The Jets aren’t dead — but they have little margin for error

It is horror movie season, so it is only appropriate that the Jets came back to life on Thursday night like Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger. 

Just when you though they were dead … 

It was only one victory for the Jets, but the 21-13 defeat of the Texans on Thursday keeps the heartbeat of their season alive. It felt close to over with Sunday’s loss in New England. Their record is still a dismal 3-6, but there is now a glimmer of hope that would not have existed had they lost Thursday. 

There has been a lot of talk about the Jets being in the darkness. A little light is now visible. 

“When you play like that I think it generates some confidence,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said, “and it generates some momentum, so both those things are going to be integral, and going forward there was some hope too, prior to that second half, so sometimes when you put it together it creates some ‘we can really get this done,’ so it’s something that I really believe will carry us forward here.” 

The Jets now enter the easier portion of their schedule after a rough first two months. They only have one team on their remaining schedule that is above .500 — the Bills. But it goes beyond just the quality of the opponent. The Jets schedule has been a gauntlet in the early part of the season with nine games in 53 days. They have had two Monday night games, two Thursday night games, one Sunday night game, a trip to London, a trip to the West Coast and two road games following Monday night games. 

Football teams are creatures of habit and the Jets have not been able to have normal weeks of practice by playing on Thursday twice and Monday twice and having the trip to London. When owner Woody Johnson fired coach Robert Saleh after five games, that was disruptive to the schedule, as well. 

Now, things look a little more normal. They only have two games in the next 30 days. They have the mini-bye this week and won’t play the Cardinals until Nov. 10. They then play the Colts on Nov. 17 before their real bye week. The next game after that is Dec. 1 against the Seahawks. 

They only have one more prime-time game on the schedule with the Colts game slated for “Sunday Night Football,” but there is a chance the NFL will flex a better matchup into that slot. Still, the Jets have no more Thursdays or Mondays on the schedule. They should be able to find a regular practice rhythm and also this will allow some of their older players extra rest to heal up. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been dealing with knee, ankle and hamstring injuries since Week 4. 

“I think whenever you can get in a rhythm, and a little more regimen and schedule, I think it can help,” Ulbrich said. “It for sure can, but ultimately, and I know it’s coach talk, but Arizona is all I’m focusing on. That’s, again, like the world may end after this Cardinals game, that’s all I’m worried about is this game.” 

The Arizona trip is their last long one. The last three road games are in Miami, Jacksonville and Buffalo. 

While it is premature to think this victory has suddenly flipped things around for the Jets, the AFC playoff picture does remain wide open. There are three teams who are not leading their division with three losses in the AFC right now (Broncos, Ravens, Chargers), the Colts are 4-4 and the Bengals and Dolphins each have five losses. 

The Jets have used up all of their margin for error. But the Jets quieted things down with the second half on Thursday night and relieved some pressure. 

“It’s more flipping the pressure into confidence and momentum,” Ulbrich said. “I think there’s a big difference between the two. In my opinion there’s productive paranoia that sometimes you can have in these moments, and it allows you to work that much harder and check that many more boxes, and be that much more thorough in everything that we do, but sometimes it can be suffocating, so sometimes a little success like this can translate and transition that stress into more positive energy and confidence, which hopefully we’ll create on this team right now.”