and the World Series is a dud, football season has officially started in NY. now I'm putting all my eggs in the Jets basket...ugh. But somehow, we could be looking at a playoff team here. Our QB is battle tested and throwing the ball better than ever. You know he's got the smarts and the guts, he's been there before. It's a RB by committee but should we ever get Martin back to being a semblance of his former self, then we can use Washington properly (as a change of pace Metcalf type) and have Barlow in for short yardage. Washington is the type that can get beat up and worn down...he's just too small and somebody like that cannot be your feature guy running between the tackles all season. If we can get Martin back, then our running attack will have to be respected by others. Our receivers have been great this year, a little top heavy though. We need to spread the ball around more to Baker, Washington and Dwight, then defenses will pay more attention to them which will lead to more room for Coles and Cotchery. Our passing game has been good but has still not even reached full potential. It's amazing how far we've come in only a year, though injuries have something to do with it. the o line is shakey, chad doesn't get hammered but is pressured too much for my liking, and his cement feet turn into sacks that 2/3 of the qb's in this league would avoid. It's not always the lines fault when he goes down. chad just hangs in too long sometimes and then curls up into a ball. I'd give them a C for the year, but they may yet get better as the season goes on. the defense is where the problems lay, clearly they are not playing a system tailored to there strengths. The pass rush is non existant (and when it does exist we get flagged for BS roughing the passer) the run D is bad, the pass D is ok though a good offense will move the ball against us. We have playmakers on d, we have talent, but too often we look like a chinese fire drill out there. special teams...graham is great, we haven't been talking about Nugent recently which is a good thing. Miller is hit or miss on returns, he hits the holes quickly. usually it's a great return or he gets chopped down at the 17 yard line, you'll never get that consistant return to the 35 like the steady return men. When you look at this team talent wise, they're not that far removed from the 2004 Jets who should've played in the AFC title game. Weaker in some places (RB for the moment, D in terms of cohesiveness) but stronger in others (QB, a repaired Chad, receivers, special teams) If the D ever comes together and plays to the talent level...if we can even get and AVERAGE D together, this team could be in the playoffs especially with our sched. Detroit - W at Cleveland - W at New England - L Chicago - L Houston - W at Green Bay - W Buffalo - W at Minnesota - L at Miami - W Oakland - W That'll put us at 10-6 and in. Who knows exactly the way things will play out. Maybe we'll lose in Miami but beat Chicago, nothing ever goes according to plan but 10 wins is not far fetched. I certainly think we can beat the Vikes, we always play well against them. 11-5, dare to dream?
Lets at least get to the bye week at 5-3 before we start to start talking about playoffs. Playoffs!?!?!? We talking about playoffs?!?!?!? We're lucky if we can win a game.......(picture Jim Mora) Alright enough of that but lets beat Det and Cle then we can maybe talk playoffs!?!?!
Mets have noone to blame but themselves. They waffled the ball all season, but when the playoffs came around, Wright, LoDuca, Valentin all forgot how to hit. Their pitching, their weak link, was GOOD. You couldn't ask for more. Going into the series, if you said the Mets pitching would hold down STL like that, you'd think the Mets would have won 4-1.
The Mets pen deserves at least as much blame as the offense. They blew 2 games, including one in which the Mets scored more then enough to win and had the lead in the 7th inning.
The fact you had everything you could have asked for in the 9th inning, and STILL lost, says it just wasn't meant to be. Every Mets fan and their mother would sign for Beltran being up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th... But when he chokes, it's Willie's fault? or the bullpens fault? And how can you blame the offense? They kept you in this series, but when your Mr. Clutch is not clutch, all of a sudden no one did their job...You lost, it happenns...You don't always need a scapegoat
Who's scapegoating? The offense and the bullpen were supposed to be the strengths of the team and they didn't do the job in this series. That's a fact. The bullpen lost 2 games and the offense scored 2 runs or less in 4 of the 7 games.
Goes to show you that acheiving the best record in BB means NOTHING just like last year when the Steelers went from the 6th position in the POs to CHAMPs. Says a whole lot about stats does it not?
I was talking with my cousin last week while the mets were down 2 games to1 on Sunday That I will never see another Championship in life from any of my teams. 1986 Mets will be the only one and I was 15 at the time. Born in 1971 Mets - 1986 Jets - 0 for my life Knicks - 0 for my life Islanders - Actually won in 1980,81,82,83 but I can not cound those as I was only 9,10,11,12 respectively and the games were all on cable for which I did not have back in the day.
Detroit - W at Cleveland - W at New England - L Chicago - L Houston - W at Green Bay - W Buffalo - W at Minnesota - L at Miami - W Oakland - W That'll put us at 10-6 and in. Who knows exactly the way things will play out. Maybe we'll lose in Miami but beat Chicago, nothing ever goes according to plan but 10 wins is not far fetched. I certainly think we can beat the Vikes, we always play well against them. 11-5, dare to dream?[/QUOTE] I am a sunshiner. But -- there is no way we will run through every "should win" game. We are not that good. I see at least two hiccups. Id guess at Greenbay and perhaps this week or next. Detroit is not that bad. The media just hasnt watched or even read about the games. They were in all the games (except 1) and had games won. And, I can see Favre throwing for 400 yards and 4tds. I cannot pencil in any win. The only one I would even think about is Oak. They stink.
The Mets ben, however, is overhyped. Once Sanchez went down in Florida in a cab, it has been overhyped. Mota was a nice pickup, but when Wagner is the back end of your pen, you have to expect some problems. The pen blew game 2, but I have a hard time saying the pen blew game 7, even though technically they did. When you score 1 run, and get, what.. 4 hits? it's hard to say the pen blew the game... but I see the argument. You know the sad thing? Molina was tipping EVERY SINGLE PITCH. I was calling out Wainright's pitches as he was sitting in the stretch. Why the mets, especially with a runner on second, couldn't figure this out was beyond me. Molina, on EVERY CURVE BALL HE CALLED, turned his mitt over with the catching surface DOWN to tell his pitcher to keep it down and "snap through" (I was a catcher in the minors). That's a no-no. A batter should be able to even notice it when it's done so early.
Let take this week by week. Detroit is not a going to roll over for us. They can put up some big numbers and Roy Williams is scary against our Secondary. I'mnot going to chalk this up until the final gun sounds.
You said 0 for life but you were alive:grin: Speaking of the dynasty isles, it's been great to have Jiggs mcDonald back in the booth while Howie Rose was doing Met playoff games. Unfortunately Howie will be coming back now and he is terrible. I wish jiggs was back for good.
Same as me, I was 9 days shy of 2 when the Jets won the Super Bowl, 6 the last time the Knicks won. Lucky for me I have seen two Dodgers World Series in the 80s and three Devils Cups, so I can't complain too much.
I am sure if it was that easy you would still be playing. But it is not and the Mets are going home. Bottomline is that good pitching will always beat good hitting. The Mets bullpen pitched alot of innings and if wasn't last night, it would have been against the Tigers by game 2 or 3. You simply can't have relief pitchers throw that many innings and not get burned. Once Martinez and Hernandez went down, it was only a matter of time before pitching issue caught up and bit the Mets. You can get away without having 2 of your top 3 pitchers for a period of time in the regular season, but that simply won't do come playoff baseball. If the Mets add another top end arm like Zito (although my preference is for a heavier arm) and can settle the bottom end without Trachsel, they will be back next year.
Why is it that everyone automatically chalks up Minnesota as a loss? They are as beatable as anyone else on our schedule (minus the Bears and maybe the Pats)... speaking of which if the Jets are going to make the playoffs they have to beat New England.
Wagner had been excellent since the middle of July, Heilman had been excellent since Sanchez went down, Mota had been excellent since the Mets acquired him. Meanwhile guys like Wright struggled for a large portion of the second half of the year, and Valentin was an abomination the last month coming into the playoffs. You knew some guys were going to struggle, and the pen needed to be as good as they had been for the Mets all year. They weren't. Even setting aside the tipped pitches issue Beltran's last AB was inexcusable. How could you be looking for anything but that curveball on 0-2?
More importantly, how do you sit on the first pitch fastball? You know that Wainright needs to throw a first pitch strike with the bases loaded. At times the Mets hitters were way too aggressive and others they didn't work the count as well.
