Jets Regular Season

Jets loss: Bowles slammed for not being aggressive

Admin - September 13, 2017

What will it take for the New York Jets to become a winning team again? That question goes to everyone becomes it doesn't seem like Coach Todd Bowles knows the answer, so maybe it is time to reach out to the fans.

The NFL predictions for Week 2 do not really matter at this point. The game against the Bills is too fresh in everyone's mind. There are teams that can get by on talent. In fact, talent is often the only factor that most teams struggle to combat.

So if you have the talent, it makes sense to forget strategy and simply focus on overwhelming your opponents. Unfortunately for the Jets, they do not have enough talent for an approach like that to work.

So they need to find a strategy that works for them. Everyone seems certain that aggressiveness is the key to success, but Bowles believes he was plenty aggressive during the Sunday game.

The Jets are still undergoing a complete rebuild, so one cannot really blame them for having the worst roster in the league. In fact, the Jets are just about as bad as everyone predicted before the season even kicked off.

But the team's 21-12 loss on Sunday against the Bills is still a little disturbing, mostly because the Bills are not that strong a team. Jets fans think Bowles is a little too conservative in his game plans and calls for him to learn to play aggressively have begun to grow.

The fact that Bowles doesn't think he did anything wrong on Sunday is a source of frustration. There was a point in the game when the coach chose to take the offense off the field, pushing Lachlan Edwards forward instead. It is at this point that most Jets fans believe the game was lost.

Bowles made the blunder because he trusted in the full complement of time outs they had at the time to bail him out. Maybe the strategy made sense in that moment. But it didn't take the Bills long to consume all the timeouts the Jets had, turning Bowles' strategy on its head.

The way the Bills were running up and down the field with the ball was embarrassing for the Jets. They eventually reached a point of no return where a comeback was all but impossible.

And Bowles hasn't stopped defending his decisions. He doesn't believe that he did anything wrong. Bowles doesn't agree with the notion that his team's offense was playing it too safe.

Offensive Coordinator John Morton had no creative trick plays to offer. The whole game just gave Bowles' critics more ammo. And this time, even the fans that defended him are ready to see his head on a spike.

Of course, one cannot ignore the role Jets players had in sinking their team's chances at a victory. But as the conductor of the Jets Orchestra, Bowles takes a lot of the blame. Now, calls to give the Jets a couple more chances cannot be discounted.

They've only played one game so far. They have plenty of chances to turn things around. They just need to stop playing it safe.