Jets survive Josh McCown scare in preseason finale

For a few minutes Thursday night, the Jets’ quarterback drama looked like it was about to add another chapter.

Josh McCown, who was named the regular-season starter Monday, was on a knee, unable to get up after getting drilled by a blitzing Eagles backup linebacker named Joe Walker. The trainers and doctors gathered around him, and it appeared Todd Bowles’ decision to play his starting quarterback in the final preseason game might blow up in his face.

Christian Hackenberg relieved McCown, but it turned out the 38-year-old McCown only had the wind knocked out of him, and he returned to the game after just one play, allowing the Jets coaches to exhale.
That’s the state of these Jets. An apparent injury to McCown, who is 2-20 as a starter over the past three years, was a reason to panic.

Bowles downplayed the risk of playing McCown.

“You don’t like your quarterback getting hit, but football is football whether it’s Week 1 or Week 4 of the preseason,” Bowles said. “You get [hit], you get hurt. That’s kind of the game we play.”

McCown played two series, 14 plays in all, going 6-of-8 for 57 yards in his tune-up for the regular season. McCown needed the work with the first team after playing only one previous series this preseason, and that was Aug. 12. Jets coach Todd Bowles wanted to get the first-team offense some action together before the Sept. 10 opener with the Bills.

The Jets won the game 16-10, finishing the preseason 2-2.

The first-team offense struggled on its first series, going three-and-out against Eagles second- and third-teamers. McCown completed a 3-yard pass to Bilal Powell on his only throw of the series.

On their second series, they moved the ball 50 yards on 12 plays, but the drive stalled and they had to settle for a 28-yard field goal from Chandler Catanzaro. McCown was hurt on his longest completion of the night — a 20-yard pass to tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Walker blitzed up the middle, Powell was late getting to him and McCown got nailed. It was not clear exactly what the injury was. Hackenberg came in for one play, which was nullified by a penalty, before McCown returned.

“I just got the wind knocked out of me,” McCown said. “He just caught me right in a bad spot. Thankfully, that was it. It was a good first hit. You always like to get those over with. Nothing major.”

Hackenberg replaced McCown after that. Bryce Petty did not play in the game after suffering a left knee sprain in the game against the Giants last weekend.

Hackenberg started off strong but faded as the game went on. The highlight of his night was a 12-yard touchdown pass to Seferian-Jenkins. He finished 10-of-22 for 105 yards and the score.

It was Seferian-Jenkins’ last action for a few weeks. He is suspended for the team’s first two games after violating the league’s substance abuse policy last year.

Bowles felt it was important to play the starting offense so they players could work together after a limited amount of reps this preseason.

“The main thing for us was to go out there with that unit and just play with tempo,” McCown said. “Get in and out of the huddle, move fast, move the ball down the field. We were able to catch that second drive and that’s good for us. That will give us some momentum.”

McCown said he feels confident the offense is ready.

“It’s easy to look at the circumstances and you have new pieces and pieces that are gone,” McCown said, “but when you’re in this, in our situation, we don’t operate under those circumstances, [thinking]: ‘Well, we don’t have this guy.’ We don’t have excuses. There’s a way that we expect to play and we’re going to do that. I put a lot of pressure and expectation on myself to get that done.’’

Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan now will have two days to figure out who stays and who goes. They have until 4 p.m. Saturday to cut the roster down to 53 players. With such a young team, there should not be many notable names in jeopardy, but there could be some surprise cuts.

As for McCown and the rest of the starters, they now can turn their attention to Week 1 and the Bills. With expectations at an all-time low, the Jets enter the 2017 season hoping to shock the world.

The question after the victory Thursday night is: When will their next one come?

Three takeaways

Todd Bowles seems to have settled on a starting offensive line, but it did not look good run blocking Thursday night. It appears Brandon Shell and Kelvin Beachum are the starting tackles with Wes Johnson at center. They did not open many holes Thursday. Bilal Powell ran for 5 yards on six carries.

Kony Ealy looked pretty good in his Jets debut. He made some plays, including a strip sack. He’s worth holding onto for the Jets as a situational pass-rusher. They desperately need an outside pass-rusher. Ealy would not play in the 3-4 base defense, but could be used in sub packages.

It is going to be a very busy weekend for the Jets. Mike Maccagnan will be making cuts and scouring the waiver wire to add new players. Expect a lot of roster turnover in the next few days. They need help in a lot of areas.