What about just play calling in general? (looks around) I'm surprised no one has said this yet. After the Raiders game and Mangini and Co, listened to everyone's outcry about their bad play calling and it they fixed it. We played to our strengths, not trying to outsmart the other team, ran Leon more and blitzed regularly. ...Then we were sitting on top of the division. I've noticed anytime Mangini has had some room for comfort he goes into his shell and thinks his ultra-conservative play will somehow win us the game. This happened last year when Mangini had some job security from the previous year and just thought that if we showed up the Jets would win. That happened this year, but in intervals. Once we beat Tennessee we didn't have to make adjustments, we didn't need to be risky on plays, we just needed to show up. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN MANGINI!
We seem to play down to the level of our opponents. I can't understand it, but the lesser the opponent, the more trouble we have. See: Oakland, Kansas City, San Diego, Cincinnatti, Seattle. Yes, we beat KC and Cin, but barely. You can even throw Arizona in there. We scored a lot of points, but couldn't stop them at all.
Like I said a couple of weeks ago....maybe we just aren't that good: http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=39382
"Hotels in Tampa " thread did them in .. seriously .. cockiness .. Yeah...I'm sure no Patriots fan has ever been cocky about their team before, that's how you guys were able to win so many.
As I posted in another thread, the other teams have figured out the Jets. The Jets rely on the short passes to move the ball, which worked well at the time against the Patriots and the Titans. Since then, teams have adjusted and are playing closer to the line. Without a legitimate deep threat, the Jets have nothing. The receivers could not get open today (or the past few games). Love Brett or hate him, at some point he will start putting up the ball in hopes to make something happen. That is what you will get with him when things are down. It's clear that the Jets haven't been able to adjust to the way things are going since the game plan just has not been working lately.
You're right in the sense that everyone seems to think we should be running like a well oiled machine. We're just kind of breaking in the new engine right now. Feeling shit around and finding out what makes it go. But this team is better than it's been playing, and it sucks that they're not. They'll play better though, and people will circle jerk and so on. It's a pointless and vicious cycle. Fuckin' sports.