What? You need to go out and win games and we have beaten some pretty good football teams this year and really only lost to one really bad team. Other then Buffalo every other team we lost to has a winning record or a shot at a winning record. Other then Atlanta they all still have a shot or are in the playoffs. Miami X2 , Pats, Jags, Saints, are 5 of our 7 losses. Not that awful and just think we were only a few plays away from winning 4 of those games. Backing in is what we did in 05 when we started out 5-0 and needed other people to lose for us to get in and we somehow lost and still got in. Winning 5 of your last 6 games is hardly backing in. Quite honestly I'd say it's getting hot at the right time.
Sorry, but this is not a back door to the playoffs. I really can't understand why you say this when the Jets needed to win 5 of 6 to get in. Getting a back door is when you lose the last game or last couple of games but still get in because other teams lose as well. Clearly this is not the case here. The Jets can only play who is on their schedule. Are the Jets supposed to apologize if another team rests their starters? Funny, but I don't remember other teams complaining when they beat us when we were missing Jenkins, Washington and the fact that we are starting a rookie QB. Also, you don't know that the Jets would have lost if Manning and company stayed in. We were only 5 points behind at the time, and anything could have happened. The Jets did what they had to when the starters were pulled - they stomped them.
Thing is...... I think he did the right thing for the Colts too. The Pats showed that an undefeated season without a champoinship means nothing. He kept Manning in until the late 3rd and he left with Indy in the lead. It was the right decision.
We have played 1 really good football team this year and the Colts who basically mailed it in. This has been a year of some of the worst football games ever. Besides SD and the Colts in the AFC and maybe NO, MN and AZ although I'm not sure I would call any of those teams great, this is a year of outright mediocrity all over this league. Many of the games we have been involved with this year have been outright unwatchable because of the over all quality of the play by both teams.