Football Jets

The 2009-2010 season was the greatest season in my life as a New York Jets fan.

I just want to say thank you to all of the players and coaches who have made this regular season captivating and the improbable playoff run riveting and unforgettable.

The future of the Jets looks bright, but before everyone starts talking about all the positives for next season, we should reflect on a few of the thrilling moments and lasting impressions with which the Jets players  thoroughly entertained us with this entire year. Their skill and passion for the game alongside the cockiness and bravado made being a Jets fan this year something truly special.

Big, Loud, and Proud Rex Ryan proclaiming confidence like the clear favorite in the face of unimaginable odds. And for proclaiming us dead when we actually had a faint heartbeat.

Mark Sanchez going through every phase of being a rookie while saving his best for when it mattered most.  Two playoff victories ties Joe Flacco for most ever by a rookie and his AFC Championship game performance was truly magnificent.

Being 23 minutes away from the Superbowl. Next year lets get some home playoff games – in our brand new stadium!!!

Revis Island. Single handedly making defense cool.

The entire defense. Witnessing that level of play week in and week out made me believe in stops and not just hope for them.

Running the football. Old School football is still relevant and Thomas Jones, Shonn Greene and Leon Washington were the best at it.

Braylon Edwards.  Braylon we new you were due for a big catch, but the 80 yard AFC Championship game touchdown reception from Mark Sanchez was even beyond our wildest imagination. We all witnessed the  longest offensive play in New York Jets playoff history.  That trade was awesome.

Jerricho Cotchery. Love the toughness, soft hands and intelligence you bring to the table.

Dustin Keller you are a huge part of our future, and  your three touchdowns during the playoffs makes you a top flight tight-end.

The Owner and General Manager for assembling an all star cast of players that appears to be primed for a good run in the near future.

The fans for chanting J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets loud, real loud. And to Fireman Ed for telling us when to do so.

I know I am proudly riding the  Green Wave on the new era Jets.

Thank You,

Robert, lifelong Jets fan

In a Playoff Win for the Ages

Jets Defeat Bengals.

The New York Jets, who were way outside looking into the playoffs just a few weeks ago have now become the NFL Cinderella.

Total Team Effort. Sanchise Delivered. Defense Delivered. Running Game, Special Teams and Coaches Delivered. Dustin Keller Played Great. How about that for playoff experience for Mark Sanchez.

This win needs to be celebrated.

Love Rex Ryan. Before the game, the New York Jets coach did an indirect Joe Namath type guarantee by passing out a practice/off day schedule to the entire team through February 9, 2010 – the day of the Superbowl Parade.

WOOHOO! Jets Nation we are now going to be playing meaningful December football games.

A month ago we were 4-6 and lamenting our bad luck as lifelong Jets fans all the while enduring being once again the butt of jokes from those not bleeding the green.

Guess who’s laughing now.

At 7-6 the Jets are in the playoff hunt. Wildcard and Division titles are within our sights, with only 3 games to play. The Dolphins join us at 7-6 and we are both only 1 game behind the 8-5 Patriots for the AFC East division. FYI the Dolphins would hold the tiebreaker over us if it came down to that.  The Wildcard is certainly wild after both the 7-6 Jaguars and 8-5 Broncos lost this week. The 7-6 Ravens big win put them in the wild mix as well. So 5 teams, four at 7-6 and one at 8-5, are fighting for two wildcard playoff spots.

Compared to the other four teams, the Jets have the biggest hill to climb because they pretty much don’t hold any tie breakers and have arguably the toughest schedule going forward. Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati is not going to be any kind of piece of cake.  The chance of winning all three is a daunting task, but the Jets momentum from their dominating 26-3 victory on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be helpful. On the bright side, Atlanta is reeling and have a back up quarterback, Indianapolis has clinched home field advantage and could be resting players (Peyton Manning) and the Bengals offense can be shut down.

The 26-3 win in Tampa was a mix of Kellen Clemens managing a game as Mark Sanchez’s replacement, Thomas Jones running wild and The NUMBER 1 DEFENSE in the NFL doing what The NUMBER 1 DEFENSE in the NFL do shutting down opponents. In fact, the admittedly pathetic Tampa Bay offense didn’t get their first first down until the third quarter, and even that was after a personal foul penalty against the Jets defense.

OK, I hope I am not getting my hopes up to high, but I like our chances. The best defense in the league and a running game, that definitely spells possibilities. Let’s take this one game at a time.

Go Jets.

New York Jets Darrelle Revis Interception Return for Touchdown Against the Carolina Panthers

The first of four interceptions hauled in by the Jets suffocating defense against Jake Delhomme was a lucky bounce, and that is probably the understatement of the year. On 3rd down during the Carolina Panthers opening drive the pass hit Steve Smith in the calf and deflected right into Darrelle Revis open arms. A pick six put the Jets on the board and set the tone for the football game.

Mark Sanchez played better by not turning the ball over and the offense wasn’t flashy but was efficient enough to let the defense dictate the game. Revis would add another interception and Kerry Rhodes finally stepped up by intercepting two passes of his own.

On Thursday the Jets travel north to play the Buffalo Bills who are coming off a win against Miami. The Jets are now 5-6 so their playoff hopes are based on the slim shot of winning all of their remaining games to finish 10-6.

We have to keep telling ourselves Mark Sanchez is just a rookie.

The problem is we were so caught up in the USC quarterback hype, the out of the gate 3 game win streak and the Sanchise that we seemed to have forgotten that Mark was just a rookie. Sanchez started just one season at USC. Basically he lacks experience and his learning on the job is giving him the experience he needs.

But wow, after that third game the defense and the running game made all of Jets Nation think that maybe, just maybe the stars were aligned and the Jets were going to do something special this season. Amazing things happen in sports all the time, and it just seemed like this was the Jets time.

At 4-6 and with Mark throwing 4 more interceptions against the New England Patriots this is obvious not the Jets time.

The New York Jets have to win football games. On Sunday they again found themselves playing catch-up and lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-22 at home. This difficult loss to swallow against a very average NFL team puts the Jets record at 4-5 and really diminishes any playoff aspirations for the team.

With only four wins and seven games remaining, the Jets will likely need to go what is seeminly improbable 6-1 the rest of the way to get to 10 wins which possibly would be enough to make the playoffs as a wild card. This game on Sunday was tough, as Quarterback Mark Sanchez orchestrated a go ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter to take the lead. The defense, which started the game very slow but was starting to produce results in the second half were unable to stop the Jaguars on their final drive. Big play after big play the Jaguars marched down the field. At the end was a Maurice Jones-Drew rush that looked like an easy touchdown run but he intelligently and unselfishly took a knee at the one yard line. By doing so, the Jaguars were able to drain the last couple minutes of the clock before kicking the chip shot go-ahead field goal as time expired. The brilliant heads up play prevented Sanchez from getting another opportunity.

This loss hurts and without going into details about how the Jets squandered opportunities within the game to get a must needed win Football Jets wants to cry.

But that is too late as Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan has already been crying about the game and the team. In front of the entire team during the morning meeting following this loss Rex Ryan had an emotional moment that brought him to tears. Ryan thinks the Jets are much better than their 4-5 record and the 5 losses over the last 6 games against mostly very average  opponents. Ryan will need to save any hope for the playoffs by going to New England and facing Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and a fan base which is still spinning from the Sunday night meltdown by the coach and team against the undefeated Indianapolis Colts. The decision to go for it on their own 28, up by 6 points and with just a couple of minutes remaining was hugely controversial and in my honest opinion borderline idiotic.

Revenge game against Oakland. Remember last year,

Well This Year it was different.

Most striking here is how dysfunctional the Oakland Raiders have become that their own fans don’t support the team. The only television black out in the NFL this week was Oakland verse New York. Over 20,000 fans less this year. Oakland’s owner gets a beating in the media, but recently has looked good with the circus the owner in Washington has created.

btw, why are we not flex scheduling Monday Night Football already. The Monday nights up till now have been great but this weeks matchup of Washington and Philadelphia was not a great idea.

Anyway,

Shonn Greene ran wild as the replacement for the injured Leon Washington. Two touchdown runs and way over a 100 yards. The Jets are now ranked as the number 1 rushing team in the NFL. We need to run it down Miami’s throat next week.

Mark Sanchez had a good game rushing for a touchdown. Seems he read FootballJets.com after the Miami debacle as we mentioned he should use his feet more.  A rushing touchdown is as good as a throwing touchdown Mark, if the defense is giving it to you then just walk it in. Sanchez also threw for a touchdown to David Clowney, a 35 yard pass that was David Clowney’s first NFL touchdown something not updated in Wikipedia.

The real story was the defense.

It took only a few minutes and the Jets defense had intercepted Oakland Raiders quarterback Jamarcus Russell twice setting up two easy touchdowns. 4 turnovers on the day for Oakland kept the Jets on the field and the few fans at the game taking off the silver face plant during halftime.

Monday Night Football

Miami Dolphins 31 New York Jets 27 in an instant classic in the Miami verse New York rivalry.

This football game was a Monday Night masterpiece with back and forth lead changes in the fourth quarter with both vertical passing and a variety of running plays by both teams.

In the end, the Dolphins used the so called wildcat formation to run in on third and goal to take the lead with just 6 seconds remaining in the game. Several key third down conversions on that drive and during the entire game kept the Dolphins wildcat on the field all game long.

Chad Henne Looked Brilliant

Chad Henne has been a starter for two weeks and we made him look like Joe Montana. 20-26 for 241 yards and two touchdowns.

Jets Defense

The Jets defense looked bad, Like on your heels bad. Like negative 1 fantasy points bad. All game it felt like we needed one stop, and that stop never came. I hardly remember any great defensive plays all game, except possibly Kris Jenkins up the middle rush to break up a play in the backfield and Kerry Rhodes goal line stop on 2nd down during the Dolphins game winning drive.

This defense is so good but where are the interceptions, fumbles and sacks?

Braylon Edwards

Braylon Edwards is a beast and probably one of the best in season additions for any team in recent memory. Edwards showed great hands during several clutch receptions. Most impressive was Edwards ability to get vertical to make a catch and his hand strength in holding onto some balls he had to fight for against the defensive backs of Miami. If the Jets had won this game all the attention would have been about the positive impact of Braylon Edwards and the immediate confidence Mark Sanchez showed in him.

Mark Sanchez

Mark Sanchez made some throws that were so precise and well timed that Jets fans have to feel blessed that we have such a young talent. Against the Dolphins, Sanchez may not have put up gaudy numbers, but his opportunities were limited due to the emphasis on the running game by both teams eating up the clock. Though when he did drop back to pass his accuracy was very good including a couple of deep throws. Mark Sanchez also showed his cool in the fourth quarter leading two touchdown scoring drives and at the end of the half leading to a go-ahead field goal. Mark Sanchez did enough to win this game with everyone on the offense contributing. If you only were to watch the offense you would have thought the Jets won by a comfortable margin because you would expect the one of the NFL’s best defenses to have held the Dolphins very average offense to at most a few scores.

New York Jets at New Orleans Saints. Great Defense vs. Great Offense. Game On.

This is the matchup Football Jets predicted before the season began. For the Superbowl.

That is right. New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets game this Sunday could be the preview to the Superbowl. With the Jets offense improving each week and the Jets defense solidifying itself as one of the NFL’s premier defenses the team looks to be a serious contender. The New Orleans Saints potent passing attack led by likely MVP Drew Brees can beat any team on any day so their chances in the playoffs are good.

This has to be the game of the week.

The defense looked OK for the first  three quarters. But when the thousands of Jets faithful needed the defense to rise to the occasion in the fourth quarter the Jets defense obliged by shutting down the Titans. Lineback David Harris had a sack and an interception during the fourth quarter to lead one of the NFL’s best defenses.

Head Coach Rex Ryan is 3-0 and sitting alone on top of the AFC east division. ”I’d like to say that this is exactly what I predicted, but we played three outstanding football teams”. The coach has a swagger about him that the players seem to be following. Some claim Rex Ryan has a big mouth, but when you can back it up with wins then it is easy to be confident. ”We’re 3-0 right here. Maybe that says something about us.”

Jerricho Cotchery caught both touchdown passes from Mark Sanchez and is quickly becoming his favorite target. The fourth quarter touchdown put the Jets in the lead for good giving the Jets their first come from behind victory of the season.