History keeps repeating itself for the 2024 Jets. Just as they did three weeks ago, the Jets captured a late lead only for their defense to give up a last-minute, game-winning touchdown to the Indianapolis Colts to drop them to 3-8 on the season. Making matters worse, the game probably wouldn’t have gone down to the wire if they didn’t spot their opponent a double-digit lead with yet another poor start.
An abject first half performance from the Jets saw them dominated on both sides of the ball as the Colts jumped out to a 13-0 lead on an Anthony Richardson touchdown run and a pair of Matt Gay field goals. At that stage, the game looked certain to be a blowout as the Jets’ offense hadn’t been able to get anything going. However, a pair of Breece Hall touchdowns gave New York an improbable 14-13 lead early in the second half.
The Jets had finally got things going on a two-minute drill which ended on Hall’s 29-yard catch and run from Aaron Rodgers. Then, at the start of the second half, Javon Kinlaw recovered a Richardson fumble to set up Hall’s 18-yard run.
The Colts recaptured the lead on another Gay field goal, but New York showed faith in their new kicker Anders Carlson, and he nailed a 58-yarder to put them 17-16 up. The Jets then got the ball back and extended their lead to eight when backup tight end Kenny Yeboah caught his first NFL touchdown on an 11-yard pass from Rodgers.
Richardson put together an impressive drive and hit Josh Downs for a 10-yard touchdown with 10:11 remaining, but New York held onto a 24-22 lead when the two-point conversion failed. Another Carlson field goal made it 27-22 but the Colts got the ball back with 2:41 remaining, all three timeouts and a chance to win, which they did on Richardson’s second touchdown run with 46 seconds left.
Here are the key takeaways…
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The Jets’ offense got off to another dreadful start, as they failed to score a touchdown on their opening drive for the 12th game in a row and went three-and-out on their first three possessions for the third time this season. Before the Jets’ two-minute drill, Rodgers was just 5-of-9 for 10 yards passing and looked set to end the first half with less than 50 passing yards for the third game in a row. He ended up 22-for-29 for 184 yards with two touchdowns.
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New York’s much maligned run defense played well for most of the day. Even though they gave up 64 rushing yards in the first half, the Colts averaged less than three yards per carry and the Jets stopped a number of plays at or behind the line. Indianapolis ended up with 91 rushing yards at just 3.6 per carry and the Jets had seven tackles for loss. The tackling was much better than last week, too, as even Sauce Gardner made a good open field tackle on the outside.
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While the run defense was better, the Jets still struggled to get off the field on third down. Richardson, who had a completion percentage of just 35 percent on third down entering this contest, completed five of his first six passes on third down, converting four. It was also concerning how easily Richardson was able to pass them into scoring range on their last two drives.
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The Jets were already down 10-0 when they opted to go for it on 4th-and-short in their own territory and tried to get creative as Tyler Conklin motioned under center. However, he was stuffed for no gain on a sneak. The fact that the Jets held the Colts to a field goal despite giving them the ball with good field position was where the game finally started to swing in the Jets’ favor.
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One area that seems to have been better for the Jets in recent weeks has been their on-field discipline in terms of penalties. After some of the recent penalty-heavy games the Jets have been involved in, it was remarkable to see a game where neither team was penalized in the first half. That’s only the second time that’s happened in the NFL all year. The Colts were flagged for four penalties in the third quarter, but the Jets didn’t have their first penalty until guard Alijah Vera-Tucker false-started with 13:36 remaining.
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In his first start at his natural left tackle position, Olu Fashanu didn’t fare too badly. However, he was beaten around the edge for a sack by another rookie, Laiatu Latu, and had a holding penalty in the fourth quarter.
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Should the Jets have gone for two when Yeboah’s touchdown put them up by seven in the fourth quarter? Rodgers wanted to go for it and a successful try would have made it a two-possession game. As it turned out, the Colts went for a game-tying two-pointer and failed on their next possession anyway. There was a similar dilemma with under three minutes remaining when New York opted to kick the field goal for a five-point lead instead of going for the first down and perhaps being able to run out the clock.
Highlights
What’s next
The Jets now head to their bye week but will return to action in two weeks when they host the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Dec. 1st at 1:00 p.m. ET.
