Jets center Spencer Long hesitated before answering the question.
Long had two bad shotgun snaps again Sunday, including one that caused a fumbled handoff exchange between Sam Darnold and Isaiah Crowell in the second quarter. He has had at least six shotgun snaps that have gone either high or low in the past three weeks. He is also dealing with an injured right middle finger that has kept him out of practice on some days. The finger definitely is affecting his snaps, but Long hesitated before blaming the finger.
“I don’t want to make excuses for myself,” Long said. “I’ve got to get it fixed. I have a hand injury that I’ve been dealing with for three weeks now. It’s been snowballing a little bit.
“I’ve just got to get better and make sure I can find a way to work with it and make sure my snaps are on point because I’ve got to make his job as easy as possible. I’m going to work my ass off to get it fixed. I’ve been working my ass off to get it fixed. It’s obviously not ideal. I’m a center. I want to be perfect. I’ve got to fix it. It’s not acceptable.”
Long was asked if the only way to fix it was by sitting out more practices.
“We’ll see,” Long said. “I’m going to let the doctors and trainers make that decision.”
The Jets had something going in the third quarter after a 53-yard punt return from Andre Roberts and a third-down run by Darnold. Then, Crowell dropped a pass on first down with a ton of space in front of him. Two plays later, Eric Tomlinson dropped a pass and the Jets had to settle for a field goal.
Crowell did not seem broken up about the play after the game. He was asked if it was frustrating to drop that one.
“Not really,” Crowell said. “Nobody’s perfect. That’s how I feel about it.”
The wind was swirling at MetLife Stadium and played havoc with the kicking game. The wind was listed at 16 miles per hour at kickoff, but gusted during the game.
“That was probably the worst wind I felt in this stadium in three years,” Jets punter Lachlan Edwards said.
Edwards said during the national anthem, he noticed the flags at midfield were pointed toward the Vikings’ sideline, and the flags at the top of both goal posts were pointed toward the middle of the field, indicating the swirling nature of the winds. Edwards dropped one snap in the second quarter from Thomas Hennessy in the end zone and then punted the ball 28 yards.
“I think after Tom snapped it, a huge gust hit it and just broke it up and made it dive,” Edwards said. “I have to do a better job of trying to be clean with my hands in that situation. I honestly could have run with it. My head’s down. As soon as I kicked it, I realized. In that situation you usually have 1.3 seconds once the ball is in my hand. The last thing I want to do is give up a safety.”
RB Bilal Powell (neck) and safety Doug Middleton (shoulder) left the game with injuries and will undergo tests on Monday.
