Who’s to blame for Jets’ inexcusable clock-management mistake vs. Broncos?

The Jets ended the first half with an absolute disaster of a sequence that summed up an awful first half against the worst defense in the league.

For a moment it looked like the Jets were on the verge of something to feel good about going into the break: they had driven more than 60 yards on eight plays inside the Denver 15. But they used their final timeouts with 19 seconds left in the half at the Denver.

And yet, two plays later, with 15 seconds left on on first-and-10 from the Denver 13, quarterback Zach Wilson threw a quick pass left to C.J. Uzomah. He caught it at the eight-yard line and was tackled in bounds with about 10 seconds left.

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The clock was running and the Jets had no way to stop it. Uzomah realized this right away and sprinted back to the official so he could put the ball in play as quickly as possible, but not everyone — including Wilson — seemed to understand the urgency of the situation. Time expired before the Jets could get the snap off. Instead of getting a sure three points, they got nothing and went into halftime trailing the Broncos 13-8.

It was a disastrous, inexcusable sequence that falls mostly on the coaching staff. Given the circumstances and the Jets’ poor play in the first half, they needed to go into the locker room with something to feel good about. Instead, they got nothing.

Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett — who had a disastrous tenure in Denver last season and was the subject of much of the buzz leading up to this game — never should have called a play in which that was a possibility.

It’s also on Wilson for not recognizing the situation and understanding a short gain in that situation did the Jets no good.

But it was completely fitting of the Jets; a horrible start to this game. Their season hinged on not losing this game and yet they committed silly penalty after silly penalty — six of them in the first 25 minutes of the game — made repeated mistakes on defense and completely bungling an elementary clock-managment situation at the end of the first half.

The only reason they were even able to stay in this game is the Broncos have earned their 1-3 record with poor play — and they continued to on this day.. And for the JEts, it was a good thing they have Breece Hall who pushed them to a 15-13 lead on a 72-yard run on the offense’s first play of the second half.

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