Can Tony Sparano Turn Joe McKnight Into Reggie Bush?

Joe McKnight was brought to USC in 2008 to be the next Reggie Bush. Instead, those sky high expectations in following the nation’s top RB, contributed to McKnight’s decision to forego his senior year.

“My career was OK. It was good, but not like Reggie. There was a constant pressure to be like Reggie.”

Gang Green took McKnight in the 4th round of the NFL draft that year. Perhaps the stage could be set again for McKnight to get get another chance in trying to be “the next Reggie Bush.” This time as a top tier NFL back under the guidance of new Jets OC Tony Sparano, who coached Reggie for much of his breakout year with Miami in 2011.

The Jets rushing attack needs an infusion of speed and the threat to gain big time yardage outside. Before looking outside of the organization for this solution, the stage could be set for a real hard look at McKnight as a split carry back. After all, he showed what he could do in the open field this past season on special teams.

Score touchdowns.

RB Trent Richardson of Alabama has been a name that has been tossed around as a potential first round choice for the Jets who may want to press reset in the feature back department of the new rushing attack altogether.

Should the Jets choose NOT to take a RB in April’s draft, opting to stay with Shonn Greene and McKnight as their top duo, then an attempt to mirror the rise of Bush in Miami with McKnight, may be the Jets best path to an increase in production on the ground. With Greene being the straight ahead compliment, who already owns a solid resume of late game knockout blows.

Bush made some big game breaking plays over his first four seasons as a Saint, but rushing attempts went from a Saints high of 157 in 2007 to 216 in his first year in Miami. A number that would have been higher had he not taken weeks to wrestle the feature back job away from Daniel Thomas.

More touches and a game plan better suited to revolving around HIS strengths helped Bush go from the perimeter ornament he was in the Big Easy, to one of the NFL’s top feature backs by seasons end. This despite the knock on Bush that he was too small to handle the increased workload. Especially inside the tackles.

The same label that McKnight currently faces.

Following Bush’s act as a USC Trojan was asking too much. Could McKnight obtain similar numbers in games to Bush’s in 2011, with twenty or so carries a game? We bet plenty of those who follow the Jets would love to see McKnight get the chance to.

The King Keeps His Crown: How The Jets Can Learn From The Giants

As difficult as the winter months were for the Jets, enduring their own crash and locker room dramas, as the hated Patriots and “Big Brother” Giants just rolled along, Gang Green should ditch any small minded “G Men” envy, and get out the notepads instead. Rex Ryan said that he reviewed his own performance with a pen and paper this past week while vacationing in Hawaii. The Jets entire organization should do the same. Using a big part of this important break in the action, by studying how the Giants beat their AFC East rival three times in four years. Along the way to adding to more Vince Lombardi hardware to their own collection.

MAKE FINDING SPEED RUSHERS UP FRONT PRIORITY ONE

The way to defeat top five QB’s and fast break passing games in general, is NOT by drafting more cornerbacks to cover receivers as the Jets did by selecting Kyle Wilson two years back. It is by hurrying the decision making and release time of these signal callers by having speed up front. Alot of it.

Draft pass rushers on the outside. Sign them as free agents. Grow them in the basement of Florham Park. Do anything it takes. Just find them.

The Giants have now twice in the Super Bowl, and once in the regular season since 2008, slowed down the Pats passing attack by living close to Tom Brady. Doing it with tipped balls. Sacks. Pressures. Presence.

The names seem endless. Tuck. Osi. JPP. Kiwanuka. Strahan. Not one but an army of attackers who can line up anywhere and who together, allow the other seven to drop back and bolster coverage.

The concept of “rush three drop eight” helped the Jets beat the Colts and Pats in the playoffs last year, but doesn’t STRIKE THE FEAR OF GOD in these touchdown machines who line up under center. Monsters who have taken over the NFL lately. It is time for the Jets to put a scare into these guys. Like the Giants did and have for a number of years now.

As for the Giants latest run to the title, it wasn’t just the great Tom Brady who fell victim to the tsunami caused up front. Big Blue even forced perhaps the game’s best, Aaron Rodgers, to throw less and escape more, by running. This took it’s toll mentally on the Pack. The Giants got to Rodgers just enough that despite the Packers many drops during the NFC divisional round, the feel for Green Bay’s beloved QB in his own pocket went from comfort, to serious concern.

The Jets have to strive to obtain this type of potential defensively on the edge going forward. Period.

WE GET IT REX, BUT NOW BUILD THE RUSH FROM THE OUTSIDE

We spoke to Rex Ryan prior to the 2011 season and he told us that his dad Buddy taught him that defensive lines are built from the inside out. That size inside will flush QB’s outside where ends can clean up.

We don’t have the resume or pedigree to thumb our noses at theories created by the father of the 46 defense. We DO want to remind Rex and GM Mike Tannenbaum however, that it is not 1986 anymore either. QB’s play differently.

The athleticism has changed at the position.

We no longer live in an age of the “five step drop and plant the feet” quarterback. Most can throw on the run out of designed rollouts anyhow. It is forcing receiver routes that are free to roam after five yards to be cut off, that has to be the top priority for defensive units nowadays.

Become ultra fast up front. Crush and close pockets quickly. Make receivers stop and turn back to the ball.

SOLID QB PLAY, WITH A GREAT DEFENSE CAN DO THE TRICK

Second, is the dual need of quality QB play and the fear of owning threats downfield on offense. We all remember how Mark Sanchez struggled this season. Yet how many remember the struggles that elite Eli Manning had in HIS first three seasons? Eli has since calmed down and settled in to becoming one of the best. For Sanchez, the jury is still out, yet patience and understanding that it doesn’t happen out the gates for all QB’s on the Jets part, will be necessary.

No matter how IMPATIENT we as a society, and collection of fan bases who expect instant success, have become.

It took time for the younger Manning brother to become the player he is. Now it is the Jets turn. Any discussion by Jets brass regarding the recent notion of ditching Sanchez, should include a serious review of how and why Eli outgrew his own growing pains .

For the Jets to become a contender year in year out, the front four has to pressure the quarterback. In addition, Sanchez will have to be more than a game manager. The Niners Alex Smith became that type late in 2011 and can be the example for the future upside of Sanchez. A player who even if he never becomes a Canton bound type, has to deliver throws accurately and on time. Has to be able to do the little things well consistently.

Whether the club feels he can or cannot become that player at a high level, is how he must be how he is judged this offseason. Taking into account not just the 8-8 disaster but his prior body of work as well.

DONT BE SCARED OFF FROM OPENING IT UP BECAUSE OF 2011

The Jets 2012 receiving corps must still look to help Sanchez by providing the threat to stretch the field too. Even if they haven’t proven to be as productive as the current Giants crew of Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, and Mario Manningham are. The new NFL calls for the ability to score points quickly at times.

To their credit, the Jets recognized this need heading into 2011 and actually tried to force feed a downfield attack early on. The added concept had little time to mesh new faces with old ones and as a whole, never got on the same page. They shouldn’t abandon this extension of the playbook entirely simply because it failed to work out this time around.

A return to the “Ground and Pound” under new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano without some semblance of the ability to open it up at all, will not work in a modern day NFL. One that allows receivers to get open and QB’s to often go untouched.The model of balance, efficiency, and mild potency, just has to be executed better. With mutual trust between the players. Which brings up chemistry.

A RETURN TO TOGETHERNESS

The Super Bowl champion Giants were “All In.” The 2009 and 2010 Jets were unified as well. A return to that mindset is essential for the Jets, in overcoming the adversity that a long grinding NFL season carries along with it. Choices made as to who to keep, release, and acquire can’t be graded solely by projected production and numbers, but with “team player” included as a category as well.

This task will be left up to Ryan and Tannenbaum, who must establish ground rules that include consequences for “conduct detrimental to the team.” Maybe the Jets guidelines will always be looser than they are for the Giants or Bill Belichick’s tight lipped troops, but there HAVE TO BE SOME.

PLAYERS MUST PITCH IN: MANGOLD AND REVIS?

Leadership from certain players will also play a big part in aiding Ryan’s attempt to get everyone on the same page. If Rex’s Jets truly choose to go without the ceremonial “captains” they will still need de facto ones.

Often times Justin Tuck speaks eloquently on behalf of his club’s vision often times. Manning does as well. Never throwing a teammate under the bus while doing so. Even if the Jets don’t copy the Giants “leadership council” template that Tom Coughlin has invented for his championship team, it is time for a few “go to” guys to make themselves more available vocally. In a bigger way than they have done in prior years.

Inside and outside of the locker room.

We see Nick Mangold and Darrelle Revis, two perennial All Pros, as guys who could become the daily quotable ones. Stars who can provide the public with the temperature taking on behalf of the rest of the team. After all, their play has warranted them the right to take on this important role in setting the big picture tone.

In this scenario, others could then fall in line behind them. Follow their lead. Echo their sentiments which to date, have never included any finger pointing. Do this for now. Until a rhythm is established for what it takes to have each others backs in good times and bad. New leaders can develop based off of this pair’s lead.

Mark Sanchez will have to become part of THAT group in the near future. His position on the field requires it. The “Sanchise” may need a few positive performances in order to regain confidence and a belief in him by his own teammates first. Before this added duty is asked of him.

At this point, Mangold and Revis should be the firestarters.

FORGET ABOUT WHO OWNS NEW YORK CITY

The keys are clear, yet only come after putting an end to the nonsense of caring about who owns the Big Apple. Who cares? There are no trophies awarded to the city’s best, only the league’s best.

Prioritizing a defensive gameplan that chases quarterbacks with the front four, with a QB who must do more than just manage a game, aided by receivers who are threats, on a team that sticks together, is where to start.

TRYING TO BE “KINGS OF NEW YORK” HURT JETS IN WEEK 16

Congratulating the Giants as classy Woody Johnson did on Sunday night was a solid initial step in moving away from a local rivalry that may sell tickets, but derails the vision in “sideshow” like ways. Respecting what good teams like the Giants do well while aiming to set in place solid footing in order to achieve one’s own high standard of consistency, is the path of least resistance. Allowing time for more focus on the important things. Such as clarity.

The idea of 59 pass attempts, the amount of tries the Jets had through the air against the pass rushing monsters on the Giants, was not borne out of a calm thought process. Self inflicted distractions that came from the Jets trying to win the “Battle for New York” played a lethal part in the Jets devastating 29-14 Christmas Eve day loss. A defeat that essentially ended Gang Green’s season, only to kickstart the Giants glory ride in the process.

RESPECT, RECOGNIZE, IDENTIFY, THEN YOU CAN IMPROVE

Recognizing the core principles that helped the Giants to beat New England and slow down the unstoppable Rodgers along the way in 2012, would provide a longer shelf life of a foundation, than goals of “winning the day” in the press can ever do.

The Jets are on the map now. It’s time to quit reminding people of that, and time to start battening down the hatches instead. The 2012 season is underway. Any “Peyton Manning” talk, as well as all other big personnel decisions that are to come, have to be diagnosed under the proper lens and microscope.

Great job Giants. Winning six straight games with your backs against the wall, by capitalizing on opponents mistakes, while getting the job done on long drives after trailing late in games.

Jets, it is now your turn, to assess and identify areas that hopefully only stunted the growth that took place over the first two years of the Ryan era. An exciting time for the men in Green and White,  that can be improved upon as long as what happened in 2011 is reviewed by the club with clear minds.

Not emotional ones.

Wildcard Winners Each Offer Jets A Lesson

The Jets having been officially knocked out in week 17 technically means that they just missed the playoffs this season. They certainly didn’t “just miss” being a threat in areas they hoped to thrive in over the course of 2011 though. Wildcard weekend’s winners each showcased a piece of what the Jets thought they would possess themselves, as they made their way into year three of the Rex Ryan era last August.

Arian Foster and Ben Tate exemplified what a “Ground and Pound 2.0 ought to look like. Powerful, fast, dangerous and unrelenting. This wasn’t 3.5 yards and a cloud of dust. This combo was a brutalizing pair against the Bengals. Foster and Tate were running downhill the minute the second half began. Similar to the way Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene would in 2009, but with more explosiveness. The Jets must continue to employ Ryan’s beloved mantra, but look for ways to add to it, with outside speed and some tank like force inside.

In the Saints in thrashing the Lions 45-28, the plethora of choices that Drew Brees (who thrived after ending his connection to QB coach Brian Schottenheimer in San Diego.. cough, cough) has to work with, were the template for what the Jets tried in their own pedestrian way, to achieve when they came out as a pass happy three wide bunch to start the year. Spread out and fast paced.

The Jets like most of the teams in the NFL, will never match this weaponry. However, they can try and learn from the Saints tempo in and out of the huddle, from play to play. Crisp. Quick. With purpose.

The Jets muddling along has to stop. Too many false starts by the offense comes as a result of being out of rhythm, a step slow, and not in control of the pace of play, when they hit the line of scrimmage.

The Giants front four allowed their offense time to get into a rhythm against the Falcons, even though it was an odd 2-0 Atlanta lead for much of the first half. The Jets don’t have this knockout outside pass rush prowess up front. At all.

Yes Mike Devito, Sione Pouha and Co. are stout against the run, but this is a quarterback’s league nowadays. Strike some fear into the opposition’s signal caller and an entire 53 man team can seem alot more imposing.

Big Blue’s QB Eli Manning is as poised as he has ever been this year as well. We know the Manning Mark Sanchez comparison is an unfair one based on experience, but Sanchez should be studying how calm Manning works under duress in the pocket. How accurately he delivers third down throws with his arm, while his legs remain composed.

Tim Tebow works miracles. We know that. The Broncos collectively follow him though. They play with heart and passion and unity. The Jets failed to exude this external desperation throughout the course of their 8-8 disappointment. Perhaps this was due to the fact that internally, Gang Green owned a sense of entitlement, after two straight trips deep into January.

A more humble disposition and collective belief in each other might be the antidote to the Jets malaise going forward. It certainly has been for John Fox’s crew who appear overmatched on a weekly basis on paper, yet find themselves heading to the AFC divisional round anyway.

Hopefully the Jets took away something from a voyeuristic distance from this first playoff weekend. There was alot to be gained simply from watching.

Time For New Jets Media Strategy

New York Jets: A History Of Failed Expectations

It only takes a quick peak into the New York Jets history books for some perspective on the “failure” of this 2011 season. While it is true that the Jets were built up by Rex Ryan and many others, as a Super Bowl contender and tricked into believing that Mark Sanchez was primed to take the next step, like many other Jets teams of the past, preseason hopes simply didn’t match up with the season that followed. This recent disaster is not the first time that such a tragedy has taken place for the Gotham Football Club.

Publications as early as 1966 had the Joe Namath Jets ready to take the AFL title. In Namath’s second year, “Pro Football” magazine had already pictured Weeb Ewbank’s crew gelling on both sides of the ball. Led by the bonus baby face of the league, “Broadway Joe.”

Instead, the Jets went a disappointing 6-6-2, falling three games short of the Eastern Division title. There were no wildcard berths in the American Football League so that meant that the Jets were done for the year. Namath? He threw 19 TD’s and 27 int’s that year with a lousy 49.1 completion percentage. It wasn’t until the magical season of ‘68 that he and the Jets made any postseason appearance.

Richard Todd’s Jets were just a game away in 1982, after losing the famed AFC Championship “Mud Bowl” in Miami 14-0. 1983 saw Todd on the Sports Illustrated cover to reinforce the belief by many analysts that the Jets were Super Bowl favorites.

Then they went 7-9.

Todd threw 18 TD’s that year with 26 picks, in playing his way off of magazine covers and OUT of New York. Todd ended up in New Orleans with the Saints in 1984.

Vinny Testaverde came off the bench to replace Glenn Foley in 1998, leading the Jets, like Todd, to an AFC championship. This time a heartbreaking 23-10 loss to Denver. Testaverde threw 29 TD’s and just 7 picks that year, with an impressive 61 pct completion rating and 101 QB rating. The Jets were surely set to fly in 1999.

This of course, until Testaverde went out for the season in week one, by tripping over a yard line and tearing his achilles tendon. The Jets had no proper backups in place early enough that year, to weather the storm. Season over.

Another sky high expectation crashing on the runway for the Jets.

This leads us to 2011. A year first affected by the NFL lockout and Wild West free agency period. A training camp where for the Jets, saw many new faces replaced reliable old ones on offense.

By the time the season started, the Jets who were initially set to open up the air waves, lacked cohesiveness and chemistry right from the start. The confidence of their young franchise QB soon waned, as losing streaks piled up throughout the course of the year.

The 8-8 ending of this year’s Mark Sanchez Jets has shocked many diehards, but if they consider the team’s history, it shouldn’t.

There are two lessons to be learned from all of this as well.

Namath’s career provides Jets fans with the hope that sometimes expectations arrive prematurely. Todd and Testaverde on the other hand, remind us that opportunities can’t be squandered because there are no guarantees that they will reappear again.

For Sanchez and his teammates, those are the two paths they can travel. Clearly Rex’s Jets currently reside at the fork of these roads as we head into the 2012 season, One that will start with the changes soon to take place in Florham Park.

Even if, none of these alterations, came alongside that silly good for nothing Monday Press conference that many loyalists waited an extra half hour for.

2011 is gone. An opportunity wasted in what has at times been a recurring theme for those who have bleed Green and White. Despite the latest severe disappointment, the saga that is the New York Jets will again continue on. Never dull, never boring, and rarely ending up the way it is drawn up on paper.

That’s why we love them Jets Nation. Don’t forget that.

New York Jets Need To Worry About Themselves

If you need any window into why it meant so much for Rex Ryan to tell the world on Monday that the Jets “were better” than the Giants a week before losing to them, look no further than in his book “Play Like you Mean It.”

It was released prior to training camp this past summer. Somewhere in it he notes that it meant so much to him to have changed the culture of the Jets around during his first two years — to have people talking “Jets” in a positive light in the world of pro football.

The Ryan family wears their hearts and heads on their sleeves, but what the Jets organization must now do going forward, once this season DOES officially end, is keep the focus in Florham Park. Rex can keep his essence, but it’s time for the organization to forget about which local team has more fans.

It’s also time to stop worrying about New England, which is going to win 12 games every season anyway.

The Giants were here first, plain and simple. Born during the Prohibition era, they played the game that first ushered in pro football on television – the 1958 NFL Championship game. To many it is known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” The Colts won the game, but the Giants were part of sudden death overtime thriller captured the nation, and made them household names.

And it happened just as the NFL began to compete with baseball for the sports fans’ hearts and minds.

The Jets were the laughable Titans in 1960, while those Giants were among the first famous faces of the league. It took until 1969 before the Jets and the entire AFL gained any respect.

We all know that story.

Like the Giants, the Jets ushered in their own era — that of the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. Having beaten the Colts in Super Bowl III, the Jets proved that the leagues were on par with each other talent-wise. In Week 1 of that ’70 season came the initial broadcast of Monday Night Football, and you guessed it, Joe Namath’s Jets were in the game, against the Cleveland Browns. Namath gave the AFL club’s admittance into the NFL a stamp of approval. He was a huge star, especially after his Miami poolside guarantee before Super Bowl III. He became the perfect centerpiece for the new night time experiment on Mondays.

So the history is there for both teams. It’s just that the Jets have had only sporadic moments over the last 40 years, while the Giants have been by and large a model of consistency – and, at times, championship consistency.

The joke used to be that people who couldn’t get tickets to Giants games became Jets fans. Maybe part of that was true in the early ‘60s but Ryan doesn’t need to carry that all of that ‘60s era weight with him anymore. He doesn’t have to wear the pain that Jets fans held as second-class home owners in “Giants Stadium,” either.

Rex’s first association with the Jets came as a kid as his dad, Buddy, became the defensive game planner of that upset over the Colts on Weeb Ewbank’s staff.

That’s why when Rex closed out the Meadowlands in 2009 in its final game ever by beating the Bengals to clinch a playoff berth in his first season, it may have meant more to him than just the playoff entry. After all, to Ryan the Jets were family. The fans felt the same way about him.

Finally, the other team of New York via the Garden State had a head coach who wanted to be here and cared like they did about the team. Rex was one of the fans. He got it. He understood the plight. He totally got what it was like to be laughed at and mocked for years, especially by fans of the cross-town team.

Therefore, it was no surprise when he boldly got out in front of the new stadium opening by declaring that it was the Jets’ house and town this time around. He was speaking for the fans.

But though he might think he still has to, Rex really doesn’t need to stand up for the franchise anymore.

The ones who truly live and die with the team know that the Jets have been as successful at reaching the playoffs as the Giants have been since 1998, with each team getting there six times since in that span.

The Giants’ tremendous playoff run and subsequent Super Bowl win over the undefeated Patriots in 2008 skews this fact, but in the grand scheme of things has not lessened what the Jets have accomplished.

Ryan has nothing to prove anymore to Jets loyalists, and especially when it comes to comparing their team to the Giants. Big Blue has been here longer and may have more fans in pure numbers, but as long as the new Jets continue to strive for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, unlike the Leon Hess-owned Jets of the late ‘70’s through the late ‘90s seemed incapable of doing, then Jets fans should be happy.

On Saturday, the “Battle for New York” became a distraction to the very guy who raised the temperature of it. After the humbling 29-14 loss, Ryan admitted that quarterback Mark Sanchez throwing the ball 59 times was not the recipe to success.

Perhaps had Ryan been more attentive to the run-pass ratio, and not so revved up in the emotion of beating the Giants and claiming the “Big Brother” status he had boasted about for more than a year, he might have piloted the ship in the final quarter to his satisfaction.

If you can, try to forget this season, one that seems stuck in mediocrity for Gang Green. No matter what happens during what will almost surely be a wild Week 17, the Jets have no choice but to be what they are in the Tri-State Area now – a very good franchise that should remain as such for the foreseeable future. They’ve earned the right to do so with their own die-hard fans. They should respect the Giants as co-tenants of the building and leave the Jets-Giants talk alone from this point forward.

Their real nemesis will continue to be the Patriots. The Jets have to lessen the self doubt that any failure to catch them in the standings creates. Too often under Ryan, the club has measured its self worth heading into matchups with New England, only to leave with hangover losses.

Last year the affect of a defeat to Robert Kraft’s club was the Sal Alosi-fueled “Trip Gate” loss to putrid Miami, at home no less. This year after the Jets again lost to the Pats in the battle for first place back in November they got “Tebowed” days later, mostly because they were still punch drunk from falling yet again in a big game against Tom Brady. The nightmare in Denver left them at a very pedestrian 5-5 and on their way down in the AFC pecking order, ultimately into a position in the wild card pecking order.

The Jets’ need to over take the Pats in the AFC East is not worth the havoc it perennially wreaks when they fall short. In addition, the Jets should not lose sleep over any scenario that may include a three-game road run to the playoffs.

This isn’t 1980 when Jim Plunkett led the Raiders to the first Super Bowl win for a wildcard entry. It’s 2011, an era featuring touchdown dances and teams that can display flaws, yet still go deep into the playoffs.

Back in the ‘80s it wasn’t just playing the extra postseason game that made it tough on wild-card teams. It was who they had to deal with coming off of one week’s rest. From the Super Bowl’s first matchup in 1967 to 1980, teams that earned the bye week often included the “Purple People” eating Minnesota Vikings, the “No Name” Miami Dolphins, the “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers, John Madden’s Raiders and Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys, a team still dubbed “America’s Team” despite more failures than successes.

Teams built for the long haul with the core of players in tact for years don’t exist anymore. Aside from the current long-time Steelers and Ravens defensive units and the Brady and Bill Belichick up in New England, dominant units on either side of the ball are few and far between. That’s why having to play an extra game against these new quickly formed clubs en route to the Super Bowl is no longer a death sentence. The extra game is sometimes an advantage for teams who get hot late in the year.

The 2010 champion Green Bay Packers were once 3-3. The Super Bowl Giants of 2007 started out 0-2. The 2005 Steelers were playoff road dogs, too. All three had to win three away from home before earning a trip to the big game. This route is without a doubt daunting, but next to an impossible task? No longer.

By lessening the obsession with becoming more popular than the Giants and altering this goal of having to overtake the dynastic Patriots during the regular season, the Jets can develop a clear and healthy outlook to go alongside a solid foundation that now includes an owner who is willing to spend money and make moves needed to win; a general manager in Mike Tannenbaum who has put together a solid core and a head coach who is loved by his team and fan base and bleeds green and white, even if it is to a fault sometimes.

This offseason, whenever it officially arrives, will be the perfect time to replace tabloid talk about the Giants and Patriots with the following: Determining where and how Sanchez fits now and in the future, improving the offensive line, figuring out a solid concept for the offense that can stay true to for an entire season and gaining a few closers on defense – primarily at safety and defensive end.

This way when Rex tells us that he will “play anyone, anywhere, on any given day” it will pack more of a viable punch.

Battle Of New York: Two Coaches Who Do It Their Own Way

Tom Coughlin: “Regardless of what is said. Talk is cheap, play the game. That is the way I’ve always believed.”

Rex Ryan: “That’s the old saying, ‘Talk is cheap, money buys whiskey. I understand all that and that’s the truth. But I don’t care about Tom Coughlin or anybody else. I know how I believe. I don’t care what’s acceptable in everybody’s opinion. I really don’t care. I’m worried about my opinion and this is how I feel. Quite honestly, I don’t care what anybody thinks.”

Rex Ryan was right when he remarked about the Jets/Giants border war, and how “it is on.”  Wednesday the temperature grew hotter as both sides traded fire. Giants WR Hakeem Nicks called Darrelle Revis a “decent” CB while Santonio Holmes called the Giants secondary bad tacklers and exposable. The coaches went tit for tat as well (see above) but try and put the coaches flurry of early round jabs aside for a moment and consider this. BOTH Ryan and Coughlin actually deserve some praise. For their annual ability to navigate through storms like losing streaks, and players with poor behavior in their own ways. Both teams are left for dead yearly, yet somehow get up off the mat under that duress and get back into contention. Led by their head coaches who refuse to quit.

Ryan clearly put his face on the front lines as a target this week but that was his choice. Perhaps a strategic one. His team got pummeled last Sunday in Philly, and probably needs an emotional injection.

Giants RB Brandon Jacobs alluded to this notion today and he’s not far off. Where he may be wrong though, is that the effect for Gang Green will be minimal. The Jets often rally around Ryan for sticking his neck out. They can’t play worse than they did against the Eagles anyway, so Rex might just be trying to stir it up for his own troops. To deflect talk about underachieving players and units, whether it’s the conventional approach to use or not.

It’s interesting how Ryan’s pot stirring has Giants beat writers all of a sudden taking offense to the mistreatment of Coughlin. When for the past two seasons and more, much of their fan base have gone after Coughlin directly themselves.

We guess that knocking off the undefeated Pats in the Super Bowl as a streaking road wildcard entry, one of the greatest collections of wins in Pro Football history, doesn’t mean that much anymore.

It just doesn’t seem “classy” for the Giants storied organization, to let Coughlin twist in the end every year without getting in front of the message and providing this loyal guy in season support. What message does that send? It sends the message that it’s ok to rail on the HC every time the Giants hit bumps in the road. Allows for degrading talk about perennial playoff loser Bill Cowher (albeit except one Super Bowl win by Cowher over the Seahawks who never get that far anyway) to surface every time a few losses occur in succession in the process.

Ryan has taken risks. Some of them unprovoked ones. By talking Super Bowl. By saying that New York is the Jets town. By going after who ever he goes after, as often as he does. Whenever, and for whatever reason that he chooses to.

In the end Ryan essentially answers to the Jets fan base. Some of whom DO disapprove with Ryan’s current barrage on the Giants. As others applaud Ryan’s attempt at giving THIS team the verbal swagger that it has fed off of while playing for him. None of whom will dismiss how irrelevant the club was nationally for years at a time since 1969. Even if Ryan’s high expectations leave a new found disappointment as each big time goal fall short.

Maybe one day Rex will pull it back. Reel it in. Utilize his motivational ability in a less confrontational way. Maybe he won’t.

As for Giants nation though, it’s ironic how they have chosen THIS moment, thanks in part to Ryan, to rally around a coach who has taken them to the playoffs in four out of eight seasons. While never damaging the integrity of a franchise that prides itself on integrity above all else. Even as the bullets fly towards him every year, during the season. For Coughlin, it’s taken too long for the support, and that’s not right.

Saturday’s Jets Giants matchup will be decided on the field. By the players and coaches. Not by the ones wearing Green and Blue jerseys in the stands. When it’s over, regardless of the outcome, a victory still won’t guarantee either club a postseason bid. The Jets will still have their loyalists, and the Giants will have theirs.

These aren’t the fly by night GOP straw polls of Iowa. This is the NFL. These are the Jets and Giants. Two teams with die hards, who have invested more in their love for their teams, than some media hyped weekend involving tough talking quotes from both sides, could fictitiously inflate. The truth is, Saturday provides us with a matchup between two teams whose records hardly warrant ownership of anything extended life into week 17.

How many who reside on either side of this border war, when the clock hits 0:00, will be able to step back and say that both Ryan and Coughlin have made their teams better since they arrived? Have made their teams competitive into December every year (excpet one. 2004. When Coughlin made the switch to Eli Manning as a developmental choice). Have put their teams in position to compete for the Vince Lombardi trophy ever year. The one’s that don’t have it in them to, should.

Maybe the unwilling ought to call up Browns fans. Or Dolphins fans. Or Redskins fans. Ask them if THEY would sign up for one of these guys on their sidelines going forward.

Rex Ryan and Tom Coughlin took over clubs with different histories, and have both held up a significant part of the bargain. Ryan has rebranded the Jets from their self loathing and self pitying past to a team won’t feel sorry for itself anymore. Coughlin has kept the Giants dignified.

Few expected any friendly fire in the press this week from either camp given what is at stake this weekend.  Yet when the so called “Battle for New York” ends, both coaches should get a hand. For what they’ve done, not for what they haven’t, or have said when microphones are placed in front of them.

Ryan and Coughlin not being cut from the same cloth is far from being any breaking news. One is an outspoken loudmouth who does seem to like creating extra drama for himself. The other, is a throwback to the days when discipline was priority number one. The successes that Rex Ryan and Tom Coughlin have, come from doing things in their own particular way. Whether all who follow the NFL agree with their methods, and whether or not you like them as coaches or as people too.

Jets vs. Giants: The Survival Bowl

When you’re fighting for a divisional title at 7-7, there is nothing to brag about. When you’re a 8-6 club hanging onto a wildcard berth by a thread after guaranteeing Super Bowl appearances, there is no need for boasting either. The Jets host the Giants Saturday in a stadium both call home, but the only real award awaiting the winner may be life beyond the final week of the regular season.

The Jets have been second class citizens throughout their fifty year history, albeit aside from Joe Namath’s miracle and a few Bill Parcells years sprinkled in. This until Rex Ryan came to town. Loud and brash and proclaiming a take over.

Over his first two seasons, the Jets HAVE arguably been better. Just ask Rex if you need proof. He’ll tell you that it is true, due to the club’s exciting and improbable late season road runs to the AFC Championship Game. This as the Giants slipped from their 2007 Super Bowl champion pedestal.

Gang Green’s newfound perch as one of the best in the AFC, a date with HBO Hard Knocks, and a plethora of nationally televised night games, came with even more public reminders from their coach that New York was now a Jets town. Ryan’s constant bravado and comments aimed at Big Blue, has inflamed the emotions of alot of Giants fans. Many of whom now consider the Jets an enemy on par with the hated Eagles and Cowboys.

The heat was turned up even more this past summer when volatile Giants RB Brandon Jacobs and Jets rookie Muhammad Wilkerson got tossed for fighting during a preseason game. A scrum that was symbolic of two teams who were truly battling for turf.

Both teams and fan bases have had the Christmas Eve day match-up circled on their calendar since the 2011 NFL schedule was made available.. Many feeling that proof as to who owned New York would finally be settled on the field. Not in the press, or some fictitious game played by backups during the second half.

Only days ago, this match-up had different implications. The Giants had come off of a huge comeback win over Dallas. The Jets were riding a three game win streak that propelled them from also rans to owners of the sixth wild-card spot.

After two putrid losses by both on Sunday though, the landscape has changed. No longer is this battle about which team can gain serious steam towards the playoffs. Now the “Jets vs Giants” is about who can fight to see another day.

A Giants loss coupled with a Cowboys win on Saturday against the Eagles, will send Big Blue home. A Jets loss won’t eliminate them, but it may damage them severely. A win is key but guarantees nothing either. Such is the fate for a team that relinquished total control after getting steamrolled in “The City of Brotherly Love” last Sunday.

This week, the fans, the media and the players on both teams will build this game into seismic proportions. Ryan wasted no time doing his share on Monday, with proclamations that the Jets are better. His chatter may be a ploy to kick some swagger back into a team that plays less fierce when it acts cordially during the week.

This match-up is in part, about being the king of New York, Ryan and the Jets winning the prize of “being better” without a ticket to the big dance though, will not be enough for a team whose not so secret goal was making a push for Indy in February. The sight of the upcoming Super Bowl.

Talk aside, “Jets vs Giants” is about survival. Of keeping the true goal of making the playoffs for a shot at the Vince Lombardi Trophy, alive. Right now, both New York football teams are in each other’s way in terms of reaching that goal.  THAT’s what makes this latest round in the gridiron “Battle for New York” so crucial. No matter how much Ryan has ranted about the Jets overtaking the Giants since he first got here.

New York Jets Wildcat: A Stunt Or December Surprise

With the 2011 season on the line in Washington, Rex Ryan unveiled off all things, the Wildcat formation. Doing so with speedster Jeremy Kerley and Shonn Greene at the helm. The results were a success at times, other times not so much. Looking deeper into the message this surprising ploy may have sent, the bigger question is whether or not this wrinkle was a game day stunt or permanent December addition. Further, what are the advantages of continuing the use of the Wildcat if it IS here to stay?

The idea reached the peak as the Jets closed out the Redskins with a direct snap play to Shonn Greene, who rambled into the end zone in the closing minutes at Fed Ex field.

Perhaps its use in the Jets overall offensive gameplan going in, was to function more than as just a measure to slow down the Redskins pass rush. The Skins, ranked 3rd in the NFL in sacks with 33 heading into the contest, were a threat to the shaky Jets pass protection.

By adding some plays to the ground game Gang Green not only neutralized the Skins attack up front, they also allowed Kerley and Joe McKnight (who lined up as RB when Kerley took the snap), the fastest skill position Jets, a few more chances to make plays.

In addition, by adding run plays, the Jets helped minimize more passing attempts from Mark Sanchez. A player who thrives late in games but has, to his detriment, contributed to uphill climbs in 2011, by throwing into traffic prior to the final quarter of games.

Going forward, the Jets might want consider the Wildcat as a package against the rest of their schedule.

The Jets average 24.2 points a game and give up 21.7. Their margin for error is small. However, it is one that, when matched up against their final four opponents, bodes well, should they be able to keep living up to their own numbers.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: The Jets remaining opponents:

Kansas City Chiefs: 13.9 scoring, 22.3 allowed

Philadelphia Eagles: 22.6 scoring 23.5 allowed

New York Giants: 22.9 scoring 26.2 allowed

Miami Dolphins: 20.5 scoring 18.5 allowed

While it is fair to say that these are year long numbers that are not based on recent trends to highlight backups Vince Young, Matt Moore, and Tyler Palko at the helm on offense for their respective clubs (to which only Moore has helped improve production from the injured starter), the stats still show that the Jets on average, outscore all four opponents.

By limiting opportunities for the other team to score more than THEIR average, the Jets will be in every game for the rest of the season. The Wildcat works if it cuts down on turnovers. It thrives if it delivers solid gains and of course touchdowns.

Don’t be surprised to see it stick around. For more reasons than just trickery, or the hope that it springs big plays from the line of scrimmage.

Mental State Of Mark Sanchez Key To New York Jets Making A Run

Over the last seven days, Mark Sanchez has been beaten by a quarterback who rarely throws a forward pass, and replaced in practice by another who hasn’t seen the field in a meaningful game in years. The mental state of Mark Sanchez, has expressed both confident and fearful tendencies over two and a half NFL seasons, and is the key component for the Jets playoff hopes. As the club embarks on a six game stretch that includes winnable games on paper, with virtually no room for error.

The 5-5 Jets have done it to themselves. Shoddy offensive line play, a pedestrian rushing attack, and a defense that has failed to dominate the line of scrimmage, have along with the now mistake prone Sanchez, all contributed to the club’s current need of running the table.

Going 5-1 should get the Jets in. 4-2 probably won’t. Not with five losses already in the AFC, and an AFC East title that appears headed for another Foxboro crowning.

The task is doable. A banged up Bills team. A QB-less Chiefs club. A Jekyll and Hyde Philly team and 3-7 yet improving group of Dolphins bring a semblance of hope to the Jets. Provided that their play improves. Starting with Sanchez.

It hasn’t all been the fault of the quarterback though much of the blame for the losing has fallen on the shoulders of number six. What has come first, the Jets quarterback’s lack  of ball security or the mounting losses, is debatable. What is NOT up for debate is that Sanchez has made a plethora of key errors that have led directly to failed outcomes. A collection of instances that have left many questioning his ability to lead the Jets.

Sanchez entered this season prematurely awarded the keys to an “Air Coryell” type of offense that was to throw early and often. Deep and short, and all over the field. Once the hardened wall of  a promising 2-0 start began to show cracks up front, a decision was made to do an about face. The “ground and pound” then made their way back into the huddle after Sanchez took a physical beating in Baltimore. In a loss that dropped the Jets to 2-2 during a hellacious three game road swing. The club’s move back in time settled down the ball security issues that following Sunday, but still resulted in a low octane, 30-21 loss at New England.

After a mundane offensive performance during a 24-6 Monday night win over winless Miami, OC Brian Schottenheimer came out from his lab in order to implement “science project three,” a spread out attack against San Diego. The new look got all Jet skill players involved early. However, an end zone interception thrown by Sanchez in the first half thwarted a drive that reminded some of the game ending pick six by Ravens CB Lardarius Webb in Baltimore one week prior. Despite a solid second half comeback that resulted in a big 27-21 win over the Chargers, a scary habit was forming for the Jets underneath the surface, and inside the helmet of it’s signal caller. At 3-3 though, the Jets were at least back in the race.

The Jets returned from a bye week answering doubts surrounding their recent history of egg laying after breaks, by embarking on a crisp nine minute opening drive at 4-2 Buffalo. One that resulted in, you guessed it, an end zone interception by Sanchez that gave Buffalo life. The play seemed to shake the foundation of Sanchez for the rest of the first half, as another pick was followed by a fumbled snap. Two quarters dominated by the Jets defense soon ended with Gang Green owners of a slim 3-0 lead. Sanchez and Co. got it together later in closing out the Bills 27-11, but questions regarding the QB’s “growth” after his nervous play early on, grew louder afterwards.

Now at 5-3, but trailing 30-16 with 8:00 left in a matchup for first place with New England, Sanchez did it again. Throwing a pick six from his own goal line that put the Pats up for good at 37-16. A play that ended the Pats two game slide and talk of a Belichick dynasty in it’s final throes. The interception only compounded an inexplicable timeout that Sanchez had called prior to a late first half TD, that left Tom Brady enough time to regain the lead 13-9, with a TD of his own.

Anecdotally, the lost lead at halftime had sent the Jets marching toward the locker room, where an angry Ryan told NBC the timeout was the “stupidest play in the history of football.” Moments later, a fan compared Ryan’s work to King Bill’s to which the Jets boisterous coach responded “STFU.” A comment that later led to a $75,000 fine by the league on Ryan.

The loss to it’s archrival after the rare shot at a divisional takeover slipped from within their grasp, left the Jets ripe for an ambush in Denver. Where only days later, on an odd Thursday night tilt, Sanchez again threw away the lead. This time at the tail end of the third quarter of a game the Jets led 10-3. Where points were at a premium, as injured primary backs Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson sat as specators. The resulting 10-10 tie then set the stage for Tim Tebow’s impersonation of a John Elway game winning drive.

Despite the many gaffes that Sanchez has had in 2011, his body of work during prior years, should still leave him with many postives to rebuild his confidence from. Regardless of the truth that Ryan’s Jets have been built on defense and a stout rushing attack, Sanchez’s caretaking DID lead to four big comeback wins in 2010. As well as clutch play during mistake free play from behind center over two postseasons.

Mark Brunell was given first team reps over the past few days, but the 19 year veteran is not about to start on Sunday in a must win rematch with the Bills. However, don’t take Ryan seriously when he says as he did at a press conference today, that he can’t envision sitting Sanchez. Should the “Sanchise” struggle with the season on the line, in a winnable game that will feature a Fred Jackson-less Bills offense, don’t be shocked if Ryan goes to the bullpen for a short term fix.

The only person who can prevent this scenario is also the only one who can spearhead the Jets return to a swagger that carried them to the Super Bowl’s doorstep for two years straight. Mark Sanchez.

Sanchez must believe in himself again. By surveying the field. By delivering throws on time. By avoiding the tunnel vision that has led to so many points for the opposing the defense. The Jets QB has to remember that he was brought here to get the Jets over the hump. He must take the field Sunday knowing that if the coaching staff DIDN’T feel as though he could achieve that, he would have never been given the starting job from day one, with a quality team built around him, in the first place.