If Favre would have stayed healthy all of the 2008 season I think the Jets could gone deep into the playoffs. Maybe win the whole thing.
Not within my memory (or lifetime), but I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned Jets-Colts September 24, 1972 and the greatest QB duel ever played.
Namath had maybe the sickest statistically game in football history that day. 15 for 28. On those 15 completions 496 yards, 6 TD's and 1 Int. He averaged over 33 yards per completion. Unitas by comparison had a pedestrian 26 for 45, 376 yards and 2 TD's. Rich Caster had 6 catches for 204 yards and Eddie Bell had 7 for 197. Eddie Bell was a 9th round draft pick. 72 was the only year he had more than 350 yards receiving. In 72 Namath lead the league in passing yards, passing TD's, yards per attempt, yards per catch, and yards per game. That was after missing most of the 1970 and 1971 seasons with injuries.
No doubt about it. I still blame Favre and Mangini for not pulling him out when he was injured. He sacrificed team success just to keep his streak going. You could argue that an injured Favre is better than a healthy Kellen Clemens, but he could have given the Jets a chance those last few games.
I don't blame him one bit. The Jets rode Favre to their 8 and 3 record. We had a mediocre D. Almost every game we won that year our O put up a lot of points. We weren't a playoff team with Clemens and that's after 8 and 3. We brought in Favre to win now. He broke down and it didn't work. The following year after we dumped Favre he took the Vikings to 12 and 4. We didn't have an option. Think of it this way, with Favre as our QB in 2009 we might well have won the SB. We should have kept him in 2009.
I thought of that many times. You never know if the defense would have been as good as it was with Favre scoring more points, but it definitely makes you wonder. If the Jets had the #1 D and a healthy Brett Favre, it would have been difficult for them NOT to have won the Super Bowl. Swapping Sanchez with Favre would change so many variables, so it is hard to know how it would have went. They would have been pretty good though and definitely Super Bowl caliber.
Although Although I agree beating the patsies in NE is most certainly tops, my second is beating the Steelers for the first time in Pittsburgh ever..... Observe:
