After Brock Wright put the Lions up 20-17 with a 51-yard catch-and-run with 1:49 to play, the Jets took control of the ball on their 25-yard-line with all three timeouts in their possession.
Quarterback Zach Wilson was sacked on first down, but head coach Robert Saleh chose not to call one at that point and resisted calling one after Wilson hit wide receiver Garrett Wilson for a 22-yard gain a few plays later. Saleh again passed on a timeout when the two Wilsons hooked up for a 10-yard gain with less than a minute to play and about 12 seconds ticked off the clock before the next Jets snap.
The Jets would ultimately use two timeouts during a drive that ended with a 58-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal attempt on the final play of the game. Zuerlein missed and many were left wondering if the Jets might have had a better chance to win or tie the game had Saleh managed his timeouts differently.
Saleh didn’t dismiss that notion after the game, but he didn’t express any regret for how things played out.
“I can probably look back at it and say we should’ve used one, for sure,” Saleh said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. “But at the same time, when you have three timeouts, time is not an issue whether you use one there or not. But, yeah, in hindsight for me, I could’ve called a timeout to settle the guys down.”
There were a lot of missed opportunities for the Jets in Sunday’s loss and that’s been a theme in every one of their close losses this season. Those missed chances add up to a 7-7 record and will give them plenty to lament if the season ends without a playoff berth.
