With the way things are going in Jets Nation, you’d think the team were still star struck.
The Jets have been one of the bigger stories of the off-season. The stature of playing in the Big Apple doesn’t hurt to generate press, but there’s been more then that. Like a summer blockbuster marketing campaign, the Jets seem to be everyone at once in the media. From being the feature of a HBO television show “Hard Knocks”, to quarterback Mark Sanchez banking last years performance to advertise on almost everything within the five boroughs and beyond, to having fans almost in a frenzy over last year’s playoff run, where they win their first playoff game since 2004. For this off-season at least, you would think that the Jets were the toast of New York.
Joe Flacco showed up his more famous foe pretty decently
But as the early pre-season reviews came in, some rumblings that this potential blockbuster wasn’t looking as much like Titanic and more like Waterworld. The pre-season started by bringing murmurs that things may not be exactly up to what fans and some pundits felt they should be for the Jets. Sanchez looked lost and confused when leading the offense, and the defense was missing one of its bigger stars in contract holdout Darrelle Revis. And while their expressive coach was blasting out drunken-sailor inspirited one liners such as this,
“We know we’re better than you, we don’t give a [expletive] if you know it or not. We don’t give a [expletive] if you give us your best game, were going to give you our best game and were going to beat the [expletive] out of you.”
their four games leading up to the season opener was looking to disprove that bold statement of their star power. While they finished with an even record in four games, they only faced one team that could really be considered having a decent amount of top-tier talent, which they lost too badly. Their three other matches aren’t exactly confidence boosters either. The second game was against an anemic Panthers squad in where both teams had a hard time finding points. The third was against a Washington team that had Sanchez on the field…..and not only blew the lead they had, but had Rex Grossman taking most of the snaps. The same Rex Grossman that wasn’t good enough to QB for the chronically QB deficient Chicago Bears. And the last game, where they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, had what looked to be a match-up of backups on the field, or at least that would give one reason why their third-string quarterback Mike Kafka was taking most of the snaps. To give him credit, Ryan acknowledged that the team needed to get their heads out of the clouds (or other spots that are atomically impossible to place them), and get serious about the game in a way that only he can provide,
“You can be a world champion, but not like this,” he said. “We won’t win it. We’ll sit back and say, ‘Why didn’t we do it?’ We didn’t do it because where was our [expletive] priorities?” – *
Inspirational words indeed.
And with that the Jets went into Week One with lots of hype and shaky substance, a team that seemed to be in need of some focus to their actions. So after getting an earful of uncensored pep-talks, do you think they got the message?
Not a chance.
In their season premier, they flopped so bad that their fans were leaving in droves by the fourth quarter. Normally you’d excuse fans leaving like that if the Ravens were just piling on the points, but the score was 10-9 at the time. Yes you read correctly, fans felt so strongly that the Jets could come back that they were giving up on the team when they were behind by one point and were in possession. Once you look at the game stats though, I wouldn’t blame them one bit. The Jets came in with bluster and hype and left with their opponents practically laughing at them chocking on their words, and with good reason. Once again the lack of discipline and focus of this team was amazingly apparent, with the Jets getting fourteen penalties for almost as many yards as they gained all day. Give any team that much of an advantage, even one with as anemic of an offense as the Ravens, and you lose; Period. Add to the stench of hype gone bad is the tabloid-esque charges of sexual harassment that is being levied against the organization after the game by TV Azteca’s Ines Sainz, for allegedly having catcalls made at her while interviewing Mark Sanchez in the Jets locker room.
Sounds like players that are still believing their own hype, no?
Until I did this story, I thought it was "Let a fan interview a NFL player day" in this photo.
So what do the Jets do to get this building disaster back on the rails? Well the easy Rex Ryan’esque explanation would be to win next week, which considering that they’re playing New England; a team with actual stars on both sides of the ball and are considered one of the best teams in the league, that’s probably a long-shot on par with winning the local bingo. What this team needs is to be dragged out of the glitter of the cloud of hype that they seem to be encased in, and be snapped back into reality, preferably by a leader that exudes respect and responsibility. For a football team, that task usually falls on the shoulders of the head coach, which for this team means that they need to have Ryan not sound like a twelve year old kid trying to use his new swear word in every sentence, and maybe ditch the Bill Belichick workout suit look. I’m not saying head back to the Tom Landry style of coaching attire (although I’m certain that fedora was a gift from the Gods), but maybe Tony Dungy? He looked professional, mostly kept his mouth shut unless he had something useful to say, and didn’t need to keep the censors on standby. At least until he wins a Super Bowl or two. After that, I’m sure he could be himself again.
After all, everyone tolerates a persons faults a lot better when they win. Be it with sports or with movies.
* – Editors aside: I swear this guy is like a football Ozzie Guillen with his quotes. They’d be entertaining just on their own, and apparently quite a few folks agree if you believe twitter numbers.
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The owner of the Sports Blog Network, Chris tells it exactly as he sees it, be it in the stands, in front of the tv, or on his semi-trusty laptop. And always with a can of trusty Dr. Pepper by his side, and spell-check working overtime. 
With Revis adding to the pile of stupidity, I’m starting to wonder if this team is much like the reality tv show they filmed earlier; too little talent and too much drama.
May I vent for a second? And I vent as a fan of football, not as a Patriots fan.
The Jets are digging their own grave. During the offseason, they were the Lebron James of the NFL. They were featured one way or another everyday on ESPN and they had the front cover of every major sports publication.
The Jets are not THAT good. The defense was stellar last year, but does it really get better by adding Antonio Cromartie? Absolutely not. All Cromartie has proved is that he’s a premier athlete, he has not proven that he is a premier cover corner. What made the Jets defense so good last year, was the aggressive Rex Ryan blitzing scheme and teams have had 7 months to game plan and figure it out.
Additionally, they let a 1,400 yard rusher go in Thomas Jones. In no shape or form does losing that production help a team, especially with an inexperienced guy like Sanchez under center.
In the offseason, they lost the surprise of the blitzing scheme, and a 1,400 yard rusher, but they’re already calling themselves world champs. They’re just setting themselves and their fans up for disappointment IMHO.
I can agree with this assessment. It seems that a bit of success has gone right to their head. I’m hoping I was able to convey that in this article.