So What Went Wrong For Jets?

There were four big issues that led to this loss by the Jets: the defense, the fake punt on fourth down while up a touchdown, the punting game and the decision to keep Shonn Greene on the sideline for much of the fourth quarter. 

The Jets (10-5) are a wounded team, at least on one side of the ball. After befuddling Bears quarterback Jay Cutler for the first half, the defense suffered an unimaginable, 21-point meltdown in the third quarter. New York Giants-esque anyone? Never mind. They allowed three touchdown passes and 117 yards through the air in that third quarter, negating another encouraging performance by Mark Sanchez and the offense.

"It's a huge, huge deal that we have to get fixed," head coach Rex Ryan said of the defensive slide.

So much for building momentum for the postseason.

In the third quarter, Cutler threw all three of those touchdown passes for more than 21 yards, something he had only done twice before all season. The Jets defense couldn't stop Betty White coming down the sideline. Their once stout run defense gave up its first 100 yard rusher on the season and they again gave up over 300 total yards of offense. Their pass rush was non-existent and their lack of safety depth was severely exposed throughout the game.

Coach Ryan said about the inability to stop anything on defense, "We couldn't stop a nosebleed then. Everybody has to step up. It would've been easy if it was just one guy's mistakes or whatever, but you have to give them credit. When [quarterback Jay] Cutler is hot, he's as good as there is."

The Jets had several breakdowns in the second half and didn't look very good schematically. They also were caught with only 10 men on the field on Devin Hester's 25-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.

One of a few head-scratching moves came on fourth-and-3 early in the third, when the Jets attempted a fake punt that backfired worse than an old clunker.

Sanchez lined up as an upback in front of punter Steve Weatherford, took the snap and rolled right, looking to hit Brad Smith. But Smith dropped the ball, setting up the Bears at the Jets' 40 and leading to some serious second-guessing. "The defender made a pretty good play," Sanchez said. "I thought it was the right call at that time. We get that and [Mike] Westhoff is a hero. High risk, high reward."

On the next play, Cutler hit Johnny Knox streaking down the right side for a 40-yard touchdown, squaring things at 24-24.

Rashied Davis, the Bears' special teamer who broke the play up, wasn't impressed with the call by Ryan.

"We knew it was a fake, everybody knew it was a fake," Davis said. "You leave your starting receiver out there, you shift Brad Smith over to [the] side and bring the starting quarterback back into the game, you knew it was a fake. You just have to diagnose and figure out what is happening and what they are trying to do to you. At first, I thought they were going to keep Smith in the backfield and try to run some kind of option, or direct snap or misdirection or something like that. But once they shifted him out, it was obvious they were going to throw the ball to him. You can't throw it to the receiver out wide because there is no pass interference."

Everyone and their mother knew it was going to be a fake with Sanchez standing on the field in the punt formation, but even if it wasn't Sanchez, it still would have been very ease to determine that the play would be a fake punt because there was a player standing directly in front of the punter.

Are you kidding me?

Watching the game with my friends yesterday, I had been yelling to them how they were going to call a fake when I watched them line up. I also told them that it was an awful call up seven points in the middle of the third quarter in their own territory. Sure enough, it backfired big time because that was the turning point of the game.

The next dubious call, or calls depending how you choose to look at it, was the decision to actually punt the ball to Devin Hester and they got burned because of it. Punting away from Hester was the very thing Ryan said the Jets weren't going to do too. He took one back 38 yards to the Jets' 32, and three plays later, Cutler found Hester, who beat Drew Coleman for a 25-yard touchdown reception that gave Chicago a 31-24 lead.

That punt wasn't even supposed to go to Hester, leaving punter Steve Weatherford less than thrilled with his performance. "No, because he had a 40-yard return on me," Weatherford said. "I'm not satisfied, but that's the mystique of playing up here. It's a tough place to kick and they have the best returner in the game."

Sanchez's 23-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes tied it at 31, but the Jets' defensive struggles on those short fields continued. Hester's 40-yard kickoff return to the Jets' 49 set up Knox's 26-yard touchdown reception over Antonio Cromartie that gave the Bears a 38-31 lead.

Finally we get to the Jets decision to rely on LaDainian Tomlinson instead of Shonn Greene throughout the fourth quarter. Why? Good question because I don't have the answer either.

Shonn Greene averaged 6.2 per rush through the first three quarters, but received only two carries in the final stanza. Inexplicably, they leaned on LaDainian Tomlinson (2.2 per rush). That was ill-advised play calling. Futhermore, the field conditions at Soldier Field yesterday called for the type of runner that Shonn Greene is: an uphill runner that will pound it down your throat. LT is a finesse runner, Shonn Greene was definitely better suited for the slippery turf in Chicago yesterday.

If the Jets plan on winning the Super Bowl they better fix the leaking holes in their defense because another game like this next week and they will need dams to fix it. Their lack of safety depth is showing and it's hurting the ability of Antonio Cromartie to play his best game. Their inability to rush the passer yesterday must change because Cutler had way too much time to make decisions yesterday, carving up the defense ad nauseam.