Jets vs. Texans analysis: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

After five weeks of the NFL season, the New York Jets sit 2-3 and one game behind the first-place New England Patriots after a 23-17 defeat on Monday Night Football against the Houston Texans.

Compared to last week's disaster versus San Francisco, there were some promising things to take away from this defeat, but there were more bad than good, and that is not the recipe for success going forward.

The Good

Well, last week, Gang Green's defense allowed 245 rushing yards, a number of big plays, missed a ton of tackles and basically look disinterested for a good portion of the game. Versus Houston, though Arian Foster rushed for more than 150 yards, the defense played a pretty good game, limiting the Texans to field goals on two occasions after Houston marched deep into Jets territory.

Antonio Cromartie had an interception and rendered Andre Johnson a non-factor (one catch for 15 yards). If the defense plays this way consistently, the Jets will be able to compete with anyone the rest of the season.

Rex Ryan coached a great game. The defense played well. The game was there for the taking.

The Bad

Tim Tebow threw one pass - a perfect deep ball - that was promptly dropped. Cromartie, in at wide receiver, beat his man with a double move down the sideline, but the pass from Mark Sanchez was out of bounds. Tebow was no involved in the offense yet again, once again begging the question about why he is on the team in the first place. And center Nick Mangold was carted off the field with an ankle injury in the third quarter.

Offensive coordinator Tony Sparano did not have a good game. Tebow was removed from the game at the goal line when he could have easily thrown a jump pass, ala his days at Florida, or ran for a touchdown. If he is not going to be on the field in that situation, why is he on the team?

The Ugly

One guess what this might be. Correct, the Jets offense. Sanchez completed less than 50 percent of his passes again and threw two more interceptions -- although in his defense, they both came on tipped balls. One of them was in the red zone at the end of the first half, and the subsequent return led to a half-closing field goal but the Texans and it was a pass Sanchez never should have thrown.

The running game, again, was ugly. Shonn Greene rushed only eight times for 26 yards as the Jets tallied just 69 yards on 23 carries, a lowly three-yards per rush. That just is not going to cut in the National Football League.

The Jets have a winnable game at home on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.

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