With four minutes left in last night’s game, the Jets scored a touchdown to take a 36-24 lead. The smart thing to do would have been to go for two to try to extend the lead to 14. But the Jets kicked the extra point to extend the lead to 37-24, meaning that the Jets would have still lost if the Bills had scored two touchdowns and two extra points.
So why did the Jets kick instead of go for two? Jets coach Todd Bowles admitted today that he screwed up and should have kept his offense on the field for a two-point conversion attempt.
“I should have. I was occupied doing something with the defense and when I turned around and looked at it, that was my bust and I’ll get better going forward,” Bowles said.
It’s a credit to Bowles that he admits his mistake, but it’s surprising that the Jets hadn’t thought through all the late-game scenarios in advance so that it wouldn’t come down to Bowles needing to make the call to go for two on the fly.
As it turned out, the Bills did score a touchdown and extra point to cut the Jets’ lead to six points, and then got the ball back for a final desperation play. If the Bills had scored a touchdown on that desperation play, we’d all be talking today about what a huge mistake Bowles made. Fortunately for Bowles, that mistake was just a footnote.