It's only week 9 but the Jets season is basically over. The Gang Green came very close to beating the crosstown rival Giants, however four turnovers and poor clock management allowed the Big Blue to come out on top 31-28 in overtime. The Jets fell to 2-6 and practically killed all their playoff hopes for this season.
As the Jets were down 14-28 with less than 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, QB Chad Pennington, who had thrown two interceptions and lost a fumble earlier in the game, finally got his composure back and looked like the Pennington of last year. First, he led the Jets down the field to make it a one touchdown game - a 9-play drive that was culminated by an 11-yard touchdown pass to his favorite target WR Santana Moss. The latter played the best game of his short NFL career - 10 receptions for 121 yards, 3 TDs. Then, when the Jets got the ball back with only 3 minutes to go in the final quarter, Pennington once again directed an excellent 12-play drive that ended with a touchdown pass to TE Anthony Becht. The game was tied and headed to overtime.
The Jets got a gift when Giants' kicker Brett Conway missed a 39-yard field goal early in overtime. It seemed that the Gang Green who had scored touchdowns on their previous two possessions would just go down the field and win the battle of New York. What we saw next was quite typical for the Jets of Herman Edwards' regime. Instead of going down the field, the Jets stumbled, as offensive coordinator Paul Hackett once again decided to show his playcalling "magic." Right after Pennington completed a 17-yard pass to Anthony Becht, Hackett called two running plays that resulted in a gain of just 2 yards. 3rd and 8, no one was open, Pennington decided to run, gain of 2, the Jets were forced to punt... How many times had we seen this before? Your quarterback finally looks calm and poised, has driven your team down the field on the previous two possessions, but you decide to run instead when the game is on the line. Stupid!
The Jets defense came through again on the next Giants possession, giving Hackett's offense another chance to win this game. The Jets moved the ball to the Giants' 32-yard line where they faced a 4th and 3 with no timeouts left. It took about 20 seconds for head coach Herman Edwards to decide what he wanted to do (don't you have to plan in advance?). The kicking unit rushed onto the field, snapped the ball in a hurry, the kick was blocked and the memories of past miscues arose in the minds of many Jets fans. The Giants were not going to waste their third possession in overtime...
How many games should it take for a head coach to figure out how to manage the game clock? We saw this in Edwards' first season with the Jets, we saw this in his second season, we saw this once again against the Giants. How clueless is this guy? His sidekick Paul Hackett is by no means any smarter. We've read it in newspapers, we've heard it on TV, we've seen it in every Jets' game - this team likes to run on second downs, second and longs in particular. Does this "genius" think that the people who actually get paid for stopping his offense don't know about his running habits on second downs? How stupid! How many of us know that LB Mo Lewis is old and slow? Only Lewis' injury made Edwards finally start rookie LB Victor Hobson in his place. Hobson led the Jets with 11 tackles.
Well, Edwards' inability to coach has finally caught up on him. The Jets are out of the playoff race. I've said this before and I'll say this again, the New York Jets will not have a shot at the Super Bowl as long as Herman Edwards is head coach! You can't win on luck all the time because luck eventually runs out, which is the case this year...