Let me state upfront that I am totally pumped by the first two games this season and I am about as excited about this team as I have ever been. However seeing people post predictions of 14-2 or 13-3, saying that we are going to start 7-1 and saying that they "can't see how the Titans can beat us this week", I think it is time for a reality check. Now, at the risk of enduring taunts of "if you don't like it, find a new team" and "sucks to be you", I'd like to at least make a case for tempering expectations. 1) We really don't know if the Texans or Pats are good teams this year. The first two weeks of the season are notoriously poor indicators of how good teams are. These next two games (especially the NO game) will provide a better litmus test for how good the Jets really are. 2) We have yet to see how this team reacts to adversity. At some point they are going to lose and some of the bravado may go away. How well are they going to rebound from losses? 3) Maybe more importantly, how are they going to react to success? Historically, this team has not performed well when expectations are high. "Same Old Jets" wasn't born overnight and it isn't going to disappear in two games. There are reasons to believe this year will be different, but until the Jets beat all the teams they should beat (especially late in the season...when the pressure is on), let's not get ahead of ourselves. 4) Teams are starting to build up a film library on Sanchez. The more he plays in the NFL, the more teams are going to begin to recognize his tendencies. It is just a matter of time before some bright D-coordinator finds a way to expose the rookie. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind. Now, I do think the Jets have a good chance at being a playoff team, and I'll be disappointed if they don't make it, but it is still too early to anoint them the '85 Bears. Have hope...think positive...believe in Ryan...just don't set your sights too high or you may not enjoy the ride. DBJ
Fuck this optimism running out of control shit. I think the Jets are going to win the next 47 Super Bowls and there's nothing you can say that proves me wrong. Well, until December or so...
sucks to be you seriously, anybody who's followed the jets for any appreciable period of time has seen this movie before. Just because you know its going to end in a disaster doesn't mean you can't enjoy the good parts at the beginning. I think the jets are a little overrated myself. The first fumble last week could have gone for six the other way, and probably should have but it looked like the Pats weren't playing to the whistle. I was looking for a long clock eating drive in the fourth quarter, but the Jets offense gave the ball back to Brady twice in the last 5 mins. Thats a recipe for disaster. I'm happy with the win, don't get me wrong, but I didn't see it as an all out domination. Without the crowd fucking up the Pats O, that could easily have been a close loss.
I'd say 48 Super Bowls but Sanchez will be turning 70 then and he'll be slowing down some. No NFL QB has ever won a Super Bowl after his 69th birthday. You could look it up.
DBJ, come on man. Try to have some fun here. Its not that hard. Being down 9-3 and the offense doing nothing in the first half is adversity. And the Jets responded.
Were the Jets a 6-10 team last year that overperformed because of BF and EM or were they an 11-5 team that was held back? I think the pieces fit alot better this year, when some team lays 20 or more points on this D, I may think differently, but until then I am enjoying the scenery along the way. Ghosts be damned...optimism rules.
The second 1/2 of that game was really an impressive turn around. Between the adjustments by the coaches and the players not falling into the "here we go again" mode that told me a lot about where we headed. Im still not looking at 13-3 but I am hoping for playoffs. My glass is half full.
Optimism run amok? Well that's never a bad thing really. Regarding Sanchez, he does too many things well to be completely pinned down by even the best defensive coordinators. Pennington for instance had pinpoint accuracy, but was slow as hell and had a weak arm...those kind of QB's can be gameplanned against, put in a box, and completely shut down. Sanchez is young, quick feet, quick release, strong arm, good vision, strong leader, quick learner etc. He has enough to always stay ahead of the game.
i agree with most said DBJ. Parcells had the best line about Romo - "let's not crown him just yet." after the bye week, Sanchez will be seen enough to gameplan for. But the test will be his ability to adjust. I'd like to go 3-0 so that the loss to NO seems inevitable and then we can see a pissed off Jets team meet Miami and rape them. That's my little dream right there. Small signs point to this team responding well from adversity by making adjustments in the 2nd half and becoming a better team, but how they respond after a loss is a bigger adjustment than adjusting after a half. Sanchez seems to respond well after failures, so I hope he rebounds in a larger sense after losses. We'll see. Since Ryan seems like a better coach than Mangini or Herm, and 99% chance will be, I can see this team not getting too crazy after big wins like last week. Ryan has already stated that "swelled heads, are heads that roll come sunday."
if you can't enjoy the times when your team is playing well, what's the point i'll be enjoying it while it lasts reality checks are depressing when your team hasn't won a superbowl in over 40 years
you need them because you have fans who think we are winning the SB in week 2, but then when the season is over and they lost the wild card game those same fans are bitching about everything that went wrong.... its really annoying. i'd rather know this is now a 9-10 win team rather than a 6-8 win team and stop there, and increase the win total as the season goes along. its called patience. At the same time, I'm a proponent of the Ryan philosophy - keep your foot on the gas and run over everyone. And if you need to, stop the car, put it in reverse and run them over again, put it back in drive and run them over one more time as you do 200 MPH down the one way street.
I don't see the problem with making those predictions. It's just that when the team falls short of those expectations some people don't know how to handle it and this forum pretty much becomes unreadable. If someone wants to predict we'll go 15-1 and win the SB, more power to that guy. The NFL season is very short and fans deserve to dream a little before reality smacks them in the face with an 8-8 season. Just be prepared to handle yourself in a reasonable manner when that time comes.
