The New York Jets offense fails in New Orleans with Bryce Petty

On Sunday, Bryce Petty and the New York Jets struggled offensively down in New Orleans against the tough Saints.

The New York Jets took the field for the first time without Josh McCown behind center as Bryce Petty received the start. Entering the game, Petty’s 15.8 Total QBR was the lowest of any QB with at least 100 action plays since the start of last season (53 QBs qualify).

How little of a chance did experts think the Jets had to win this game? The Saints were favored by 15 points, the largest point spread in their history.

As they had all season, the Jets fought valiantly in the first three quarters, trailing the Saints 17-13 entering the fourth quarter.

Entering Sunday, the Jets had outscored their opponents by 17 points in the first three quarters. However, they had been outscored 62 points in the fourth quarter, which is why they had lost games to the Panthers, Falcons and Dolphins when leading in the fourth.

Sunday wasn’t any better in that category as Drew Brees, Mark Ingram and the rest of the Saints outscored the Jets 14-6 in the fourth quarter, defeating the Jets 31-19.

For the Jets, it was their sixth loss in their last eight meetings against the Saints, who outgained the Jets 416-294 in the contest.

The Jets defense allowed their 26th and 27th passing TDs of the season, which ties them with the Browns for the second most allowed in the NFL. Only the Giants (30) have allowed more.

Despite gaining 416 yards, the Jets defense actually made life very uncomfortable at times for Drew Brees and company. Four times Gang Green held the Saints to just three plays on a drive and three other New Orleans’ drives ended in turnovers.

The Jets stopped the Saints streak of 30 consecutive red zone appearances that ended in points (21 TD, 9 FG) as twice they forced Michael Thomas to fumble inside the Jets 20.

Brees still was good enough to throw for 286 yards and two touchdowns, reaching 20 touchdowns for the 14th straight season (breaking a tie with Dan Marino for fourth place). Mark Ingram ran for 74 yards and two TDs (his 10th and 11th of the season).

After failing to reach 1,000 yards rushing in his first five NFL seasons, Ingram has now reached that total for the second consecutive season, joining Deuce McAllister (2002-04) and Ricky Williams (2000-01)as the only New Orleans running backs to do so. Ingram also became just the second player in team history to rush for 1,000 yards and finish with 10 TD in a season (Deuce McAllister did it in 2002 and 2006).

On offense, Bryce Petty did not do much to show that he can be trusted with the starting quarterback job. For the day Petty finished 18-39 for 189 yards with one TD and an INT and of the Jets 13 drives, only four consisted of six or more plays.

On the bright side for the Jets future, these last two losses have dropped them somewhere in the 6-10 range for the NFL draft. Seeing how Petty played on Sunday, it looks more and more like the Jets need to use that pick on a franchise quarterback.

For the Saints, it was their sixth season winning 10 or more games with Sean Peyton as head coach. They had just five 10 win seasons in team history prior to Peyton’s arrival in 2006.