again i disagree, if we were almost an 8-8 team, then why cant i say we were almost an 11-5, 10-6 team? would you not agree that our defense, and offense, [except m.sanchez for 3 games] were elite? imo, being the #1 ranked defense, and being the #1 ranked rushing offense, and going to the afccg, makes you elite.
no way braylon gets a one game suspension because he didn't do anything wrong. in many parts of the country, midget punching is actually encuraged.
Some of you guys need to go easy on the green koolaid. These rankings have us the best team in the AFC East and in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. And you guys want to complain? Especially when our QB is coming off an injury, and all of the interesting characters we have to integrate?
And again, I say who cares about respect????? In the NFL there is a wonderful way for a team to earn respect - win games. There are 16 chances every team has to earn respect each year. What a group of writers thinks is completely irrelevant. Maybe its a generational thing, but why are younger Jets fans so caught up with respect when your team can just earn it the old fashioned way - on the field.
I think the Jets were ranked 23rd or thereabouts going into the 2009 season according to all these expert power rankings. We ended up in the AFCCG with a lead at halftime by season's end. These rankings don't mean shit.
OK, throw my "almost 8-8" out the window, we were still a 9-7 team. Rankings are all well and good, but when they don't transfer into wins, how much do they really matter? All I'm saying is this team was middle of the pack all year, had a nice playoff run, and all of a sudden people began acting like they were a 12-4 or 13-3 team during the season. They weren't. They played a LOT of mediocre and sometimes worse football last year. They also looked great at times. We're going to be very good this year, but there are SO many question marks coming into the season that I just think the fervor I'm reading should be toned down a bit.
Luckily he's not a rookie anymore, but I'll guess he still costs us two. I can live with that (my guess is Baltimore and Detroit...yeah you heard me, Detroit. We are still the Jets after all :smile Take out the total special teams double brain-fart and we split with the phins this year. Chock up one more to the schedule (loss to vikes or pack take your pick) and toss one to Brady in his house. 11-5. 4-2 in the division. Sounds like a plan.
idk about you, but when fans of other teams, come up too me and say, the jets are gonna be really good this year, it feels great, so were getting respect from fans, and from the media, rather than jets suck e.c.t. but i agree, that we still have to prove it on the field.
while yes, we were a 9-7 team, did not having the #1 ranked defense, and the #1 ranked rushing offense make us elite? you dont think the only thing that separated us from being 11-5 was a ROOKIE qb? we just didnt have a GREAT PLAYOFF RUN, anytime you have the #1 d, and the#1 rushing offense, you have something to offer the playoffs, which we did, the run too the afccg was not a fluke, if we were 9-7, and had a veteran qb, and were in the middle of the pack in defense, and rushing offense, then i would agree w/u
What is there to argue about?? Pre-season power rankings are about as useful as a plunger in Ethiopia. To top it off it's ESPN, even their in season power rankings are wrong. In my pre-season power ranking system the Jets have been number 1 at least 20 years running now.
As far as I'm concerned...the second another fan or "expert" brings up the loss of Thomas Jones..I no longer take the conversation seriously. The guy had nothing left by season's end.
We gave him the ball 331 times last season, a career high at age 30. How much did you expect him to have left in the tank for the playoffs? He carried the ball 376 times for us last year and we don't even come close to sniffing the playoffs if he's not there for us all season long. I was one of the people who thought Jones was cooked going into the season at 30. I was wrong on that one as he had one of his top 3 seasons. I suppose Shonn Greene can handle 300+ carries next year. He's going to have too to get us into the playoffs. Hopefully he'll have some spring left in his legs after that pounding for crunch time. I'd have been a lot happier knowing that Jones was going to split carries with him in the regular season and give him the chance to be fresh in the playoffs.
the respect card...when you have no argument to validate your criticism just claim it is about respect.
I hear ya, but this leap to elite is all based on the assumption that Sanchez takes a HUGE step forward and the D is then complemented with an equally potent offensive attack. While he did show major improvment towards the end of the year, he still had the knee issue in the offseason and not every rookie QB takes a giant leap forward in year 2. Although adding Santonio Holmes helps a lot. Bottom line: I hope to hell you're right. I hate sitting here and sounding like a detractor of my own team. I hope we go out there and light it up next season.
Rankings don't make you elite. Dominance makes you elite. Our O-line in 2009 was top-grade, but they were lacking enough not to be elite. They contributed to the top ranked running game, but Thomas Jones was far from elite and Shonn Greene, while exciting in the playoffs, has not put together enough of a resume to make that argument. We ran well, but we did not run at will like elite runners we have seen in this league. The defensive had elite coaching. I'm never going to take that away. But elite defenses sack the quarterback and turn the ball over a lot. We lacked an effective 4 man rush (which all elite defenses must have) and we lacked pass coverage in the clutch. Elite defenses clutch it up in situations where a spread offense comes into play. That was a deficiency in both the secondary and in the 4 man rush. We couldn't get to the QB unless we were sending 5 or more blitzers. I think we show a ton of promise on both sides of the ball, and I think they made both sides stronger this offseason. Strong enough and talented enough that if Rex can get everything out of them, they will be elite. But the Jets are not there yet. As far as Sanchez goes - we don't need him to be elite right now with the team that Rex and Tanny have assembled. What we need is for him to continued to improve at a steady rate - including making game-changing decisions like the leader and playmaker he has been billed to be - then the Jets have as good a chance as any team in the league of winning it all in 2010/11.
