Todd Bowles all-in on offensive coordinator’s odd game plan

Jets coach Todd Bowles is on the defensive when it comes to his offensive coordinator.

On Monday, Bowles defended the job Jets offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates is doing this season. He said he is not considering a change at play-caller and even praised the job Bates did against the Patriots on Sunday when he called 50 passes and just 12 runs.

“I thought he called a good game,” Bowles said.

Jets fans may disagree. The Jets scored just 13 points, the fifth straight game they have scored less than 20 points. Entering Monday night’s game, the Jets had the 29th-ranked offense in the NFL.

Bowles said this is not all Bates’ fault.

“It’s everybody involved, it’s not just Jeremy,” Bowles said. “[It’s] the other coaches and it’s the players as well. We are all involved in that, it’s never pointed to one person.”

Bates is in his first year as offensive coordinator after coaching the quarterbacks last season. He is the third offensive coordinator that Bowles has had in four years as head coach.

Bowles said he is unsure if rookie quarterback Sam Darnold will practice on Wednesday. Darnold has missed the last two games with a sprained right foot. He has not practiced since suffering the injury on Nov. 4.

Bowles said it is important for Darnold to get more experience this season.

“It will be good for him just to play,” Bowles said. “The more games he can play, the better off he will be. Obviously he’s got to get healthy first and he has to practice so he can get back used to the routine again and then we’ll see from there. But it’s important for him to get reps.”

Josh McCown, who has started the last two games at quarterback, cut his thumb in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, but both Bowles and McCown said he is fine.

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Bowles received criticism for his decision in the first quarter on Sunday to accept a penalty against the Patriots on third down that gave them a third-and-12 at the Jets’ 34 instead of fourth-and-2 at the 24. On the third-and-12, Tom Brady found Rob Gronkowski for a touchdown.

After the game, Bowles said he expected the Patriots would go for it on fourth-and-2 and wanted to give them a longer distance to go. On Monday, Belichick was asked if he would have kicked a field goal if Bowles declined the penalty.

“I don’t know,” Belichick said. “Probably at that point we would’ve kicked a field goal. Fourth-and-short, that’s always a consideration, to go for it there. I don’t know. It happened pretty quickly. As soon as the flag was thrown I saw Todd [Bowles] pointing and signaling that they were going to accept the penalty. He wanted to take us back.

“It would’ve put us to about a 53-yard field goal, something like that. I could see why he did that. As soon as he did it that just put us into third-and-long mode, so I wasn’t really thinking about what fourth-and-short would’ve been.”