I think Mangini was fired because he was brought in here to do a job a certain way and circumstances, like a new stadium, dictated a flashier approach. I believe results had less to do with him being let go and a fundemental disagreement on the direction of the team which might have been with Woody as much or more than it was with Tannenbaum. All speculation but that's the beauty of Mangini getting another job so quickly. We get to see where we go and where they go.
I think Mangini's biggest mistake was scrapping his defense halfway through the season, because as you allude to, he lost his player leadership at that point. People can harp on the losing of games, but teams that buy into their coach's plan don't lay down like the Jets did in the second half of 2008. However, I've seen plenty of HCs have their team quit on them and they get another chance based on personnel decisions and circumstances out of their control. Mangini did help build a hell of a roster for Rex to take over, and there was little he could have done as far as Favre's shoulder injury. If it was truly Mangini who pushed the ridiculous play-calling on the offensive side, something the jury still hasn't decided on yet, then I would agree with you that it was a no-brainer. But the rest of it wasn't so earth-shattering that it dictated an immediate firing after the season ended, IMO. WB's right on the above post, though - we have 2 new control groups to help us decide whether Woody did the right thing or if he did the Jets thing.
The four games that ended it for Mangini, IMO, were the Oakland, SF, Denver and Seattle games. In the Oakland game, the Jets literally should have run the ball 45+ times. That Oakland defense was horrible and the Jets ran for 242 yards with Leon ONLY touching the ball 6 times (3 runs/3 rec) for a total of 40yds and 1 TD. Brett Favre threw the ball 38 times and 2 picks. Just doesn't make much sense. AFTER Favre got hurt- and if you believe the press reports - the Jets knew it was bad BUT STILL MANGINI APPROVED PASS HEAVY GAME PLANS???? HUHHH??? Especially against teams with absolutely atrocious defenses. Against Denver, the Jets ran the ball 19 times for over 140 yards and Favre threw it 43 times. Leon had 5 total off touches. Against SF, the Jets only ran the ball 12 times and Favre throw it 31 times. Leon 7 total off touches. And finally against SEA, the Jets ran it 25 times and had Favre throw it 31 times in crappy weather. Leon had 3 total off touches. In each game, our defensive genious HC lost to downright crappy teams - OAK, SF and SEA had horrible offenses. Even if we give him the Denver lose because of the offense, the Jets should have been 3-1 in those games even with Favre hurt. That would have put the Jets at 12-4, won the division and the team would have had a home playoff game. Even if they lose that playoff game - everyone would have said how great Favre played being hurt and Mangini AND Favre probably both would have come back. Instead, Mangenious changes up the defense and gets conservative (probably because Jenkins got hurt and he figured the offense could have carried the team given the firepower displayed against TEN, NE, ARI and STL) and approves probably the stupidest offensive gameplans I have seen since Joe Walton. Remember, this guy won 10 games with Chad's arm in 2006 behind a creative offense - you mean to tell me that Favre's hurt arm is worst than Chad on his best day? No way. Mangini choked and he got tight so he went conservative defensively and boneheaded offensively. That is why he got fired.
You can't forget Buffalo. If it wasn't for that freak fumble return, Mangini would have game-managed us to an 8 win season at the hands of Dick Jauron and JP Losegames. I couldn't believe that Leon didn't get a single carry after he took that 47 yard run to the house. Mangini turtled, and maybe it was too reminiscent of Herm for them to stomach. I can only hope...
Damn - I forgot about Buffalo. Kinda funny though, as it was definately our unlikely Joe P fumble in the Meadowlands scored TD win game moment. For the Giants it worked out as they ended up by losing the game and cleaning house and hiring Bill Parcells. Perhaps it bizarro Jet world, they win the game, clean house and hire our BP in Rex Ryan!
Great post, but if I had to choose a favorite part, it's this. The whole 'play to win' thing has been beaten to death, but the visual of Herm whipping out that letter from the commish congratulating the Jets on making the playoffs is THE BEST. It was like the kid that made the 6th grade only after it was established that a 1.65 GPA was good enough to graduate from elementary school and he's waving his report card around...
Great posts, Kleck. Abyz, Kleck laid it out better than I did, and I think you agree his points are persuasive. It certainly looked liked the D was some combination of having given up and/or given poor game plans down the stretch. And as Kleck also reminds us, we saw a huge choke job there by the gum chewer. Yeah, maybe 12-4 was a bit of a stretch, but also remember as I am sure you do if it weren't for Ellis falling on the ball they would have lost all their games down the stretch against some pretty weak opponents. Perhaps if 07 were not also mediocre at best, the stretch performance last year might not have been enough to force him out, but I think he had little of the good will from 06 left over. Also excellent points made here about not knowing how to apportion blame for coaching the O. We shall certainly see as this year progresses how well Schott does without Mangini around, but on the other hand with this group of receivers I don't think you'll see many points scored even if Bill Walsh came back from the grave to be the OC.
I'm not saying it was the wrong thing to do, firing Mangini. But he must have truly screwed the pooch from an internal standpoint (something not available to fans) to have them shit-can the HC and keep almost the entire staff outside of him intact. It reeked of scapegoating, and scapegoating is certainly NOT a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it was warranted, but we won't know that until we start seeing how Schotty calls his offense this year. Because, defensive struggles aside, the true cause of the 2008 New York Jets collapse was almost certainly the offensive playcalling.
All corporate management is politiical, particularly those that are in the public spotlight. Mangini was hired to impliment a rebuilding plan. Half way through the plan they put the Daniel Snyder plan into action. Obviously there was belief by either the owner, the GM or both that these moves made us an instant contender. When we got to 8 and 3 it sure looked that way. The collapse down the stretch which was partially on the breakdown of Favre and partially on the lack of a quality back up at Nose Tackle expossed the lightning in a bottle approach. Easier to cut bait with the HC than fire the GM who was in snyc with the owner.
The problem with the rebuilding approach is that they started out with the Bradway philosophy in FA. They drafted well and acquired 'diamond in the rough'-style JAGs in FA and via trades that could not produce. The Favre thing is the only one I can realistically term a Snyder-style move. I liked the Pace signing and LOVED the trade for Jenkins, but just as Bradway had done with Herm, they refused to address depth on the lines. Cutting bait with the HC doesn't address all of the problems that occurred, it becomes mostly a token gesture when there rest of the group comes out unscathed.
