I don't think I said his meltdown was solely because of play calling. I think that played a big role, and I think it played a big role in Pennington not playing as well as he usually did too. The Jets run for more yards and a better average than the Vikings and Dolphins. Adrian Peterson and Ronnie Brown are clearly better backs than Thomas Jones, but he is no slouch.
Peterson is probably the best RB in the league, Brown and Williams are the reason the Wildcat works as well as it does when they're both healthy. Of course that all began because Chad showed up there with the "Brad Smith package" ideas from Shotty and the Jets. Pennington only had Jones for a few games in 2007, he got hurt in Week 1 and both were hampered by a sub-par line. In 2006 we made the playoffs mostly because of Shotty and Chad leading the offense with a bunch of rookies and fill-ins, unless we're still buying into the "Mangenius" phenomenon. You get Clemens, Favre or Sanchez in there giving away posessions and no OC is going to look very smart.
The wildcat didn't come about because of Chad. Parcells had been tossing the idea around for a while but never had the personnel until he went to Miami. He hired a coach specifically for this formation. I cannot remember his name off the top of my head. I think a lot of the success with Schottys system in '06 was because it was new to the league with some things that defenses hadn't seen before. By the time the playoffs rolled around it was old news and BB had a pretty good bead on it.
Ok so maybe Favre wasn't the best guy around here but playing for Mangini (look how much players love him in Cleveland) and Schotty's O (nightmare to learn) wasn't the best way to get him motivated.
There was very little dropoff for Favre in December for the first 12 years of his career, but since 2004 the numbers are quite stark. For 2004-2008 Favre's TD/INT splits were 97/64 for September through November, and 21/37 for December/January (not including playoffs). In cold/bad weather games over the last 5 years in December he is even worse (10 TD/28 INT). His September-November split this year is a ridiculous 24/3, but in the past 5 years he has consistently been at his worst in December. If that doesn't happen this year it's very reasonable to think that at least part of it is that he doesn't have to play in Green Bay or New Jersey this year.
He also had a much better team which kept the ball away from our O for 8 minutes in the 4th quarter to ice that playoff game. Not much a QB or OC can do about that, it's amazing we were even in the playoffs with that team. Haven't been back since.
Henning ran the wildcat at Carolina before schotty even thought of it. Henning ran the wildcat and he brought in a college coach to help with it. It had nothing to do with Schotty. I know you are a big Chad fan, as am I. Schotty basically got Chad ran out of NY with his crappy offense.
Brees shit the bed in the NFC playoffs when he had to play outside in Chicago and Payton struggled big time outdoors in the playoffs. There is no question the dome pads stats especially late in the year. This year in the NFC you could have 5 dome teams in the playoffs. MN and NO for sure, Dallas which has a roof, Arizona indoors and Atlanta is still in the Wild card game. That is big for Brees and Favre. Take either one of them outside to Philadelphia, NY or Greenbay different ball game.
I think Favre is the most hated player by Jets fans for someone that actualy played for us. And I think it's deserved. I hope he plays again next year, only to allow Jets' fans the chance to boo him when Minnesota plays at the Jets next season.
I don't get how Jets fans hate a dude who was 8-3 until he tore his bicep muscle and was still ordered to throw in the Seattle snow 35 times by Schotty and Mangini. Its on the coaches for his collapse, not him. I find it very ignorant to hate the guy. Anyone thinking he was going to be here for more than one year was lying to themselves. Everyone forgets he was on the Madden Cover. I don't know why anyone thought he was going to be an MVP with being on that cover. Educate yourselves.
His arm was fine, we always hear about what a warrior he is b/c he plays through pain so when he plays hurt he doesn't get that excuse. It was obviously more than just Brett but he was the biggest reason. He was making bonehead decisions more than not being able to make certain throws and he was NOT great leading us to 8-3, he had a nice 3-4 game stretch through the Ten game and supposedly he was leardy hurt by then so how come he can win at Ten hurt but not against the crappier teams we played down the stretch? I always liked favre and I'll look back at his career fondly, i just don't like how he used the Jets when he never wanted to be here. He was put into a difficult circumstance coming here a month before the season but he knew the O well enough and we had a good enough team to make a run and he was awful. I felt he owed us one more year but he wanted to get back at GB and get to Minny so he walked out on us(don't fool youself about being released either). I think long term he will have been good for us since it led to us getting rex and Sanchez but we wasted a season where we would have won the div had we not made the move.
I actually edited the Wikipedia entry on Favre's year of the Madden curse, so I consider myself educated on it.
I agree with most of this. I think Favre gave it his best shot once he got here, but he got in late so he didn't start well, then he got hurt, seemed to lose interest and finished horribly. So what we ended up with was a good four or five games from him playing anywhere near the level he's capable of. What I get tired of is the fans and media constantly kissing his ass like he's without fault, this goes back to before he was here. If any other QB had thrown seasons away like Favre did in OT in Philly in the playoffs a few years ago or vs the Giants in the 2007 NFC Championship Game, he'd be taken to task a lot more harshly. As great as he can be, he's proven to be an overrated, self-centered player who is overly worshipped by some. After seeing him come here and choke away a season like Ken O'Brien and Boomer Esiason before him, it gets very tiring to keep hearing how great he is. Now that he's beating up on teams like the Lions in a living room with Adrian Peterson behind him, it rings hollow with me. I don't care how many fanboys want to keep pumping him up, I don't hate Favre, I'm just sick of hearing about him.
Does he get "warrior" points for playing hurt or does he get to use it as an excuse? His arm was still good enough to win w/, he was just making terrible decisions and he looked like a guy who didn't want to play football in the cold unlike early in his career when he thrived in the cold.
I don't know how any Jets fan that heard his pregame "pep" talk before the Fins game can still defend him. The guy used the Jets, he never wanted to be here and it showed in his play. Screw Favre, if he played well down the stretch we would have heard what a warrior he was, he played like crap so he blamed the "injury" and got the Jets fined in the process. I loved getting Favre and still think it was the right move because it forced us to move on from Pennington and get our future at the position. The guy is a POS though and I will never root for him again. What does it say about the guy whose only motivation to continue playing is to get revenge for the organization that made him what he is today and the fanbase that adored him?
Warrior points? He should have taken himself out and/or been pulled by Mangini. He played like shit and the arm was a factor. Don't sit here and say the arm was fine. If his arm was fine, why did he have surgery on it?
