As great a story as they were, I’m not surprised the Jets went down. But I am surprised they went down the way they did! With that swagger-licious Dee, unable to get off the field when it absolutely had to! You figure they might lose because the stage got too big for rookie Mark Sanchez. Or maybe Braylon Edwards would drop one at the worst possible time. But that didn’t happen. Sanchez played lights out and Edwards caught a 80 yard T.D. pass. If that guy makes a play like that, you can’t help but think, it’s their day…they’re going to win! At least, they better win when they get a play like that from Edwards. But it didn’t happen, because they couldn’t do the two things that got them there: get off the field defensively and run the ball.
I said it right here Friday. If you want to beat “18”, you have to hit “18”. But, I meant for 4 quarters, not two series. Those early sacks were “head-knocker’s fools gold”. Peyton Manning may have looked rattled early on, but it was only a matter of time before he figured out what the Jets were doing. All it took was a few print outs on the sideline and a pow-wow or two with Tom Moore. And next thing you know he’s going right down the field before the end of the first half. Never had a four point lead, on the road, going into half time, felt shakier! That was the game right there.
Oh, and so was Shonn Greene going out in the third quarter with that rib injury. The Jets’ best defense was a ball control offense, especially since the league’s baddest unit couldn’t keep a Pierre Garçon or Austin Collie in front of them. The only way to keep Manning from killing them was to keep the ball out of his hand. And without Greene, they couldn’t do it.
Selfishly, I would have loved to have spent the next 2 weeks burning on Rex Ryan. With all due respect to Jim Caldwell, I just don’t think he’s going to call his shot for Miami. Nor say if they “get one of ours, we’ll take two of theirs”. Or talk about “guys leaving in body bags”.
In this case, the more confident team didn’t win, the better one did.
