I'm always willing to admit when I'm wrong (and given that I'm a pessimist, it's almost always a good thing when I turn out wrong) so here it is. I thought the Jets would start 0-4. I thought it would take time for the team to grow into the Rex Ryan era. I thought Sanchez would need a year to get comfortable. I thought we'd have passing game troubles without a true #1 WR. I thought without Pace and Ellis the defense was severely crippled. I was wrong about all of the above. And I couldn't be happier to admit it. Now I'm still holding my breath. This was a weakened Patriots team we beat. I am of the mind that "we still beat them, who gives a shit who was on the field," but we still have to beat them in situations where their whole team is on the field. I'm eerily confident in this team right now. It's weird. There's a little voice in the back of my head trying to say "It's still the Jets, the other shoe will eventually drop" but for once, the rest of my brain is like "Will you please STFU!" Sanchez is heroic. This defense can only be described as Band of Lunatics. The coaching is fantastic. This team looks for real. I was wrong. And I couldn't be happier right now.
I thought Sanchez would need to take the Carson Palmer route, and the defense would be just short of elite. I'm just happy I wanted Sancez since he declared for the draft and he's more than I expected. I told a friend of mine he'd be best case scenario Phil Simms and worst case Jeff Garcia.... but he looks like his own type of QB out there, but i saw some Favre in his prime during the Texans game.
So I'm guessing you are now expecting more then 4 wins? Seriously though, it is so easy as long time Jets fans to be pessimistic starting a season. I choose to take the if everything breaks right approach knowing very well that nothing usually breaks right when it comes to the Jets. I was surprised though at the lack of respect the Jets were getting heading into the season. This is an extremely talented team that has been upgraded in the offseason, in both coaching and talent.. I expected Sanchez to be able to come in and be the caretaker QB, I am surprised he has been this good this early though. Same with the D, I expected them to be better than last year, obviously no one could have expected they would be the best D in football after just two weeks. One thing I am certain about, with this HC and QB we are in for a good era in Jets football.
I was in the same boat... I thought they would start finding their rhythm around mid season and as such the first 2 months would ruin any chance to compete for a playoff spot. Rookie QB, rookie HC, new defensive system, tough looking schedule early... too muany hurdles to overcome. I was actually less worried about the WR position. Still very early but this team is way ahead of where I expected. Lets hope they can keep it up.
At this point they could easily start 7-1 now. Not sure they will but if they can split the next two then the 4 after that are definitely winnable.
I don't want him to be anything like Favre. How about we just hope that he turns into a great Mark Sanchez???
You giving the win to New Orleans? I don't see the Jets going 7-1...the schedule coming up is difficult with traveling.
In our poll I voted a 2-3 start but thinking with a few lucky breaks maybe we could pull off 3-2. Sitting here at 2-0 I am more than happy to say "guess Im wrong too" Now I'm going with 4-1, giving our first loss to the Saints. If we are going to lose a game in the next few weeks, best off to make it a team thats not in the AFC.
Splitting the next two is 3-1. Two Games against Ole Noodlearm, and the Jills at Home. The two teams we've already beaten are better than any remaining before the bye, excepting N.O.
I'm not giving the win to them, no. I do think we might lose one of the next two though and if we do then probably the NO game would be the one we lose.
Alio, I was wrong too. I figured a 1-3 start, but am happy to be wrong as well. I think its tough to predict wins and losses from here out. I think they could easily lose to any of the teams we have coming up all the way up to the Tampa Bay game (that one should be a gimme win). I'm not predicting we will lose. We are a better team than all of the teams we have coming up (except for the Saints) but there are no gimme's for a while, so they'll have to continue to prepare and play well like they have been so far. I'm hoping they win them all, but it wouldn't shock me for a team like Miami to slip up and beat us if they happen to find a crack somewhere in our defense, especially if we have some injuries mount up. The Saints game will be fun to watch. Power offense vs. power defense. The lower the score the better for us. I hope they can put pressure on Brees the way they did Brady, but Brees is in a big-time groove now.
7-1 is pushing it guys. You have to remember that Sanchez is not going to play this well every single game. He is a rookie, chances are incredibly high that he has at least one awful game. plus the Titans arent going to be pushovers they expected to be a dominating team again this year, and they will be a very pissed off 0-2, instead of a demoralized one. The Titans will play inspired football, and they will be a tough team to beat. Can we beat them? Heck I think we can beat every team in the league with this defense. Just know that its going to be a hard fought victory.
But the defense should play this good every week..even better when Pace returns. Sanchez doesn't have to be great. If there was any question about that just remember we beat NE scoring only 16 points.
If our offense has a bad game, then our defense will be on the field for a long time. Any defense can break down if they get tired from being on the field the whole game. Anyone who watched the game last night saw how winded the Colts were (that was an extreme case there). It was a miracle those guys were able to cover the Dolphins WRs and is a testament to how non-threatening the Miami passing game is. That being said, or defense can hang with any offense, but our offense has to score points too.
Taking out the late season swoon and discounting that loss to Miami, the Jets have owned Miami in recent years. But that could change - division games are tough because the opponents know each other so well. Same for Buffalo. I am not counting on four wins against those teams. But the main point is I want to thank Alio for starting this thread, because I also was more a darksider than not in the pre season. I think what I obviously missed at least so far was the ability of Ryan and the rest of the coaches to put together a great D with mostly the same players who looked very inconsistent last year. Strickland and to my mind some unexpectedly capable play from Lito have been big in allowing the Jets to not only leave Revis on his island, but mean that the opponent does not merely throw it all day with success to their #2 wideout. But it's really more the coaching, imo. The O I am not yet prepared to jump up and down about. A win is a win like Alio says, and thta is not only true but it's great to be 2-0. But I am somewhat disturbed by only 16 points - I don't think NE will be considered one of the top D's as the season progresses. They've lost too many of their great players to continue at that level. We all had to love the way the O opened up the second half. But they were very mediocre in the first. This team would still be better with more help at wideout. Stuckey is inconsistent, and no wideouts other than Cotch and Stuckey have yet caught a pass. But, 2-0 is great, and I am now hopeful this will continue.
If whoever we play can not score a TD on us it takes a lot of pressure off of everyone. Holding the Pats to 0 TDs was huge and you'd have to go pretty far back to find out when was the last time that happened. I really don't think we ever did it to Brady.
I don't think there's a lot wrong with expecting the worst against the odds that we are facing at this point. While Rex was definitely an outstanding DC for Baltimore, and while he has a fantastic pedigree, it's very difficult to tell how a team will respond on the field to a new HC. Of course they would buy in, but how readily? Then there was the issue of a rookie QB. Yes, Sanchez showed most of us what we wanted to see in terms of a budding franchise QB, but I doubt anyone really expected this kid to be so clutch under pressure and on 3rd downs right out of the gate with such a complex offensive system. The defense, well, we knew the talent we had from last season, and we added some nice players in Scott, Leonhard and Douglas, but how well would this team adopt that insane blitz-happy philosophy that Ryan is famous for, without some breakdowns resulting in long yardage plays that happen when you get that aggressive? So far, we are living the best case scenario in my mind. I definitely want to see it keep going, and I don't think these guys will ever give up on Rex like they gave up on Mangini and Herm before him. They will fight to the death. But sometimes that's not enough. Shit happens in the NFL, and the best case scenario rarely maintains itself. I'm giddy with the results so far, and very optimistic, but it will have to be a lot more for me to back off from my 8-8 prediction. Part of me expects the Jets to scoff at that 8-8 prediction and blow it out of the water. The other part of me has been rooting for the Jets for my entire life and knows better than to get his hopes up.
I was predicting 7-9 wins as well, but I have changed that now after seeing this defense. I will say that its still insane for anyone to be considered a panty-waste for predicting anything less than 14 wins. Sure it could happen, but it isn't likely. Lets not get out of hand here. Seems that anyone who predicts a 10 win season these days is not considered a true Jets fan. All I care about is making the playoffs in some form or fashion. Ask the Pats how important your record is after last year. They sat at home after winning 11 games.
I was thinking anywhere from 7-9 wins best espically with rookie HC, and QB.. But Sanchez looks great so far and D is only getting better and better. Right now i think 11-5is reasonable if we stuff Titans and Chris Johnson
