By any objective metric or reasonable measure of subjective judgment, the Jets '09 season was a resounding success. With a rookie QB and a rookie head coach, we went to the AFC title game. I could stop there, but we also sustained injuries to two of our best players early in the season and witnessed impressive performances by young players in their absence. I know we are all disappointed by the game today, especially after the extremely impressive first half, but to leave today in anger, whether it's directed at the officials or the Jets themselves, is foolish. The Colts are a great team, possibly one of the best teams ever. They enter the Super Bowl having gone undefeated when playing their starters for 60 minutes. We were not going to win unless they struggled mightily, and in the second half they played their best football, which is the best anybody can play. With a mediocre or poor defense, this would've been a 3 or 4 possession loss. And it is because of that outstanding defense and promising young offense that I am optimistic as I look towards 2010. There's no reason that the Jets can't once again feature the best defense in the league (or at least pretty damn close), and with a couple extra parts (including Kris Jenkins) I suspect we will. Another year of growth for Mark Sanchez and Shonn Greene combined with the return of Leon Washington will do the offense wonders as well. It would be remarkably pessimistic to expect anything less than an AFC East title. It is for these reasons that, in keeping with the tone of this post (if you read the whole thing, you deserve a medal, bravo!), I caution against any big moves (with the exception of a possible Thomas Jones move, although given we have two other very promising backs, his significance to team is debatable). We should keep Brian Schottenheimer, who led a rookie QB to the AFC title game. The micromanagement of his play-calling was for the most part unfounded. Perhaps at times we would've called a different play, but we also probably wouldn't have had a rookie QB 30 minutes away from the Super Bowl. Instead of pointing fingers, I invite all Jet fans to join me in enjoying the fact that we made the AFC title game for the first time in over a decade, and, even more cause for excitement, the team is built around young talent that can do it again (and more) with a promising first-year coach. Congrats, everybody. (Hopefully this post isn't too long and annoying)
I have no idea what you posted, because it was way too long to read, but I think the main thing about this loss is that we didn't lose the SOJ's way, we lost because the Colts were just the better team. Their offense was better than our defense and that's all it came down to. Our future looks bright, we have a solid foundation, we'll build on it and come back with a better team next year and we'll see what happens then.
good run....future looks good....need some pieces and we'll hopefully be back to this game next year.
Agreed that our offense is primed to take a big step but expecting an AFC East title? Let's calm down and re-evaluate after the off season
From a Pat's fan I just wanna say, good run. Even though you shouldn't have been int he playoffs, you made the best of it. Now you know what it's like. The officials just LOOOOVVEE the Indianapolis Peyton Manning's err I mean Colts. That's all it takes. A few crappy calls. Get the team frustrated and BAM the Colts are in it again. It's how they win all their games.
Who's beating us? I guess the Pats and Dolphins each have cases, but we have to be the favorites, don't we? We have the best defense and a promising young offense. The Pats are getting old and Miami doesn't have the QB yet.
Thanks, man. The only thing I felt the Jets should have really gotten call-wise was when Sanchez got hit when he was running away from the play after that hand-off. If the Jets did that to Manning, or Brady for that matter, that would have be unnessary roughness. Rex was furious.
If anyone had told me at the beginning of the season that the Jets would have the lead at half time of the AFC title game I woulda asked who provided their drugs. The positives. We started the season with perhaps the least experienced QB in NFL history, I mean the guy had started what, 16 College games? And Sanchez's lack of experience showed hard for a good part of the season, but by the playoffs Sanchez no longer looked like an inexperienced wet behind the ears kid and quite frankly today, with the exception of one floater across the field to avoid a sac (that he was lucky wasn't a pick) he looked like the real deal. Next year i think we can open up the offense abit more. Shonn Greene, Again he's shown that he's the real deal and perhaps the steal of the draft. Greene makes it possible to let TJ go if Leon looks to be back next year. Maybe let TJ go to free agency so we can pick up a free agent? anyways, Greene is a monster and his not being in for the second half really hurt this team. Dustin Keller, he's stepped up this season as a reliable reciever and a mismatch for other teams defenses, if we can add a slot reciever it'll just make Dustin all that more effective. The negatives-The pass rush was non existant at the end of the season here and could only be generated when we rushed 6 or more. That has to change, the blitz should only add more pressure, not be relied on to create any pressure. The Blitz should be a luxury not a necessity as it puts tremendous pressure on the secondary. Unfortunately today we were up against perhaps the best QB in the NFL at beating blitzs.
