Joe Flacco had been a sitting duck behind a makeshift offensive line and those Jets fans still awake and trapped watching a three-yards-and-a-cloud of dust offense flashed back to last Halloween when Mike White (405 yards, three touchdowns) showed up one afternoon as Cinderella.
And so the “Mike White” chants began with 4:48 remaining in the third quarter of Ravens 24, Jets 9 on Opening Day.
I asked running back Michael Carter if he heard the “Mike White” chant.
“No. I think that’s bulls—, though,” he told The Post. “I love Mike White. I love him, and I know he can spin it and know everything, but you gotta believe in the guys that are rolling out there. I know Mike White would have done a good job, but it is like disrespectful to Joe.
“And you see this in the NFL where vets, and guys who are super-accomplished, the NFL tries to throw ’em to the side. Because it’s a quote, ‘young man’s league.’ He doesn’t deserve that.”
Flacco did not. But when you are the quarterback of a Sominex offense with all the energy and urgency of a turtle, it is inevitably your fault, and
It is rite of football Sundays that when the starting quarterback cannot for whatever reason sniff the end zone, the backup quarterback becomes the people’s choice.
Woe Flacco.
Quarterback of the ALL BRAKE NO GAS offense.
Take Flight?
No. Take Fright.
Flacco finished 37 of 59 for 307 yards, one garbage-time touchdown and one interception. Flacco was under siege, an anachronism in a league designed for mobile quarterbacks, and victimized by fumbles by Breece Hall and Tyler Conklin, and a slip over the middle by surprise starting tight end Lawrence Cager on his pick.
“We gotta keep him off the ground,” Carter said. “It goes back to that. We gotta keep him off the ground. He is a great quarterback when he’s upright, just like all the quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, he’s great when he’s upright. Josh Allen, he’s great when he’s upright. Zach Wilson, he’s great when he’s upright.”
Wishful thinking there on Wilson, who would have been more effective running for his life than Flacco, to be sure.
It is no great surprise that Flacco could not elevate the players around him against these Ravens. For the Jets to win a game like this, Flacco needs greater support from his protectors and playmakers and his defense and special teams. Because he is not Lamar Jackson, or Allen, or Mahomes.
“There were plays when we weren’t helping Joe,” Robert Saleh said, “and there were plays when he wasn’t helping either.”
Ominously, the psychology of results tells us that a team teaches itself what it is on the field (thank you, Bill Parcells), and Ya Gotta Believe has yet to make its way into the franchise.
“I just keep going back to just the belief in ourselves that we’re good,” Flacco said, “and I’m talking to myself too. I think every time we take the field we just have to truly believe that we’re capable, ’cause we are. And I think that’s kinda why we’re missing some of that little juice here and there to kinda get us over the hump. And like I said, I’m talking to myself, not just young guys and things like that.”
Meet The Losing Syndrome. Try your best not to listen to Same Old Jets.
“When you have young guys that haven’t played in this league, and then when you have a bunch of veterans that just haven’t won consistently over the last couple of years, you have to learn how to win football games, and create that winning culture, and winning on Sundays is a big part of that.”
Of course Flacco did not point a finger on his first-half interception.
“I’m gonna just wish that I just took some of the 5-yard checkdowns earlier in the game,” he said. “The safety [Marcus Williams] was driving, and you have a little miscue on running the route and next thing you know you’re in a bad position.”
Of course he did not throw his offensive line under the bus.
“Those guys fought all day and I thought they played really well together,” Flacco said. “We all have to make little improvements like I talked about for us to take that next step.”
Conklin leaped to Flacco’s defense.
“He’s the same player he was, he can make all the throws, he’s smart, he’s a leader, we all love playing with him,” Conklin said. “We gotta be better for him too.”
Getting dynamic rookie WR Garrett Wilson more playing time in the first half would be a good start, and Forgotten Man C.J. Uzomah as well. Conklin fumbled away an early first down at the Baltimore 21 and Corey Davis had an early drop and Hall a fourth-quarter fumble and time for a talk already.
“We had a talk in the locker room after the game,” Uzomah said. “We’re not going to let it happen again.”
Conklin: “It’s not the same s–t. We got a good team.”
Positive Vibes Only more than ever.
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