One mistake may not beat you, but the same mistakes over and over certainly will.
The Jets found that out on Sunday afternoon during their loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Jets defense held the Ravens to 92 yards in the first half and it was 10-3 at the break. Also, for the entire game, Gang Green outgained Baltimore 378-274, but the mental mistakes were damaging.
Teams like the Jets aren’t good enough to overcome the mistakes displayed against the Ravens. For instance, quarterback Joe Flacco threw a terrible interception that set up the Ravens first three points.
Flacco was constantly under duress the entire afternoon as the Jets played with an offensive line that had one week of practice with starters George Fant at left tackle and Max Mitchell at right tackle.
That kept Flacco on his heels most of the day as the Ravens forced multiple errant passes and sacked the veteran three times.
“I think when I go back and watch this game early on, I think I will wish that I just took some of the five-yard check downs earlier,” Flacco said.
“I don’t know if I would throw that pass again, but I think that’s the main thing that we look at early on, especially myself. I think there were a couple of plays like that and I can take the five yards and move on to the next down.”
The mistakes didn’t stop there at the quarterback position as kicker Greg Zuerlein, who won the kicking job in training camp, missed a 45-yard field goal and an extra point after the Jets scored their only touchdown.
There were also multiple dropped passes, a fourth-quarter fumble by rookie Breece Hall in the red zone and the an inability to convert on third-down conversions. On the day, Gang Green finished 2-for-14 on third downs.
“I think it is monotonous to say, but it is the details,” Michael Carter said. “We have to get better at the little stuff, stop the drops, clean them up, stuff like that.
“But we learned a lot from today. I hate that it feels like we just lost the Super Bowl because it is not that. We are 0-1 and we can go 1-1 next week.
“16 teams are going 0-1 today. But we are going to learn.”
The part of dealing with a young team is being able to live with the inevitable mistakes. But if the Jets are a better team like they’ve consistently said they are all summer, they cannot make the same mistakes as they did against the Ravens.
Gang Green will next travel to Cleveland to take on a Browns team that defeated the Carolina Panthers 26-24 without starting quarterback Deshaun Watson. He is suspended for 11 games for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy.
The Jets also have games against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami Dolphins and the Green Bay Packers during the season’s first six weeks. It is imperative that they eliminate many of the mental errors, or this season could get away from them quickly.
“We have a lot of football to play, we have a good team,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “I know everybody thinks it’s the same old s—t, it’s not the same s—t.
“We have a good team and we went out there and I think everyone can feel it. The defense played really, really well today. The offense, we have to be better for them, be better as a unit and better as individuals and we will.
“We moved the ball, got into their territory five different times and we came away with nine points. We have to be better when we get into that territory. You take accountability for it you just can’t do s—t like that in the red zone.”
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