http://nypost.com/2013/09/13/time-to-stop-laughing-and-take-these-jets-seriously/ Time to stop laughing and take these Jets seriously By Steve Serby September 13, 2013 | 7:58pm Modal Trigger Time to stop laughing and take these Jets seriously Geno Smith and the Jets are not that bad after all. Everyone knows what the Jets cannot do. They cannot scare anyone on offense, they cannot conduct a quarterback competition, they cannot win a Super Bowl, only a Snoopy Bowl. But guess what: They’re no longer a laughingstock. Ask Tom Brady. Ask Bill Belichick. You punch these Jets in the mouth, they’ll punch you back, even though a couple of them might have gotten carried away in Foxborough. In this NFL, where most games are not decided until the fourth quarter, and in this AFC East, where the Patriots have come back to the pack and mediocrity reigns supreme, it is risky business to dismiss out of hand and overlook a Fight Club. No one is suggesting this will be anything other than a rebuilding season with a rookie quarterback. The Jets won’t win eight games if Geno Smith’s ball security mimics that of Mark Sanchez over the past two seasons. But it now looks as if the Jets will be a tough out for a lot of people. The circus has not left town, because these are the Jets, where coach Rex Ryan can answer questions sideways at any given moment, where Sanchez can be the lone wolf in the organization to declare himself the winner of a quarterback competition that apparently will be ongoing until he is gone, where you can never be certain the new general manager who inherited the lame-duck coach is truly standing shoulder to shoulder with him on final say. But on game day, between the white lines, there are more teams than ESPN knows that will not want to play these Jets. The reasons why: GANG GREEN: It starts with defense. Just ask Rex. “Is anyone surprised that we play great defense?” Ryan said. “It certainly doesn’t surprise Jet fans. It doesn’t surprise our football team.” When Quinton Coples returns, when Dee Milliner leaves Rex’s doghouse and starts playing like a first-round pick opposite Antonio Cromartie, if Demario Davis and Sheldon Richardson keep developing, if Antwan Barnes can supply some pass rush, this will be a top-five defense as long as Mo Wilkerson avoids the dreaded high ankle sprain. If Brady, disarmed by the loss of so many familiar weapons, doesn’t scare these guys, E.J. Manuel and Ryan Tannehill sure won’t. OFFENSIVE LINE: An ornery and physically imposing group that enjoys imposing its will at the point of attack. The four sacks allowed Thursday night are somewhat misleading, considering the rookie quarterback doesn’t get the ball out quick enough on occasion and the wide receivers struggle to get open. Chris Ivory ran hard and gave the Jets enough balance (35-32 pass-to-run) to second-guess Marty Mornhinweg for not turning more to the foot soldiers. “I thought we had good balance,” Ryan said. The Jets are waiting for highly-touted rookie Brian Winters to supplant left guard Vlad Ducasse. GENO SMITH: This will be trial by error, so expect plenty more errors. Mornhinweg has brought Smith long nicely, but he put the game in the kid’s hands too often in crunch time in Foxborough. Until his fourth-quarter implosion, it was clear the stage was not too big for Smith. He displayed poise beyond his years and courage standing tall in the pocket in the face of incoming mayhem. But what you liked about Smith was his accountability afterward. He made no excuses, placed the blame on his shoulders, and his shoulders alone. That’s what leaders are supposed to do. That’s what you want in your quarterback. BUTTFUMBLE, MY ASS: These Jets have an Us-Against-the-World chip on their shoulder the size of the Empire State Building. That’s a good thing in football. NICK FOLK: Hey, it’s something. He can make the pressure kick in the fourth quarter. They are ugly ducklings who are a long way from being beautiful swans. The elite teams may want to play them. Everybody else will not.
What a great article.. Finally somebody who doesn't bash the Jets and see's them for what they truly are.
Serby is an idiot. He just tries to be different. Gino shows potential but we have zero weapons and scare no one. Our defense will prevent us from getting blown out early but will wilt at some point because of out pathetic offense.
what are you talking about . One of the first things Serby says is our offense will not scare anyone, he's not preaching that. There are two area's of the team that if you feel you will be better at offensive line and defensive line. Both these groups are going to get better, you have two stalwarts in mangold and fergusan- everyone is young with upside- howard, ducasse, winters, coples, ellis, Wilkerson, Richardson, Snacks, etc.... These are all big big men.
I posted this b/c the 'media' has been beyond BRUTAL towards the Jets all year, even talk radio, pre game shows, etc. I knew once we started making noise there would be a lot of 'experts' eating a lot of crow....and none more than SEVERAL EXPERTS RIGHT HERE ON GOOD OLD TGG.
Willie Colon has brought some much needed toughness to the OL and his edgeness has rubbed off on the other lineman.
So Serby is saying what we all said, our defense is going to keep us in the games most of the time and we just need to protect the ball and we can win some close games againts "better" teams. Thanks for recongnizing what everyone else ignored Serby!
A nice read. Our defense will be better in a few weeks. Especially the last 8 games of the year are all winnable for Jets. If somehow we are 4-4 our first 8 games I can start dreaming playoffs. Yes playoffs
On the face of it JayBiz I hear what you're saying but I think it's a horrible article in the sense that Serby is doing an about face from what he, Manish, Cimini, ESPN, NFLN and the rest of these trolls all parroted the past month: that the Jets were a bottom-ranked joke. Serby's always been a fickle, blow-with-the-wind type of front runner. A smart ass troll one day, a phony bandwagon jumper the other. This article could've been titled: "Maybe We Trolls Don't Know Shit - Underrating the Jets"
It was positive which is nice, but on the whole pretty shitty. Wow, if all of our players are healthy and play better than they have we'll be good? Shocking.
Cool, so instead of losing comfortably our defense will keep up is in the game till the 4th quarter, give us a false sense of hope that we may actually win the game, and then something ridiculous/Jet-like will happen and we'll lose........ YAY!
you actually just described what happened to Tampa in week 1.. even if that were to happen to us, i'm not sure what you are complaining about. would you rather unwatchable football, with us getting blown out each week, as the 'experts' had predicted? win or lose, i expect us to play competitive football, and with some fire. extend the coaches, stay the course, add some more players next year, and keep building/improving.. that's my hope for the season.
True, I was thinking of editing my post and throwing in an "at least it's more entertaining." At least it's a good step moving forward, we're not as "lost" as some "experts" think we are.
QFT... Colin has been great addition. The Offense will get better. Ivory should have had more carries on Thursday. MM, has to use the running game more.
Was Serby expecting the defense to be bad? The D being solid should have been expected, that's why I never understood the "worst team in football" projections. The offense is dirt, but the D will keep us in ball games. We will win a few ugly ones.
