Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich will have several decisions to replay in his head from Sunday’s 28-27 loss to the Colts.
The biggest decision came with just over three minutes left in the game and the Jets leading, 24-22. The Jets got to the 17 and stalled.
On fourth-and-2, Ulbrich decided to kick a field goal instead of going for it.
Anders Carlson made the 35-yarder to give the Jets a 27-22 lead, but the Jets defense collapsed and the Colts scored the game-winning touchdown on the next drive.
“I was confident the defense was going to get the stop,” Ulbrich said. “That’s why I opted to kick the field goal there and not go for it. But, in hindsight, I probably should have gone for it because we didn’t stop them, obviously.”
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he wanted to go for it on fourth down but understood Ulbrich’s decision.
“Brick felt good about Anders kicking it and the defense stopping it, but yeah, of course. I felt like we needed to get to 30 [points] just to be in the game,” Rodgers said. “Now, obviously, the way we played, still needed to get to 30 to win, but yeah, if we were a great team, we would have scored seven there.”
Before sending the field goal team on, Ulbrich had the offense try to draw the Colts offsides and used a timeout when they did not jump.
That left them with one timeout in the final two minutes. Ulbrich was asked if he should have just taken a delay of game and saved the timeout.
“I just wanted to give the kicker the best opportunity he could to make that kick and didn’t want to push him back any further than that,” Ulbrich said.
Carlson had a nice debut for the Jets, booting two field goals, including one of 58 yards. Carlson became the fourth kicker in four weeks for the Jets. He found out he’d be kicking this week Thursday night, when the Chiefs signed Spencer Shrader off the Jets practice squad.
“I think, in my mind, we were kind of right there at the field goal distance,” Carlson said of the long kick. “Pregame, we were back to 57, I think, so a yard. I think they just have a lot of trust in what they saw and so just having confidence with what happened in pregame and just rolling with it.”
The Jets had just two penalties in the game. … The inactives were: RB Israel Abanikanda, CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse, LB C.J. Mosley, OL Jake Hanson, OT Tyron Smith and DE Braiden McGregor.
— additional reporting by Ryan Dunleavy