Here Come The Warm Jets: Week 3 2008

Let's not spend too much time on this full-team giant turd of a game.

There wasn't much positive to take out of this, except maybe the run defense early on when it still kind of mattered, and that Leon Washington is still a good kick returner.

The worst thing that happened? Letting the Chargers score on that first drive of the third quarter. The entire defense should be embarrassed, because they got punked as a unit on that drive.

The bottom line is that the team made far too many mistakes, mostly early turnovers. This team isn't good enough to overcome that many mistakes.

And, we better hope Kris Jenkins isn't hurt too bad, because apparently the defense is awful without him.


That all said, this game shouldn't provoke an over-reaction. Sure, it's a game that a contending team should win, playing a team like the Chargers that have been struggling on defense and with half their offensive weapons hurt. But, then again, the Chargers are a very good team, playing at home, with pretty much their season on the line, on national TV. The odds are that they would play a good game.

Plus, if we looked at the schedule before the year started, well, the Jets were supposed to be 1-2 at this point. Losing to the Patriots and at the Chargers isn't the worst thing that ever happened, especially early in the year when the team is still figuring things out.

If they lose to Arizona next week? At home? Then the season is lost.

If they win, like they're supposed to? Then they're 2-2 going into the bye, with a wide open AFC, and playing Cincinnati, at Oakland, Kansas City, at Buffalo, and St. Louis in the next five. They could very well be 6-3 after that.

That all depends, of course, on the entire team playing a fuck of a lot better than they did tonight. Because the team that played in San Diego tonight doesn't win any games the rest of the year.

But since it's still warm out, I'm not ready to believe that the team we saw tonight is the true reflection of what this team can be. I hope I'm not wrong to retain that sliver of optimism.