The New York Jets ran into a good defense in Kansas City and you saw what happened. It was something out of the Marty Mornhinweg playbook, as they failed to score a touchdown for the first time since Nov. 24, 2014. (Scary flashback: That was the 38-3 loss to the displaced Buffalo Bills in Detroit.)
Hey, it happens sometimes in sports. Those defensive guys get paid big bucks for a reason, and they can easily disrupt your favorite team's mojo, as the Chiefs did to the Jets. Guess what? The Jets face a bunch of strong defensive teams in the coming weeks.
In order: The Seattle Seahawks (No. 1 in fewest yards allowed), Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 14), Arizona Cardinals (No. 9) and Baltimore Ravens (No. 2).
This could be a murderous stretch for Ryan Fitzpatrick and his BFFs, Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, who haven't been able to recreate last season's chemistry on a consistent basis. At a time like this -- in the midst of a stretch like this -- the Jets need their defense to carry the flag to Halloween.
They need their talented defense to not only keep them in games, which it will do, but to win them on occasion. To win games, it has to make big plays -- and therein lies the problem. For all their defensive success over the past decade, the Jets come up short in that department. It's baffling.
The Jets haven't scored a defensive touchdown since Oct. 20, 2013, when safety Antonio Allen -- covering Rob Gronkowski -- intercepted Tom Brady and took it to the house at MetLife Stadium. Since then, they've gone 44 games and close to 2,800 defensive plays without a score, the longest drought in the NFL. Heck, even the stinking New Orleans Saints have scored once over that span.
"It's been a long time," Allen said Wednesday. "We've got some catching up to do."
During the time between that pick-6 and now, Allen has recovered from an Achilles' tear and has changed teams twice. In football years, 2013 is like the 1990s in the regular world.
The Jets have too much talent on defense to be mired in that kind of slump. They have two of the highest-paid players in the sport, Darrelle Revis and Muhammad Wilkerson. They have a top-5 defensive line, led by Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson and Leonard Williams. They have a fearless safety, Calvin Pryor, who should be making more impact plays than he does.
Don't get me wrong, the Jets do a lot of nice things on defense. They can stop the run as well as anyone and, except for an occasional home-run ball, they play good situational football. But where are the momentum-changing plays? Why can't they steal and score? Why can't they be like the Cards, who have a league-best 15 defensive touchdowns over that 44-game stretch?
"As a defense, we take great pride in being the best defense on the field that day," defensive tackle Steve McLendon said.
Based on that measure, they're one out of three. Not good enough.
To stay in the playoff hunt, the Jets have to at least split the next four games. Realistically, they can't count on the offense to score 30-plus points every week, not against this schedule. It's time for the defense -- still the backbone of this team -- to assert itself in a splashy kind of way. The phrase "pick-6" shouldn't be exclusive to the opposition.
