I'd Rather Get Beat Up In An Alley

Sorry Schotty- you stink.

How does an offensive coordinator continually, year after year, make such bone-headed idiotic mistakes?   You’d think that someone who spends so much time working on football would comprehend basic offensive strategy.  You know, things like clock management or trying to get 1st downs… or even just understanding that his job is to try to win the game.  It reminds me of Herm Edwards back when he pretended he could coach for a few years (love ya Herm but really).

Lets relive the Jets final drive last night shall we?  We’ve got a 2 point lead with 2:47 left and the Vikings have just used their final time out.  It’s 1st down with 10 yards to go.  All we really need to do is run a play that takes 2 seconds to develop and the Vikings are on the ropes.  It could be a draw play, a pitch to the outside, a qb scramble…  anything that gets us to within 45 tics of the 2 minute warning.   At this point “yardage gained” becomes secondary to “time off the clock.”  All Minnesota could hope for is to get the ball back with maybe 30 seconds or so.   I’m going to remind you that they had exactly zero timeouts left.

I guess going for the jugular isn’t Schotty’s cup of tea because he once again got cute (or stupid- semantics I s’pose) and called a quick run followed by 2 passes.  Instead of pinning the Vikings with no time on the clock, we gave them almost 2 minutes to put together a drive that only would require a field goal to win the game.  In the words of Mark Sanchez’s great grandfather, “No Bueno.”  If you watched the game I’m sure you will agree with me when I say that we looked doomed.  Favre had been torching our defense the entire 4th quarter and 1 of two things was about to happen-  Favre was going to tear out the hearts of Jet Nation or Favre was going to throw an interception.  Thank the football gods it was the latter.

I just don’t understand it.  I’m not a professional football player, coach, ball boy, or cheerleader (well maybe) but this is basic to the game.  It’s fundamental.  What’s up with this dude?  I’ve seen him call double reverse pitches in a biblical rainstorm, in-completions on 3rd and inches, spread formations with an immobile quarterback, and pass plays to a hard nosed runner with hands made of stone.  How many times do I have to watch our offensive play calling hurt us?  Enough already.  Had we lost this game Schotty’s name would be mud and the back page of the Post would be hilarious at his expense.

Laveranues Coles has been the Grumpy Smurf on offense for awhile now. He wasn’t happy with Mangini’s training camps, he hates having to catch balls that are thrown too hard, and he missed his good buddy Chad Pennington. I think his sensitive hands miss Chad’s lobbed passes more than anything but hey that’s just me. After meeting with Rex Ryan this week, they’ve agreed to part ways amicably. Coles has been released and the Jets no longer owe him the 7 million bucks he was guaranteed (if I understand it correctly we’re now going to take a 1 million dollar hit). Halleluja.

This off season is off the hook. The list of recent non-Jets reads as such: Brett Favre, Mike Nugent, Chris Baker, Brandon Moore, David Barrett, Eric Barton (probably anyway), David Bowens, and now Grumpy Smurf. We’re clearing cap space faster than Bill Belichik can grab our unwanted players. You gotta know Chris Baker’s been targeted by the Pats right? I’ll bet anyone 50 bucks right now that Coles ends up with Chad in Miami. This is unbelievably…. something. I don’t know what but I just hope Tannenbaum has a Plan A, a Plan B, and a Plan C.

The team that just 3 weeks ago was reported to be in “Cap Hell” is now at least 22 million under and I bet that number will continue to grow until the start of Free Agency this Friday. That’s a ton of money to play with. Who are we targeting? Who does Rex have his eye on?

I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that a large chunk of Baltimore’s defense will be making the move to Jersey this spring. The Ravens pretty much made Terrell Suggs unatainable but beyond that, I don’t think there’s anything stopping Bart Scott, Ray Lewis, or Jim Leonard from coming here. So Ray Lewis is old and he wants to play in Dallas… perfect. Pick up Scott and Leonard.

As of right now we officially need a Wide Receiver. I’m hoping for TJ Houshmandzadeh as well as a player in the draft. Isn’t Ocho Cinco dying to get out of Cincinatti too? Coles really wasn’t the receiver he has been in the past. Between the dropped game breaking balls and the concussions he was starting to have, his whining really started to irk me. We’ve still got Jerricho Cotchery and he’s tough as nails. Even if it’s Clowney who lines up at least we’re putting some speed on the field.

Friday will hopefully reveal some of the Jets plans for free agency. Good players go quickly so I’m hoping (praying) that Woody has the checkbook raring to go. This is no time to sit on our butts and watch. By all indications the Jets have some $$$ burning a hole in their pocket and are ready to pounce. This is the Jets we’re talking about though, so you know it wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up getting Terrell Owens. Let me be clear, this is in no way an endorsement of TO. He’s a punk and I’m glad Jet’s fans aren’t even mentioning his name on team websites. Except I just kinda sorta did…

The 2008/2009 football season refuses to end for the Jets. To be honest, the past few weeks of the offseason have been more fun than that winless December when the Green Folk were underachieving on a monumental scale. First, there was the immediate firing of Cangini, followed by the hiring of D-Rex, and now Brett Favre has announced his plans to retire. Finally, all of our questions have been answered right? Not so much actually…

By retiring, Favre released the Jets from paying him 13 million buckaroos next year. Last week we were about 4 million dollars over the salary cap. Now, depending on who you’re listening to, we’re somewhere between 5 and 17 million under. That’s a pretty big swing and I wish I had D-Rex’s ear for an hour or so. Free Agency is suddenly fertile ground for a Jet fan’s imagination what with all those corner backs, all of those Ray Lewis’s, and all of those veteran quarterbacks milling about.

Debates on the Jets quarterback situation are raging across the interweb. Some people are demanding that we pick up a Byron Leftwich or Jeff Garcia. Others are claiming that Brett Ratliff is the second coming of Johnny Unitas after he burned several 3rd string defenses in the preseason. Me? Part of the reason the Favre acquisiton looked so great was that Kellen Clemens has a similar skill set. Clemens spent enough time watching Pennington be the “onfield general” that couldn’t ever beat a tough defense. Last year Clemens backed up the anti-Pennington. I would hope he’s learned from both and I for one would be happy with him taking the snaps under center. Ratliff had some great highlights but Kellen’s faced live bullets and he looked better than Duck Pennington doing so. I just hope he picked up a little of the Favre-ness he saw last season, specifically the part that never gives up on any play until the whistle blows or you score a touchdown.

Last week when Ray Lewis mentioned the Jets as a team he’d like to play for I didn’t see how we could justify getting an aging linebacker that would further push us over the salary cap. Now that we might be able to afford him I can’t help but see his upside. “YOU MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!” He knows the defense better than Sutton ever did. You want an onfield general? That’s exactly what Ray Lewis is… a pitbull/water buffalo mix that understands the hard hitting side of football as well as the strategic. One thing’s for sure when Lewis is on the field, his teammates are in position and that’s one area where we truly stank last season.

If I were sitting in Tannenbaum’s seat, I’d be intent on patching up the holes in our defense- namely the secondary. We stopped the run last season thanks to Jenkins, but our secondary made a bad habit of turning crappy QB’s into probowl contenders. Mr Tannenbaum, I beseech you sir, please go forth and make a run at Nnamdi Asomugha. Two shut down corners would free up our safeties to ball hawk. Kerry Rhodes sure talks a big game after having an utterly forgettable season. Let’s see if he can back it up… otherwise, we’re paying him too much money.

The Jets officially have a new coach and while his pedigree is fierce, he lacks chops when it comes to head coaching experience. Jets fans got what we wanted- a fire breathing quarterback killer who’s defense promises blitzes from any postition at any time. We can expect kitchen sinks, safes falling from the sky, cornerbacks hiding behind referees, and hopefully a tenacious ball hawking D. By all reports Rex Ryan is ecstatic about this opporunity and he floored the front office when he interviewed. Despite being in the AFC championship game, Ryan not only came in prepared- the man came in with a full on PowerPoint presentation. The next few weeks will be interesting for Rex, he’s got lots of stuff on his plate to deal with and some of it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

First of all, Rex will have to bring in a new Defensive Coordinator. Bob Sutton‘s been as good as gone for months now and Ryan surely will be bringing in somebody he trusts to build his trademark blitz-happy soon to be Patriot-destroying defense. Since he’s made it sound like this is his dream job, I can only assume Rex already knows who his new coordinator will be. Interestingly enough, Romeo Crennel is still floating around as a free agent coach after being fired by the Browns. He’s proven himself to be a great Defensive Coordinator but I think Rex will be tapping someone he’s worked with rather than another big-name defensive mastermind. Would be interesting though wouldn’t it? I feared Mangini would team up with the former Browns head coach and further humiliate all of us over here in Jet’s land but it looks like that’s not happening. He’ll probably find a way to humiliate us all by himself.

What about the Offensive Coordinator? It makes no sense but by every report I read or see Brian Schottenheimer appears to be returning. He must have gotten someone in Woody’s family pregnant because otherwise he would have been canned right after the Jets almost lost to the Bills but before the offense didn’t take the field against Seattle. The only other scenario I could come up with is that maybe Mangini secretly made all the bad play calls last season and let Schotty take the blame. Maybe Brian’s been telling Woody for the past few years that “there is no Mangenius” and “it’s his fault we keep throwing the ball on 3rd and inches.” It’s a stretch I know but there is no other explanation why Woody and Tannenbaum are so madly in love with Schottenheimer… they share a serious Bromance those three and I just don’t get it.

Rex also must make some personnel decisions and none of them are more important or immediate than the Brett Favre situation. Will he retire? Should he retire? Does Ryan even care? Woody, Tannenbaum, and Schotty all have expressed their hope that Brett returns but what if Ryan doesn’t even want him? On one hand, he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback that never gives up (on a play or his career) and has thrown way more touchdowns than anybody ever. On the other hand, he looked like dog puke for the final month of the season and has thrown way more interceptions than anybody ever. It also needs to be said that Rex just finished a run deep into the playoffs with a rookie at the helm of his team’s offense. What did Coach Ryan learn from that experience?

Once the curtain falls on the Favre situation, Rex will be able to focus on his new baby; our beloved broken 3-4 defense that just can’t stop the pass and the run during the same season. He’s going to assess what pieces of the puzzle we do have (Jenkins) and what we need (some serious help in the secondary). I honestly think this is why Ryan got the job. According to ESPN, a large part of Ryan’s presentation highlighted Vernon Gholston‘s potential. Rex seems to think he has the ability to be another Lee Suggs.

The overall message to Jets fans and to the candidates for head coach has been that Woody is looking to win now. He’s not looking for a coach to come in and start from scratch but instead for someone to come in and work with the infrastructure we have in place. Rex fits that bill to a D. By choosing a coach who will embrace our 3-4 Woody’s brought in someone who could conceivably win the AFC East next season. We’ve got 7 pro-bowlers and Tom Brady’s looking pretty shakey to return next season. That other QB in the East that everyone likes to throw in Jets fans’ faces? It was Ryan that engineered Pennington’s 4 interception demise just three weeks ago.

Getting beaten up by a bunch of street punks wouldn’t have been anywhere near as painful as the last five weeks have been for Jets fans. The Football Gods just opened up their golden endzone, smiled upon the Jet faithful, and then poo-ed all over us. Wow that one sucked. I’m good at rationalizing but this was tough. I can’t help but wonder if Belichick’s karma contributed. The powers-that-be would rather see Manigini fired than a cheater coach his way through injuries galore and return to glory.

Eric Mangini had to go. The consistent problems we’ve had – an inability to adjust to other team’s game plans, the inability to win in the Pacific time zone, the inability to stop the pass (any pass), the reluctance to run the ball with the AFC’s leading rusher, stupid play calling, stupid time management, penalties penalties penalties – everything points to a coach who just isn’t getting the job done. We had Pennington, Belichick, and the rest of the East in a headlock with the most talented team in the league (7 pro-bowlers). My little sister would have had a problem screwing this one up. You know how, for the past month, you were thinking, “This can’t really be happening?” So was the front office. Of course they fired him at the first opportunity. He’s been ineffective since he sat down for Thanksgiving dinner.

So Bill Cowher was going to come in and be interviewed, then he wasn’t, then he was again, and now he’s not. Again. Who knows what’s going on with this one?

Bill Parcells will probably duck out of Miami and it makes sense if only for the Marbury themed paychecks he’ll be getting. Why not get paid Millions not to work and get paid millions to work at the same time. Same amount of work, twice the cash. Double dipping is as American as “cheese food” and just as tasty. Last time I checked, Parcells is an American.

Mike Shannahan got canned. Which I love, because I hate the Broncos and I really hate Jay Cutler. For Shannahan to have gotten fired it means the Broncos must have really screwed up… and boy did they. Shanny is a great coach but also a dirty one. Remember those Broncos players flopping against the Jets every time our offense got some momentum? Shannahan coaches to win and it’s not always pretty. Belicheat vs Shannahan twice a year? There’s going to be some busted knees if this one happens.

So, yeah we need a coach and the list of prospects is getting longer by the day. Ideally here’s what I’d like to see happen. Parcells leaves Miami, grabs Romeo Crennel as his defensive coordinator, and gives Jerry Jones the finger on his way into town. Then he fixes our secondary and lights a fire under Favre’s ass.

For my two cents Favre can’t be blamed until his receivers stop letting balls fly through their hands. I’ve lost so much respect for Laveranues Coles this season. Favre threw waaaaay too many interceptions but he never gave up on a single play. Unfortunately, his team often did.

The good news is, by firing Mangini “Next Year” has already begun for Jets fans. So much is up in the air… speaking of balls in the air, our secondary needs some serious off-season attention. Here we go again….

Happy New Year to All!!!

To Be Continued…