Jets drop heartbreaker on walk-off Buccaneers area objective
TAMPA, Fla. — The Jets got here again from the useless and nonetheless had their season killed off.
After an uninspired, inept and injury-marred 49 minutes, the winless Jets scored three touchdowns within the closing 11 minutes Sunday to take a one-point lead simply after the two-minute warning towards the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
Then, within the cruelest of fates, Chase McLaughlin, a former Jet, drilled a walk-off 36-yard area objective because the Buccaneers stole a 29-27 victory. It was redemption for McLaughlin, whose would-be game-sealing 43-yarder simply minutes earlier was blocked by Will McDonald IV, who returned it 50 yards for the landing that gave the Jets a surprising 27-26 lead.
Filling in for Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor threw a pair of fourth-quarter landing passes sandwiched round a Buccaneers area objective to deliver the hapless Jets again to life, from down 23-6 to down 26-20.
It didn’t appear significant when Garrett Wilson walked in an 11-yarder with 10:16 to go — ending a streak of seven straight scoreless possessions, together with the end-of-half give up kneel-down.
However then Allen Lazard hauled in a 4-yard landing go — or did he? — on fourth down with 3:46 remaining to shut the deficit to 26-20. Replays appeared to point out that the ball slipped via Lazard’s arms and hit the bottom as he tried to snuggle it however officers upheld the landing upon additional evaluations — a lot to Bucs coach Todd Bowles’ dismay.
The Jets had all three of their timeouts remaining with an opportunity to get the ball again in Taylor’s arms, however Baker Mayfield’s 33-yard run pushed the ball into area objective vary.
Bowles took a 5-yard delay of recreation penalty on fourth-and-1 whereas making an attempt to attract a penalty. Maybe the additional yardage mattered as McLaughlin’s excellent 4-for-4 day blew up.
However Mayfield received the final snicker by driving the Buccaneers for the successful rating, needing solely seven performs to go 48 yards.
The Jets have been left to rue Taylor’s pick-six simply earlier than the half that put the protection in an even bigger gap (20-6) than it deserved. There have been additionally drops by Tyler Johnson, penalties by Micheal Clemons and Sauce Gardner and an absence of stress generated towards the Buccaneers offensive line (lacking three starters) that may very well be blamed.
The Jets are 0-3 for the primary time since 2021. Solely two % of 0-3 groups since 1990 have rebounded to make the playoffs — none within the post-2021 period of seven playoff groups per convention.
