AN UPDATE ON THE JETS

You may or may not have noticed that I don't spend a whole lot of time writing about the NFL off-season. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) It happens to fall during the time that I really get excited about baseball season, and

2) I don't understand it as much.

I like football...a lot. But I don't pretend to understand schemes, and gameplans, and how this player fits into this or who would work best in what. I understand that Jonathan Vilma had gotten into Eric Mangini's doghouse in some way, and wasn't the perfect fit with the Jets anymore, and had to be moved, but that's about it. So there's nothing I can comment on that is worth commenting on.

That said, my cousin lives and breathes football year 'round, and he's been reading the blog, and is upset that I haven't touched on the Jets since, oh, about October. And after yesterday's post about the NBA, he's threatened my life. So I think I'll touch on the Jets' moves today.

I'm confused, thrilled, and upset about the three big moves the Jets have made so far this off-season. Not in that order - I'll go over them in the order they happened.

On Friday, the Jets traded Jonathan Vilma to the Saints for a fourth-round draft pick. OK, fine...but then they acquired Kris Jenkins from Carolina for third and fifth-round draft picks. What gives there? I agree with my cousin - it seems like the Jets should have been able to get more for Vilma, especially considering what they gave up for Jenkins.

And here's what bothers me about Jenkins. By all accounts, he hasn't been effective in a few years. And he's been injured recently. The following is not speculation - this is fact...and it's kind of been brushed under the rug for some reason. But almost everyone associated with the Carolina Panthers' Super Bowl team was involved in some way with a huge steroids ring, weren't they? Please correct me if I'm wrong about this - but even if fans aren't sure about that situation, I'm sure teams in the NFL are. So why would the Jets acquire a guy who is so closely connected to a scandal like that....not to mention a guy whose numbers are mysteriously up and down in relation to that incident.

So there's the bad news - it seems like the Jets didn't get equal value for Vilma, and I don't know that it was a smart move getting Jenkins. But their most recent move should be well worth the money invested.

The Jets signed free agent guard Alan Faneca to a record-setting 5-year, $40 million deal. This should improve their offensive line immensely - the young guys will benefit from a veteran presence - and not just any veteran presence, but possibly the best in the league at what he does. The running game should also benefit, and the quarterbacks will actually have some time to make something happen. This one signing could be the difference between two years' ago's playoff appearance and last year's disaster.

BENCH FOR CHURCH ON SUNDAY: Not the pew kind. Ryan Church was sidelined for a few days after a collision with Marlon Anderson on Saturday left Church with a concussion. All of the written accounts of the injury say it was a nasty collision - but I haven't found any video of it. I'm not sure there is any. We'll see if anything turns up by Friday, when the Mets are on ESPN. If it ever turns up, that might be the time. Hopefully this doesn't linger for very long. Promising news - in his first at-bat against a lefty, on Friday (or at least the first one I saw, when I was watching the tape-delay of the Friday game), Church singled to right. So that was encouraging. We'll see what happens the rest of the spring, but he needs to play.

A SMALL STEP BACKWARD

The headline refers not to the direction the Jets are headed (although it is very hard for me to stay positive right now, an hour after the game has ended), but to the turning point of this football game. I can't argue the play - like Phill Simms said on the telecast - Chad Pennington wasn't throwing the ball forward, so it was either a lateral or a backward pass. Credit the Patriots for picking the ball up, and turning that into a huge play that helped put the Jets away.

I should have known the direction this game was headed right off the bat, when the Patriots scored on their first drive. The Wife had some work to do, so I had The Baby, and the Patriots scored just as The Baby spit up on my lucky sweatshirt. I should have acted right then and there to change shirts, but, silly me, I thought the spit up may have been lucky.

The Jets fell behind 7-0 quickly, then had a couple of ineffective possessions. They did force a Corey Dillon fumble deep in New England territory, and I was thinking that they needed a touchdown, but settled for a field goal. At the time, I thought they wasted an opportunity - they did, but I forgot about it quickly, because at the beginning of the second quarter, Chad Pennington hit Jerricho Cotchery for a 77-yard touchdown pass, and the Jets were suddenly up, 10-7.

On the ensuing Patriots drive, the Jets blew another opportunity - Jonathan Vilma had Tom Brady for a sack and a chance to force the Patriots to punt, but he swiped at the ball, missed, and Brady picked up first down yardage. That resulted in a Pats' game-tying field goal (after a Jets' goal line stand). What bothered me more than Vilma missing Brady was the Jets gently putting Brady on the floor after he didn't slide - they had a chance to hit a quarterback and didn't do it.

The Jets then let the Patriots drive down the field before halftime, and gave up a touchdown instead of a field goal, letting New England take a 17-10 lead at the half. I didn't feel good about that deficit, because the Jets had the lead, and had chances to have a bigger lead - I didn't feel comfortable with anything less than a two-score Jets lead...so I never felt comfortable in this game.

The Jets and Patriots traded field goals in the third quarter, then came the key play I mentioned above. Pennington tried a screen pass, with the Jets down 7, at midfield, and the pass was knocked down. Unfortunately, it was a live ball, and Vince Wilfork picked it up and moved 31 yards down the field, setting up another New England field goal, and giving the Patriots a 23-13 lead.

The Jets still had a chance, especially after cutting it to 23-16 early in the 4th, but the defense couldn't stop the run, and the Patriots blew it open from there, scoring an offensive touchdown, and then adding an interception return for a touchdown.

The Jets gave up 158 yards on the ground - not a recipe for success in the regular season, let alone the post-season.

So another season comes to a close - and it's hard to think rationally right now, but it was a successful season. Even this playoff game was a positive in that the young guys can only grow from this experience. The Jets weren't supposed to be this good - but they were. They can only improve through the draft, and maybe free agency. Personally, it stinks that the Jets lost to the Patriots, with me living in New England, but that's some motivation for next year, too. Hopefully the Jets can pick up now where they left off two years ago - realizing it's not good to take to the road in the playoffs - so go out and win the division. The thing that would make me even more mad than I am right now is if they go out next year and have a sub-.500 season, if they don't show improvement. There's no reason to think it will happen (unless Pennington gets hurt), but this team is on the upswing, and that needs to continue.

THOUGHTS: I really was psyched this morning when I saw the headline of the Boston Globe sports section - a big article on how Asante Samuel wants to get his due this off-season, but knows he won't get it from the Patriots. I thought, "That could be a huge distraction..." It wasn't. He just increased his value for other teams.....

Really strange seeing a playoff game in New England in such nice weather.

The Patriots look good right now. I really don't buy into the Chargers and the Ravens...I can't see another AFC team beating them...unless the Patriots play a sloppy game like they did a lot during the regular season.

SUPER BOWL MATCHUPS: The Giants-Eagles game is still going on, but I'm going to start writing this anyway, not sure when I'll have time this week:

We're rooting against the Ravens and Giants.
We're rooting against the Patriots and Bears or Eagles.
We're rooting for the Colts or Chargers against anyone from the NFC.
We're rooting for the Saints against anyone from the AFC.

Just an update. Oh, and if you haven't already, go look below at what I predicted for the Cowboys-Seahawks game, and then look at the final score of the game!

Just wanted to make a new post to welcome all the readers I'm sure to get from North Carolina. Also, I should plug Kevin from Wilmington's blog for both of my regular readers who don't yet know about it - wect.com, click on the "Orange Couch". I'd put a direct link to it, but first of all, how lazy are you that you can't type it in, and second of all, I don't know how.

It goes without saying that I am embarrassed to be a Jets fan, and horrified at what might still come the rest of the season after Sunday's performance at Kansas City. I need to work out a code so that when I come back from a weekend away, and I have Tivo-ed the Jets game, and I sit to watch it later that night, someone should stop me. I think this will only apply to games where Chad Pennington fumbles more than 5 times in one half. But Sunday would have applied.

It was just disgusting. And then it comes out that Jonathan Vilma was punched in the face by James Reed on the sideline during the fourth quarter. Great - nothing like a little team disharmony to go with a terrible performance.

The good news - the Dolphins are bad. Even though they won on Sunday, they are bad - and they're coming to the Meadowlands for the Jets' home opener. Get ready for a blowout - the Jets should be able to beat the Dolphins anyway, and their pride is now hurt.

The other bad news from Sunday - Larry Johnson, the Kansas City running back who tore up the Jets - probably shouldn't have played. He turned himself in to police today (Tuesday) for assaulting his girlfriend on Saturday night. He was out with another girl on Saturday, and his girlfriend saw him at that bar. He took her and forcibly tried to get the bouncer to remove her from the bar. The nerve of her to interrupt his date! Anyway, imagine if the police had arrested him during the game - that would have been great. And imagine they couldn't find him - and they're watching the game on Sunday?

The officers are sitting there, watching the game - one of them says to the other, "We got this arrest warrant out for this guy Larry Johnson. No one seems to know who he is."
Game in the background - Announcer says, "And the Chiefs score a touchdown! Larry Johnson!"
Officer 1 to officer 2 - "You don't suppose......"
Officer 2 - "Naaah."

I hope that came across like it was in my head.

I expected a flood of e-mails following the loss. All I got was one:

"From one man who suffered a harrowing defeat last weekend (the University of Evil over my alma mater 17-10) to another: I was curious to read your breakdown of the breakdown, so to speak. And yet, nothing. I fear someone should have taken your belt and shoelaces. Are you faring ok? Still processing oxygen? What is your analysis of what happened and where your beloved Jets go from here?

Love Always,
Don Lagreca"

Sorry. The problem was, I didn't finish watching the game until about 8:30/9:00 Sunday night, because I was away, as I mentioned. By then, I was mad that I had watched the whole thing (it was like watching a train wreck - I was wondering how bad it could have gotten), and that I had missed the end of the 4 o'clock games, and then I needed to cool down so I could actually fall asleep and be effective the next day. Then Monday I was still mad, and I didn't feel like writing about it. So there.

I really think this was just a bad game. I've seen the Jets be horrible before - we all have. There's no way they're going to play every game this poorly. And I need more proof before I lessen my expectations for a great year. I will say I should have been more uncomfortable with the fact that the Jets have high expectations placed upon them this year - that's never a good thing. If the Jets don't blow out Miami (OK, if they don't beat Miami), then I'll start worrying. And the following week will be a good measuring stick, with Jacksonville at home. In the end, as horrible as Sunday was, it was just one loss. It only counts as 0-1 (although it deserves to jump them to 0-10), and the Jets can bounce back next Sunday. I promise to write something up after that game and re-assess.

Another thing that left me angry Sunday was the total disaster that was my picks. I'm already out of the knockout pool...I might keep picking that on this site for fun....now that I've lost my money. But my other picks were brutal too - weird week of football. I'll update the standings between Dave, the wife, and me on Friday.

By the way - clever alias by the man who beat me out in one of my weekly pools - and in case you didn't guess, he's a Michigan alum. And I don't know how he knows about Don LeGreca.

To my new Carolina readers - I'm rooting big-time for your Panthers on Sunday. I'd appreciate e-mails if you'd like to offer predictions or info on the upcoming game with New England.

Jets at Chargers, Saturday, 8pm (5pm Pacific)

Playoff time!! It looks like it'll be raining on Saturday night when the Jets and Chargers face off. Actually, I think it will be raining a lot, and the field will be quite muddy. I like the Jets' chances in the rain and muck.

Curtis Martin is going to plow ahead no matter what the conditions. The wet weather could work against LaDanian Tomlinson, since he relies more on his speed. (Just my speculation - there are no facts to back these statements up.)

The Jets will have Santana Moss back to return punts...a hamstring problem kept him from doing that the past few weeks. That's good, because Justin McCareins makes me nervous every time he goes back for a punt return.

It's looking less and less likely John Abraham or Wayne Chrebet will play - which means we'll see more of Bryan Thomas and Jerricho Cotchery. Not great, but two guys who have been playing well of late.

Jonathan Vilma was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year - well-deserved honor. He's been playing great -the Jets need the rest of the defense to play like Vilma's been playing, or else they are toast.

I think we see a return of the dominant Jets' defense of the middle (not the end) of the season, and I think Curtis Martin does most of the work to get the Jets to Pittsburgh. Jets, 24-14.

Here's the rest of my picks:

Indianapolis, 34-17
Green Bay, 20-13
Seattle, 3-0 (which is to say, I have no idea, nor do I care about this game)

GO JETS!!!

Jets 22, 49ers 14

I forget if I ever mentioned this, but Jonathan Vilma has an on-line diary running on ESPN.com, on the NFL page. I read it a lot during training camp, and I thought it ended before the season started. I thought it was a "life of a rookie during his first NFL training camp" sort of thing. But last week I was tooling around the NFL page on ESPN.com and I saw the diary, and read it. It was right after the Jets-Bills game, and if you remember, at the end of that game, as the Bills were driving late in the game, Vilma had a pass in his hands but dropped it. It would have been his first career interception. He wrote about that in his journal, saying something along the lines of, "If you saw the game, you know that I almost had my first career interception. That would have been a big one. I hope when I do get it, it is a big one, and I return it for a touchdown." Something along those lines. Go look it up if you want to read exactly what he said. (But not until you finish reading what I have to say.)

The point of all this is that Vilma got his first interception on Sunday, against the 49ers. And it was a big one. HUGE. Granted, it was partly a bad decision by Tim Rattay, partly a great play by Vilma, and although he didn't return it for a TD, I'm looking forward to see what Vilma has to say about his first career INT.

It came with 1:30 left in the game, after the Jets were forced to punt after another unsuccessful attempt to put away an opponent. After the interception, the Jets FINALLY put the game away on a touchdown run by Curtis Martin, his second of the day.

I partly take the blame for this game being so close. There was an event at my school that caused me to miss the first half of the game. I made it to a bar to catch the entire second half, which included all of the Jets touchdowns, and, now that I think about it, perfect defense. The 49ers didn't score once. So, I think if I had been watching the entire game, it probably would have been a blowout.

For the first time in their history, the Jets are 5-0. So I don't really know how to react. I, like every other Jets fan, have never seen the Jets start a season this well. My concern (because when you're a Jets fan, there always tends to be a concern) is that the margins of victory are getting narrower. This game was a 1-point game, not 8, as the final score indicates. Last week, of course, was 2 points. There's not much more margin for error.

The other thing about the final score is that it didn't have to be that close. It could have easily been a three-point Jets lead towards the end of the game, as opposed to one. Trailing 14-3 at halftime, the Jets scored a touchdown early in the third quarter. Instead of just kicking the extra point, the Jets went for two to try to make it 14-11. They failed, so it was 14-9. When the Jets scored their next touchdown, they had to go for two, and failed again. Hence, the 15-14 score late in the game. This type of game management is one of Herman Edwards' weaknesses as a head coach, and I thought it would be solved this year. But apparently it has not been. The fact that he's going for two in that first instance shows a lack of confidence in his offense, to me. By trying to make it a 3-point game, instead of accepting a 4-point deficit, I am led to believe that Edwards doesn't think the offense can get another touchdown. Maybe it's just me...but I don't think so. And if I'm sitting there knowing that the Jets should NOT be going for two, how come he doesn't know that. That's all I'm wondering. I still love ya, Herm.

A couple of breakout games on Sunday. Martin continues to be great - he had 110 rushing yards and the two touchdowns. But LaMont Jordan finally saw some action. I only saw one drive where he touched the ball a couple of times, but that drive ended with Jordan taking the ball into the end zone from about 15 yards out. So the calls for Jordan to get more playing time are going to pick up again (from more than just Mark in Miami). Also finally getting some balls thrown his way was Anthony Becht. I think the Jets finally lit a bit of a fire under Becht by using Chris Baker so much. And I think Becht was given a shot after a key Baker fumble last week. (Becht has been the starting tight end, but Baker has seen the majority of balls thrown his way.) In this game, Becht had four catches for 47 yards, but it wasn't just that. Becht was thrown the ball on the run, and each time that happened, he barreled over a defender. That hadn't been happening in recent years - Becht would catch a pass and be tackled right away. In short, he looked like an NFL tight end on Sunday. I don't know whether his performance merits the Jets keeping him when he becomes a free agent at the end of the year, but it definitely meant he should have more passes thrown his way. (I have a feeling this also depends on whether or not Santana Moss is back in the picture anytime soon. I don't think he played in this game at all, unless it was early on. But, obviously, Chad Pennington had to find other targets.)

So it's finally here. The Patriots beat the Seahawks, the Jets beat the 49ers. They will both meet next week at 5-0. And, as I wrote here a few weeks back, the Patriots will have the added burden of trying to wash away the bad sports taste left by the Red Sox in New England fans' mouths. The Jets will try to end the Patriots' record 20-game winning streak. I am going to have to be on my A-game this week. Can't miss a posting. No excuses. Send your e-mails by Monday night...they'll be here for Tuesday. Let the hype begin.

Jets 17, Dolphins 9

It sure wasn't pretty, but the Jets are now 3-0. Chad Pennington had one of the worst games of his career (THE worst, passing yards-wise), but the Jets are still 3-0. Santana Moss had just 17 yards receiving, but the Jets are still 3-0. Et cetera, et cetera.

The Jets looked like they played down to their competition on Sunday. My dad made a good point, saying maybe the bye week was at the wrong time, because the Jets were on a roll, then had to take a week off, and maybe had to shake off some rust. I'm going with that theory, and in that case, it's a good thing the Jets played the Dolphins, because they wouldn't have been able to win had they been playing a team that was good. Anywhere near good...which the Dolphins are not.

Here's the deal with Miami - their defense is still pretty good. So I'm not too dismayed by the fact that the Jets' offense wasn't great. But Curtis Martin still put up pretty good numbers, it was just the passing game that wasn't sharp. The defense played great against a very bad Miami offense, which was what was needed.

Jonathan Vilma started at middle linebacker, in place of Sam Cowart, and I'm pretty sure he had a good game. (I couldn't watch much of this game...but I saw the good parts.) Victor Hobson played well, and John Abraham was the pre-playoff-illness John Abraham of two seasons ago. Which is to say, John Abraham was dominant. So if nothing else, hopefully this game inflates some defensive egos with Buffalo coming to town next week.

Miami is 0-4 for the first time since 1966. Nice. The Jets are 3-0 for just the third time in franchise history. The Jets have not made the playoffs in any season in which they started 3-0. Nice history for this franchise, huh? Remember the last time the Jets went 3-0? 2000. Al Groh. The Jets started the season with wins on the road, I think, against Green Bay and Tampa Bay (I think that's right...I could look it up to make sure, but that would require some effort on my part, and I like my memory better.) That's also the season that ended in disaster...4 straight December losses when A win would have put the Jets in the postseason. One of those losses was to lowly Detroit, at home, in the Lions' last road win before this season started. So anyway, the Jets can go to 4-0 with a win next week at home against Buffalo for the first time since that 2000 season. And I guarantee - if the Jets go to 4-0 this season, they are making the playoffs. That's the johnnyjets guarantee (and those readers of johnnymets.blogspot.com know the johnnyjets guarantee is about as reliable as Browning Nagle with the game on the line).

Anyway, we're back on schedule - I've done the re-cap, which from now on will be posted on Monday (I had a paper to write Sunday night), and now it's time for the regular Tuesday posting - Mail Bag:

"Dear JohnnyJets,
Based on many hours of listening to former football players shout on Sunday morning television shows, it seems that there are two schools of thought in football.
One says a win is a win and you can only get 16 of them so take them how you get them, while the other says if you can't throttle a team in such disarray as the Dolphins, you'd better be worried about October football, not January football.
Where do you fall in evaluating Sunday's game?
Signed,
Taking The Points in Brighton."

Well, Brighton, first of all, let me say that I have learned a valuable lesson about watching football on Sundays. Don't watch the pregame shows. They all stink. They're not worth your time. Those of you who know me know that I have lots of trouble reading the Sunday paper. There's just too much of it to read. But I find that if I take those extra couple of hours on Sunday morning when the former football players are shouting at each other, between 11am and 1pm, I can really plow through at least 2 of the 17 sections that come each Sunday morning on my doorstep. So that's point number one. Those shows are horrible. Secondly, I am of the school of thought that a win is a win, and when you're a Jets fan, you are used to them not putting teams away, so even if they beat a supposedly bad team by "just" eight points, it still goes in the "W" column, and at the end of the day, you're still undefeated, so I'm very happy that they won. Pennington will play better the rest of the season - you have to look at it as, well, he's now got his worst game of the year under his belt, and the Jets still won. Things are going to get better. Wayne Chrebet probably put it best after Sunday's game. He said something to the effect of, "This team still isn't hitting on all cylinders. When we do, I don't want to be the team that has to play us."

Thanks for the positive thoughts, Wayne. Fireman Mark, if you want to write with reaction to the game in Miami, please send along your thoughts. I'll be attending this coming Sunday's game against Buffalo. And tomorrow, according to the schedule, we'll be taking a look around the AFC East, where it's either feast (3-0, 3-0), or famine (0-3, 0-4).

JETS3
Originally uploaded by Johnnyjets.

A good sight: After practice, Jets rookie linebackers Jonathan Vima (l.) and Darrell McClover (r.) put in extra time running wind sprints. The two were teammates at the University of Miami.

Vilma's going to be awesome. McClover - I don't know, but he's got a good work ethic.

JETS3
Originally uploaded by Johnnyjets.

A good sight: After practice, Jets rookie linebackers Jonathan Vima (l.) and Darrell McClover (r.) put in extra time running wind sprints. The two were teammates at the University of Miami.

Vilma's going to be awesome. McClover - I don't know, but he's got a good work ethic.