3 Takeaways from Jets' Week 9 Loss

The New York Jets were demolished on national television on Thursday night. 

Any positive momentum gained from the Week 8 win over the Cincinnati Bengals was sucked away by the Indianapolis Colts in their 45-30 victory.

The 15-point margin of victory does not represent how one-sided the contest was for a majority of the four quarters.

The Jets gave up over 40 points and 500 total yards for their second consecutive road game, and in the process, they lost another quarterback to an injury.

Mike White produced one solid drive before he exited the game with a wrist injury. Josh Johnson turned in a decent performance in relief, but he was never going to win. 

While most of the takeaways from Thursday's game were negative, the Jets came away with one positive in the form of Elijah Moore's performance. The rookie wide receiver had his best game of his young career and proved he could be one of the players the franchise can build off in the coming years. 

For the second time in three weeks, the Jets have to go back to square one regarding their defensive approach. 

In Week 7, the Jets were gashed for 551 total yards and 51 points by the New England Patriots. The Colts nearly matched both of those totals on Thursday night. 

New York's biggest issue in both games was its failure to contain running backs in both aspects of the offense. 

Indianapolis did anything it wanted with Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines. Taylor had 200 total yards, 172 of which came on the ground, and two touchdowns. Hines produced 108 total yards. He scored on a 34-yard scamper in the first quarter.

Against New England, the Jets gave up two touchdowns each to Damien Harris and J.J. Taylor. Brandon Bolden also scored on a touchdown pass. 

Robert Saleh's team has had no answer for teams with a running back tandem that performs well on the ground and through the air. 

The high concessions are simply unacceptable, but it may not get better right away, as the Buffalo Bills duo of Zack Moss and Devin Singletary is up next in Week 10.

Johnson's final stat line has one of the more deceiving sets of totals you will see all season. 

Johnson finished with 317 passing yards and three touchdowns. He completed 27 of his 41 pass attempts. 

A majority of Johnson's totals were produced in garbage time with the Jets trying to trim the Colts' lead beneath double figures. 

Johnson did not get things going until late in the third quarter, when the Jets were down 42-10. After that point, he hit Ty Johnson, Ryan Griffin and Elijah Moore with touchdown passes. 

The 35-year-old journeyman quarterback deserves credit for making the final score look competent, but once you dig deeper, you will realize the Jets were outmatched across the board. 

The Jets produced a single scoring drive in the second quarter and they did not produce an answer for the Indianapolis onslaught until the lead ballooned to 32 points. 

New York now has 10 days to figure out who will start against Buffalo in Week 10. According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, White "should be ok when he's called on" after suffering an arm injury on Thursday night. 

If anything, the Jets have the time off to let White recover before they make a decision. If White is not ready, Johnson could at least be a serviceable starter and he will not look completely lost in the pocket because of the chemistry he gained with the Jets' skill position players on Thursday. 

Believe it or not, there is actually one true positive that came out of Thursday night. 

Elijah Moore displayed why the Jets spent a second-round pick on him in the 2021 NFL draft. 

The Ole Miss product ran a handful of sharp routes to get open for his seven receptions. He had 84 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. 

Prior to Thursday, Moore had not scored a NFL touchdown and his single-game bests were six receptions and 67 receiving yards from the win over the Bengals. 

New York has a star in the making at wide receiver and that should give the team and its fans hope that the Jets are starting to build a foundation with young players. 

Moore should receive an abundance of targets in the coming weeks from whomever ends up as the starting quarterback.

When Zach Wilson returns, the rookie quarterback should look to build a connection with Moore since the two could be combining a ton over the next few years. 

For non-Jets fans, Moore could end up as a solid fantasy football pickup if he continues to receive a high target rate and he finds the end zone more.