Back On Track

The heart attack Jets were at it again this past Sunday against a Pittsburgh Steelers team they have not beaten on the road in franchise history.

It’s mostly the offense giving the Jets the need to run for your bottle of Tums but this time, instead of a miracle comeback from the offense, we had to sweat it out watching our defense let the opposition walk down the field for a potential game winning touchdown.

There was just two seconds left after the Jets watched the Steelers march down the field. The defense was sickening most of the game allowing a million third down conversions including a disgusting third and 24 on that last drive of the game. This team is in dire need of a pass rush. The opposition’s quarterback has days to stay in the pocket to find a receiver and it seems like on third down, that receiver was mostly found. And what was more concerning was that our punter kept on pinning the Steelers deep in their own end and the defense would play soft. It was almost like we would go into a prevent defense for chunks of the game.

I even thought the defense came up big when the Jets had a three point lead and Weatherford pinned the Steelers deep and we followed it up with a safety to go up by five. However, our offense decided it was best to stop the clock with a bad throw on third down giving the ball back to the Steelers again deep in their own end on another brilliant punt. However, finally, on that last play, we stopped them. Game over. Phewwwww. The losing streak is over. We finally beat a team with a winning record. We beat them on the road. We ended the TD scoring drought. And, we put ourselves in a great position to make the post season now with a 10-4 record with two games to play and a two game lead on the next closest Wild Card teams.

Earlier in the game, Sanchez broke the Jets touchdown streak with a great handoff fake and took it into the end-zone untouched. And that was on a 4th down which was huge. It also showed that this team was able to come back as they were down 17-10 at that point.

The game started off better than anyone could have imagined with Brad Smith taking the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown and a quick 7-0 lead.

Despite some of Brian Schottenheimer’s questionable calls, the offense did do some things better against one of the better defenses in the league. What was most impressive was that the Jets were able to gain 106 yards on the ground against a defense that only allows 60 yards per game. So, the Ground and Pound, despite ugly at times, was working.

Sanchez had a decent game despite being on the road in cold and snowy conditions going 19 for 29 for 170 yards and no INTs for the first time in the past 19 games. He was helped out greatly by Braylon Edwards hauling in eight catches for 100 yards and made some key third down grabs. Santonio Holmes, in his return to Pittsburgh, also grabbed six catches and if it weren’t for a holding penalty, he should have had seven catches which would have put the Jets in a great position to go up two scores.
The Defense had its moments but one of the biggest was a Jason Taylor tackle in the end-zone for a safety. Revis had a good game despite his other hamstring acting up earlier in the week. However, we couldn’t stop this team on third down. There were way too many third and longs that we let them convert.

This was a true team effort especially coming off the week we had after two straight losses and then the “Trip Gate” incident. We are back. We need to ride this wave. 1986’s collapse is not happening. This victory squished that thought. This is the time where you need to go on a role. We faced adversity in the eye and didn’t disappoint this time. Let’s hope this is the first step in the right direction; a direction that ends in Dallas.