Jets get destroyed by Chargers on MNF, proving grit doesn’t matter if you can’t score

The Jets spent the last few weeks taking pride in winning ugly.

Coach Robert Saleh boasting “they don’t ask how, they ask how many [wins]” at the end of the season. Injured quarterback and key team leader Aaron Rodgers echoed that sentiment in multiple interviews later in the week, comparing the situation to golfers not having pictures on a scorecard.

The Jets deserved credit for winning tough games against the Broncos, Eagles and Giants to climb above .500. But those games were also major warning signs about red-flag problems with this team.

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The inability to score touchdowns. Their penchant for making huge mental mistakes in big spots. Their slow starts and their overconfidence any time they experience some measure of success.

Monday night, the Jets crashed back to reality with a brutal 27-6 loss to the Chargers with the entire country watching. It turns out grit doesn’t matter if you start slow, commit a never-ending stream of bone-headed penalties, and can’t score touchdowns — no matter how good your defense is.

And that’s the thing: the Jets defense was good on Monday night. Quite good, holding Chargers star quarterback Justin Herbert under 100 yards for most of the game and keeping the Jets within striking distance until they finally, understandably, cracked in the fourth quarter.

The good work of the defense didn’t matter because Zach Wilson wasn’t good — as we’ve all come to expect. It didn’t matter because they were outplayed and overmatched in the first quarter. Again. They’ve been outscored 61-12 in the first quarter this year, after the Chargers outscored them 14-0 thanks to a special teams blunder and two early turnovers.

And most concerning, the Jets seem to be scoring only when they’re lucky, because they can’t sustain drives. The Jets now have three offensive touchdowns in their last four games (they didn’t have one against the Chargers) and all of them have come on one-play drives from Breece Hall: a 72-yard touchdown run against the Broncos, an 8-yard touchdown run against the Eagles (in which Philadelphia seemingly let him score) and a 50-yard catch against the Giants.

That’s not just bad. It’s alarming. It’s incompetence.

And the Jets have no one to blame but themselves. We all saw last year how bad the offense was with Wilson at quarterback. It threatened to rip the team apart. And yet somehow, everyone in this building decided they were OK with Wilson being their only option to replace the oldest quarterback in the NFL, who could be one snap away from injury — it turned out it was four snaps.

As if that isn’t bad enough, the Jets threw in eight penalties after committing nine in each of their past two games.

The Jets are lucky to be at 4-4. But they won’t be for long if they keep playing like this.

It started in the most ominous way imaginable for the Jets, but also in a way that captures everything wrong with this team right now.

Punter Thomas Morstead, who attained cult hero status after his role in the win over the Giants, was introduced first before the defense. It was a nice moment for Morstead but also a warning sign about the state of this team’s offense. Maybe a punter being called on 11 times is not the best thing to celebrate.

As so often happens to the Jets, it didn’t take long for the universe to throw that right back in their face. On the first punt of the game, Chargers punt returner Derius Davis caught it, weaved through the Jets’ shoddy coverage, and returned it for an 87-yard touchdown.

The building had been electric moments before, now it was silent. The Chargers had already scored enough points to win the game less than four minutes in.

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Andy Vasquez may be reached at avasquez@njadvancemedia.com.