It was as dissatisfying a loss to New York Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich as it looked to everyone else.
The Jets (3-7) fell, 31-6, to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. A Jets win would have dramatically improved their chances of making the playoffs.
The win could have moved New York up to the eighth spot in the AFC standings. It wouldn't have put them in the playoffs. But it would have put them one spot out of the last playoff berth.
And New York knew that going into the game because everything that it needed to happen — losses by Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver — all happened before the Jets started Sunday's contest.
And yet, New York laid perhaps its biggest egg of the season.
Ulbrich didn’t want to entertain any more discussion about the Jets’ dwindling playoff hopes after the game.
“In all honesty the playoffs should be the last thing on our mind right now,” Ulbrich said. “We just got to play better football.”
New York is effectively in the same place it started when the week began — in 10th place in the conference. Mathematically, things could still happen that might allow the Jets to sneak into the postseason.
Only three teams have reached the playoffs in the Super Bowl era after a 2-6 start.
The Jets’ win over Houston last Thursday was supposed to be the first step. Against Arizona, New York stumbled.
The Jets failed to score a touchdown. The defense was dominated and gave up five straight scoring drives to start the game. Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray had the most efficient performance of his career.
Ulbrich said the team wasn’t prepared to play and put that responsibility squarely on his shoulders. Which begs the question — for a team that knew it had every chance to improve its spot in the playoff race going into the game and performed like that, exactly what did it do to prepare for this game?
Coach-speak aside, all Ulbrich could do is move forward, he said. There are seven games left in what is in all likelihood another non-playoff season.
“We got to get back to basics,” he said. “We gotta get back to doing the things that we do well, featuring the players in the best way that we can and then the players have got to do the best job of executing the game plan. We'll take this one game at a time and we'll see what happens.”
