Morgan Moses has a perspective on the Jets' monumental task over the final two months of the regular season that's hard to beat.
"It takes one to get this thing started, and we got it," the Jets' veteran right tackle said this past week about the now-week-old 21-13 Thursday night home win over Houston to get the Green & White to 3-6 in time for the impending trek to Arizona. "And so now it's up to us to take the momentum."
"There's still a lot of stuff that we can still get better at and correct. Obviously speaking on the offensive side, we've got to figure out a way to start faster. That's the biggest thing. ... We've got to figure out how we can put together a full 60 minutes."
And not look ahead to the 60 minutes after that, at home against Indianapolis, and two weeks after that, 60 more home minutes vs. Seattle, and after the bye...
What the Jets would like to do is grab hold of the sked ahead, get on a run and return to the AFC playoff conversation. The final eight games present a workable .435 winning percentage (30-39), with only two opponents with winning records — the Cardinals (5-4) on Sunday and the Bills (7-2) at Buffalo on Dec. 29.
But the surest way to come up short in this mission would be to look past those next 60 minutes in the desert, because what the Jets are attempting to do is a tall task. Currently in 10th place in the conference, they would likely need a 7-1 finish to get to 10-7, passing Cincinnati, Indy and probably Denver, to get into the 7-team grid.
Here are some snapshots of how hard that is to do, since the NFL's realignment in 2002, by division:
AFC East
2-6 Starts: 6 teams / Final Win Pct.: .255 / Equates to: 4-12-1
The Jets' 2002 unfolding was the stuff of team and league history as they installed Chad Pennington as the starting QB in Week 6 and went 8-3 overall and 7-2 over his last 9 starts, with the final RS win a 42-17 crushing of Brett Favre and the Packers to help lift them into first place in the division .Then came a 41-0 blanking of Peyton Manning and the Colts in the AFC Wild Card Round.
But that was a 2-5 start. The best in the East after 2-6 since then were the Jets' 6-10 in 2003 and the Bills' 6-10 in 2018. Not much to hang your hat on here in the past two decades.
AFC North
2-6 Starts: 12 teams / Final Win Pct.: .368 / Equates to: 6-11
Only three teams made it to .500 here. Only the 2022 Steelers got above break-even at 9-8. No playoffs.
AFC South
2-6 Starts: 15 teams / Final Win Pct.: .289 / Equates to: 5-12
Again only three teams reached .500, only the '22 Jaguars did better with a 9-8 finish and first place in the NFL's weakest division that season.
AFC West
2-6 Starts: 11 teams / Final Win Pct.: .305 / Equates to: 5-12
A pair of 7-9 finishes were the best in the West, by Denver in '19 and by the LA Chargers in '20.
NFC East
2-6 Starts: 9 teams / Final Win Pct.: .333 / Equates to: 5-11-1
The best here was the 2020 Washington Football Team, at the time the first team since 2014 to win its division with a sub-.500 record.
NFC North
2-6 Starts: 9 teams / Final Win Pct.: .315 / Equates to: 5-11-1
The '22 Lions didn't reach the playoffs but may have used their 7-2 finish and 9-8 final record to springboard to their current powerful position.
NFC South
2-6 Starts: 11 teams / Final Win Pct.: .320 / Equates to: 5-11-1
Just three 7-win teams, most recently the 7-10 Panthers in 2022.:
NFC West
2-6 Starts: 12 teams / Final Win Pct.: .329 / Equates to: 5-11-1
The best of this West were the 2012 Cardinals, who reversed their 2-6 start with a 6-2 finish but no playoffs.
The Bottom Line
Since 2002, 85 teams have started 2-6 and finished roughly 5-11. Two have reached the playoffs. Which is why the only sensible way for the Jets to tackle this situation is limit their talk and action to just those proverbial 60 minutes at a time.
