FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) - The New York Jets have reached the point in their season where they might not be able to overcome another loss.
Sitting at 4-6 but still in the hunt for an AFC playoff spot, Todd Bowles’ bunch has little room to spare. So, when the coach was asked if he thought the Jets need to win all of their last six games to make the postseason, Bowles was, well, blunt.
“Excuse the language, but that’s probably a no-(expletive) statement,” he said. “We try to win every game.”
That has, of course, been the mantra all season. And, it’s one every NFL team follows.
But the Jets have the surging Carolina Panthers (7-3) up next on Sunday, followed by another home game next weekend against the suddenly struggling Kansas City Chiefs (6-4). New York ends its season with three of its last four games on the road, so taking care of home turf now is imperative for the Jets.
“Now, it’s hit or miss,” said linebacker Jordan Jenkins, who agreed with the coach’s assessment. “There’s no ’got to find a way.’ It has to happen. That’s the fact of the matter.”
The Jets’ situation appeared to take an ominous turn with a 15-10 loss at Tampa Bay on Nov. 12. But, they found themselves right in the mix again a week later while on their bye-week break when Buffalo (5-5), Miami (4-6) and Oakland (4-6) all lost.
They could easily find themselves in a deep hole, though, with another loss. So, New York has a playoff-like mentality - which Bowles insisted the Jets had as soon as the regular season kicked off.
“We were like that Week 1,” he said. “It didn’t start now. We’re like that Week 1. We’re like that every week. We try to win every ballgame. Carolina is up next and that’s the ballgame we’re trying to win. We don’t look past the next game. So, we’re just looking at Carolina.”
Jenkins said the inconsistencies in the Jets’ season can be seen when the players watch film. There are the good moments, such as the three-game winning streak early in the season and the domination of Buffalo on Thursday Night Football in front of prime-time audience on Nov. 2.
And then, there are the embarrassing moments, including the blown leads in three straight losses to New England, Miami and Atlanta.
“We see where we can be if we just find a way to get it all to click together,” Jenkins said. “It (stinks) when we watch past performances seeing us do well and then the other times we don’t do well.”
The Jets remain hopeful, and surprisingly confident, that they can put a few more positives on film during this stretch run.
“As a team, we’re still together,” cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “We know what’s going on right now. We know that we’re still in this thing. We’ve just got to take care of our business on Sunday and the weeks after that.”
NOTES: The Jets re-signed WR-KR Lucky Whitehead to the practice squad. Whitehead appeared likely to make the active roster out of training camp, but broke a foot in mid-August. He was waived/injured, placed on IR and then cut by the Jets in September. “He’s just somebody we liked early on,” Bowles said. “As he’s getting closer to getting healthy, we wanted to make sure nobody else got him and we got a look at him. So, we signed him back.” Bowles said Whitehead is “maybe a week or so” away from being completely healthy. … New York also signed TE Zach Conque to the practice squad, and released CB Michael Hunter and LB Jeremy Cash from the practice squad.
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