Nothing is ever easy for the New York Jets. No Larry Johnson, a 3rd string quarterback leaving just 2 weapons on offense (Tony G and Dwayne Bowe) and Kansas City was minutes away from an upset. No Johnny Drama “Victory” speech can lighten my expectations for the rest of the Jets season.The Jets knew the roller-coaster they were going to be riding when they traded for Favre. Ok, so he brings excitement and a totally different exciting style of play but is it really worth it? His red-zone turnovers in his first 8 games as a Jet are more than Pennington has had in his whole career, that’s a scary statistic. And I love how the commentators and experts use Favre's career accomplishments as an excuse for this. There are no excuses for a quarterback making as many bad decisions as Favre has done this season.
For 2 straight weeks the Jets have worked on airing the ball out and establishing a passing game. Only problem is that it’s not working very well. Both the Raiders and the Chiefs are near the last in the league against defending the run; yet Schottenheimer/Mangini and company decide that the gameplan should be to avoid the run and throw the ball more. Even Herman Edwards himself was surprised by the Jets decision to throw the ball early and consistently and avoid the run. Sure, it’s good to fool the opposing coaching staff and make them reevaluate their strategies but not if your gameplan is effective (and it hasn’t).
What do Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Cassell, Jamarcus Russell, and Tyler Thigpen all have in common? They all looked good against the Jets defense. What's with New York D giving confidence to these young inexperienced QB's? I'm not even sure what the answer is. With the exception of Kurt Warner, Favre has been outperformed by every QB he's played against this season. Mangini doesn't seem to have an answer to stop the dink and dunk passing plays. Tyler Thigpen in his second career start looked like a probowl quarterback, effectively moving the ball down the field and putting the ball where it needed to be. By the 3rd quarter it was like the Jets defense just gave up and stopped trying. Sure, I guess I would get impatient too if my $12 million 40yr old hall-of-fame quarterback kept turning the ball over more than a white NBA point guard.
A win is a win, right? As a Jet fan I'm still worried about this team. Their lackluster performance against one of the worst teams in the league is not a great confidence boost. Especially considering they are going to Buffalo to play against the first place Bills. This is quite possibly their biggest game so far this season. A win on the road against a division opponent would be a huge lift to team morale. All they have to do now is find themselves a kicker and a quarterback who knows what team he is playing for when throwing the football.
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My issue with the Jets having watched the first and last drive of the game: on the first TD pass to Leon Washington, all the credit in the world was given to Brett Favre, even though the 30 yard td pass involved a screen and then a damn good 26 yard run. The next 5 minutes were spent dissecting the Brett Favre screen throw, and not the Washington run-after-the-catch like it was a stolen base in the World Series.
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