Thought we needed cheering up and all reminding how far this franchise has come and is going Let's see, how many different ways can the word "lame" be applied to yesterday's so-called NFL game at rainswept, near-deserted Giants Stadium? For the Jets, there was a lame quarterback, a lame effort for the second straight week and quite possibly a lame-duck coach. At least there weren't any lame excuses. The Jets, 35-10 losers to the mediocre Oilers, admitted they were dreadful. Afterward, Rich Kotite, who was doused by a beverage-throwing fan as he left the field, stood before his drenched and demoralized players and chided them for "an embarrassing effort." The Jets were so disinterested that they should've been counted among the 55,985 no-shows, an NFL record. Make that 55,986 if you include Neil O'Donnell, whose much-anticipated return was aborted in the pregame warmups. (Insert your ow n joke.) "Pretty strange," left tackle Jumbo Elliott said, "but that kind of represents our season." O'Donnell pulled a calf muscle while playing catch with Frank Reich, and he spent the remainder of the day at home in his familiar role $25 million cheerleader. O'Donnell, who had missed six games with a separated shoulder, could be lost for the remainder of the season. His teammates were lost for the rest of the day. "We kicked them in the stomach, knocked the air out of them and they shut it down," Oilers linebacker Michael Barrow said. Fellow linebacker Barron Wortham added, "When we got them down, I could see they were frustrated and dejected. They were like, 'Damn, not again.' " Who could argue with that assessment? Certainly not the Jets, who fell to a franchise-worst 1-12. That they did it before only 21,731 the second-smallest crowd to watch the Jets since they moved to Giants Stadium in 1984 made it one for the ages. The Dark Ages. "We were horrible," nickel back Lonnie Young said. "This was the first time all year we didn't give our best effort or show consistent intensity. The later it got, the more lackadaisical we were. There was no sense of urgency. It was just bad." The Jets, 4-25 under Kotite, gave every indication they quit. The nightmare included seven dropped passes, two fumbled snaps by Reich and enough sloppy tackling to make rookie Eddie George (28 carries for 141 yards, two touchdowns) look like the second coming of Earl Campbell. Now one question remains: Are the Jets playing out the string for a doomed coach? Kotite, unable to galvanize $70 million in free-agent talent, might want to start preparing his resume. In the last two games, the Jets have been outscored, 70-20. If the Jets keep this up, it will be an easy decision for owner Leon Hess, who watched from his luxury box. Kotite said the defense was "sleepwalking in the first half." But he didn't want to hear the word "quit." Now we're talking semantics. "No, I don't believe they quit," he said. "I saw guys busting their butts in a lot of situations." The Jets, playing like they were afraid to melt in the rain, fell behind at halftime, 21-10, and mailed in the second half. The rain-soaked crowd, which started a "Kotite -----!" chant in the third quarter, didn't cheer until Glenn Foley replaced an ineffective Reich (13-for-27, 154 yards, two fumbled snaps) with 10:19 remaining in the fourth quarter. "That's the first time I heard the crowd boo and treat us that way, but I don't blame them at all," said Keyshawn Johnson, who scored on an 18-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but also dropped two passes to make it five in the last two games. Reich's counterpart, Steve McNair, completed only six of 17 passes, but they went for 142 yards and two touchdowns. Continuing its season-long trend, the Jets defense surrendered four big-play touchdowns a 23-yard pass to Frank Wycheck, who broke tackles by Gary Jones and Young; an 83-yard pass to Chris Sanders, who scorched first-time starting cornerback Marcus Coleman; a 35-yard run by Eddie George and a 24-yard run by Rodney Thomas. The Jets seemed to be dozing on the latter two. "They crushed us up front," said Marvin Washington, who admitted he's not happy about playing out of position at tackle. "I'm to blame for two touchdowns. I just got cut off." George's score was a fundamental running play up the middle, usually the kind that gains three or four yards with a cloud of dust, except the Jets' defense decided to make like the Red Sea. It parted, and George went untouched for a 21-3 lead with 3:48 remaining in the second quarter. "I can't speak for anybody else," middle linebacker Marvin Jones said, "but I didn't play worth a (damn)." Who did?
Its never been like this!Our organization has lost so much respect around the league over the past 2 weeks.People dont just look at us at oh thats the same ole Jets for ya they suck.Now people are disgusted by this franchise and their anticts.The Jets are the villians in this NFL movie!
As a Jets fan, you can't be concerned by what the rest of the league or its fans think about us, just be us and soldier on.
Worst thing is my uncle took me to this game as a birthday present for my 22th birthday!! God it sucked!!!
