Dec 29, 2008

9-7 and not looking forward to Groundhog's Day

I didn't even look at my past Jets/Favre entries before I sat down to write this, because I don't want to say "I said so" or even touch on predictions, forecasts, or opinions. The 2008 NFL season brought a lot of good and a lot of bad for the Jets. At the end of the year you have to look at your status and determine whether the season was a success or a failure, and I think the Jets are somewhere near the border of the two.

Ultimately the Jets were a failure. They peaked just over halfway through the season when they beat Tennessee, and then just spiraled down immediately after. Yes, they finished the season 9-7, which on paper looks a whole lot better than 4-12. But they didn't make the playoffs, and not only did they not make the playoffs, but they collapsed in the clutch, all in games that they SHOULD HAVE WON! Entering each game after the Titans win, the Jets had a better or equal record to their opponents, and with seven "pro-bowlers" on their team, there's no excuse to lose the games that they lost.

And this is is absolutely not because they lost to Miami at home to end the season. To Chad Pennington and a team that went 1-15 just a season ago. Good for Chad, I'm glad he found so much success with another team, even if that team is a division rival. The fact of the matter is, the Jets let Chad go because they felt they were at a better advantage with Brett Favre at the helm, and they weren't wrong. Clearly Chad Pennington is a proven winner in the NFL, and a great leader, but he'd been given a very fair chance and he never led the Jets to where the team wanted to go. Favre's more of a homerun hitter, and even if the guy's older than Joe Paterno he still presented the Jets and their overthetop conservative offense with an excitement they hadn't seen since....maybe even ever.

Thomas Jones had the best season a Jets running back ever had. Leon Washington and Jerricho Cotchery looked great with Brett setting them up for big plays. Not to base my story on one game, but the Jets came in and scored at will against a tough Tennessee defense, one of if not the top defense in the NFL this past season. Not since Vinny, Curtis, and Keyshawn had the Jets had such offensive prominence.

And the defense looked good for a while too. The Jets had never held so many teams to below 50 rushing yards in a game. I also can't remember a Jets pass rush getting to the quarterback so many times in a season. Although the secondary looked the weakest it's looked in recent memory, they stopped guys like Kurt Warner and Kerry Collins (hey, the guy had a pretty good year) from dominating games.

But as i mentioned earlier, they hit their peak far too early. I was expecting the loss to the Broncos only because they had to lose sooner or later, and the Broncos have dangerous offense with Jay Cutler and big, fast receivers. Tennessee was a game I thought the Jets could win because they're a very solid, fundamentally-sound football team, but they don't have any gamebreakers. I know I just vied for him but realistically Kerry Collins won't single-handedly win any games, and neither will his receiving core of Justin Gage and HA Justin McCareins. But an offense with guys like Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and Eddie Royal, these are guys who can burn you, and the Broncos absolutely burned the Jets and exposed their weaknesses.

After the loss to the Broncos every team the Jets played against threw all over them (minus J.P. insert your awful QB joke here Losman). Ike Bruce had a field day against the Jets, Seneca Wallace too. The Jets defense couldn't make a stop, and on offense the play calling was just miserable. That sad excuse for a "wildcat" against the Dolphins? Really? The team that's made a killing running that play, you're going to try to run with Brad Smith and Favre and company? What a joke! And how does Leon Washington only get 2 carries in Seattle? Washington proved to be the teams offensive MVP on multiple occasions this season, so why doesn't Mangini use him to his benefit? The ageless Favre looked old as dust, not to mention horrible over that four game losing streak, but it didn't help him that his wide-outs were giving up on routes and dropping some key balls.

I can only speak for myself, but i didn't think the Jets stood a chance against the Dolphins, and I have a hard time believing any real Jets fans could disagree with me. Football is absolutely a game of who wants it more, and the Jets have definitely not looked like a team that wanted to win over the last quarter of the season. Football fans new Peyton Manning was going to get his team into the playoffs, they knew Ray Lewis wouldn't allow his team to lose a must-win game, and they knew the Chargers were going to complete their push and take what was rightfully theirs from a team that was ready to claim their division by default. And that's what the Jets were hoping they could do, or at least they were playing that way.

Judging by the way they played, the Jets looked like a team that buyed into what the media was selling, the whole "Subway SuperBowl" jargon. They played like a team who thought that a Brady-less Patriots team was dead, and that the Dolphins were a flash in the pan. Well newsflash Jets nation: you may have beaten the Patriot in Overtime in New England, and you may have stopped the Titans from going undefeated, but the NFL season is over and what do you have to show for it? Nine wins and no playoffs. Oh yeah, and the quarterback who you changed everything for is probably going to retire, after trashing the coach.

What's the solution for the Jets? Is it firing Mangini? Is it firing the majority of the coaching staff but keeping Mangini? Or do you give the whole Mangini team the axe and start new? I'm not going to get into possibilities yet, because there are tons of them. I just know that there's going to be a change and there needs to be a change. If not, you're looking at Kellen Clemmens and the 2007 offense, yeah, the team that went 4-12.

Although it was a ultimately a lost season, the Jets did make strides. They made key acquisitions in the offseason to field a better team, and even withholding Favre, the Jets were a better team all-around in 2008. I'm very unhappy with the way the season ended, and it's going to be hard to look back at this season and feel good about it, but realistically, this team gave Jets' fans something to be excited about.

The Jets weren't the only ones buying the SuperBowl talk. It felt great to dream about our team being elite, and the dream didn't seem too far from a reality. One thing that football fans have learned over the past 15 years, is that with Brett Favre there's always a shot, but one thing football fans have learned as well, is that too old is too old. Favre was too old, and the coaching was too bad, and as a result the Jets are the same place they were at the end of 2007. Watching the playoffs on tv, and looking forward to next year.