WAY TO START OFF 2009 ON THE RIGHT FOOT

So, anything new with the Jets in these early hours of 2009?

I guess the entire team doesn't like Brett Favre, and Thomas Jones resents the fact that Favre kept throwing interceptions. (If Favre doesn't back out of his Pro Bowl appearance due to injury, I suspect he won't be travelling to Hawaii with many of his teammates, Jones in particular.)
While Thomas Jones was bashing Favre on a New York City radio station on Tuesday, another member of the Jets was anonymously telling a newspaper that Favre was isolated from the team much of the year.

To tell the truth, I'm surprised that none of this came out earlier, when the Jets started losing. After all, let's not forget that the Jets were low on Favre's list of desired locations when he was looking to be traded from the Packers. I'm sure that didn't go over too well with the rest of the team.

This news, which has been crawling across the bottom of the bowl games all day, is certain to make it tougher for Favre to come back as a Jet next year. Which certainly is a strike against the Favre trade being "worth it" for the Jets.

And I guess I got my wish - I was hoping that Favre would make the Jets newsworthy come January. I just thought it might be because of the playoffs....

MOSTLY WELL-DESERVED

Seven Jets made it to the Pro Bowl. For a game no one cares about, that's pretty significant and worth mentioning.

It's also pretty heady stuff - most teams that get 5 or more players to the Pro Bowl are championship-caliber teams. The strange thing about it is that the Jets are precariously perched when it comes to playoff position. For the most part, though, the nods were well-deserved.
Let's look at the selections:

QB - Brett Favre - The Pro Bowl shouldn't be a legacy award, but we all know this happens sometimes. Favre is the least deserving of the Jets named, and might be so banged up that he gives up his spot. Maybe then someone more deserving like Matt Cassel or Chad Pennington will get in. It's not like this is unprecedented....but that doesn't make it right.

RB - Thomas Jones - What a year he's had. Jets records for touchdowns (rushing and overall). He hasn't looked like one of the best in the game at times this year, but with the Jets' struggles in the passing game for most of this year, he's probably the team MVP (at least offensively).

OL - Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold - Another significant piece of the Jets' success this year, especially the veteran Faneca, who is probably directly responsible for the younger Mangold getting to the Pro Bowl. Well-deserved on both counts.

DT - Kris Jenkins - OK. At times he has been dominant this year, but others he's been near-invisible. I'd say this is probably deserved...but only mostly, not 100%.

CB - Darrelle Revis - Definitely deserved. Might make an argument here for Kerry Rhodes as well. They've been the strength of the Jets' secondary. Good for Revis. He was a good draft pick.

KR - Leon Washington - For the first time since Chad Morton's heyday, the Jets have a legit threat on kickoffs. Washington has become a threat to score every time he touches the ball...moreso on special teams than offense, but you still can't relax when he's in the backfield because he might break one.

So all of this is to say that it may look weird for the Jets to have 7 Pro Bowlers, but 5 of them definitely deserve the nod. The other 2 sort of raise expectations for themselves over the final two games of the season.

Because here's the other thing - there's only one Bowl I care about come February. And it isn't the one in Hawaii.

ONE OF MY CONCERNS

I certainly feel this season is one of the Jets' best chances since 1998 to get back to an AFC Championship Game (and dare I even say it - possibly get to the Super Bowl). But I have some worries about this team. Some are big, some are small, and most involve key positions.

Not the least of which is the Jets' starting running back - Thomas Jones.

Don't get me wrong - Thomas Jones is having a very good season. To this point - 854 yards on 190 carries, good for 4.5 yards a carry, and 9 touchdowns rushing - a far cry from what he did last year (1 rushing touchdown, and a full yard less per carry).

But I'm somewhat worries those numbers are a bit stacked - 159 yards versus Oakland, 149 versus St. Louis. He topped 100 at New England Thursday night, but couldn't get a yard when it counted - and that's what bothers me.

In the first game against New England (week 2), it was Thomas Jones who couldn't get the ball in on multiple tries from the one. And then when the Jets were going way too conservative in the second half of the second game (this week), it was Thomas Jones who found nowhere to go, resulting in that strategy being a tremendous failure.

I know that he isn't entirely to blame - I know the offensive line plays a major role in his success, and I know the other team's defense could be given some credit - but I'm still putting a lot of the blame on Jones.

Sometimes it seems like he abandons the play too early, and looks for an escape around the end, only to find a dead end. Sometimes he runs right into the line and gets swallowed up. It seems like that happens way too much, especially at the end of the important games.

I don't know what to make of it. I will say that I'm encouraged by the fact that he has put together two strong games in a row for the first time all season - and he's gone four straight with a touchdown - no small feat.

It's something I'm watching - because the Jets need a back that they can go to when they need to ice a game and run out the clock. And it's not Leon Washington - he's either feast or famine, and the feast comes very rarely, with way too much famine. (Though when the feast comes, it's pretty exciting.) So the Jets need Thomas Jones to succeed. And I watch him closely because that's something that concerns me.

NFL WEEK 10 RECAP

Obviously, the best game of the week for me was the Jets picking apart the St. Louis Rams, 47-3. But I'm biased. So we'll take most of that game out of the equation. Here's the recap from Week 10, which ended last night with Arizona beating an inept San Francisco - from what I saw of the highlights at the end of the game, San Francisco managed the clock worse than Herman Edwards with the Jets:

BEST GAME OF WEEK 10: There were a lot of close games, some of which shouldn't have been close. (Incidentally, I picked these games all wrong - I though the Jaguars would barely get by the Lions, and the Chargers would take out their underachieving aggression on the Chiefs. Obviously, I had those reversed.) I guess the best games were Giants-Eagles, though some controversy marred that one (I didn't see the end - just the highlights - was that a Brandon Jacobs touchdown or not?), and the Packers-Vikings came down to a last-second field goal, but that game never grabbed my interest.

BEST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 10: The Jets can't be ignored here - but specifically, Thomas Jones is having a very good year, and he set the tone on Sunday for the Jets against the Rams. He had 149 yards and 3 touchdowns.

WORST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 10: The Panthers won in Oakland despite an awful outing by Jake Delhomme. The QB threw 4 interceptions, was just 7-for-27 overall, and had just 72 yards (one touchdown).

BEST GAME IN WEEK 11: Look no further than Thursday night's Jets-Patriots matchup. Althought another highlight of Week 11 is no more bye weeks - a full slate on Thursday through Monday.

BEST PERFORMANCE PREDICTED IN WEEK 11: I'm going with the Philadelphia defense against Cincinnati. At least 5 sacks, a couple of turnovers, one returned for a touchdown, and quite possibly a shutout.
-Last Week: I said Ronnie Brown would go for 110 yards and a touchdown as Miami beats Seattle 33-14. Brown had a touchdown, and Miami won, but I wasn't very close. It was a 21-19 win, and Brown had just 39 rushing yards (I was closer to Ricky Williams' numbers).

JETS WEEK: OFFENSE

I'm thrilled the Jets have Brett Favre as their quarterback this year. But the significant improvement the 2008 Jets will show over the 2007 version might be due a lot more to the person on the right side of this picture than the guy on the left.

That's Alan Faneca, and his name, along with a couple of other new ones on the offensive side of the ball, would have helped the team improve even if the quarterback wasn't named Brett Favre.

But that is the quarterback's name, so let's break down the Jets offense, as they head into their season opener on Sunday in Miami.

QB: Brett Favre is not as good as his numbers last year indicated. But he's still a great quarterback, and a different type of quarterback than what the Jets have had the past six years. He can throw the ball downfield and at a high velocity - two things that haven't been part of the Jets' gameplan recently. Of course, there's a higher risk factor than there has been as well, since Chad Pennington didn't turn the ball over very much....but in the end this is an upgrade, and it makes certain players better.

RB: One such person is running back Thomas Jones. Jones is coming off an OK season - he did have more than 1,000 yards, but only 2 rushing touchdowns. I think he'll break free more often this year in part because of the downfield threat that Favre brings to the table, but also because of fullback Tony Richardson, who has blocked in front of a number of very good running backs in his career (who probably wouldn't have done as well had he not been there). Jones and backups like Leon Washington will also benefit from a revamped:

Offensive Line: Youngsters Nick Mangold and D'Brickashaw Ferguson have had an up year and a down year. I didn't realize it at the time, but their up year was definitely aided by the veteran presence of Pete Kendall, who then left the Jets in an ugly contract dispute. This year, there's another veteran presence, with the additions of Faneca and Damien Woody alongside those two and Brandon Moore. Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens had no shot last year because there was no stopping the opposition's pass rush. Thomas Jones, as a result of the passing game, had no shot of getting significant yardage. You can realistically expect all of that to change this year because the Jets will have a legitimate offensive line, unless Mangold and Ferguson take a big step backward.

Receivers: Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery, as I've written before, seem very similar to the targets Brett Favre is used to from Green Bay. They can pick up a lot of yards after the catch. What they haven't had much opportunity to do over the years is outrun defenders for bombs, but in the pre-season it seems like Cotchery and Brad Smith have had those opportunities, and done well with them. (Although I can't help but think about how good Santana Moss would look running down Favre rainbows.) The biggest stumbling block for the Jets' receivers might be for Coles to get over the fact that his friend Pennington was released to make room for Favre. Once he realizes the Jets have a chance to win a lot more games this year, I think he'll be fine. Tight end Chris Baker might see his playing time reduced by the emergence of rookie Dustin Keller, but I think the tight end position will be a strength this year as well...or, at the very least, a popular target for Favre.

NOT HOW, BUT HOW MANY?

The question on everyone's mind this weekend is not "How will the Patriots beat the Jets?", but "How many points will they score?" I'm here to tell you that I think the question should be, "How can the Jets beat the Patriots?", because they can, and they will, hand New England their first loss on Sunday afternoon.

And I'm Johnnymets' common sense, and I'm here to tell you the way it's really going to be this weekend.

Everyone's talking about how fired up the Patriots are going to be this weekend because of the Jets, and how they "wronged" the Patriots by revealing them as cheaters to the outside world. Eric Mangini broke some unwritten rule about betraying trust, so the Patriots are going to show the Jets what's what and who's who and all that. I say, the Jets will be fired up! You're 3-10. You have a chance to re-write the history books this weekend. If there's ever a game you're going to want to go out and prove yourselves in, this is the one!! How can you not be fired up?! You didn't disrespect the Patriots by breaking an unwritten rule - they're disrespecting you with all this talk about running up the score on you!!!!!

The Patriots never said they were going to run up the score. It's been the media and fans who are talking about the Patriots putting up 70 points on the Jets. The Patriots have just gone about their business. You'd better believe, though, that they have had this game circled on their calendars for a long time. They feel like the Jets disrespected them. And no team is better at turning disrespect into a beating on the field than the Patriots.

What about the running game? When was the last time the Patriots ran the ball well? October? And they couldn't stop Willis McGahee a couple of weeks ago. Thomas Jones will run up and down on that team. They've been exposed the past couple of weeks, and that works to the Jets advantage.

hahahaha. Thomas Jones? What has he done this year? One rushing touchdown??? That's only one more than I have. The Jets haven't had as ineffective a red zone runner since Blair Thomas. And the Patriots will be just fine running the ball against the joke that is the Jets' defense. Even if they don't....they seem to be doing OK throwing the ball.

My only hope is that the Jets don't open their mouths this week. Sure, you might say this trash-talking stuff means nothing once the game starts, but the Jets don't need to give the Patriots any incentives. They need to treat this week like business as usual, and then let their actions on the field Sunday speak for them.

The Jets don't need to say anything else to get the Patriots fired up. They did their damage in Week 1 - which, by the way, the Patriots won, 38-14. Pretty handily, I'd say. I suspect the only thing the Jets' actions will be saying on Sunday is "We are an inferior football team".

Finally, I need this Jets win. It's tough enough as it is living here in New England as a Jets fan, while the Jets are awful, without the Patriots going undefeated. I don't need that to continue. Plus, my fantasy football season is over...I need this game to give me one highlight of this football season.

Maybe if you used me once in a while when you made your picks, you wouldn't be having such an awful football season. You keep using that stupid heart of yours. Nice work drafting Matt Leinart in the fantasy league this year, by the way. How has that worked out? Marvin Harrison too?

This isn't about my fantasy league. We don't need to drag that out now.

OK. Right. So I shouldn't mention that I knew you were going to lose to your brother, even though he doesn't even care, barely checks his team, and beat you soundly in a must-win situation for you, when he was already out of playoff contention.

There's no need to mention that.

What do you care? It's not like anyone reads the blog anyway.

OK. Stop it. I pick the Jets to pull off the upset of the decade this weekend, and beat the Patriots, 13-10. (There might be some weather to contend with on Sunday, too.)

Yeah, 'whether' or not the Patriots will get to 100 points. I say Patriots 52, Jets 10.

THE DOLPHINS ARE REALLY BAD

JETS 40, DOLPHINS 13

I can't say I was rooting for the Jets this week...but I am glad that they didn't become the one win on the Dolphins' record.

It's hard to remember now, because of how poorly the Dolphins have played in recent years, but there's no one in football I hate more than the Dolphins. I would love for them to be the team that matched Tampa Bay's mark of futility by going winless for an entire season.

And when you see a team give up 40 points to the Jets, you have to figure they're not going to beat anyone the rest of the way. Thomas Jones hadn't been able to get in the end zone all season...he did against the Dolphins.

In 12 games, the Jets have now scored more than 30 points just three times. Once was against the Cincinnati Bengals, who have an awful defense, and still managed to find a way to stop the Jets and win the game. The other time (besides Sunday) was the other time the Jets played the Dolphins, a 31-28 Jets win.

The Dolphins could win a game this year. They still have to play Buffalo, Baltimore, New England, and Cincinnati. Desperate teams sometimes accomplish major upsets...I don't think Miami will beat the Patriots, but they could upset the Bills or Ravens. The other side of that, though, is no one wants to be that team that loses to the Dolphins...exhibit A was Sunday in Miami. If the Jets can do it, and put up 40 in doing so, the Dolphins don't have a chance against anyone else.

One last point about the Jets before we get back to the hot stove talk the rest of the week: One positive thing out of this season has been the different throwback uniforms teams have worn. While some have been misses (the Eagles come to mind), the Jets have been a hit, wearing the gold and blue of the New York Titans (the name the Jets had before they became the Jets). (On a personal note, and in the interest of full disclosure, yellow and blue are also my favorite colors.) Each team wore the throwbacks a couple of times this year - I think the Jets are done, because they also wore the Titans uniforms against the Giants in October. I noticed last week the Browns had numbers on their helmets - I think that was their throwback edition. Anyway, I love those types of things. Here's a look at the highlight of the Jets' 2007 season - the uniform of a team that no longer even exists (it's my blog, so I choose to show a picture of Kellen Clemens getting sacked. Petty? Yes.):