Todd Bowles job as New York Jets head coach is on dangerously thin ice after Week 10. A 41-10 beatdown at the hands of the hapless Buffalo Bills is just the latest blunder on the 54-year-old’s resume.
Hosting a team that had scored a combined 20 points over their last three games with a quarterback making his first appearance since the 2016 season in Matt Barkley, the Jets allowed 31 unanswered points in the first half to dig an embarrassing hole too deep to get out of.
As was the case for the Jets during a 2018 season in which they are now 3-7 after four-straight losses, the team was lifeless. An offense headed by veteran quarterback Josh McCown, who stepped in for injured rookie Sam Darnold, could only accrue a single yard of total offense in the first quarter. It was the team’s worst opening quarter since 1991.
It paved the way for a miserable 199-yard day on offense while the defense was torched by Barkley and running back LeSean McCoy for 451 yards.
The lackluster effort has the Jets reeling for yet another season as they are on pace for a fourth losing season in five years.
Granted, expectations were generally low surrounding Gang Green this year after two consecutive 5-11 campaigns. With a new quarterback in Darnold though ushering in the rebuild, the Jets were at least poised to take a step in the right direction.
Now they’ve hit an all-time low after Week 10 with Bowles as the scapegoat.
The one redeeming factor of Bowles throughout the past two losing seasons was that his players were willing to run through walls for him. Especially last season when McCown and Co. reeled off an unlikely five victories form their first 12 games.
Sunday’s spiritless affair against a woeful Bills team was overwhelming evidence that that is not the case anymore.
If the players aren’t willing to give their all for a head coach that is on the verge of three-straight sub-.500 seasons, there isn’t much reason to keep him on.
It looks as though the Jets’ outlook on Bowles is slowly changing, per SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. While multiple sources around the organization told him that they don’t want to see Bowles go.
He added that if Bowles is indeed axed, it won’t happen until the end of the season seeing as there is not a “logical replacement” within the Jets’ current staff.
Jets management will have a break to mull things over as the team is on a bye come Week 11. However, they will be facing off against a New England Patriots team that will also be coming off a bye week after an embarrassing loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
