Jets scrape past Jaguars for fifth victory

NY Jets running back Chris Ivory (33) reaches the ball across the goal line for a touchdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, November 8, 2015, in East Rutherford, N.J.

Each time the Jacksonville Jaguars lose, I’ll get a couple of text messages from my friends wondering which cliché head coach Bradley will use in the post-game press conference to spin how it was a good loss. It was the second straight week in which Cromartie was beaten for a long touchdown pass (Raiders wide receiver Andre Holmes victimized Cromartie on a 49-yard score last Sunday). Against the hapless Jaguars, the Jets can get by with precious little output from the ground game, but this team had better hope that Ivory gets stronger with a few good defenses coming up on the schedule. Took his eye off of it (ball) for a split second.

-WR Marqise Lee, who hasn’t played since halftime of the third game after suffering a hamstring injury, is due to have his workload increased in practice this week, although it is uncertain if he’ll play in Baltimore.

But considering he was able to play through the injury in Sunday’s 28-23 win over the Jaguars, why have the surgery at all during the season? In the past two years, the tone was different because the Jaguars weren’t even in most of the games the lost.

Meanwhile, the Jets are dealing with several other injuries, including to kicker Nick Folk.

The Jaguars on Sunday not only held Jets running back Chris Ivory to 26 yards on 23 carries, they outgained the Jets 426-290 and had 19 first downs to 14 for the Jets.

“I think defensively, they’re doing a good job”, said Bradley.

They are the first teammates to gain 600 receiving yards and six touchdowns eight games into the season since Randy Moss and Wes Welker did it for New England in 2007. After the game, coach Bowles described it as a sore neck, and that he will know more after more testing is run.

Bowles said the determining factor for playing time if Fitzpatrick has surgery is whether he can take the ball under center and hand it off normally. “That’s about all I’ll feed you for now”.

“We’ll talk about it”, Bowles said.

The Jets tallied six sacks on Blake Bortles. Those attempts resulted in 220 yards and two touchdowns. Safety Dion Bailey also sat out the walkthrough after suffering a high ankle sprain on Sunday and Calvin Pryor remains out with an ankle injury, which could leave the Jets quite shorthanded in the secondary this week. They are more competitive and have had a chance to win just about every game this season.

One of the biggest offenders was Cromartie, who was beaten on back-to-back plays in the first half by Allen Hurns, first on a 20-yard catch, then a 30-yard touchdown.

Under Olson’s guidance, the Jaguars have improved from 31st in the league passing last season to 11th this year.