Going inside the numbers does not end with the final gun in the season’s last game. Sometimes spreadsheets and charts take several weeks to create. Sometimes something genuinely neat emerges from the digital soup.
Consider the Jets’ two-minute drives in 2023. First-half drives were not very remarkable. The Jets scored seven points in the final two minutes of their second quarter, while the opponents scored ten, resulting in a 43-32 deficit.
However, the final two minutes of regulation revealed a different picture.
In seven games, the Jets scored in the last two minutes while allowing only one opponent to score, a Bills field goal that forced overtime on opening night at MetLife Stadium. The Jets won the final two-minute drive 35-3. The plus-32 point margin was the greatest in the last two minutes of regulation in the NFL regular season, beating out Detroit (plus-20), Tampa Bay (plus-14), and Buffalo (plus-12).
But there is more. Those seven late touchdowns, all of which were recorded by either Zuerlein or Hall, were all part of their seven-win season.
When something happens X times and the result is a W, football fans prefer to believe that something good is happening, despite the twists and turns of a 7-10 season. Six of the above two-minute drives were critical in the Jets’ ability to pull out or seal victory.
To be sure, one of the scores was not of the “fantastic finish” type. Greg Zuerlein’s final field goal increased the advantage over the Texans from 27-6 to 30-6. And not all of the Jets’ scoring came from the offence or when they were trailing. At Denver, Quincy Williams’ pantherine pursuit and strip of Russell Wilson, and Bryce Hall’s scoop-and-score down the right sideline, increased the Jets’ lead from a shaky 24-21 to
We’re not claiming the Jets had a special power. If so, where was the power in the close losses at Las Vegas, MetLife Stadium against New England, Atlanta, and even Kansas City? True two-minute magic could have changed three of the four one-score losses into victories, and a 7-10 record into a 10-7 one.
It should also be remembered that Zach Wilson led the first five of the seven victories with last-minute touchdowns. Wilson has had his troubles, but he has also been cool in the clutch, with five fourth-quarter comeback drives and five game-winning drives (similar but not identical metrics) in his three seasons at quarterback.
This information, as interesting as it is, is still pigskin trivia. It is up to the Jets to make it mean something more, just like they claim beating New England in the season’s final game did. It’s another minor triumph from the season past that the Jets need to incorporate into the foundation they’re aiming to construct for the season ahead.
