Showing little concern about his job security, Todd Bowles made it clear he expects to be the one to lead the New York Jets to decency over these final six games.
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY-As the vocal portion of the New York Jets‘ social media brigade calls for his sacking, head coach Todd Bowles is looking to go about his business.
Sunday’s postgame game press conference, the follow-up to a brutal 41-10 loss at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, has a chance to be his last at the Jets’ helm, but Bowles did not seem concerned about any rumors rumbling.
“I don’t worry about my job. I don’t talk about my job,” a somber Bowles said. “I just try and get to the next game. It’s a business when you sign up for it.”
Business is anything but booming for Bowles, who has now overseen four consecutive losses, a streak that has sunk the Jets to the depths of the AFC East. In each of those four losses, the Jets have failed to reach 300 yards on offense.
Bowles isn’t ready to call this rock bottom, as he feels the 3-7 Jets have already been there at several points this season.
“Any time you lose a game, it’s rock bottom,” he said. “Whether you lose by one or 20 or 30 points, you go forward by taking a good, hard look at yourself in the mirror and your culture and your team. We’ll prepare and get ready.”
Sunday’s blowout defeat to the equally lowly Bills could hasten any conversations of change. The team’s defense, which remained mostly reliable in the previous losses, was torched by a Matt Barkley-LeSean McCoy-Robert Foster trio that was far removed from their better days. Barkley, nearly two calendar years removed from his last NFL action, threw for two touchdowns and earned a 117.4 passer rating, while Foster, fresh off the Buffalo practice squad, earned 105 yards on three receptions. McCoy, on the other hand, earned his first 100-yard tally since December to accompany his first scores of the year.
Known for his defensive prowess, Bowles minced no words when discussing the dreadful effort against the Bills’ makeshift unit.
“We should have gotten off the block and off the ground. We weren’t in our gaps,” Bowles said of a run defense that gave up 212 yards to McCoy, Marcus Murphy, and Isaiah McKenzie. “We’re going to take a long hard look at everything this week, coaches and players. We’re going to put the best guys out there that can help us get better.”
Bowles believes something can be salvaged out of the season, as he spoke of “(trying) like hell to win the last six games”. The question becomes, however, if he’ll be around to oversee that rise, one that won’t be easy to start the New England Patriots behemoth coming to town on Nov 25.
The Jets have traditionally avoided the midseasons firing since doing so in back-to-back years in 1975-76 (Charley Winner and Lou Holtz being the unfortunate parties). Asked about his relationship with Jets’ CEO Christopher Johnson (who declined comment after the game), Bowles mentioned that the two will speak tomorrow, offering that his relationship with Johnson has been “great.”
If Bowles does stick around, he believes that effort will not be a problem. While disappointed with the results, he did not believe that Sunday’s antics were the result of players quitting.
“Effort was fine. We just didn’t play well,” he said. “Everybody played bad, everybody coached bad. We’ve got everybody here that we’ve got. We got to put our foot in. We’ve won some ball games and lost some. Today wasn’t a good day.”
Safety Jamal Adams had his coach’s back, remarking that while the players didn’t quit, they need to do better if they’re going to end a season that began with hopes of progress on a positive note.
“We’re going on a bye. We have six games left, and we have to figure out how to win all six,” Adams said. In regards of motivating his teammates, Adams said he will tell his guys to “relax”.
“Get your mind off everything. Go be with family, be with your loved ones and just kind of get your mind off football for a little bit,” he said. “You’re going to think about it, but try to relax. Look at yourself in the mirror … I’m not perfect, no one is perfect in here and all 53 that were on that field on that sideline, we didn’t do our job. No one had a good game.”
