SURPRISE Reaction To New York #Jets Week 1 Performance (BADLANDS)

SURPRISE Reaction To New York #Jets Week 1 Performance (BADLANDS)

What’s up everybody? Welcome back to your favorite New York Jets subscription podcast, Badlands. I’m your host, Joe Caparoso, joined as always by Connor Rogers. We are headed into week two. The New York Jets are 0 and1. We’re going to use this pod to put a bow on Jets Steelers. Start talking a little Jets Bills. We’ll use War Room to go a little deeper into the film room, the excellent film room that Connor put on the feed today. Answer some of your questions. CR, how you doing? How you feeling? I’m good, man. It’s, you know, we’ve gotten through the whirlwind. It’s the mad dash, the postgame pod, the film room. Uh, you know, a little bit of the cycle of, god, how the hell did they not win that game? It would have been so cool if they did win that game. Back to the old, well, there’s a lot to be excited about and you try your try to talk yourself into how they can compete with Buffalo, you know, even especially when Buffalo looked dead in the water against Baltimore and then they’re resurrected back to life. So yeah, I think at the end of the day it we’ve had way worse feelings after a game day, but there is still some lingering things. I I was thinking about this today because in looking through Twitter and looking through the Discord and look just talking to people to the reaction to this game. It’s not like anything I really remember, right? The Jets the Jets lost a game they probably should have won. I think they won in most statistical categories. You just looked at the box score, you would have thought they won the game and most people are encouraged. I would say uh the tenor of a lot of people is sounds almost like a win. And look, we’ve long been advocates of we don’t like the eight and eight Gatorade bath culture. We don’t like moral victories. And I was trying to think back to last year’s week one. And I was thinking when, you know, we were talking how expectations impact everything. And you made a couple references to like the Yankees and Mets and how they would have these losing streaks early in the year. And last year, Super Bowl expectations in prime time going against another team ostentibly with Super Bowl expectations and the Jets just got punked in that game. They got bullied up and down the field. They looked wholly unprepared. Uh they were particularly soft and sloppy and they literally were ran off the field and they had their backup quarterback in by like the start of the fourth quarter. That loss just hurt so much more as a week one loss than a season where bluntly your Vegas overunder is six and a half. Even the most optimistic people on this feed pretty much have them under 500 which I consider myself generally a little more optimistic than most that I have an eight and nine record and they just come out and while I thought I picked them to cover and I thought they could win a close game 16 to 13. It was not the game I expected. It was not the game most people expected bluntly. It’s raining in the morning. We’re thinking these offenses are going to be sluggish. I think every game in the NFL week one except for one or two went went under and this was of all the games is the one that went over and went way way way over. And you just had a team that was flying around, looked prepared schematically on offense were excellent. About as good as you could hope for for Justin Fields and for a first time offensive coordinator. defensively, and you could challenge me on this, I didn’t feel like they weren’t prepared or the scheme was the problem. I felt like they had a really bad personal foul. Their kick returner handed over seven points and they didn’t tackle and or they didn’t turn their head around and knock the football away. It wasn’t like it wasn’t like they were regularly way out of position. Now, there was a few they were absolutely out of position on. That happens. That’s football. But I didn’t watch that being like, “Wow, this defense is completely clueless. Doesn’t know where to line up.” I watched it and said, Quincy Williams, man, you cannot have that late hit. Michael Carter, tackle, tackle. Stevens, turn around and catch the catch the interception because every conversation around this game, if he just catches the ball and doesn’t slip is totally different and football’s a thin line and that’s how it goes. I I get why people, and myself, I feel this way too. It was hard to leave that game being like, we’re screwed. Like, we hired the wrong guys. We have the wrong people. Your first round pick was the one of the best tackles in the NFL week one going against the best pass rusher in the NFL. That’s pretty exciting. The other tackle pretty damn good. Your quarterback who everyone was ripping all summer that couldn’t complete a pass was basically lighting up a Mike Tomlin defense. So if you’re a Jet fan and you’re used to just not scoring points and Tim do Tim Bole and Luke Faulk and Zach Wilson and I get it. I don’t want to get too comfortable celebrating losses and I think they’re likely to lose to Buffalo. We’ll talk about it more. And being 0 and2 and I hope they’re not 0 and2 would suck. It’s a hard hole to dig out of. I I I don’t know. Am I crazy? Should I be more critical? Should I be hurting a little more? I It was just It was such a different game than I expected. And maybe I’m still processing that. I just think the things that matter the most going forward, medium-term, long term, look so encouraging in this game at times, that I I just couldn’t walk away from the way I did after week one last year where I was like, man, I thought this was a 10, 11 win team, and they look soft as I don’t know who they’re going to toe with. The Jets did not look soft as They looked a little undisiplined and a little reckless at times, but they looked ready to play and they looked like they expected to win and thought they were going to win. So, what you’ve watched the game a few times now. I finally got to watch it on the broadcast and which is a very different experience than being there. Where where’s your mentality and are you surprised seeing how fans are reacting to this? Jet fans are not a forgiving bunch, but this is not like saturating the WFAN airwaves like fire Aaron Glenn. This is a disaster. like it it’s been pretty unique. I think there’s a couple things to unpack. One, why there it feels a little bit more optimism. Not why, one of the reasons why it feels a little bit more optimism in the market locally. It does help that the Giants are still a disaster, right? That’s they have a coach that is starting to feel already like a dead man walking. They have a conundrum of maybe a promising rookie quarterback, but they don’t want to throw him behind a really bad offensive line that’s bad for how many years in a row? We’ve lived that with Joe Douglas. They’re living it with Joe Shane. And then so I think it’s oh, look what the Jets are doing. And but I don’t think I was trying to, you know, I had this combo internally the other the other day where it’s have we just set the bar so low that we are captivated by here’s a situation where the Jets set the bar so low and I think fans were unfortunately wrongly captivated. Joe Douglas did a good job with his first round picks besides Zack Wilson, right? like when he when he picked Garrett Wilson and when he picked Sauce Gardner and it’s aged better. It didn’t look great after a year, but it aged really well, the pick of Will McDonald. The I feel like a lot of people when they would defend Joe Douglas, even though the team wasn’t winning year after year after year, they were like, “Well, look at who he has drafted in the first round.” And the problem always with that was, yes, he deserves credit for getting the right guys with early picks because Lord knows the Jets have taken the wrong guy with early picks way too many times, but it was one of those situations that the bar was so dreadfully low from Mike McCagn Douglas look, you know, like an eight out of 10 instead of the five out of 10 that he was. And this I don’t think is like that. I don’t think it’s a scenario where you look at the Jets offense and go, “Well, we’re really just saying that because it’s been a tough watch for over a decade at this point where it’s been bad coaching. It’s been lack of talent. It’s been all the I think truth like very honestly the Jets offense was just good against a good defense. They were pushing a good defensive frontaround. They had a plan for a quarterback that has a bit of a unique skill set and some limitations at times. They don’t have a number two wide receiver, so they’re already playing kind of with one hand tied behind their back, so they had to find different ways to pick up yards. And it just felt like the Jets were the the kid at the schoolyard that everybody was looking around with no expectations. And now they’re like, “Damn, I I kind of like him on our team. He’s kind of got a little edge to him. He’s got a little toughness.” And I think that the easiest way to look around at that is like look what’s going on with the Titans and Brian Callahan. Brian Callahan, that team had over 130 penalty yards and under 135 total yards and he didn’t even know an elbow in counts as a catch. You look at the Giants right now and how disappointing of a week one that was. And I’m not trying to just compare the Jets to all these really lowhanging fruit bad teams, but the reality was the Jets should have beaten the Steelers who view themselves as a contender. And that’s something to build off of. And I think it’s more the mentality of the 53man roster than just the fact of, hey, we had a couple nice performances here and there. It actually felt like a cohesive team. I am fascinated to see how they come out now in week two. Right. You’re the last I saw they’re about seven point underdogs, which is fair, right? Buffalo is arguably the best team in the league. They after getting their asses kicked for three and a half quarters had a pretty miraculous comeback on Sunday night, which I would think slightly plays to the Jets advantage, right? It’s it’s a shorter rest window. They’re coming off a highly emotional win. They’re coming on the road in a game that they likely think internally that they should win pretty comfortably, right? They’re the favorites in the division. Josh Allen, as we know, has not played great at Metife Stadium and has had ups and downs uh going against the Jets. That was a different defense, different era, though, so it’s hard to say what’s going to carry over. The, you know, we’ll talk this through a little more throughout the week. The realist in me says it’s really not fair to expect the Jets to win this game. And if they go out and they lose 342 24, that’s probably okay. And I I shouldn’t be like, Jesus Christ, man, they’re 0 and2. This is a disaster. The other part of me again wonders, well, if they could just score 32 points like that on Pittsburgh, Baltimore was going up and down the field and could the Jets run the ball and play a certain style and get Josh Allen uncomfortable. And could they be in this one and be an upset candidate in week two? I I don’t know. It’s too early to tell. It’s a new coaching staff. It’s a new team in many areas. And uh I’m just it’s it’s going to be a hard one to predict. I I think it’s very fair. Again, the Jets are mathematically very likely to be 0 and2. You can’t come into this game saying it’s a house money game like it would have been if you had bit beat Pittsburgh like you should have uh based on every statistical way of looking at the game because again 0 and2 is rough man. 0 and2 flying to Tampa, another team who’s probably going to win their division and be in the playoffs is is not a fun spot to be in. So I’m curious if the Jets could again carry themselves like they are not underdogs. Can they keep their emotions in check? Michael Clemens. I Let me say something positive about Michael Clemens. He played like 50 snaps and I didn’t really notice that he played 50 snaps. Now, maybe there’s more stuff on the film that you saw that I didn’t, but it didn’t feel like he was the same unmitigated disaster he was in a larger role. Can a guy like him not get the personal foul? Can Quincy Williams not get the personal foul? Can they not get baited into doing stupid things like it feels like they sometimes regularly do against Buffalo? Could they hang around and throw some They don’t get the benefit of the doubt, right? Like the Jets don’t the Jets don’t ever get I mean, look at this situation with Simpson who said they almost said, “Hey, I I need to keep it in check there.” I don’t think he really did that much wrong. It’s just the fact that the Jets don’t get those calls over the Steelers, the Bills, and the really good teams. So, this is a gymnast. This is a Jim Nance called game, right? It’s the A team on CBS because it’s Josh Allen and the Bills and they’re the favorite right now in the AFC, especially with how the Chiefs look. And like you said, I I don’t like to harp on the refs, but there were certainly a couple borderline hits to Justin Fields that were not called that were I feel like would have been called in the other direction. I had no problem with Simpson taking that penalty. I think most chef fans were like, “Yeah, take that penalty 10 out of 10 times.” Quincsey penalty is different. Allen’s just a different beast, right? I I understand if you watch this gate, did not watch Jet Steelers and you think Aaron Rogers tore it up, I promise you he was pretty good. I would say like he was bad. He did not light it up. And when he is in a different situation and other defensive backs can catch and he gets hit a little more, we’ll we’ll see how that holds up in November and December is what I will say. I know he’s on his Super Bowl tour right now because he won on a 61 yard field goal over a team with a six and a half yard six and a half win overunder, but whatever. We’ll see how this the triple deflection. Yeah, the triple deflection. And you know, he he did it. He he accomplished the second most important win of his career up for the organization who did everything and they asked of him for two years. Now Allen’s a whole different beast, right? Allen, you know, you miss a couple tackles. That guy, he rips off a 30, 40 yard run. He’s an alien. He’s just a he’s a total total alien. And I’m scared after how that defense played. And there’s more of an onus now on Wils and Glenn. How and where do you adjust? And with Fields, he’s had a couple of games like this in his career, right, where it’s like, oh my god, lights on and like he he can he can be the guy. The consistency has been the problem. So, can he string together two games where he’s throwing the ball like that and he is smart and composed in the pocket? There were so many times in that game where I thought he was just going to take off and he held an extra beat and just ripped it in and I was like, “Wow.” Like there was the one to Tyler Johnson, there was another one I think to Rucker, one to Reynolds where it was like I can’t believe he stayed in and like made that throw. Buffalo’s defense has got some issues. Like can he be that guy two weeks in a row? The conversation gets that much more interesting then. And it it’s far too small of a sample size, but I couldn’t help but watch last night and think, what are Bears fans thinking watching Fields do what he just Caleb Williams looked like Zach Wilson last night. And I watched every snap to Zach Wilson’s career. That guy looked like Zach Wilson last night. I’m not saying he’s Zach Wilson. I’m not saying he will be Zach Wilson, but he looked like Zach Wilson last night, and that’s not what Justin Fields look like. So, what I’m saying is this is it’s tough to predict what’s going to happen. And yet I feel a little more optimistic than I I think I would have if the Jets would have won 1312 against Pittsburgh in a gross slugfest. As I was saying a lot in the preseason, I think that they’re going to win a close ugly game against Pittsburgh and then get their doors blown off week two. Now that they play that kind of game even though they lost on a 60 yard field goal, I don’t know what to expect for week two. Like where where is your head at this matchup with the Jets as seven-point underdogs at home? I mean, my thought is the Jets are going to be able to score in this game because the Jets are going to be able to copy the strengths, not to a tea, because Lamar Jackson is one of the greatest quarterbacks I’ve ever watched play, but they’re going to be able to copy some of the strengths of the Ravens right now. You could sit here and argue the Jets have a more talented offensive line. Obviously, the Ravens have a better quarterback, running back. They have more depth at wide receiver, but the Bills, and I’ve been saying this for months right now, the Bills have serious problems at safety and their linebackers did not play well, no against the run at all against Baltimore. So, I mean, the thing is for if you’re the Jets, you just got the perfect script in front of you when you get to watch that Baltimore tape because you have a quarterback that can run. You have multiple running backs that you can use in different ways and you have a good offensive line. So, I think when it comes down to it, I don’t think the Jets defense will be able to stop the Bills offense. I I I thought the Jets front played really well. I think they’ll be competitive against the Bills rushing attack. I think when Josh Allen has to put on the cape, he’ll be able to put on the cape. Yeah. And that’s not even an insult at the Jets. He just did it to the Ravens. It’s just just kind of you could say it about almost anybody in the league against him and you have to worry a little bit like is this a game where Saw should travel. Yeah. Like I don’t know if it makes sense in this one, right? Are you I mean are you that worried about Keon Coleman or do you like a matchup better for Stevens? I don’t know. I I don’t know the answer in that one. And I think you have to kind of throw a lot of different looks at them. Sauce in the first week of traveling with DK Mechaf was amazing. He was phenomenal. Do maybe you have S like is there a world where you have S travel with somebody, but then you do allocate a lot of extra attention to Stevens? There’s things that the Jets are going to have to figure out for this game plan. And you also are going to need your linebackers to to fly around and keep and contain you. This is a game that’s really interesting because as destructive as McDonald and Germaine are, they need to not make the mistake that the Ravens started to make, which is losing contain and letting Allen get out of the pocket and make all these crazy plays. I know it’s easy pre- snap to be kind of licking your chops, be like, I want to knock his head off and get the sack. And you’ll have opportunities to try to do that, but you do you need to make sure you keep him contained and not let him run free. I’ll say this, you brought up Clemens and I I like you asked about the film. It was a pretty nondes like uneventful game from Clemens. That’s a win I feel like. Yeah. But when you watch him run sideline to sideline, it is really bad. And this is a game where the Jets played a 40 something year old quarterback that can’t move. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He he can’t play as many snaps as he did week one in week two because he can’t contain Josh Allen sideline to sideline where Germaine and Will McDonald have a chance. So it’s my one There’s your one Clemens take of the day. Yeah, I think this is going to be pretty high scoring. I do wonder though if the Jets come out and punch them in the mouth kind of like the Ravens did, what is the tone going to be like? Is the stadium going to start to believe? Is is everybody going to start to look at fields and be like, “Damn, we like guys that haven’t had that feeling yet in the NFL like Quinnon and Sauce and Bree and Garrett are like, damn, we can score every time we get the ball that it turns into a shootout where you’re keeping up with Josh Allen’s Bills.” Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. It is a seven-point spread for a reason, but I have confidence in the Jets stylistically from an offensive standpoint in this game. I would be really surprised if they find a way to just even contain this Bill’s offense right now.

Joe and Connor put a bow on Jets vs. Steelers and discuss the somewhat surprising reaction to the narrow loss from fans and media, they then give their early thoughts on playing Buffalo in week 2 and if the Jets can pull off the upset…

FULL episode at www.patreon.com/BadlandsTOJ

GEAR at www.BadlandsTOJ.com