You've got to add yesterday's heartbreaking loss to a long list of head scratching losses the Jets have had this year including both Dolphins losses, the Jaguars loss, and the Bills loss. Now, take this Atlanta loss that's 5 loses that ONLY the Jets would ever lose.
"Same Old Jets", "Ghost Of Jets Past", are phrases that have been circulating the newspapers. How about this phrase, "Jets Suck !"
I don't even know where to begin. We had won three games in a row and were home with Mark Sanchez back at quarterback against a dome team that hasn't won an outside cold December road game since 1982. I was freakin' 12 years old the last time they won a game like this. And guess what? We lose.
We had things going in our favor with the Jaguars losing on Thursday night. Miami was also losing on the scoreboard (and wound up losing) and the Broncos eventually lost so we would have been sitting pretty if we figured out to score a few field goals that we botched.
One field goal was a snap misheld by Kellen Clemens and he had to run with the ball for no gain. Another was a high snap that Clemens got down but that screwed up the kick and kick and it got blocked. And there was one were Feely just missed it wide right. Three opportunities blown costing the Jets a potential 9 points.
The defense played great all game until that last drive where they couldn't stop the Falcons like they did all day. It was 4th down and 6 with under a minute and 40 seconds to go. The announcers even said that the ball was going to Tony Gonzalez. Matt Ryan went back to pass and there was a wide open Tony Gonzalez in the endzone for the go-ahead score. How could the announcers know where the ball was going but not the Jets. How could be play brilliant defense all day long but on the last and most important drive of the game, we let them score a touchdown. I was disgusted. All hopes of a playoff run just went down the toilet. The game against the undefeated Colts next week would have been a huge game. Now, does it really matter? Yeah, there is still a slight hope left but this was a game we should have won and needed to win and let it slip away like we've done so many times this season. And this hurts worse as it's late in the season and other teams were helping us out. The Jets defense held the Falcons to just 165 total yards until that last drive. Come on...a game is 60 minutes; not 57 minutes !
Another nauseating part of the game was 4th and goal from the 1 where we went for a field goal instead of going for it with a 7-3 lead and Kellen Clemens dropped the snap and had to try and run for no gain. Result...Jets walk away with ZERO points from the 1 yard line.
The Jets offense was horrific all day. Sanchez (18 of 32 for 226) was his usual self showing glimmers of brilliance like the 60+ yard TD to Braylon Edwards or the shovel pass to Woodhead for a first down but the usual self in Sanchez also throw 3 interceptions. If you throw to the ball to the other team so many times, you are not going to win that many games. The running game was terrible as we couldn't get more than 2 yards a carry. And we had WAY too many penalties. One of the worst was Alan Fanaca's roughness penalty on our final drive putting us back 15 yards with :1:38 left in the game. You need to be smart when down and 15 yards is HUGE when you just need a FG to tie up the game. Another BAD one was Thomas Jones getting flagged for 15 yards when we should have had the ball on the 19 yard line with a first down. At worst, you get a field goal attempt but instead, we were forced to punt. Why be so stupid Thomas. And on the final drive, Donald Strickland got caught with a facemask which was minor but under league rules, it was still a 15 yard penalty putting them in striking distance to the endzone.
I'm just sick over the losses this season. Again, we BLEW 5 games at the end. We are still a flawed team but if we didn't blow just one of the 5, we'd have a great shot of making the playoffs. If we didn't blow 2 of the 5, we'd be in the drivers' seat for the Wild Card. And if we were a WINNING organization, we wouldn't have blown any of them and would be looking the AFC East with a first round bye ! But, these are the Jets and don't do anything right despite the regime running the team.
NOTES:
1.) "The Sanchise," surpassing Joe Namath and setting franchise rookie records for completions (176) and passing yards (2,275).
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