Pop Quiz: When was the last time the Jets won a game in September?
No, wise man, it wasn’t 1968.
But some time has passed. The Jets ’last win in September came on September 10, 2018 in Detroit. You remember that game, right? It was a great debut for Sam Darnold. The Jets received touchdowns from the defense and special teams in a 48-17 puzzle that ended with the fans crowded behind the bench singing the JETS. People believed the franchise’s quarterback had been found and the team was on its way.
Since then, the Jets range from 0 to 9 in September. To say the Jets have been bad during the first month of the NFL is like saying it rained here Wednesday night.
The Jets have been horrible at the start of the season, have lost six of those games by 10 points or more and have not conceded more than 17 points in any of the defeats. They have been outscored by 236-111 in all nine games.
This is the challenge awaiting new head coach Robert Saleh and the 2021 version of the Jets. Can they win any of these September games – in Carolina, against New England, in Denver? A win will go a long way for Robert Saleh as he tries to establish his program and forge an identity for a young team.
Saleh has done a good job with his messaging and teaching. You can tell his players that they believe in him and that they are buying. But at some point, players will need results to reinforce the message and really give Saleh the credibility in the locker room he needs to be successful in the long run.
Saleh agreed with the premise that earnings build trust, but said it won’t matter if it happens sooner or later.
“Confidence is contagious, isn’t it?” Saleh said. “But I think it applies even to a veteran, when you have initial success and you have that confidence, it’s contagious, right? You see it all the time, the teams that won the last three or four games at the end of the season regular are hot and handle that momentum, like Tampa [Bay] did last year. No one in mid-season would have thought he would win a Super Bowl. You just warm up and throw. It’s the same, that confidence starts to grow, you think you’re invincible. “
But the Jets are trying to change a losing culture, and an early victory would increase that. A veteran player who had been with a winning team before joining the Jets told me a few years ago that there was a fear in the Jets locker room that when things went wrong, everyone would hear, “Here we go again.”
The Jets are rebuilding and could start with a bad start. They will probably not be favored in a match until October 31, when the Bengals visit MetLife Stadium. They started 0-13 last year and opened 1-7 in 2019. Another slow start seems likely due to their first six games.
Saleh argued that the Jets don’t necessarily need a quick start. He pointed to 2017 when the 49ers started 0-9 and then went 6-1 down the stretch. That team, for which Saleh was defensive coordinator, was replaced by quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo midway through the season.
“We started 0-9, we lost seven games by three points or less, or something like that,” Saleh said. “We won our last five games of the year. How does this happen? You win one, Jimmy Garoppolo intervenes and then you have confidence and everyone is excited and then you overwhelm people with juice. It’s the same, whether you’re a veteran team or a young team, success builds confidence, confidence builds more success.
Confidence is something that is missing here for a while. An early win, perhaps over Darnold himself, would help these young Jets a lot.