Can we put a lid on this doofus? 6 crying threads started in the last day, all completely useless garbage? lol http://forums.theganggreen.com/search.php?searchid=462447
"Realist" is just a word that pessimists use because they don't want to admit that they are pessimists. Anyway, SOJ may not be a curse or a hex or something, but it's something that rears its ugly head seemingly every year that this team is good. This team never seems to go down like other teams. It's always either a collapse of epic proportions or some heartbreaking loss (Doug Brien? 2nd half collapses?). This team loves to shatter our hearts. Never has a Jets season ended with the team making an epic 4th quarter comeback only to fall short. Or how about a closely fought game where the Jets are in it from start to finish, but just barely lose to a better team? They'd be endings that I think all Jets fans could live with compared to the crap we've seen throughout our history.
Satisfaction is a function of expectations. After the Mangenius, I think Rex's confidence, and big talk is really good for both the team - and for us fans. My only problem with it is that there is a fine line between confidence, and meaningless bragging. It ain't bragging when you can back it up, and right now they aren't backing it up. Hopefully, they will turn this thing around, and do it soon.
I don't buy that. I think realists are basically non-committal. They are parked somewhere in the gray area between optimist, and pessimist. You've just put the definition of the SOJ in a nutshell for all the non-believers: It makes you build up your hopes and your expectations as high as it possibly can, and then it smashes them into the goround, and grinds them into the pavement like so many cigarette butts on 34th Street. (ask any long time Red Sox fan.) Don't give in to the power of SOJ. It's evil. It will consume you. :beer:
I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm coming to the realization now that we're not as good as we thought we were. Still good, with the talent to be great. What we really need to see and what we'll find out in the coming weeks is what Rex is really made of. This is the first time with this team he's facing adversity. Last year, the excuse was built in already with a rookie QB. After going to the AFC title game and hyping the team up the way he did, there's no excuse. 9-2 to 10-6 or god forbid 9-7 and out of the playoffs is inexcusable. Time will tell.
Miss Universe was at the game yesterday. Her first American football game ever. From Mexico. Word is, she unimpressed by the offensive play calling, but marveled at the linebacker play.
Appreciate the response. What I don't get is we really do have a good offensive team. Why the fuck does it all seem so inept? It's pretty damn frustrating.
The easy answer is 2nd year QB. Another easy answer is poor execution. Another easy answer is poor/predictable play design. Combine the three easy answers and you get one extremely confusing dilemma. 4 games with 0 TDs. First game of the season...chalk it up to nerves and overthinking. Game after the bye...it's all good they were rusty. Third game this happened was in the biggest regular season game in recent Jets history. That's when you really start to wonder about wtf is going on. The fourth time was the week immediately following the third. That's when the concerns really start to set in.
It baffles me that the same people who said in September that we weren't a championship team are now angry that we aren't a championship team. :/
Well, I'm different. I take a hard look at the team and set a number of wins in my head and I take it from there. This year it was 11. So at 9-2, I still have 11 wins in my head and in the predictions thread I had 3 losses to the pats, fins, and steelers before winning out, so I'm mentally prepared. But as a fan I still hate the fact that part of the team has to play embarrassing football and it is the sole reason why this team isn't an elite team. That pisses me off. But I believe in the football gods and that there's a bigger picture. Sanchez is only in year two, and needs 50 starts under his belt before we stop seeing the highs and lows of a young QB. We should see a QB who is consistent and can win big games. When it comes to divisional games, all bets are off. The Bengals beat the Ravens this year. That's how odd the NFL is. Teams on occasion go 6-0 against the division opponents, so even that 14-2 team might lose to one of their mediocre divisional opponents. Even though this fact is known, those losses sting the most. The only loss that really hurt me this year was Green Bay. Its inexcusable to get shutout at home after 2 weeks off. Get at least 3 points. Its unfair to the defense, who knows to play their asses off because the offense won't show up that day. Well I have my reservations about Schotty. I think he is a great football mind as long as its not gameday and he isn't making decisions. He knows this game very well and can articulate it to anyone, but he shouldn't be drawing up plays. But he will be a HC one day because of how smart he is monday through saturday. Sanchez is in his 2nd year, and is the least experienced QB coming out of college next to Cassel, but Cassel sat for a while behind Brady before he got thrown into the fire. Sanchez is a entirely different case than all the others and he has to be handled that way. Until year 4, I never want too much on his plate. I also know that the Jets aren't a special case in the NFL. There are teams like them with worse histories or more crushing defeats and that alleviates a lot of the pain I could be feeling. I know there are other teams who go through this shit and that has a lot do with my mentality. That's why I hate the SOJ mentality. When you look past the Jets, the Jets aren't that special of a team. Even with all of the horrific losses, all they are are bad plays blown out of proportion by the media and given nicknames so we remember them forever. This discipline was learned from being on this site, and learning about the other histories of other teams and always keeping the landscape of the NFL in mind.
I think that is what the Jets have always been during the few times where they came this close to success before they fell apart. They were never the 85 Bears or the 86 Giants. They were always the Little Engine That Could - an average to a little above average team that may have overachieved enough to get our hopes up (86, 98, and all of that), before their lack of ability brought everything crashing down. On one hand, I'm optimistic enough to hope that they will get this thing straightened out this season, and make the playoffs. On the other hand, I'm realistic enough to know they're just as capable of ending the season at 9 and 7. I don't say this because of some belief in supernatural intervention, or history repeating itself. I say it because, as much as we all wanted to believe that these Jets were an elite team, it was just a bunch of hype. The truth is that they are just as flawed as every other team, and now we'll see if they have enough of whatever it takes to get over the top.
Perspective. Something that I think many fans lack. None of us predict 16-0 going into a season but fail to take into account that when we say 12-4 or 10-6 or 11-5 that it most likely means we are going to see ugly games from the team. Unless people predict losses with the expectation that both teams will play their absolute best game and the Jets simply won't be good enough.
Last year, I told one of my friends: I hope they didn't throw him to the wolves too soon, and all we will have left when he's done is a punch drunk and battered shell of his former self.
I also appreciate yours and NDmick's response. I guess for me, it's not necessarily a matter of the record, which looks nice, but the way the team has played in the last 4-5 weeks as a whole, record aside, that just has me not believing. And considering the timing, and the way the team is playing and being coached as a whole, it's harder for me to understand the more positive posters than the chicken little posters (and again, this isn't an insult because to me, the sky is falling too).
I just don't see the point in even watching the game if I am going in expecting to see the Jets get their asses kicked. They have sucked for two weeks now and it is brutal to watch. When you look around the NFL every team goes through rough stretches where they look like shit. If I don't believe that it can be turned around I might as well not even watch the game.
That's the expectation I have. In 06 the Jets gave Peyton Manning a good game. They played their hearts out and lost. I was not upset and I had no problem losing to the better team. It took one of Manning's then automatic 4th quarter wins to win it too. Even the AFCCG. The Jets played their ass off until the injuries hit and the offense was ineffective and Manning figured shit out. It was exciting but the better team won and I was happy with the team to show that with all three phases playing well they can win on the road in January and Sanchez can handle the pressure. Awesome But what's odd is that all of the losses under Rex and Sanchez in the regular have been horrific. Its really weird. There aren't really any moral victory losses where you tip your cap to the other team. I'll chalk it up to the young QB for some of them, but I do find it odd that every single loss has been really shitty. Even all of 09. I just checked. There is no good loss in there, they were all messy shit games. That does say something about the identity of this team. When one phase or all 3 phases don't show up, it's cause for some really embarrassing football. When all 3 show up, this team is fucking frightening.
Realistically this team is a season or two away from being a true SB contender. Let's give them the chance. That's the way I feel anyway. Also...Rex Ryan has got to broaden his scope. Lovable as he is, he's got to demand more from his coaches and players. And himself. After the Pats game, the loss yesterday looks even more pathetic. If that's the way the team responds, he has to seriously re-consider his approach to how he relates to everyone under him. I'm not talking changing his nature or personality, but as a head coach he's got to be objective. I just watched the Short Cut of the game yesterday, and what I saw was a just pitiful...
This team, the way it's built, and the personell we have, is a "win now" team. Meaning guys like Bray, Santone, Harris, and all of the other free agents, we won't have this core of '"talent" for 5 years. It's win now, or shut the fuck up.
So you believed in curses until Red Sox won a couple of WS titles. Thanks. I'd rather be ridiculous than a pathetic sore loser like a SOJ fan. So we lost all our games against teams with winning record. Would you rather be us, or the teams that lose to teams under .500? Which piss poor teams are you talking about? Detroit? With Mathew Stafford, they are easily an 8-8 team. Cleveland? They've some really nice football. Oh, and they also beat the Pats. Cincy? They have lost 7 games by one posession. Their record does not reflect that of course. Houston? They are much more competitive than their record indicates. Patriots? They are the best team in the NFL right now. We went 1-1 against them. Nothing wrong with that. Fixed. Why not? So if we make the playoffs, we magically become a good team? Thanks.
