal.  We're tight.  We're going to get this right.  We're going to fix it.  It's just 1 loss, yada yada yada.  And they never do.

This attitude comes from the top...  Todd "Moral Victory" Bowles.  "We played hard, we stayed together, have to fix some things going forward."  Rinse and repeat.

Teams take on the attitude of the HC.  When Rex was here we were "Super Bowl contenders" even after ridiculous losses. 

Until Bowles is gone, nothing changes.

[jetfan39]

18 minutes ago, bealeb319 said:

Week after the bills is our bye isn't it?

Sent from my LGUS991 using JetNation.com mobile app
 

We will still lose that week. We definitely need more articles like this one. If the J & J boys don't know what they are watching, maybe reading will help them. I doubt it but stranger things have happened 

[JetPotato]

I'm confused. I keep checking, but I still haven't seen the news that Bowles has been fired yet. Anyone?

[Bocajetfan]

1 minute ago, JetPotato said:

I'm confused. I keep checking, but I still haven't seen the news that Bowles has been fired yet. Anyone?

Believe the e-mail is written but no one has clicked on send.

[Paradis]

I feel like there's this illusion that "good NFL locker rooms" lose with dignity and act professional.

Bullsh*t.

If you really think about it, every team that's spend a couple years in a tail spin, struggling to win games, and can't put back to back weeks together - end up like this. They're thorough breeds who live for 1 thing - winning. When that doesn't happen over extended periods of time, every locker room implodes. 

This isn't a "Jets" thing, this what losers look like, jersey irrelevant. We are losers. 

[joewilly12]

Todd Bowles locker room speech. 

[Losmeister]

somoene somewhere clicking his red shoed heels and saying " this Ol is good enough, this OL is good enough"?

The whole middle of the OL is bad winters/long/carpenter, the T's barely better if at all...

[ChuckkieB]

There is no coming back for Bowles if the Jets lose to the Bills next week.  He will be fired for sure.  Even the most ignorant of owners will not tolerate being embarrassed week after week.  

[JetPotato]

15 minutes ago, Bocajetfan said:

Believe the e-mail is written but no one has clicked on send.

I thought these things were done by fax.

"I, CJ, fire TB as the HC of the NYJ"

[ASH1962]

Hate to say it, but I just do not care anymore. Let them keep Mac & Bowles, let them maintain the Florham Park Mental Masturbation cult that thinks & preaches he and Mac are the ones to lead the Jets to contention, whatever, I don't give a ***k anymore. When and if they ever put a product on the field worthy of my attention,  I might consider going back but for me, it is offseason now. They wrecked Mark Sanchez, they wrecked Chad Pennington, and they are in the process of wrecking Sam Darnold. Whatever, ******g extend them both for another 10 years, I do not care anymore.

[Jetster]

3 minutes ago, ASH1962 said:

Hate to say it, but I just do not care anymore. Let them keep Mac & Bowles, let them maintain the Florham Park Mental Masturbation cult that thinks & preaches he and Mac are the ones to lead the Jets to contention, whatever, I don't give a ***k anymore. When and if they ever put a product on the field worthy of my attention,  I might consider going back but for me, it is offseason now. They wrecked Mark Sanchez, they wrecked Chad Pennington, and they are in the process of wrecking Sam Darnold. Whatever, ******g extend them both for another 10 years, I do not care anymore.

I'm done for this year other than 12/02, my son lives in Nashville, he's not a Jet fan but we had already planned on going. Be fun to get a peak at Sam live, but a good steak dinner, maybe a preds game the night B4, I'm going to just enjoy the weekend with my son. I honestly like you could give two sh*ts at this point win or lose because if Bowles & Macc return in 2019, I'm truly done with them. That would cement my belief for Woody & Chris its just about the money & nothing else, fans be damned.

[MaxAF]

2 hours ago, joewilly12 said:

Todd Bowles losing the locker room again.......................

Yup. I agree. Bowles is a coach I believe the players like and want to rally around. But there is nothing that TB can do to keep the momentum of this team going. He’s out of answers, out classed every week. Instead of firing another OC it’s obvious that TB is the problem. After 3 + seasons of Bowles I am finally in the fire Bowles camp. The team is not getting better, our possible franchise QB is not progressing, he can’t even correct the stupid penalty issues, burning time outs, clock management, poor play call decisions,  etc. etc. etc. There was even a week where TB admitted he didn’t know what else to do. It’s Grounghog Day almost every week. Good thing hunting season starts in a couple weeks. I’m an upstate NY guy. It will give me some relief on Sundays when I go out and kill something. 

[MaxAF]

49 minutes ago, JetPotato said:

I'm confused. I keep checking, but I still haven't seen the news that Bowles has been fired yet. Anyone?

The only reason he’s not fired is there is no one to put in his place. Kacy Rogers, Bates, maybe McCown. He’s probably the best candidate on the team.

[Beerfish]

2 hours ago, joewilly12 said:

Todd Bowles losing the locker room again.......................

This guy has never had control of the locker room from year one.

[JetPotato]

2 hours ago, Beerfish said:

This guy has never had control of the locker room from year one.

We may have lost the locker room, but we're trying. We just aren't executing. It's on the players, really.

[jeremy2020]

3 minutes ago, JetPotato said:

We may have lost the locker room, but we're trying. We just aren't executing. It's on the players, really.

Well, that's just a thing that happens really. Nothing a coach could possibly do about that. Honestly, it's the fan's fault bEcAUse tHeY WoOdY UnIteDwhOIspOop

[Jetster]

7 minutes ago, JetPotato said:

We may have lost the locker room, but we're trying. We just aren't executing. It's on the players, really.

Yes...they should all be executed.

[Doggin94it]

I, for one, am excited to read the "How Todd Bowles Righted the Ship" articles after the coming obliteration of Buffalo:

"Sitting in the locker room after the Jets' 342-7 victory, an emotional Jamal Adams defended his embattled coach.  "That's just who he is, man. He keeps us together, keeps us even keeled ..."

[Kleckineau]

This defensive effort was good but please spare me the D was stellar B/S

This was the Dolphins and Brock effin Osweiler.

When they can contain a Cousins or Brady I'll give credit until then they still suck just like their "defensive" HC sucks.

 

[joewilly12]

 

✔

 

 

More Leonard Williams: "If we start dividing now, if coaches start dividing from players and players from players and coaches from coaches _ any type of division in this organization _ it's only going to hinder us." #Jets

4:16 PM - Nov 5, 2018