It's that time of year again

Another birthday, another big Jets playoff game.

Last night I wrote an email to EZ to respond to some of his Jets-related replies to my "My Excuse" blog post.  The email got pretty long, and considering the time I spent on it, I figured that I might as well save all those thoughts in a blog post.  I know that at least one other football fan ( a Jets Fan ) reads this blog, so I might as well take a few minutes to cut-n-paste my Jets thoughts into this post.  Anyway, what follows between the two lines of "#############################################" is  the Jets section of my email to EZ.

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Now, on to the Jets ...

You wrote ...

"P.S.: Last year, nobody thought they had any business being in the playoffs... this year they are closer to belonging there. Maybe they will pick things up in the postseason, again...?"

Actually, I had more confidence going into the playoffs last year than this year.  While the Jets were a 9-7 team last year ( with 2 gift wins in their last 2 games ) and a 11-5 team this year, I actually thought the 9-7 teams was a stronger team.  It will take a while to explain this, but here's why ...

Yes, everybody said the Jets were a 7-7 team that got handed 2 wins by the Colts and Bengals at the end of the year, but consider ...

1) While the Jets would have lost to the Colts if the Colts had been trying, there was no doubt in my mind that the 2009 Jets could beat the 2009 Bengals 100% of the time in the Meadowlands whether the Bengals were trying or not ( The Jets pretty much proved that 1 week after their final regular season game by beating the Bengals by 10 in the playoff game at Cincinnati.).  So, that makes the 9-7 2009 Jets, a theoretical 8-8 team.

2) However, the Jets also played 4 games that year that could have easily gone one way or the other based on a lucky break or two ( 2 really close games against Miami in which the games came down to a 1st and goal situation at the end; a game against Atlanta that came down to a 4th and goal play at the end of the game; an overtime game against Buffalo in which a Jets run in OT that would have put them in easy field goal range was negated by a questionable holding penalty that had no impact on the play ).  The Jets lost all 4 of those games.  If the Jets played games like that 400 times they would have gone about 200 - 200 in those games.  So, if you take the luck factor out of the equation, the Jets should have won 2 of those 4 games.  When the 2009 season ended, I was convinced the Jets had the ability of a solid 10-6 team rather than a team that would have been 7-9 if they had faced real competition the last two weeks of the season

On the other hand, consider these 4 games played by the 2010 Jets:

Oct 17th at Denver:

The Jets are losing by 3 with a little more than a minute left in the game and are facing 4th and 6 from the Broncos 48.  Sanchez drops back, and uncorks a bomb more than 50 years in the air towards Santonio Holmes near the goal line.  Let me tell you, when that ball got airborne, every Jets fan had the same reaction Jets fans had last week when Sanchez threw a bomb to Braylon Edwards on a 3rd and 5 when the Jets were trying to run out the clock against the Colts

WFT are they doing!!!

That's such a low percentage pass!!!

JUST GET THE FUCKIN' FIRST DOWN!!!!!

GOD, I HATE BEING A JETS FAN!

GOD, I HATE MY LIFE!

( Well, Maybe not everybody had those exact thought, but you get the idea. )

So, this game was pretty much lost, until the Jets got a ridiculous amount of luck.  Specifically ...

1) Sanchez underthrows the ball.

2) Santonio Holmes see the ball has been underthrown, stops short, turns around, and subsequently loses his balance and falls on his butt.

3) The defender stops short, turns around, loses his balance, and instinctively flails one of his arms backward to try to keep from falling down.

4) That hand on the flailing arm hits Santonio Holmes on his facemask and gets caught in it.  The defender is called for pass interference.  The only reason the Jets get the call from the official ( and it was the right call ) is that the hand caught the facemask.  The only reason the hand caught the facemask was that Santonio had already fallen on his butt!

The Jets were RIDICULOUSLY lucky here.  On the next play they score the touchdown that wims the game.

November 7th at Detroit:

With about 4 minutes left in the game the Jets get the ball down by 10 points.  I'm pretty sure they had already blown at least 1 timeout earlier in half.  Somehow, they manage to score 10 points in the last 4 minutes without having to attempt an onside kick.  This was only achieved due to some incredibly poor clock management by the Lions when they had the ball.  The game goes to OT and the Jets win.

November 14th at Cleveland:

About 5 minutes into OT, a Cleveland receiver catches a pass an runs into field goal range. Just as I'm about to scream about what an awful loss this would be ( Cleveland scored a TD late in regulation to tie the game ), the receiver fumbles.  He's really close to the sideline, but somehow the ball stays in bounds and the Jets recover the ball.

  Later Sanchez throws and interception with about 90 seconds left in the same.  I'm just hoping for a tie at this point, but somehow the Jets get the ball back ( AWFUL playcalling by the Browns ) and score a touchdown with seconds left to win the game.

November 21st vs. Houston

The Texan's kick a field goal to go up 27-23.  This happens one play after they fail on a 3rd down conversion that would have clinched the game.  There are 55 seconds left in the game and the Jets have NO timeouts.  This was shaping up the be the worst loss of the year, becasue the Jets were ahead 23-7 going into the 4th quarter.  Somehow Sanchez drives them down the field to win the game on a touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes.  I scream so load at this point that I literally make a few kids cry ( A bunch of Ruth's college friends and their kids were at the house that day ).

If the Jets had played 400 games like the ones above, I think they'd be real fortunate to win 100 of them.  However, I'll be real generous and give the Jets credit for 1 out of those 4 wins.  Thus, I think the 11-5 Jets are really more like an 8-8 team.

If you are still not convinced that the 2009 Jets were a better team than the 2010 Jets consider the following stat.  In 2009, the Jets defense gave up only 8 touchdown passed all year.  Think about how incredible that is for a moment.  If a quarterback throws only 8 TD passed over 16 games he'd be out of a job.  The 2009 Jets made QBs look like guys who did not even belong in the league.  In 2009, they played against Tom Brady twice, Drew Brees once, as well Peyton Manning for about 2.5 quarters.

The 2010 Jets gave up 24 touchdown passes.  That's not awful, but it can't compare to the defense of the 2009 Jets.

Anyway, before I seem too much like a Gloomy Gus, here are a few more stats.

Career records on the road in the playoffs ( I'm not counting the Superbowl as a road game )

Peyton Manning: 2-5

Tom Brady: 3-2

Mark Sanchez: 3-1

Now, I'm not trying to suggest the Sanchez is better than Brady or Manning.  I'm simply pointing out ( as Drew Brees learned last week ) that winning on the road in the playoffs is a hard thing to do, and Sanchez has been able to do it.  That bodes well for the future. 

Also, I think it's kinda interesting that Eli Manning had more road playoff victories in one season ( 3 in 2007 ) than his big brother has had in his whole career.  As a big brother, I'm a little bit insulted.  Time to step it up, Peyton!

It's also worth nothing the Jets victory over the Colts last week marked the first time the Jets franchise has ever won playoff games in consecutive years.  It also made Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan the Jets all time leaders in playoff wins with 3 ( Yes, even counting Superbowl III, Namath only won 2 playoff games in his career.).  I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that stat.

In any case, it should be Sunday, though as usual, I'm not really expecting much.

However, for the first time in my life, I do believe the the Jets have a coach/QB combo that WILL ( evenatually ) take us to the Promised Land.

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BTW, as I gear up for the big game tomorrow, I find myself playing the following video quite a bit ( I was playing it throughout last week's win against the Colts ):



Also, just for the sake of balance ( and humor ) I've decided to also include the following Tom Brady video in this post.  I think I've mentioned it before, but the video below inspired me to get my MoLewis57 YouTube account.



Rich