Through the first four games of the season, the New York Jets rank in the top-eight in the NFL in both passing and rushing defense. Despite that, the team is 2-2. New York gave up 38 points in a loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, but it was not because of poor defensive play. Four turnovers took a victory out of the question.
Geno Smith has already thrown eight interceptions on the year. In doing so, he has put New York’s defense in a position to fail on multiple occasions. After the loss to the Titans, Smith says he apologized to his defense.
“I felt I owed the defense an apology,” Smith said, via Jane McManus of ESPNNewYork.com. “They worked their butts off to be one of the best in the league and they pride themselves on not giving up points but whenever you turn the ball over and they lead to scores — And they bailed us out time and time again so far – but whenever you turn it over that many times it’s hard or those guys to go out there and do their jobs when it’s a short field. Just wanted to talk to those guys and let them know I was aware of my mistakes and I wanted to clean them up and I will clean them up.”
The rookie added that he felt owning up to his mistakes would help him earn respect among his teammates. He also acknowledged that he does not feel his job is safe given the way he has performed.
“I mean in this league, if you don’t get it done, there’s a guy — they’ll find a guy,” Smith said. “I’m not particularly worried about what anyone else is doing other than being myself and taking care of my job. I know if I take care of the ball, if I put us in good situations, we’ll have a good chance. That’s all I really focus on.”
As of now, Smith’s only threat for playing time is Brady Quinn. Is that a threat? Probably not. The Jets drafted Smith early back in April for a reason. It would look pretty bad to bail on him this early in the season, but he has to stop turning the ball over — particularly in such embarrassing fashion like this fumble. Apologies can only get you so far.
