.500 is not where Rex Ryan wants to be. Had you asked him before the season if he’d be jolly with a 5-5 tally on Week 11, he’d have told you to take a hike. But that’s exactly where he finds himself, and he’s probably wondering how this experiment spun so out of control. I refer to the Jets as an “experiment” because, in essence, that’s what they are. They’re a team that doesn’t rely on their quarterback to win. There’s a similar situation going on in Dallas, but with the glaring difference that Tony Romo hasn’t led his team to two consecutive Conference Championships, and Sanchez remarkably has.
Generally, teams with inconsistent quarterbacks don’t make it past the first round of the post-season -- if they even get there at all. But despite that generality, the Gang Green Experiment has been flourishing. The roots of their success are varied, but the primary reason is the absence of marquee players, coupled with a coach who thrives on leading a team that nobody believes in. By “marquee players,” I’m referring to guys like Calvin Johnson and Aaron Rodgers and Troy Polamalu and Drew Brees. The Jets just don’t have those famous names. On the list of the top NFL jersey sales, the only Jet in the top 20 is ranked 12th. By comparison, the Packers and Eagles each have 2 players who made the top 20 ranks, and the Steelers and Cowboys each have 3. This works beautifully into Rex Ryan’s vision of his team, which is a kind of “Us Versus The World” idea. It takes a group of misfits to make that concept possible. Not having “those guys” allows Rex to play as the underdog, which is where he wants to play from.
But this year, he’s not the underdog. People actually believe in the Jets. For the first time in the Rex Era, the Jets are expected to win -- and win big. But at this point in the 2011 season they’ve already lost as many games as they did in all of last year. They’ve been swept by their arch rival from New England, and their strongest win of the season was followed by a two-game losing streak. One of those losses came last night in Denver. It was the first time this season that the New York Jets lost to a team with a worse quarterback than Sanchez, and that fact should be alarming to Rex Ryan. In a span of two weeks he’s lost to one of the best QB’s and one of the worst QB’s. That fits his team right in the middle at .500 -- exactly where he didn’t wanna be. Rex wants his cake, but he also wants to eat it too; he wants the reputation of a 5-5 team, but with a 9-1 record. Now he has the reputation of 9-1 team, but with a 5-5 record.
The Dallas Mavericks, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Boston Bruins are all teams that recently won championships without an abundance of marquee names; each has only one top-20 jersey-seller on their rosters. None of these teams were expected to win titles. The Jets want to be one of these teams, but their time for sneaking under the radar is over. When teams play against the Jets, they bring their ‘A Game.’ Opponents only bring their ‘A Games’ when they play against teams that everyone wants to beat -- and like it or not, the Jets have a bullseye on their back. Ryan’s outlandish persona helped the Jets gain confidence in 2009 and 2010, but now it’s hurting them. What the Jets needed in 2011 was a more reserved coach with a quiet confidence. They didn’t get that. A quiet coach would’ve been able to accept 5 losses, but a loud coach simply can’t do that. Hence, the devastating looks in his face during the post-game interviews. Instead of having a we’ll-prove-you-wrong confidence, he’s having a this-is-falling-apart crisis.
The remaining schedule for the Jets isn’t kind. Next Sunday there’s gonna be a 6-4 or 5-5 Buffalo team that’s trying to bury the Jets deeper into the bottom of the AFC East to keep their own playoff hopes alive. The Washington game might be easy, but the KC game won’t be. And if the Eagles can find a way to beat the Giants this weekend, then Andy Reid’s squad might be caught-up in a we-can-do-it windstorm that might propel the entire team into a winning streak; not an easy storm for the Jets to weather. Then the Giants (’nuff said), and then a final game in Miami where the Dolphins might bring their ‘A+ Game’ for no other reason than pride and the desire to go out on a decent note. All in all, not great news if you’re a Jets fan.
But all is not lost for them. This is still a good team. Sanchez might be the only Jet with a top 20 jersey, but only because Revis and Plax and Mangold and Cromartie are underrated. Why Revis doesn’t have a top 5 jersey is beyond me. It’ll be interesting to see how a 5-5 Jets team plays over the next few weeks. New England and Buffalo would be wise to not write-off the Jets. The Patriots should proceed with their remaining schedule as if they’re in 3rd place in the AFC East, thereby maintaining the desperate hunger that led them to sweep the Jets last Sunday in stunning fashion. Buffalo should come out this weekend and next weekend with a brutal sense of urgency. The Jets are on the ropes, but they haven’t been knocked out yet -- and that makes them dangerous.
