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As you may have expected of a matchup between the Jets and Panthers, this was a dreadful football game.
The thousands of empty seats in MetLife Stadium on a perfect football-weather Sunday told you all you needed to know about the interest in the winless Jets at this point.
And their performance, in a 13-6 loss to the Panthers, met the low expectations.
None of the fans who opted to eat their purchased game tickets to stay home and rake leaves or clean out their garages felt even a hint of FOMO.
They missed nothing.
Except for the one-week-too-late benching of starting Jets quarterback Justin Fields, who was replaced by veteran backup Tyrod Taylor after the first half with the offense utterly anemic.
The Jets — 0-7 and the only winless team in the NFL — finished the first half trailing 10-3, having accumulated 97 yards of offense.
Fields, who was coming off a passing performance that produced minus-10 net yards in a 13-11 loss to the Broncos in London, wasn’t much better at home on Sunday through 30 minutes.
Fields was 6-of-12 for 25 net yards in the first half, thanks to three Carolina sacks for 21 yards in losses. So, for those of you scoring at home, Fields had 15 net yards of passing in six quarters entering the third quarter.
All eyes were on the Jets sideline when their offense took the field for the first time in the third quarter to see if Jets head coach Aaron Glenn would have the audacity to trot Fields back onto the field with the starters.
Thankfully, despite his unwavering support of Fields, Glenn did not send him back out in the third quarter.
When Taylor came out with the offense, there was a positive response from the handful of Jets fans still in their seats.
By then, the Jets trailed 13-3 after the Panthers took the opening drive of the second half and converted it into a 29-yard field goal.
Taylor’s first possession ended in a punt, though he did complete three passes. His second possession showed some semblance of hope until he threw a long pass to Josh Reynolds into the end zone that was intercepted by Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn, who made an acrobatic one-handed pick as he fell to the ground with 34 seconds remaining before the fourth quarter.
Taylor’s first possession ended in a punt, though he did complete three passes. His second possession showed some semblance of hope until he threw a long pass to Josh Reynolds into the end zone that was intercepted by Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn, who made an acrobatic one-handed pick as he fell to the ground with 34 seconds remaining before the fourth quarter.
Taylor led the Jets to a 47-yard Nick Folk field goal that cut the Carolina lead to 13-6 with 6:26 remaining in the game.
That left it up to the Jets defense to make a hold on the Panthers offense, which was now led by 37-year-old Andy Dalton, who took over for starter Bryce Young when Young went out with an ankle injury.
The Jets defense did its job, held and got the ball back for Taylor with 4:41 remaining.
But on the second play of the ensuing series, Taylor, trying to connect with Reynolds, was picked off by Horn again.
The Jets defense held Carolina to another three-and-out and the Jets got the ball back again, with 2:49 remaining and three timeouts in hand.
That series didn’t end well, either.
Taylor was sacked for a 7-yard loss on the first play of the possession and the Jets went three-and-out and, with three timeouts remaining, punted, giving the ball back to Carolina with 1:44 remaining.
The Jets would never get the ball back, though, as the Panthers delivered a final dagger when they converted a third-and-8 from their own 45 with a 33-yard completion to ice it.
Glenn, desperate to spark his dead-team-walking offense, opened up the game trying to be aggressive. On the game’s first offensive possession, the Jets faced a fourth-and-5 from the Carolina 33 and Glenn went for it. It didn’t end well, with a Fields pass well overthrown in the direction of Reynolds.
Carolina took its first possession after the Jets failed on fourth-and-5 and took a 3-0 lead on a 30-yard Ryan Fitzgerald field goal.
They were aided on that possession by two personal foul penalties on the Panthers, who hit Fields late to get the Jets deep into Carolina territory.
