LAS VEGAS — The Jets are visiting Allegiant Stadium for the first time on Sunday night.
The question is whether they will find the end zone there.
The Jets (4-4) have not scored a touchdown in their past seven quarters plus an overtime period.
They have scored just two offensive touchdowns in a game once this year.
Though their defense is playing great, the offense is dragging down the team.
They now face a Raiders (4-5) team that underwent massive changes two weeks ago — firing coach Josh McDaniels, general manager Dave Ziegler and benching quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Can the Jets take advantage of the Raiders’ rebuild, or will they fail to do anything on offense again?
NBC may want to have “Heidi” ready to roll if this game gets ugly.
For the Jets, the debate since the loss to the Chargers on Monday night has been about how much blame quarterback Zach Wilson deserves for the offense’s dismal performance versus how much blame there is to spread around.
Wilson has not played well, but the Jets have also had poor offensive line play, drops from receivers and questionable play-calling.
If they struggle in the first half against the Raiders, could coach Robert Saleh bench Wilson in favor of backup Tim Boyle?
“The reality is to pull a quarterback to spark change, it’s my opinion, it’s got to be crystal clear that it’s him,” Saleh said Friday. “When you’ve got everybody with their hand in the cookie jar, it’s really hard to justify blaming one human. Yeah, you could say, well, blame it on somebody, and let’s just do something, but is it what’s necessary at that time to derail whatever it could be and just create all kinds of other problems in the future? So, there is a global aspect of it.
“Now, if it was as clear as one person, yeah, you make a change, whether it’s any position, but when everyone has their hand in the cookie jar and it’s coaches included, it’s hard to justify in my mind making a move just to make a move.”
The offense has been performing at a historically bad clip.
They have the worst third-down percentage (22.1 percent) and red-zone percentage (23.8) since the NFL began tracking those stats in the 1970s.
Something has to change for the Jets to stay in the playoff hunt.
Will it be the quarterback?
Read more
