The Jets had nothing to lose except another football game.
Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich made a hyper-aggressive decision Sunday as if the Jets weren't going anywhere and the only fun left was making spoiler plays.
All of that is true, of course, but Ulbrich's two questionable decisions on fourth down backfired and directly contributed to a 19-9 loss to the Rams, leaving everyone wondering why he wasn't scoring more points despite moving the ball better. I thought.
“It's offensive, and I think at this point in the season, that's kind of the mindset,” receiver Davante Adams, who caught a touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers, said. “We have a lot of guys on that side of the ball who can make plays.
“That's the mindset of Brick, Aaron and really the whole team, trying to do whatever we can to get points. You live by it and sometimes you die by it. It's unfortunate, but… I feel it was the right thing to do.”
The Jets led 6-0 and were in complete control in the second quarter, until Ulbrich left a fourth-and-1 on the field at his own 33-yard line. Analytics agreed with Ulbrich's decision.
Breece Hall was unnecessarily full. Three plays later, the Rams tied the game.
“I'm not saying it's going to kill the team, but not having a change of heart is the worst,” Hall said. “We're doing it because we believe in our offense, but we also believe our defense can recover from that. Our defense is excited after that because they got a chance to be on the field one more time.” I was doing it.”
Why did Ulbrich risk giving up such a short field? The Jets went 99 yards on their first drive.
“We kept the drive going,” Ulbrich said. “We were moving the ball…so I wanted to stay aggressive and keep the ball in the hands of the offense.
Ulbrich's second bold decision came at the end of a 14-play, 78-yard drive on the first possession of the second half.
Facing fourth-and-4 at his own 13-yard line, Ulbrich avoided a 31-yard field goal, and Rodgers threw an incomplete shot to Adams on a fade.
The logic behind kicking a field goal in that spot is that you get some kind of reward for a drive that took nearly 10 minutes overtime.
The logic of trying to move the chains is to try to turn a three-point lead into a two-score game by adding a touchdown.
Receiver Garrett Wilson said, “I'm grateful that Coach has the faith to take on the challenge.” “But it's certainly difficult not to convert them.”
Ulbrich hinted that four yards was the maximum distance he could attempt.
“That's what we wanted to go for,” Ulbrich said. “I felt good about the plays I called and Aaron was happy with them, so I thought it was the best decision at the time.”
Ulbrich might have been bad either way, as the Jets went 2-of-5 on fourth down and also missed a 49-yard field goal on fourth down late in the fourth quarter.
