The Jets appeared to be closing in on a feel good come-from-behind victory over the Indianapolis Colts to keep their season alive on Sunday afternoon, but some late-game decision ultimately proved costly.
After finishing a rather ugly first two quarters on a high note thanks to the playmaking abilities of star running back Breece Hall, Gang Green’s offense finally started clicking in the third quarter, and they found themselves holding a one-point lead into the fourth.
They were able to increase that when Aaron Rodgers connected with rookie tight end Kenny Yeboah who was wide open in the flat and scampered in for his first career touchdown early on in the fourth quarter.
Rodgers immediately signaled to the sideline looking to go for the two-point conversion to potentially make it a nine-point advantage and two-score game. However, interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich elected to settle for the extra point.
“I like going for two in that situation,” Rodgers said. “The reason I was thinking was because we had the conversation on the sideline about it, and I was under the impression that the decision was before the drive we’re going to go for two, but something changed.”
The veteran quarterback was again looking to take an aggressive approach later on in the quarter when Gang Green was holding onto just a two-point advantage with a little over two minutes remaining.
After quarterback Anthony Richardson led the Colts on a touchdown scoring drive, Rodgers tried to respond right back to put the game away for good, and they were moving the ball well but found themselves in a fourth-and-two situation at the 17 yard-line.
Ulbrich initially left the offense out there looking to get Indianapolis to jump offsides, gifting them a free first down and the victory, but after calling their final timeout he decided to settle for the Anders Carlson field goal to increase the lead to five.
“Brich felt good about Anders kicking it and the defense stopping it,” said the veteran quarterback. “But yeah of course I wanted to go for it, I felt like we needed to get to 30 to win. If we were a great team we would’ve been able to score seven there.”
And in the end that decision proved to be extremely costly, as just six plays later Richardson marched the Colts right back down the field through the struggling Jets defense to put the go-ahead score on the board with his second touchdown run of the day.
“I’ll always point the finger at myself first,” Ulbrich said. “I was confident that the defense would get the stop, that’s why I opted to kick the field goal there and not go for it. But in hindsight I probably should’ve gone for it because we weren’t able to get the stop.”
So now instead of riding high into the bye week, the Jets find themselves disappointed again after blowing yet another late-game lead and falling to 3-8 on the season.
“We’re angry, we’re frustrated,” Ulbrich said. “Obviously guys are working their butts off and there’s just an element where something is missing. So I think that it’s a good time for the bye to really reassess where we are and to take hard look at ourselves.”