Jets 26, Bengals 14: It Doesn't Take Much to Beat the Bengals These Days

After beating the hapless Bengals on Sunday, the New York Jets are 3-2 and very much in the AFC playoff hunt. That's the good news. The bad news is that they played poorly against a terrible team and look no closer to putting together the kind of complete performance that will make the playoffs a reality.

Their disjointed performance is even more damning when you consider that they had two weeks to prepare for Cincinnati. Given short fields all day thanks to Leon Washington's fine work on punt returns, the offense played sloppy, ineffective football and failed to convert on many of their opportunities.

Brett Favre committed three turnovers to remind Jet fans that it isn't all laser beam touchdown passes when you employ the good ol' gunslinger. His attempt to try and pull a rabbit out of his hat led to a fumble on the third play of the game which Cincinnati returned for a touchdown and early 7-0 lead. Two interceptions followed that miscue and helped keep the Bengals in a game that should have been over well before Thomas Jones's third touchdown of the day iced it with just over two minutes to play.

The defense provided a lot more reason for optimism than the offense. It's hard to read much into their play given the opposition but, no matter who you play, five sacks and offering no room to run are worth praise. Outside of a drive late in the first half that made it a 17-14 game at the break, Ryan Fitzpatrick couldn't sustain drives and the Bengal line was no match for a feisty pass rush. The lack of protection eliminated the prospect of exploiting Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh down the field, which leaves the Bengals very few productive offensive options.

The Jets need to be much better when they play Oakland and Kansas City the next two weeks. Their records (and the former's play against the Saints today) are unimpressive but the Jets can't keep playing such sloppy football and pile up the wins they'll need to have when their schedule starts turning up less embarassing opposition.