Adam Gase ruined the Jets' last three trips to Miami, he can't let it happen this time

Andy Vasquez | NFL writer

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The last three times the New York Jets played at Hard Rock Stadium, Adam Gase ruined their season.

The Jets have probably already sabotaged this one. But Sunday, Gase could help them start to salvage something out of it.

Gase, now the coach of the Jets (1-6), returns to South Florida for the first time since the Dolphins fired him in December.

But revenge isn’t on his mind this week, because it can’t be.

“I think with where we're at right now, my focus is on us,” Gase said this week. “If it wasn't, then that'd be terrible on my part because we've got to get our deal fixed. We've got to get ourselves ready for this game and all that stuff is irrelevant. … We're 1-6 right now. We need to figure out a way to win a game this week.”

The Jets are already unraveling, and if they lose to the Dolphins (0-7) this weekend there’s a good chance that there won’t be any thread left on the spool.

This team is a mess in every way.

Star safety Jamal Adams won’t talk to Gase or general manager Joe Douglas because he’s still upset the team considered trading him earlier this week. They’re beyond banged up, with 26 players appearing on the final injury report before this game.

COLUMN: Jets' Jamal Adams damages his credibility as a leader with his meltdown

Meanwhile, less than halfway through his first season the heat is squarely on Gase as many fans are already calling for his job. Want to gauge the level of anger? Just check out the mentions on the Jets’ Twitter account every time they tweet out one of the coach’s press conferences.

The Jets hired Gase because of his prowess as a play-caller. But the offense is ranked 31st or worse in total yards, passing yards and rushing yards per game. The Jets have only seven offensive touchdowns this year, fewer than every other team in football.

Le’Veon Bell asked Gase for more of a role after he had only 11 touches in last week’s loss to the Jaguars, with Gase admitting “that was bad” and he needs to get Bell more involved.

And most concerning, quarterback Sam Darnold appears to be regressing. His last two starts were the worst of his career, as the constant pressure getting through the porous offensive line seems to have made him jumpier in the pocket and more likely to make poor decisions.

Jets: Who's to blame for Sam Darnold's struggles? It starts with Adam Gase

But other than that …

Bad luck and drama could be a distraction. But he said he likes the way his team is practicing this week and that his team isn’t focused on anything but this game.

“That's a great escape for us is, we go to the next game. We're focused on the next game,” Gase said. “If we're worried about anything else outside of that, it's going to magnify. It's going to keep stacking. So, that's why our focus just needs to be on this week.”

Gase can’t fix it all this weekend. But he needs to fix some of it against a Dolphins team that isn’t very good. The Jets are clearly the more talented team. It’s going to become immediately apparent if they were properly prepared and are in the proper mindset because they are inarguably more talented than this Miami team, which was built to lose.

Gase can’t let the Jets suffer yet a crippling loss in Miami — because if he does, it might be impossible to put this team back together in the final eight games.

In each of the last three years, the Jets arrived in South Florida with hope of getting back in the playoff picture and left with Gase, then the coach of the Dolphins, handing them their most heartbreaking loss of the season.

In 2016, receiver Brandon Marshall stood in silence for nearly 30 seconds after being asked a question because he couldn’t explain how the Jets had just lost — they took the lead late in the fourth quarter but committed a penalty on the kickoff and Kenyan Drake returned the re-kick for a 27-23 Dolphins win.

In 2017, several players were too frustrated to talk after the Jets, somehow, lost the game in 31-28 regulation even though they led by 14 with 12 minutes left and the ball in a tie game with less than than a minute left.

And last year, the Jets offense couldn’t score a touchdown, Sam Darnold threw four interceptions and suffered a foot injury that would keep him out the next three games, Adams’ started showing the first major signs that he was fed up with all the losing after the Jets fell 13-6.

Those horrific losses sucked the hope out of the Jets’ locker room. And all of them were to Gase’s benefit, part of his 5-1 record against the Jets as Dolphins coach.

Gase can’t let Hard Rock become a house of horrors for the Jets once more. If he does, there’s no telling where the bottom is for this team.

Andy Vasquez is the Jets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Jets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app.

Email: vasqueza@northjersey.com Twitter: @andy_vasquez