Editorial

OC John Morton defends play call in loss to Dolphins

Admin - October 28, 2017

People are calling the fourth quarter of the Jets/Dolphins game a meltdown, at least for the Jets, and they have good reason to. The Jets came as close as humanly possible to walking away with a victory.

Instead, they took a chance on a play and things did not work out. Was it Josh McCown's fault or John Morton? You wouldn't expect these questions to come up. After all, it was Josh's actions on the field that decided everything.

But the responsibility of offensive coordinator John Morton cannot be overlooked. The loss wasn't atrocious. The game is unlikely to affect sports betting odds for Jets games.

But people like analyzing these things and speculating about what could have been done differently. It all came down to the final minute of regulation. The two teams were tied at a score of 28, so Coach Todd Bowles waited for McCown to essentially deliver the win.

The results were not quite as expected. Being intercepted at 1st and 10 obviously wasn't Josh McCown's intention and neither was the field goal that eventually gave the Miami Dolphins the victory.

McCown must still be smarting over his actions on the field. They were so close to victory. The most haunting aspects of a sports game are often those moments where everything rests on a single play, where a team will either rise or fall depending on the error-free actions of a select few athletes.

Interestingly enough John Morton has stuck to his guns. He doesn't think his play call was wrong. And if he could jump in a time machine and go back to that moment, he would make the same play call.

According to Morton, the play he called wasn't bad. In fact, it was one of their best plays. The problem arose with McCown who was basically blinded when he threw the ball.

There was a defender in the flat that completely escaped McCown's notice. Morton seemed to suggest that McCown wasn't in a position to do that much about the situation. By the time he saw that particular defender, it was too late. He was already in the process of throwing the ball.

McCown took responsibility for his actions. He admitted that he had made a mistake and that his actions in that fourth quarter would go on record as one of his worst 2017 blunders.

Morton believes that without that confluence of unfortunate coincidences, without McCown being blinded, the play called would have succeeded. As far as the offensive coordinator is concerned, Todd Bowles was right to try and go for the win.

Interestingly enough, while Todd Bowles' side lost to the Dolphins, he had good reason to celebrate fortunes in life. Joe Girardi will not be returning to the Yankees. They decided to part ways with him.

And that matters because it makes Bowles the 2nd longest tenured coach in the New York Area. That is an impressive feat. Bowles has been with the Jets since 2015. Coach Alain Vigneault was hired by the Rangers in the same year but a couple of months earlier.

You wouldn't think that Bowles would care about that achievement. But when the fact was brought up in an interview, Bowles was visibly pleased.