The frustration was visible on Robert Saleh’s face and clear in his voice. The Jets coach knew his team had just let one get away.
Mistakes doomed the Jets in a 24-17 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Jets (2-8) entered the fourth quarter with the game tied but could not find a way to pull out their third win of the season in a game that was eminently winnable, unlike their previous three losses.
“Ninety percent of the games in this league are lost, not won, and this one was lost,” Saleh said.
Saleh’s move to start Joe Flacco at quarterback made the offense more functional than last week, but ultimately failed because the Jets did not win. The offense moved the ball, gaining 380 yards, but had four trips into Dolphins territory that resulted in no points — a fumble by Flacco after no one blocked a blitzer, two missed field goals and a punt.
“That’s nine, call it 12 points if the worst thing you get is a field goal,” Saleh said. “I don’t care how good your football team is. I don’t care how good it is. I don’t care if you’re 10-0 or 0-10, it doesn’t matter. If you’re losing points in that regard, if you’re just handing points back and you’re not scoring when you have a chance, you’re not going to win.”
Flacco finished the game 24-for-39 for 291 yards and two touchdowns. He handled Miami’s blitzes well, but he made a big mistake on an intentional grounding penalty that resulted from a miscommunication with a receiver. That pushed the Jets back on a drive that ended with a missed field goal from Matt Ammedola, his second miss of the game. The Jets also wasted two timeouts in the third quarter because they didn’t have the correct personnel on the field.
“I feel like just as an offense, myself included, as a whole today we did some good things, but we made too many mistakes to win the football game,” Flacco said.
It was not just the offense making the mistakes. The defense played better than it has recently. After allowing 175 points in four games, Sunday’s 24-point output from the Dolphins (4-7) was progress. But it could have been better. The Jets failed to sack Tua Tagovailoa, gave up a 65-yard touchdown and committed two huge penalties on third downs to help the Dolphins win.
Defensive end John Franklin-Myers, who was rewarded with a contract extension last month, was flagged for roughing the passer early in the fourth quarter on third-and-4 from the 5. The Jets had gotten the stop on the play, possibly holding the Dolphins to a field-goal try. Instead, Tagovailoa found Myles Gaskin for the go-ahead touchdown three plays later, giving Miami a 21-14 lead, one the Fish would not relinquish. Saleh called the penalty “unacceptable.”
“That penalty arguably cost us the game,” Franklin-Myers said. “It’s something that can’t happen on my end.”
The Jets went three-and-out after the score, giving the Dolphins the ball back with 8:50 left. It looked like the Jets had gotten off the field with Quinnen Williams sacking Tagovailoa on third down with 5:30 remaining. But the sack was waved off when rookie defensive back Jason Pinnock was penalized for holding. It enabled Miami to keep draining the clock, and Jason Sanders kicked a field goal to make it 24-14 with 1:57 left to ice the game. The Jets tacked on a late field goal from Ammendola to make it 24-17.
Tagovailoa spent most of the day making short passes, completing 27 of 33 for 273 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
The bright spot for the Jets was rookie wide receiver Elijah Moore, who had eight catches for 141 yards and a touchdown, giving the Jets hope for the future.
The teams were tied 7-7 at halftime after both missed field goals late in the half.
The offenses had been conservative for most of the day but both hit big plays in the third quarter. First, Tagovailoa found a wide-open Mack Hollins for a 65-yard touchdown to take a 14-7 lead.
The Jets hit a big play of their own six minutes later. Flacco saw the Dolphins were showing blitz and then dropping into coverage and hit Moore on a slant. Moore then took off for a 62-yard touchdown to tie the game 14-14. It was a prime example of why Saleh chose to start Flacco. He made a nice pre-snap read and then delivered a perfect strike to Moore, who did the rest.
“He did what we all expected him to do,” Saleh said of Flacco. “He settled down the offense. There were a lot of pressures. He got hit a few times. He got the ball to where it needed to go. I thought he did a really nice job out there.”
Zach Wilson is expected to return next week against the Texans, but it won’t matter who is at quarterback if the Jets continue to make as many mistakes as they did Sunday.
“I’ve said it up here a million times, you have to learn not to lose first,” Saleh said. “Then, once you learn how not to lose, you figure out how to win. Then, once you learn how to win, you have to learn how to close games. Today was clearly one of those learning moments of how not to lose.”