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How the heck did that happen?
The New York Jets are in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. I'll say it again; the New York Jets are in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. How many of you, even the most dedicated of Jets fans honestly can say that they thought that would happen before this year started?
They have a rookie head coach who coaches only one aspect of the game, defense. They have a rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez who has thrown for fewer yards at USC and with the NY Jets combined than Brad Smith (the teams wildcat QB) threw for at Missouri.
Even after a 3-0 start if you were dreaming big, did you really think the Jets would be here today? Certainly after watching an astonishing 30 turnovers by the QB (20 INT's and 10 Fumbles), giving away game after game in the middle of the season, you couldn't have thought that.
Statistically Speaking
Regardless of the game results, all year Rex Ryan and the Jets PR department have been pounding the table telling anyone who would listen (and even those who wouldn't) that they have the best defense in the NFL and the best running game in the NFL.
Statistically they are 100% correct. They have given up the least yards, the least amount of points and rushed for the most yards. But Jets fans are conditioned to look at the negatives.
The Jets were tied for second in the league with 36 attempted field goals. Sure Jay Feely has had a good year hitting on 30 of them (if you take out the 3 missed opportunities in a row he would have been a remarkable 33 for 36.) More than anything though, the fact that the Jets attempted so many field goals means that in the Red Zone, they couldn't convert on third down. Many of those opportunities to convert were from 3rd and short and the run got stuffed when it counted most. So how good really is the running game?
And what about the Monday night game against the Dolphins or the two home games against the Jaguars and Falcons when "the best defense in the league" allowed the opposition put on 'two-minute-drill' clinics on national TV? Does anyone remember the 85-86' Chicago Bears Championship winning ‘46-defense' doing that?
Sanchez on a leash.....
When I profiled Rex Ryan and the Jets before the Wild Card game against the Bengals I jokingly spoke about the color code method that he gave Mark Sanchez.
"Rex has instituted a color code system for his rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez so that he would know when to be more conservative and not take chances with the ball. I hope Sanchez isn't color blind. At the rate he throws passes to the other team you would think they would check!
Ryan got the color code idea from that Brazilian restaurant in NYC where you turn the card to green if you want more meat and leave it on red if you don't want another portion as they come by with the servings. Guess what color Rex usually has his on?"
The point was, if you are at the stage where you have to whisper in your QB's headset what to do / what not to do with the ball before every series of plays, how can you expect the guy to act instinctively and take advantage of a given opportunity that occurs on the field? When an NFL QB sees an opportunity pre-snap he calls an audible and takes advantage of it, that's what a good NFL QB does.
When Peyton Manning sees something he can capitalize on when he is at the line of scrimmage, he winks at a receiver, gives a hand signal or calls out an audible and then bam, the ball appears in the hands of Reggie Wayne or Dallas Clark who are standing in the end zone........
When a play breaks down and Ben Roethlisberger looks like he's a calf trying to avoid getting roped, he looks up the field, processes the situation and fires a bullet to Santonio Holmes and 15 minutes later he and the Steelers are standing on a podium accepting the Lombardi Trophy.
Did anyone yell out "Green" to Dan Marino before he faked a spike and threw the ball into the end zone for a game winning TD?
In the month preceding the Wild Card game against the Bengals, Mark Sanchez looked like Hellen Keller trying to find TE Dustin Keller in the middle of the field. For the past few weeks Jets Offensive Coordinator Brain Schottenheimer has taken away the middle of the field from Sanchez. Other than a quick slant to WR's Jerricho Cotchery and Braylon Edwards, Sanchez has avoided the middle of the field like the plague. He clearly had been told to not even look at the congestion between the hash marks.
Boing!
 Speaking of Braylon Edwards, has there even been a more physically gifted athlete have so many balls go through his hands? I know that when he came to the Jets he had been labeled as someone who dropped a lot of balls, but seriously, has anyone thought about checking his vision? He miss times his leaps, closes his hands together after the ball hits him in the face mask and probably has bruises all over his chest from the point of the ball hitting him so many times. How many times can a person have the prowess to successfully get themselves open in the end zone for a + 50 yard touchdown only to have the ball fall to the ground missing it completely or having it bounce off him. It literally happens in just about every game!
Maybe it's not his eyes... Here's a picture of him with the ball bouncing off his head on a bomb thrown to him down the right side line in the Bills game. Look at he's managed to get himself 5 yards behind the defender for a walk in touchdown if he catches it, BUT HIS EYES ARE CLOSED! OPEN YOUR EYES BRAYLON!
Everyone's Underdog
Despite all the negatives, the Jets are now in a position whereby winning two games gets them into the Super Bowl. The Jets are 8.5 point underdogs this Sunday against the Chargers. Should they be underdogs? Despite the fact that Rex Ryan thinks that they should be favored in every game, the Chargers (not the Colts, Saints or Vikings) who are now almost every pundit's pick to win the Super Bowl are probably in fact the best complete team in the tournament.
The Chargers have second string players that would be starters on many NFL teams and they have a much underrated quarterback in Philip Rivers that should be mentioned with the very best QB's in the NFL. The guy is very accurate, clutch and is second by a hair to only Tom Brady in winning percentage.
House Money
At this point we all know the Jets are playing with house money. If the season ends this Sunday, the Head Coach, the quarterback and the returning young players like Shonn Greene will have all gained invaluable experience to draw on in the future and the Jets are clearly a force to be recon with going forward. No one thinks the Jets can beat the Chargers and advance to the AFC Championship game except the players and coaches. If you thought the Jets had a chip on their shoulder before, could you imagine if they ever won this game?
Wanna dream Jets fans? How about this one, if the Jets and Ravens both win, the Jets would be at home for the AFC Championship game!
I've seen the Jets blow so many opportunities over the years. Here's just a few of the most painful that come to mind.
 January 23, 1983 - The infamous AFC Championship game known as the "Mud Bowl." Don Shula orders that the field remain uncovered over night during a torrential rain storm so the jack rabbits Wesley Walker, Bruce Harper, Johnny ‘Lam' Jones, Freeman McNeil and the NY Sack Exchange couldn't get any footing. As if that weren't bad enough, Richard Todd decided to play catch with A. J. Duhue two times giving the Dolphins a 14-0 win and a trip to Super Bowl XVII against the Washington Redskins.
January 3, 1987 - Mark Gastineau ruins my New Year as the Jets lose the Divisional Round Playoff game against the Cleveland Browns in double overtime. Late in the fourth quarter of that game, with the Jets leading 20-10 and the Browns facing a 2nd down and 24 from their own 18-yard line, Mark Gastineau was called for a roughing the passer penalty. The play had originally resulted in an incomplete pass by Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar so instead of having a 3rd-and-24 situation, the 15-yard penalty on Gastineau gave the Browns a first down at their own 33. From there, the Browns drove the remaining 67 yards to a touchdown which cut the Jets' lead to 20-17. The Browns would later tie the game with 7 seconds remaining in regulation on a 22-yard field goal by Mark Moseley and win it on a 27-yard field goal by Moseley 2 minutes and 2 seconds into the second overtime period.
If you are a huge Jets fan and wish to re-live the misery (as real Jets fans like to do for some morbid reason) here is 1:09:18 of some remarkable footage of one of the NFL's Greatest Games. This game, one of the longest in NFL history, had a huge impact on NFL history as it directly led to "The Drive" by John Elway and is also responsible years later for Dan Marino's famous "Fake Spike" play which again came against the Jets
Part 1 8:49 - Part 2 9:40 - Part 3 8:57 - Part 4 8:55 - Part 5 8:17 - Part 6 8:49 - Part 7 6:40 - Part 8 8:40
BTW - That dope Mark Gastineau did the same thing at Shea Stadium against Brian Sipe and the Cleveland Browns a few years before in 1979!
January 17, 1999 - The AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos... This was perhaps was the most painful loss. 6 Turnovers - Four fumbles and 2 INT's! The Jets led this one 3-0 at the half and then came out and blocked a punt on the one yard line scoring on the next play putting them up 10-0 with less than 30 minutes to the Super Bowl....
Untimely fumbles by Curtis Martin and Keith Byers, a 47 yard strike to Ed McCaffrey, a misplayed kickoff by Dave Meggett and it was all over and a sure title is now "what could have been" as the best team in the NFC the Vikings blew their Championship game on a missed field goal chip shot. The Broncos went on to win John Elway's first Super Bowl but the Jets would have beaten the ‘Dirty Bird' Falcons too. They may have been the worst team to ever play in the Super Bowl. Parcels, Vinny, Curtis and the Jets truly had the stuff to win that year and it didn't happen. To this day Parcels views that the toughest loss he's ever suffered because he knows they would have beaten the Falcons.
Those are all years where something was expected from the Jets and it didn't work out. This time, they are smack in the middle of things with no expectations whatsoever. If you plunked $100 dollars on the Jets to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the playoffs (not at the beginning of the year) you will make $5,000 if they win four games in a row. That's a pretty hefty payoff for a team winning just four games in a row, but that's what odds makers thought chance was, 50-1. This week if you pick the Jets to win the game and you bet $100 you would win $280 where as if you make the same bet on the Chargers you win $36 (risking $100 to do it.)
So that's it, they have no shot, they shouldn't even bother showing up. Why incur the cost of the air-fare and hotel right?
The Jets players think they can win and while I'm not so naive that I am that confident, I do know that if they lose there will be no disappointment this time as there are no expectations. I completely understand that the Chargers are the better team this year and if they played ten times the Chargers would probably win eight of them. But they only have to win one and who's to say that Philip Rivers doesn't hurt his shoulder turning off the alarm clock that morning or the Jets make a couple of special teams plays to keep them in the game.
Despite everyone telling me otherwise, I will spend three hours of my day this coming Sunday watching the game. If they win, they will either have been lucky, fortunate or just better that day. I don't care what the reason would be as I'm just looking for a win.
I'm certain that the Jets will attempt run a lot of clock on Sunday limiting the time that the Charges have the ball. That means that by default, if the Jets don't turn the ball over the game will be close going into the 4th quarter. I do know this, if an inferior team is left to hang around at the end of the game and you give them some confidence that they can actually with the game, it's never a good thing. The Chargers need to be very conscious of this.
This one is not unlike Super bowl III where the Jets were given no chance. There isn't anyone reputable that you will find going out on a limb to pick the Jets here. The pressure is all on the Chargers here and the Jets are playing with house money. I won't tell you to pick the Jets either because while I think it's possible, you and I both know that it's not a prudent recommendation. I will tell you though that I would take the 8.5 points as either way this one will be a lot closer than the opening line suggests. - Mike Cardano
Mike is the founder of the Around the Horn Baseball Blog and the Extra Point Football Blog.
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I had forgotten about the Jets vs. Browns game……….