NOTE: Colts post up next. Selections coming Friday.
GENERAL: The New York Jets have played Jim Messina to the the Giants Kenny Loggins for so long it's hard to remember that they were touring with Buffalo Springfield when the other was still sleeping through Freshmen Western Civ.!?!...er... perhaps I've over-referenced here, but one does have to go back to the days of "For What It's Worth" and The Flying Burrito Brothers to find the last time the J-Men were more relevant in the NY-Metro area than the G-Men. For in the Summer of '69 Bryan Adams wasn't the only one having the "best days of his life". You see it wasn't just the acid and pot that had Jet fans high enough to not question what the hell Sha Na Na was doing at Woodstock, but also the fact their team was off its historic Super Bowl III win and primed for even more success. Meanwhile their crosstown rivals were two years removed from a 1-12 season and in the midst of a playoff drought that would eventually take on Clippers-esque proportions. Then suddenly it all went wrong. Between bad knees and chasing every Jill, Jane and Suzy Kolber around Manhattan SB III hero Joe Namath lost his mojo, Wilbur Charles Ewbank hung up his "Weeb" jacket to be replaced by the misnomer-ed Charley Winner and fight song composing Lou Holtz (http://www.realclearsports.com/lists/short_coaching_stints/lou_holtz_jets.html) and after a few bad drafts the J-E-T-S's were staring at 11 straight non-winning seasons. In the meantime the Giants discovered the genius that is Bill Parcells (just ask him), won two Super Bowls in 5 years and NY/NJ fans dropped the Jets faster than Deanna Favre is about to drop Brett.
So no matter how this whole Rex Ryan experiment turns out in the long run it's at least put the Jet-sons on the back covers once again. For the Buddha of the Blitz, the Pharaoh of the FUPA (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FUPA), the Uncle Buck of the Toe Suck is at least entertaining...and, like Parcells, more than a little bit sure of himself. During HBO's Hard Knocks series T-Rex proved cockier than John Holmes on Enzyte by predicticting nothing short of a Super Bowl in 2010. Considering his team snuck past bottom feeders Detroit, Cleveland and Denver by only a combined 13 points all on the road and got slammed 45-3 in Foxboro it may be a little much to expect a championship run out of the 6 hole in this tourney. Still the Jets are in the Big Dance and it's the Giants who are wallflowers this year so crank up the Strawberry Alarm Clock and Canned Heat, man, it's like the Summer of Love all over again!
OFFENSE: Even long before Rex Ryan's father Buddy played Mike Tyson to Kevin Gilbride's Mitch "Blood" Green on Jack Pardee's staff in Houston it was well known that given the choice Defensive Coordinators prefer offenses that run the ball, minimize turnovers and chew clock. In 2009 the Jets ran the ball an ungodly 607 times sparing then rookie QB Mark Sanchez from undue emotional stress and allowing their defense to win them ball games. Of course it's not the Loaves and the Fishes, teams catch up to this type of one-dimensional style so this season NY moved to a nearly 50-50 pass/run split and put more of the onus on Sanchez' shoulders. The results were decidedly mixed as Sanchez recorded a 75.3 QB Rate, up from 65 last year, which put him behind such forgettable 2010 signal callers as Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jon Kitna, Shaun Hill and, good God, Alex Smith and Jason Campbell. Yet if "Off-The Marky" Mark can at least protect the ball the Jets have a chance to play on. In the 6 games (excluding this week) Sanchez threw no interceptions the Jets were 5-1 including the 22-17 win two weeks ago in Pittsburgh. The backfield with a Norv Turner-less and thus rejuvenated LaDanian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene sharing the load is lethal and rested with neither garnering more than 220 carries behind the Mangold and Ferguson ("Honey, if it's boy how 'bout D'Brickashaw") led OL. Braylon Edwards led the team in receiving yards and TDs, but in the past has suffered from more dropped balls than the men's lockerroom in Cocoon. Fortunately the Jets were smart enough to acquire former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes in preseason despite his having to serve a 4 game suspension. Holmes has had some issues with marijuana use/possession, but as one NBA regular noted when Commissioner David Stern raised the idea of testing and suspending players for pot, "they won't be able to field two teams." And with steady Dustin Keller rounding out the skill positions this is a balanced bunch that only needs to hold onto the ball to do damage.
DEFENSE: Like the running game on offense opponents made adjustments in attacking this defense and while still quite good some chinks have been found. Most notably via the air where teams went from a stunningly low 8 TD passes in 2009 to 24 this year. Darrel Revis remains the Human Snuggie at one corner, but teams have utilized slot receivers to greater extent and sniffed out many of Rexy's blitz packages that were ultra-effective a year ago. All this means that the man with the cane, Special Teams Coach Mike Westhoff may become an important player this week. Westhoff, who went to the cane after a few seasons of one crutch- a look only good if you're coming home from the Battle of Antietam- has a solid group led by a steady Nick Folk and solid return man Brad Smith. The Jets drew bad this week getting Peyton Manning instead of Matt Cassel, but if they win the turnover and special team battles the sum of the rest of their parts could be enough to send them to The Hoodies 'hood in New England in a couple of weeks.
