Get Brady

Jets need some pash rush !

Bring on the Pats !

Bring on the Pats !

A Thanksgiving Win !

It was Thanksgiving Night and the Jets decided they wanted to eat Bengal instead of Turkey as their meal in route to a hard fought 26 to 10 victory setting up a Monday Night Football battle against the Patriots for first place with both teams at 9-2.

There wasn’t a ton to get excited about during the Bengals game. It was another example of this Jets team not being able to put away and beat up on an inferior team. However, they did enough to get the victory.

The offense looked a bit lost at times with the same typical poor play calling. If you need 8 yards for a first down, I’m not sure why Schottenheimer calls plays that are not even close to the first down marker. This has happened way too much during his reign as offensive coordinator. This team has way too many offense weapons for us to not be putting up 30 points a game with ease.

But, this has been a magical season so far and with the offense having some difficulties, Brad Smith stepped up his game with a 53 yard touchdown run as well as a game sealing 89 yard kickoff return.

The sad part of this game was that we went into halftime losing after giving up a touchdown to basically end the first half. However, things changed quickly as the long Smith run to start the 3rd quarter gave this team the lead for good even though the score still remained close for a while.

Special teams then played a major role when a punt grazed a Cincinnati player’s helmet and James Ihedigbo hussled down the field to scoop up the ball. This made up for a prior Ihedigbo mistake when he roughed the kicker on 4th down extending a Cincinnati drive. Mr. Touchdown, Santonio Holmes, reeled in another touchdown pass, to extend the lead but a Bengals field goal kept them close only down 7.

Then, the defense really buckled down in the 4th quarter and notched two points with a safety near the end of the game. Jim Leonard had a huge interception in the 2nd quarter which seemed like ages since the last Jets interception.

But one of the huge stories of the game was the play of Darelle Revis on T.O. T.O. had called Revis an average cornerback. Hmmmm. Three Catches for a pathetic 17 yards Mr. Owens had. I guess if Revis is just average, T.O. sucks !

Anyway, I don’t want to harp too much on this game. Now, comes the meat of the schedule and it’s time to see what these Jets are really made of. Bring on the Pats!

Happy Thanksgiving

Now...let's win big for once. I'd be thankful for that!

A Jets Heist

Emotions ran high, and then low, and then high again as the Cardiac Jets offense pulled off a heist as they were the thieves in Ocean’s 11 after the defense had thrown away what looked like an easy victory giving up 17 straight points.

Things were looking great with the Jets holding on to a 23-lead and there were no signs that the defense was going to have a 4th quarter meltdown; we were finally going to be able to sit back and enjoy the final quarter of the game. Yeah right. These Jets, while they continue to win, do not make it easy on themselves giving us another heart attack for the fourth time in five weeks.

With 12:00 minutes or so left in the game, the defense gave up a field goal to make the game 23-10. Okay, that was fine. The Jets were just going to go “ground and pound” and rush the ball to eat up some clock with a thirteen point lead. Well, things were going well and then Shonn Greene fumbled the ball. Before I could blink, the Texans hit ex-Jet, Joel Dressen, for a 43 yard TD and we were not just up 6 points. Things started looking bleak and now we were in the middle of the game. I started to feel nauseous. Here we go again.

After doing nothing with the ball, the Texans have a nice drive for a touchdown to go up by one. I could not even believe we were losing this game that we had such a nice lead in. We now needed a field goal and guess what? Sanchez is intercepted deep in their own end. Crap; it was looking like the game was over.

Well, the Defense was ready and held the Texans to just three more points to go up 27-23 with just 55 seconds left. Things were looking bad as we had no more time outs and after a nice kickoff returned, we get called for a personal foul to set us back another 15 yards.

So, it was up to the Sanchize again. Can he pull off another miracle comeback? We may now how to re-nickname him the new Mr. 4th Quarter after what he pulled off. After two quick passes to LT, Sanchez goes back, about 24 seconds on the clock, and hits Braylon Edwards for a 42 yard pass to the Texans six yard line. And, amazingly, he got out of bounds to stop the clock.

There was now 16 seconds left and 2/3rds of the stadium was outside watching on monitors. Mr. Cool goes back and hits Santonio Holmes in the corner, who somehow kept his feet in bounds for the winning score. Santiono does it again as well coming up big in big spots at the end of these crazy games in the 4th quarter.

The Jets are 8-2. We could be 2-8. But, we are 8-2 and are riding a high on this miracle marathon. I hope this race continues as this has been a year like no others -- A year where this team just refuses to win. I hope it continues thru February !

Heart Attack Jets Win Again

The heart attack Jets were at it again this past Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. It was the Jets vs. their old coach, Eric Mangini. It was a homecoming for Braylon Edwards. It was Rex Ryan vs. brother Rob Ryan. It was a bunch of Ex Jets vs. their old teammates. It was all against the team that made the dumb trade for us to draft Mark Sanchez.

I’m definitely going have heart failure watching these Jets as nothing seems to come easy. Our last three wins have been wins that Championship teams are made of; you just find new ways to win games that seem lost at one point.

We got lucky in Denver with the pass interference call. We stole away a victory last week in Detroit with a miracle comeback. And then this week, we give up the lead with 44 seconds left in regulation and then win in overtime with just 16 seconds left. Sometimes luck is just with you and this seems to be one of those years like no other that I’ve ever had. Actually, back in 1998, we had 4 crazy 4th quarter comebacks that season, including the Monday Night Miracle, and that season took us all the way to the AFC Championship Game where the Jets fell apart in the 2nd half after holding a 10 point lead.

It would just be nice if we could win a game with out making us sweat it out at the end. I’d like to see a 31-10 victory already. But, I’ll surely take what has transpired through the first 9 games of the season and I’m surely not complaining about a 7-2 record as it could be a lot worse if the ball didn’t bounce our way.

The story of the game was Mark Sanchez passing for 299 yards, 2 TD passes, and 1 TD rush. But, there was as scare in the 2nd half when our Sanchize went down and Mark Brunell was warming up. However, our fearless leader re-entered the game to eventually lead us to victory. There were a few key plays in the game. There was an amazing scramble my Mark Sanchez who hit a limping Jerricho Cotchery who dove and made a miraculous catch for a first down to keep their drive alive which had put them up by 7 points after connecting a field goal. It could have been the catch of the NFL this season.

Unfortunately, the defense just couldn’t hold the Browns who walked down the field and tied up the game with just 44 seconds left. You would think that with a 7 point lead and the game on the line that our defense would have been able to stop the Browns. It was quite disgusting to watch as we had the game in hand and the defense let it slip away.

But, our lucky Jets, for the 2nd week in a row, won the coin toss. However, it didn’t result in a score. The overtime was back and fourth for a bit but things were looking bleak until the Browns, ex-Jet Chansi Stucky, turned over the ball in field goal range. The Jets then missed a FG in return. Luckily, we were able to get the ball back and Jets were in a 3rd and long situation and chucked the ball deep down field which was intercepted with about 1:34 left in the OT. This turned out to be the crucial play in overtime. The defender should have dropped the ball, forcing the Jets to punt. However, instinct took over and the Browns started with the ball on their own 1 yard line.

Our Defense was now not going to lose this game and before I could let out a deep breath; the Browns were punting the ball back to us with not a lot of time on the clock. It did help that the Browns threw on 1st down stopping the clock. Luckily, Jim Leonhard had a nice 18 yard punt return to help our field position and then on first down, Sanchez hits Santiono Holmes on a crossing route which resulted in a 37 yard TD with just 16 seconds remaining before the game would have been declared a tie. And again the Jets win.

Things didn’t start out pretty. We were playing from behind a lot in the first half. And we didn’t help ourselves with Nick Folk missing three field goals.

The most painful part of the game was coming out in the second half to conduct a 19 play, 10+ minute drive that resulted in zero points due to a missed field goal. Come on…you gotta make that kick.

Again, it wasn’t a perfect Jets victory but it was a victory and that’s all that matters in this game. If the keep playing like they do, I’ll take it as long as they win; but, I would like them to have a complete game already. Bring on the Texans !

Here are some interesting stats of this game:

1. Jets had their second straight overtime win.
2. Jets have won 8 consecutive regular season road games.
3. Jets are the first team to win consecutive overtime road games.
4. It was the first time the Jets won an overtime game on a TD reception since October 18, 1987.
5. The Jets rushed for over 100 yards for the ninth straight game to open the season. They haven’t accomplished that feat since 1978.
6. The Jets deprived the Browns their 500th franchise win.
7. The Jets have not allowed 100 yards to any running back this season.
8. Nick Folk missed a career-high 3 field goals.

Bring It On Mangini

Our Coach In Drag ?

If we lose the the Browns, this picture will come back to haunt Rex.

Our Beloved Rex !

A Theft In Detroit

As I sat on the couch with my head buried in my hands, I thought about how we just let a golden opportunity slip away against an inferior Lion’s team and how we basically throw away any chance of potentially hosting the AFC Championship Game. I thought that maybe we are not a good team as some of our wins this year were squeakers and we could easily be a below average team.

Things were looking bleak down 10 points with 5:19 to go in the game. The offense couldn’t get it going. Part of the issue was all the penalties and fumbles but after the defense crushed Matthew Stafford, the offense got the ball back. However, there was nothing to make me think that they were going to wake up from this hibernation they’ve been on since the bye week, sleeping through 4 quarters last week, and sleeping for much of the game this week.

Then, our Sanchize got hot when we needed him most. Sanchize drove the team down the field and scored on a quarterback sneak with about 3:01 on the clock. However, with the officials not knowing it was a touchdown, the clock kept on ticking for another 15 seconds until it was finally called a touchdown. Okay, we were back in the game but still needed the ball back.

I was expecting an on-sides kick since earlier in the game we wasted two timeouts on the same drive when Detroit eventually scored a touchdown. You can’t waste two timeouts by the defense by having too many men on the field. That is truly unacceptable. And the team shocked me by deciding to kick it off and let the defense stop them. So, on first down, we stop the run and call timeout. On second down, we stop the run and it’s the two minute warning. And then Detroit did something extremely dumb; they attempted to throw the ball and it went incomplete. Clock stops before the punt.

Now the Jets have the ball and all we need is a field goal to tie it up. Wow. We shockingly have a game. This was unexpected to be cheering at the end of this game. And, with no timeouts, Sanchez leads a 9 play drive ending in a game tying 36 yard field goal by Nick Folk. Holy C**P !

Could this be possible? I thought that we’d probably blow the game in overtime; just tease the fans. But, we won the coin toss and the rest is history. Sanchez, poised in the pocket, hit Santonio Holmes for a 52 yard reception to set up the game winning Nick Folk field goal. The Jets Win. The Jets Win. The Jets Win!

Sanchez had a hell of a game in winning his third career 4th quarter comeback going 22 of 39 for a career high 323 yards throwing for one touchdown and one interception. The interception didn’t kill us as Detroit picked it off in the endzone and ran out giving the Lions the ball on the half yard line. As for the touchdown, Sanchez hit Braylon Edwards for a 74 yard score.

Braylon kept last week’s issue going by having a completed ball turned over. Our receivers need to hold on to the ball better. However, it was not as bad as last week’s debacle.

Still, if you take away the final 6 or so minutes, the team looked bad on offense. All week, the coaching staff is saying that we are returning to the ground and pound. Well, we couldn’t run for beans this game and kept on putting ourselves in 3rd and long situations. Maybe we should be a throw first team. Look at most of our wins over the last two years. The offense comes alive when Sanchez gets to throw the ball down field. We have so many receiving weapons between Edwards, Holmes, Cotchery, Keller, and LT that we should throw to set up the run. Can you imagine how much better our offense would move the ball?

Most of the game was still sloppy. We had way too many penalties again and some of them were just stupid and drive-killing. We need to get back to being a disciplined team.

The defense played well when they needed too but it seemed they kept on giving up big plays on third down. Revis is; however, starting to look like his old self again.

It was a great Sunday. The Dolphins lost. The Patriots lost. The Jets won.

I then thought about how wins like this could turn the season into something special. Teams that go all the way have a little luck on their side. This little luck has been missing from the Jets for years. Maybe, stealing a game like this in Detroit is the medicine that this team needs.

Happy Halloween...NOT !

Yesterday's performance was truely scary (in a BAD way) !