The Jets threw almost as many helmets as footballs last Sunday in Kansas City.
OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but frustration boiled over last week in a 35-12 loss to the Chiefs.
Quarterback Geno Smith and right tackle Armand Membou both fired their helmets in exasperation, and Membou threw a tablet as well.
The Jets hope to keep the helmet-throwing to a minimum this week, and they believe they can do that by channeling that frustration from last week into beating the Bills on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
It will be a tall task for the 2-7 Jets to topple the division-leading Bills, who are 7-1 this season and 4-0 on the road.
“I’m all for guys being frustrated when things are not going the right way, but also I’m an advocate of, man, let’s make sure we channel that frustration directly to our opponent,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said, “and even the things that we’ve learned, good or bad, that we channel that directly to our opponent, and those are some of the conversations that we had going into this week.
“Everything that we’ve learned — again, good or bad — we want to make sure that we channel that right to the Bills.”
The Jets have lost four straight games while the Bills enter this one as winners of their past four. It’s the first time since 1993 the Bills have opened a season 7-1 or better. First-year head coach Joe Brady has his team rolling. Buffalo leads the NFL in total yards and points per game. They get a Jets defense that has given up an average of 31.8 points per game in their past four.
The Bills have won their past five games against the Jets, and Glenn is still searching for his first division win. He is 0-8 against the AFC East, including 0-2 this season.
It has been a rough stretch for the Jets with their defense struggling to stop anyone and their offense struggling to score touchdowns. It came to a head last Sunday when a 14-12 halftime lead for the Chiefs ballooned into a 35-12 blowout as Patrick Mahomes and Kenneth Walker took over the game. The visible frustration on the sideline from Smith and Membou showed it was a painful loss.
“Would you like to see no emotion? I’m excited when I see players fired up and passionate about this game,” defensive tackle and team captain Harrison Phillips said. “I think something that precedes all things in football, even effort, is you’ve got to love this. You should be passionate about this game and trying to win. Not having that result, I understand it can be frustrating. We’ve mentioned this week that if you are frustrated, take it out on our opponents. Any frustration that you might have from football — whether it’s your play time, if it’s your production, if it’s what you’ve got going on back home — if you can harness that and use that to be extra motivated to be a little more violent, a little more aggressive, that’s a fantastic trait that champions have.”
One of the most frustrating aspects of this team is how its offense seems to crumble in opponents’ territory. The Jets had to kick four field goals last week against a high-powered Chiefs team. They are 31st in the NFL in red zone production. Offensive coordinator Frank Reich knows they need to get into the end zone, especially against a Bills team that scores more than anyone else in football.
“We’re not scoring enough points,” Reich said. “There’s things that, there’s important metrics that offensively we’re ranked pretty high at, there’s important offensive metrics we’re ranked low at, and then there’s some we’re ranked right in the middle, and what we’re trying to do, winning is in the margins. It’s the small, it’s the cumulation of little decisions, little plays, calling it, sequencing it, game planning it, executing, and just getting incrementally better. These have been almost all close games, and so we got to find ways to get that 1 percent better to put us over the edge.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
