NY Jets 34 NE Patriots 31

This was not supposed to be the Friday Post for a NY Giants blog. But there was simply too much to comment on here. Eric Mangini is a browning moron, and if he ever coached my team I would need to keep a full supply of barf bags handy. I may never have seen a game that was a more glowing example of the insanities of the Prevent Offense and Prevent Defense. This Jets team broke Rules 15 and 16 so many times, I lost track.

The Jets go up 24-6 late in Q2 and Bob Popa and Cris Collinsworth are anointing the Jets for having completely dismantled this Patriots team. And rightly so. But they are forgetting one thing. Manidiot.

Rule # 17: Players are told to play for 60 minutes. Yet who benches the head coach when he only coaches for 50? In this case, if the Jets coaches had coached for 50, that would have been radical. By this count, it was more like 36 minutes. Disgraceful.

1) Forget benching the coach, how about firing him. The Jets defense goes soft, into Prevent Defense1. Belichick has decided to go for it on 4th and 3 (which I believe is a mistake, take the FG) at the 23 with 2:40 left Q2. Sack for change of possession. So now you REALLY think that the Jets will go into the half up 24-6. But there is more.

2) Now the Jets have the Ball and go into the Prevent Offense1. It may not look like it in the stat sheet, but the Jets were doing the coronation, happy and fat.

3) The Jets go into the Prevent Defense2, and with the Patriots in no huddle, they march all the way down the field in ~1:30 and score to make it 24-13 at the half. SINFUL. Terrible.

4) The Potent Jets offense, which put up a zillion yards in H1, went into hibernation, Prevent Offense2. There was NO ATTACK in it. The dial was set to SLEEP.

5) Naturally the Patriots keep chipping away, until they score with 10:16 left in Q4 to tie the game 24-24. Remarkable. Effectively, the Jets coaching staff took off from 2:40 in Q2 to 10:16 in Q4, about 22 minutes. Very nice.

6) Wait a second, the game is tied? Okay, Okay, say the coaches. Time to wake up and play again. So the Jets drive down into the red zone, get a questionable holding call on Vrabel (breaks my heart) and a few plays later score the TD to go up 31-24 with 3:10 left.

7) Kris Jenkins makes a key sack on 2nd down and when the Pats miss on 3rd down, they actually have to kick (2:24 left), hoping and praying that they can somehow get another chance to get their hands on the ball.

8) Their prayers are answered! They are playing against Manidiot and the prevent Offense! I'll give you a hint, where have we seen this before? EXACTLY LIKE THE GIANTS EAGLES GAME FOUR DAYS AGO. Prevent Offense3. RRRK special. Just like the Giants with 5:30 left, the Jets run three plays in a row and ... I am shocked, shocked.... they don't move the chains! Well blow me down!

9) So now the Patriots get the ball back with 1:04 left and no timeouts. Time for Manidiot to roll out Prevent Defense3. The old 3 man rush technique. The Pats move down the field like a hot knife through butter and get a TD to tie the game with 0:01 left. You should have seen the look of #4 when they scored... Favre is thinking, what do I have to do, coach the team too? He knows his coaches killed this effort.

10) Then a miracle occurred for the Jets. They won the coin toss. Time to turn the offense back on. On a key 3rd and 15 from the Jets 15, Favre hit Keller for 16 and a first down. Favre led the team all the way down field, and Feely nailed the 34 yarder.

Had it all the way. If Manidiot does not win the coin toss his team loses that game, and it goes down as one of the ugliest collapses in Franchise history. And the Jets know collapses. Let's quote Cris Collinsworth: "The only thing the Prevent Defense (/Offense) prevents you from doing is winning the game." Shameful.

Btw, Brett Favre was fantastic. (Jenkins, Keller, Washington were also excellent.)

For any Jets fans out there, your last 5 games are very winnable, your team can easily be 12-4. Incredible. Despite the horridness of the Prevent, that the Jets were lucky enough to manage to hold on (thanks to the coin flip) can portend good things for them now. This is a tremendous win for that franchise. It was only a few weeks ago that this team lost to the Raiders and then barely escaped vs KC. But like we saw last year in Washington Week 3, all it takes is one special game to turn an entire franchise around. The Jets got some special mettle out of this victory over the Patriots. If only they had a head coach with half a clue, they'd be dangerous.