Ralph Vacchiano
NFL Reporter
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was just one week ago that Justin Fields had given the New York Jets so much reason for hope. He reminded everyone of the promise the NFL once believed he had. He showed that he could be a dangerous, accurate and clutch quarterback.
Then, on Sunday, he reminded everyone why his short career has been such a wild, roller-coaster ride. The good times don’t last long.
That is, quite simply, the Justin Fields experience. One day, one moment, he’s showing off his canon arm with some dazzling pinpoint accuracy. The next, every pass seems to sail far and wide. That’s what he showed in Week 2, in a disheartening 30-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, when he completed just 3 of 11 passes for 27 yards before leaving with a concussion in the fourth quarter as New York fell to 0-2.
It wasn’t just a bad game, it was horrible — the kind of game that gets a quarterback permanently benched.
“We didn’t get a rhythm on offense and that was hard on all of us out there,” Jets receiver Garrett Wilson said. “We didn’t do a good job of helping him, making plays when he was out there.”
The Jets’ explosive offense from a week ago was nowhere to be found in Week 2 versus the Bills. (Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images)
To be fair, the way the 26-year-old Fields was playing, there weren’t a lot of plays to make — at least not through the air. For Wilson or any of Fields’ targets to make a play, they would’ve had to turn into acrobats or magicians. Fields wasn’t the victim of drops or bad routes or too many untimely penalties.
He was the victim of his own bad self.
Not that Jets coach Aaron Glenn was willing to admit that. His only comment about his quarterback’s dismal day was, “I got to watch the tape.”
Unfortunately for Fields and Glenn, the tape won’t lie. In fact, it actually might be worse than the final stats.
Because for all the Jets’ postgame focus on the porous defense that couldn’t contain Bills quarterback Josh Allen when it mattered, or its inability in general to stop the run (224 yards), neither of those were the real reason they lost this stinker. They lost this game because of Fields.
Just look at what he did in the first half alone, when he almost single-handedly killed every Jets drive.
On the opening possession, he had Wilson wide open in the middle of the field on a post on third down, but he badly overthrew him. On the second, after finding no one to throw to, he scrambled and fumbled the ball. On the third, he threw behind Wilson on third down on what would’ve been a first-down pass. And on the fourth, he held the ball for what seemed like forever before taking a drive-killing, 10-yard sack.
Justin Fields was sacked twice and fumbled twice, losing one of them, all while completing just 3 of 11 passes against the Bills. (Photo by Jordan Bank/Getty Images)
It’s probably not a coincidence that on the next drive, the Jets didn’t let Fields pass. Instead, he ran three times for 21 yards to set up a field goal that would be their only points while he was behind center. His legs looked like they’d do the trick on the next drive, too, when his huge, 27-yard run gave the Jets a chance for another field goal. There’s no doubt that Fields (five carries, 49 yards) is still dangerous when he runs.
But he followed up that big run with a passing meltdown. First, he threw behind a wide open Isaiah Davis on first down. Then he threw too high for tight end Mason Taylor on second down. And finally, he air-mailed a pass in the general direction of Wilson that sailed out of bounds to end a promising drive.
The pattern, by then, was pretty clear. He had completed just 3 of 9 passes for 27 yards as the fourth quarter began. Then he threw two more incompletions before getting knocked out of the game with a concussion on a third-down sack. He finished a negative-41.6 completion percentage over expected, according to NextGen Stats — the lowest in the NFL in nine years.
Fields did run for a team-high 49 yards but was unable to get the Jets into the end zone. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Honestly, by then, if Glenn wasn’t thinking about pulling Fields for Tyrod Taylor regardless of the concussion, it would’ve been coaching malpractice. This wasn’t the Fields that stood toe-to-toe with Aaron Rodgers one week earlier, completing 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown in the Jets’ narrow defeat.
This was the other Fields. The mess. The one they tired of seeing in Chicago, which is why the Bears ended up trading the former first-rounder to the Steelers for a lowly sixth-round pick despite one year left on his rookie contract. And it’s the one that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin couldn’t completely stomach either and ultimately benched as soon as Russell Wilson was healthy, even though Pittsburgh was 4-2 at the time.
It’s what the Jets signed up for when they signed Fields to a two-year, $40 million contract. They obviously hoped for more of the highs like he had on Opening Day against the Steelers, but they couldn’t have been oblivious to the lows.
It remains to be seen how long Glenn is willing to endure that before he turns to the steady but unspectacular Taylor, who mopped up nicely on Sunday by going 7 of 11 for 56 yards and a touchdown. Glenn vowed afterward, “There’s no stone that won’t go unturned without figuring out the issues” and “we’ve all got to play better.”
But when he starts turning over those stones he’ll see that the one who has to play better the most is the man at the center of it all.
Backup QB Tyrod Taylor immediately gave New York a spark after entering the game in the fourth quarter and eventually led the offense on its lone TD drive. (Photo by Jordan Bank/Getty Images)
As the Jets know from their own, sordid history, if they don’t have a quarterback, they don’t have a chance.
“I don’t know,” Wilson said. “We had a good plan. We had a good week of practice. We come out and lay an egg when it matters. I don’t know exactly how that happens.”
It wasn’t a mystery. It was the downside of the Justin Fields Experience. All the Jets can hope for at this point is that they end the season with more highs than lows. Fields is certainly capable of great days. No one doubts he has the talent.
But those drops on the roller-coaster ride like the one on Sunday are going to be increasingly difficult for the Jets to stomach.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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