Let me say first, though, that it's a really nice stadium. We were towards the top, but at the 50 yard line, so we had a pretty nice view. Plus, that part of the stadium is covered, so it wasn't snowing on us. And I've been to enough cold weather games to know how to stay warm, so, comfort-wise, it wasn't bad at all.
Also, let me give some credit to Seattle fans. They are loud, and take a lot of pride in that goofy "12th Man" gimmick. They were loud even for this game, which stunk, and for their team, which has stunk all year.
Now, to this debacle of a game. Which is really the culmination of a four-game collapse (the Buffalo win only delayed the inevitable, and it was a gift from a dumb team.)
This is one of the worst chokes in recent New York sports history. Not quite as bad as the Mets the last two years or the Yankees blowing a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox in the ALCS (am I trying to make all the other authors of this blog have painful memories of their teams' collapses, so they can share in my misery? Yes, yes I am.) But to go from 8-3 and one game up in the division to 9-6 and needing a lot of help to even make the playoffs, it's still spectacularly bad.
I can't describe to you what it's like to watch a team that has its season on the line play that bad. The offense was atrocious. Favre wasn't good, and looked like the washed up 39 year old QB that he is. The receivers weren't good, either, barely ever getting open. The defense was pathetic. If you give up over 100 yards to Maurice freakin' Morris, you should be ashamed. If you can't sack Seneca Wallace playing behind a line made up ENTIRELY of backups, you should give back your game check.
But here's who was the worst: the coach, Eric Mangini.
The call to kick the FG on the first drive, instead of going for it on 4th and inches, set the tone for the game. Which is an emotionless, passionless, nutless tone.
However, at least that call is somewhat forgiveable. It's vaginal, but not illogical. The conventional wisdom in bad-weather games is take the points early.
The unforgiveable call, though, came late in the game. Somehow, the Jets got a delay of game penalty prior to kicking a 45-yard field goal. The penalty puts them back at about the 32 yard line. Instead of trying the kick again, or going for it, Mangini calls for a punt.
Not to get all Gregg Easterbrook on you, but you cannot punt the ball from inside your opponents 35 yard line and win games. You just don't win that way.
What the fuck is the point of that punt, especially that late in the game? Even if you pin them inside the 10, its only a difference of 20 or 30 yards. That doesn't mean dick.
Who cares if it's 4th and 12 at that point? If you go for it, you could get the first down. Or draw a penalty. Or even if you don't get it, you still give them the ball at their own 20 or 30. Same thing if you throw a pick or fumble.
Punting in that situation means you are a coward. That means you only care about how the loss looks, and not about winning the game.
Mangini was supposed to be a Belichick disciple. Well, Bill Belichick never, ever, ever punts from there. He either tries the FG or he goes for it. He says to his offense that he believes they can make it. He says to his defense that he believes that the extra 20 yards or so doesn't matter, because they can stop the other team either way.
This is the second week in a row that Mangini has made the call to punt relatively deep in their opponent's territory. He got away with it last week because Dick Jauron and JP Losman gave him a gift. Christmas didn't come twice.
Mangini's coaching decisions have been shaky all year. He tries to be too cute with the gameplanning and all that, and ends up outsmarting himself. He gets way too conservative in crunch time and in big games. And he has not shown that he can get a team to play reasonably consistent over a full season. This year, there weren't really any injuries or freak things that give him an excuse. The owner spent a lot of money to bring in the free agents at positions that he wanted. They have enough talent to be competitive in the AFC, as evidenced by the second New England game and the Tennessee game. They should have been able to get it done, but they did not. Plain and simple. When that happens, someone has to be held accountable.
So after watching this game, the following things have become clear:
1) They will not beat Miami next week. Which will doubly embarassing since Chad Pennington is going to be quietly gloating about it.
2) Brett Favre needs to retire. He is finished. He can't play in cold weather anymore, and he can't play well for a full season anymore. It's okay, he's 39. But it's time to wrap his HOF career up.
3) Mangini needs to go. And he can take Schottenheimer and Sutton with him. They have the stench of losing, failure, and weakness all over them. If those guys are the coaches next year, this team wins 4 games, max.
6 comments:
Dan
That was way more thoughful and way less emotional than I wanted this piece to be. I wanted fire and brimstone, reigning down sulfur if you will, but I understand your logical look at your team.
I didnt watch the whole game and didnt watch every minute of every Jets game this year but I agree Mangini thinks he is too fucking cute. This is a problem with football coach's all across the land. They try and outthink themselves instead of just fucking playing football. Sometimes it is amazing how clearly a fan can see what should be done and the coach has no idea. Mangini has to go for on that 4th and 12 in the furth quarter, there is no decision to make. You are out of FG range and punting accomplishes nothing, except like you said, admitting you are fucking pussy.
I know the Giants won the other night, but on a critical fourth down in the second half Kevin Gilbride pulled a Mangini and tried to outsmart himself by handing the ball to Madison Hedgecock who has ZERO carries in the last 2 seasons.
I agree about Favre and Mangini need to go. Even with Penningtons success he had done all he wasnt going to do with your franchise. The decision to get Favre was the right one even though it didnt work. It only cost you one season where you made a run at the big prize, it is not like he was taking away time from some young QB who you were grooming. You have some pieces in place on both offense and defense so a QB is n order and a coach who has a plan, a way to do things. I wouldnt panic and go throw the boat at Cowher or anything like that. I would take a long hard look at Steve Spagnuolo of the Giants, Raheem Morris of the Buccaneers, and Mike Heimerdinger of the Titans.
Here's the recor for Mangini.
First year - 10-6, playoff spot with a healthy quarterback
Second year - 4-12 with quarterback problems
Third year - 9-6 with an old but healthy quarterback who sometimes makes horrible decisions.
I'm not going to argue against either one of you because your minds are clearly set, but think about what you're saying and the reasons you're willing to fire someone who has clearly proven the bottom line - If you give a quality coach a healthy and/or quality quarterback, he will win games and put you in position to get into the playoffs.
I know the losses have been horrible and his calls can be questioned and he seems a bit smug and does dumb things, but Dan if I told you on August 15 that we'll fast forward to the last week of the season and you'll be 9-6 with an outside chance at the playoffs, would you have taken it?
Yes, they should have locked this division up a while ago. Yes, they should have won a game on the west coast and yes, those calls or lackthereof are quite pussy-like BUT we are talking about the Jets.
There are only two premier wins, one over an injured Pats team in overtime and one over the Titans. Besides that, one could argue (if they were playing the Devil's Advocate) that they played an easy schedule and beat up teams that aren't any good. That the AFC East is full of parity and that 9-6 is just about where the Jets should be at this point in the season when it's all said and done...
Anyone who thinks this is Dan or any other Jet fan reacting to a bad loss just hasn't been paying attention. We were calling for Mangina's job back in week 2 of this season when they barely escaped Miami (the pre-wildcat offense Miami) and didn't show up for the New England game. In fact I could show you texts exchanged from Dan and myself demanding that Mangini get fired at halftime of the Buffalo game when he decided to take a penalty instead of forcing Buffalo to kick a long fg. If it wasn't for Elam picking Edwards off I actually think he wouldn't of made it the entire season. The guy passes when he should run, he punts when he should go for it, he continues to have Brad Smith run routes when he is no more than a gimmick player out of the backfield and he refuses to make a halftime adjustment to counter the other teams tendencies (see third quarter stats...they're pathetic). I would love Cowher for this team as I can't remember the last time I saw a jets coach grab a player by the face mask and make him accountable for his actions. However, I also wouldn't mind any of the ones Kris mentioned nor would I mind Billick. The bottom line is they need to do something while a respectable coach is available rather than try again on another first timer that nobody has heard of...Think about it for a sec, the last two coaches have been guys that were on nobody elses radar. Herm Edwards has been proven to be nothing more than a good motivational speaker and Mangini had a few good gimmicks up his sleeve, but it wasn't going to take long for the league to catch up with him, and he refuses to make an adjustment. Quite frankly at this point I don't think the jets ownership has another option. If Mangini comes back next year and they flop how can the justify charging 25k for PSLs in the new stadium. They need to give the fans hope with a new regime and a respectable proven coach. This way even if they do flop next year under a new system at least they can say they're building for the future. If Mangini comes back next year and loses it's simply the end of the road and a rebuilding season in 2010.
Lets not forget about having 7 pro bowlers withour a playoff birth as well...pathetic
Fair point and as the Devil's Advocate for Magenius, I relent to your general position.
As to your other point: good coaches get teams to over achieve. Yes, 9-6 with an outside shot to make the playoffs isn't bad taking the long view.
However, this team showed that it had the talent to be 11-4 at this point with a playoff spot locked up.
Some of that is the players - Favre and Jenkins both faded badly down the stretch, among others.
The rest of that is the coaching. The questionable calls and unnecessarily complicated and counterintuitive game planning finally caught up to them, and cost them games they should have won based on talent, in particular the San Fran and Seattle games.
Kris is exactly right - all through the Seattle game every fan we saw and we knew said the same thing, "why don't they keep running the ball until Seattle stops them?"
They didn't. If every fan knows it, they can't all be wrong - Mangini can't be seeing something we're all not seeing.
If they beat Miami and sneak in the playoffs, they'll keep him.
If they beat Miami but miss the playoffs, I think they probably still keep him.
If they lose to Miami, Mangini is gone.
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