First Place !

It was a huge battle for first place on Sunday night with the Jets playing their nemesis, the Miami Dolphins. It was time for revenge as the Jets hadn’t been swept by the fish since back in 2003.

If you take away the Monday Night Miracle and the 51-45 game, this rivalry has had a ton of heartbreak for the Jets from the Mud Bowl loss to the fake spike and numerous Duper / Clayton touchdowns in between.

But, this is a new era. This was the first game where once hated Dolphin, Jason Taylor, was on our side.

I was a little nervous as Revis, Jenkins, and Pace were out with injuries. Jason Taylor and Nick Mangold were a bit banged up but playing. And Braylon Edwards was suspended for the first quarter as punishment from the Jets for his DWI. So, that’s a lot of talent off the field or not at 100%.

The offense looked in sync. And what a great way to start the game with an 11 play, 6 minute drive ending in a touchdown. Sanchez looked great making some clutch throws and then hit Keller, his go to guy, for a 24 yard score. Doesn’t look like the Jets needed Braylon “DWI” Edwards on that first drive.

Our second touchdown was just as sweet. Sanchez hit Keller for a long gain. The drive was then helped out with a personal foul on 3rd and 20 to give the Jets a first down which was followed by a 20 yard run by LT. Did San Diego actually say this guy lost a step? Then, Sanchez hits Keller again for another TD!

The second quarter was a disaster as the Jets let the stinkin’ fish right back in the game with poor defense and a lack of any offense combined with some penalties. The Dolphins were picking apart our defense. We even had great field position on one of our drives with a great kickoff return for 54 yards by Brad Smith and the drive just stalled. At the end of the quarter, we had an opportunity for a long field goal and we had our millionth false start to make a long field goal attempt even longer and the ball was tipped at the line. Still, we were going into the locker room with a 14-10 lead.

After the defense once again looked disgusting, like a puddle of vomit giving the Dolphins another touchdown for a 17-14 lead, Sanchez comes out and hits Braylon Edwards for a 67 yard touchdown to regain the lead, 21-17. I’m not sure Braylon deserves a touchdown based on what he did but, I’m a frustrated Jets fan so I’ll gladly take the score!

The Jets D started the third quarter stinking another egg letting the Dolphins walk right down the field but luckily only gave up a field goal.

After some back and fourth, Eric Smith blocks a punk and we are sitting pretty on the 10 yard line until Edwards gets called for a trip and Slausen gets called for a hold. After a terrible call in the Wildcat that got Brad Smith a first down, we were sitting pretty again. However, another Slausen hold on a Sanchez TD run stalled the drive and gave us only three points. How many penalties are we gonna have? Don’t you wish we resigned Faneca as this Slausen experiment isn’t working. And, wouldn’t it be nice if we threw more than once at the endzone when we were so close? Why did we get so conservative again? The Jets were up 4 points but I was quite disgusted with the series of downs when you start with the ball on the 10 yard line.

Before I could blink, the Dolphins booted a 50 yard field goal. The Jets were up just one. I had a bad feeling on how this was going to play out based on how poorly the defense was playing this evening.

The Jets didn’t feel my pessimistic attitude. They got the ball with 6+ minutes to go and drove right down the field while mixing up the run and the pass and eating up valuable time on the clock. The drive ends with a LT one yard touchdown score to put the Jets up by 8.

Now it was up to the defense to seal the victory. The defense had it’s moments in the game with Ellis having one sack and Jason Taylor with a sack and a pressure. They were great in the first quarter giving up just 16 total yards. But, now it was under two minutes with the game and first place in the AFC East on the line. It didn’t look like the defense was up for the task letting the Dolphins walk all the way down the field. However, the Jets stopped them on four straight plays ending with a Drew Coleman interception in the endzone to seal the game.

Can you say FIRST PLACE !!!

Squish The Fish

So much hearbreak from the Dolphins over the years. It's time to go out and make a statement by Squishing The Fish !

Enough Already

I'm over this Braylon thing. Let's just go out and whip the Fish !

Really !

Do we really need this shit? We are coming off a HUGE win against New England with a HUGE game on Sunday against the 1st Place Dolphins and we have this BIG Braylon Edwards DWI issue right in the middle tearing up this team !

How Dumb !

You are the top receiver on a team that is trying to win a Super Bowl. You already have a troubled past. Your other top reciever is already on suspension. You are playing a game on Sunday night for first place in the AFC East. And, you go out and get a DWI ??? What an A-Hole !

Season Saved !

It’s amazing how things can change in six short days in the NFL.

After the Jets stunk up the new house on Monday night, they entered a “must-win” divisional game against the Patriots. Thoughts of another Jets disappointing season were swirling around the stadium and us Jets fans are familiar with heartbreak and the thought of a 0-2 start was felt like a pit in all of our stomachs.

But, it looked like the Jets were up for the challenge beating the Patriots 28 to 14 on a Sunday afternoon in September that felt as warm as an August Day in finally getting their first win in the new stadium.

In the first quarter, things were looking bleak with a long Patriots drive that eventually ended in a missed field goal. When the Jets got the ball, they were three and out before putting the ball back in the Patriots hand for another long drive that ended three minutes into the 2nd quarter that ended with a touchdown. Basically, the Jets had the ball about a minute over the first 17 or so minutes of the game. Then, things started to change as Schottenheimer finally unleashed Sanchez and let him throw the ball in route to his best regular season game as a pro

Sanchez drove the team down the field that was culminated by a Braylon Edwards touchdown in the corner of the endzone to tie the score. Unfortunately, the defense suffered a quick letdown ending with a hurt Revis letting Randy Moss get by him for an amazing one handed touchdown reception. That was the last we saw of Revis that day as his lack of training camp re-injured that hamstring that he already tweaked in practice earlier in the week. This really irritates me. I know he says he was working out but missing an entire training camp isn’t the same as working out. It’s a totally different animal being out there on the field as opposed to being in the gym or running sprints on your own time. So, all of that guaranteed money got us a Revis that will take weeks to get back to 100% which will include some missed games to heal.

The Jets were now down 14-7 and things looked bleak as the Patriots drive was so quick and fast that they looked unstoppable. Luckily, instead of doing nothing with the ball, we actually put together a nice drive before the half ending in a Nick Folk 49 yard field goal to cut the lead to 14-10. You have got to like the way Folk is playing this young season so far booting a few long field goals for us.

At halftime, the defense made some nice adjustments, blitzing less, and dropping more guys back into coverage. The Patriots gained only 80 yards the entire second half and that was without Revis, with out Jenkins (and also Calvin Pace). This was also with out Jason Taylor for the 2nd part of the fourth quarter as well. Eric Smith also got banged up in the second half and we still confused the Patriots.

Cromartie had a nice interception at the 3 yard line to crush a potential Patriots score. The Jets turned around and had a hell of a drive from the three to the Patriots 36 yard line to set up another Nick Folk field-goal to bring the Jets within one.

And the offense finally took over the game with another Sanchez drive ending with a Cotchery touchdown and a 2-pt. conversion to Edwards to increase our lead by seven. What was impressive about this is that Nick Mangold went out of the game with a shoulder injury and this drive was accomplished with Rob Turner playing center.

The lead was then increased with a drive ending in a Keller touchdown which turned out to be the final score of the game. Sanchez ended up with 3 touchdown passes, going 21 for 30 for 221 yards and NO interceptions. Wow, that’s a hell of a game.

The defense was amazing. Jason Taylor had his biggest play of a Jet in the fourth quarter sacking Tom Brady and forcing a fumble. Cromartie redeemed himself from Monday night’s poor performance, notching an interception and holding Randy Moss to zero catches in the second half and just two catches all game. The defense also held Wes Welker to just two catches for 36 yards all game. One of the amazing stats was holding the Patriots rush to just 52 total yards or 2.6 yards per carry which in which Sione Pouha and Mike Devito were vital players in stopping the run.

Drew Coleman played solid in Revis’ absence as well as Brodney Pool getting an interception after coming into the game when Eric Smith went down.

As for the offense, Sanchez doubled his passer rating from Week #1 with a 124.3 QB rating. Mark was 11 of 12 on second downs for 82 yards and six first downs. It was a career day for our Sanchise with three touchdown passes, his most completions with 21 and his higher passer rating. And get this; he was 11 for 11 on the Jets’ three touchdown drives! And just as impressive, in his 51 pass attempts this season, there has not been an interception.

But, it wasn’t just Sanchez; Dustin Keller had a great game with 7 catches for 115 yards. LT ran 11 times for 76 yards with Shon Greene darting for another 52 yards. The offense line looked sharper giving Sanchez more time to throw and creating some bigger holes for the ground and pound running game.

This was a true team performance and was must better not getting penalties only getting 6 for 58 yards which is still a little to many but much better than the penalty fest on Monday night. And our third down efficiency was much improved going 6 for 13 after a horrific 1 for 11 against the Ravens.

Now, the dreams of a magical season are back in tact. Next Sunday, the Jets play for 1st place against the Dolphins. Can you imagine how pumped up Jason Taylor is going to be in facing his former team. Let’s start the chant now: Squish The Fish!

It's A Big Game !

Let's win and save the season !

Please Be Healthy !

All that money and that holdout...this guy BEST be healthy !

Heartbreak To Open New Stadium

It was typical Jets. We were opening a new stadium on Monday Night Football against Rex Ryan’s and Bart Scott’s prior team. It was no longer Giant’s Stadium. The atmosphere was GREEN. And the result was “The Same Ole Jets.”

The fans were going crazy during the announcing of the team’s starting defensive players and went nuts when Revis was announced last. The Jets have one of the Top 5 defenses in the league so you know that they would be in every game.

The game was delayed a half hour due to thunderstorms. It’s too bad they just didn’t cancel the game as it would have given me three hours of my life back. Yes, three more wasted hours watching this team of misfits.

After an inept start to the game by our offensive, the defensive got it going on the first play with Shawn Ellis sacking Flacco and Sione Pouha recovering the ball deep in the Ravens’ end. It looked like the start of good things to come until the offense struggled again to do anything and we had to settle for a 3-0 lead.

Things started to look even better when the Ravens somehow fumbled and there was Pouha to pick up the ball for his second fumble recovery in the first quarter.

Things then got a bit uglier with the Jets having penalty after penalty. In this game, they had 14 penalties for 125 yards with 10 of the penalties for 100 yards coming in the first half. How the hell does this team have all of these penalties? I thought they were a disciplined team? What killed me is that most of the penalties were on 3rd down keeping Raven drives alive.

There was one play which killed me. It was 3rd and 28 and the ball was thrown to the right side of the field. However, on the left side of the field, our rookie Wilson was flagged for holding giving the Ravens an automatic first down. How pathetic is that!

It was it wasn’t Wilson or Cromartie getting beat by Anquan Boldin, it was Wilson or Cromartie getting flagged for another penalty. I know Revis missed most of camp but why wasn’t he covering Boldin on every play? It seemed like it was either Wilson, or Cromartie, or Eric Smith. Revis should have blanked Boldin all game.

So, the Jets have a 6-0 lead and Cromartie picks off a ball deep and runs it back for near 70 yards with the help of a nice Revis block. When it looks like the Jets have all the momentum, Shonn Greene continued his fumbling ways dropping the ball and giving possession right back to the Ravens. Then, it got even uglier with the Ravens driving and having this drive extended twice on third downs with brutal penalties. The first was Braylon Edwards roughing the kicker on a field goal. The second was a holding penalty in the endzone which lead to the Ravens’ only touchdown right before half.

The Jets had some chances earlier. After a turnover, we had a 4th and 1 deep in the Raven’s end and we went for our 2nd field goal. What happened to Rex Ryan’s balls? He should have gone for the one yard and stabbed the dagger in the Ravens’ hearts.

Despite all of the penalties and some poor play from Cromartie and Wilson, the defense still played decently only allowing 10 points and putting some nice pressure on the quarterback. I thought Jason Taylor played a great first game in green and white. The defense held the Ravens to just 49 yards rushing but the story of the game was letting up 20 first downs with many of them being converted from 3rd down penalties by the Jets.

As for the offense, there was no offense. The Jets had only 6 first downs all game, their lowest output since 1976. We were 1 for 11 on third downs. The Jets had just 176 yards of offense with Sanchez passing for just 74 yards. It didn’t help that we dropped the ball a few times including a brutal Shonn Greene drop. But, I don’t blame it all on Sanchez. The play calling stank. We ran when we should have passed. We passed when we should have run. We couldn’t do anything on first down leaving us with 2nd and long. There was zero ground and pound. And the offense barely had the ball, 22 minutes vs. 38 for the Ravens.

Sanchez made one great throw to Keller but that was called back on a penalty. I thought LT did a decent job running the ball going for 62 yards. But the loss of Faneca and Thomas Jones showed as the running game wasn’t quite was it used to be.

And still, at the end of the game, the Jets were only down 1 point and had a chance. Sanchez makes a nice pass to Keller who didn’t even know where he was on the field and stepped out of bounds one yards shy of the first down marker on fourth down…game over !

It was an ugly display highlighted by mistakes, penalties, poor coaching, bad play calling, and it all results in another storybook lowlight for all of us suffering Jets fans.

We are now entering game #2 at home against the New England Patriots who will light us up if we don’t change the way we did things in week #1. The season just started and we are now in a MUST WIN game already.

I'm Ready

I'm getting antsy ! I'm ready for kickoff !

Not A Good Start

Not the way to make the front page of the newspapers on the first day of the first game in a new stadium !

Let's Get It Started !

Are You Ready For Some Football !

Are You Ready For Some Football !

He's Back !

Now we just have to hope he performs !

FINALLY

The drama is finally over. Now let's focus on winning a Super Bowl !