Banning Champ on the cusp of a new season is like walking under a ladder, your wife throwing your lucky Jets Jersey, the unofficial Green one with the pizza and beer stains on it that hasn?t seen a washer since Oakland in 02, in with your Black Rolling Stones T-shirt, on the hot water cycle with new and improved Tide, with bleach. The tongue bleeds all over your jersey. It?s opening day against the Pats and you look like your rooting for the Cleveland Brown Jets. Something tells me this season isn?t going to be pretty. Will the evil Giants continue to party at Xanadu on Woody?s dime? Can Boy Wonder sans Bat Man bring Gang Green back to Gotham bathed in glory? Will El Diablo wearing his true colors send us to hell in week 17? It?s the opening of season 41 of Jets football (For me). A revitalized Pennington, somewhere between the 5th and 25th best QB in the NFL will lead the way. Will Chad rediscover the joy of the 20 yard out or will he continue to dink and dunk his way to drives ending in Ben Graham punts? Will Mangini think a drive ending in a Ben Graham punt is a success? How do you feel about a hand shake at the end of a date that cost you 3 C-notes? So what are we, an elite team vying for a first round bye, a home playoff second round game and a ticket to the AFC finals and onto SB glory, car fires, looting and a general good time by all? Or are we the ?Same Old Jets?? Last year I was very confident we had a 9 or 10 win season in us after reviewing the team, the schedule and knowing Pennington was healthy. The truth, I had incredible faith in Herm. Addition by subtraction which never worked out in 8th grade math is a given scientific fact in the world of big time pro sports, at least the first time around. The Jets are no longer unknown. This year we will be playing the better mediocre NFL teams and they will respect us coming in as a worthy mediocre opponent. This year we aren?t sneaking up on anyone. Belicheck won?t be spending Jets week watching 80 hours of classic porn, he will be game planning for little Leon, Cotch, Revis, Harris and Rhodes. No miracle in Foxboro this year unless you consider Belichek having blue balls a miracle? My heart says 11 and 5 my head says 7 and 9. We are soft at the point of attack and no amount of scheming will cover this up against a real NFL schedule. The Pats are in for a Dolphin like Plunge, and we have drafted well and added talent. However, this is the year that Pennington knowledge of his limitations, limits a team that can do better. This is a year that our inability to score TD?s or run the ball down teams throats gets us losses instead of close wins. This is the year those long crushing drives against our D turn into points instead of Time of Possession. The good news is we really are getting better, it?s just not going to show up in wins until we bring in another stud or two along the lines and Clemens takes over and shows he?s the real deal. We win a couple of surprises with really good special teams, we lose more than we win with a pop gun offense that can?t over come a defense that allows to many long scoring drives. By the way anyone remember how many years it?s been? Facts people! Just remember there?s no crying in football. Enjoy the season and when we go 12 & 4 and win the SB this year, flame on Johnny and when you finishing partying, rioting and looting my home, try to leave me at least 1 TV to watch Chad, DRob and Vilma in the Pro bowl.
The schedule the Jets face this year is as real as the one they faced last year. This is not college football. There are no cupcake games. Furthermore, half the teams we think will be good, won't be good.
We'll have to look at old threads to confirm this. My preseason prediction on the '06 Jets was based on personnel.
Nice post, Biggs....good to see someone who can mix realistic analysis with a little light-hearted humor. Things can get awful serious around here sometimes... Although I do have to say that reading this was akin to thumbing through a Chuck Klosterman book; I sometimes felt like I needed some footnotes (I'm still not quite sure who the Boy Wonder or Batman are). Other than that, though, excellent stuff. :grin:
I am not apt to go into a season thinking a team's schedule is easy, average, or difficult. I form my opinions on that stuff after at least three or four weeks are in the books. Then you'll see posts like this one: http://forums.theganggreen.com/showpost.php?p=321298&postcount=21
It's been a long weekend, my friend. A loooong weekend. Maybe I'll save decoding humorous references for another day.
The best kind: 3 days long and filled with enough fun that I'm sitting here scramble-brained on this fine Monday afternoon.
Winston my boyeeeee.. I can always count on you for some humor.. I'm keeping this sig courtesy of you.. You just gave the Jets the kiss of death.. Thanks. Enjoy:beer:
and Clemens takes over and shows he?s the real deal. .[/QUOTE] i know this is a little off the subject and i apologize ahead of time, but is anyone else ganna really miss chad when clemens does take over for good and chad is no longer with the team, thinking of chad in another jersey is almost like thinking about my grandparents getting divorced, it just doesn't seem right
I'm pretty much predicting a 7 & 9 season for my Jets, I'm not sure how that's the kiss of death? If I was a typical Pats fan running the odds of a SB victory in Vegas to over whelming proportions, I can pretty much predict the bookies are going to make a killing on delusional NE fans this year.
Hahaha... every year someone has to predict that this is the year that Pennington's limitations catch up with him. Yet when we find ourselves in the post season it is easy to see that without him we wouldn't be in the post season. Clearly no Joe Montana, he is still a bit of a gem with just enough sparkle to get the job done. If I had a little more faith in our OL I would predict a possible pro-bowl season for Chad. Unfortunately we need some help in that area.
Over all a great post. The points I left in the above quote exactly sums up how I feel heading into week one. The Skill players are there. If our lines prove to be up to task then we have a very good team. If our lines continue to look below average, then thats where we will stand. Can't wait for sunday!!! :beer:
