Mangini's fate rests on next five games Sunday, November 2, 2008 By IAN O'CONNOR RECORD COLUMNIST Eric Mangini is more confident than his wallflower voice in news conferences might suggest. In the wake of a 4-12 season, he had enough faith in his game-planning ability to buy himself a $4 million Morris County home. The last Jets' coach who went 4-12, Herman Edwards, was shipped off to Kansas City for a fourth-round pick that would be used to take Leon Washington. Mangini doesn't believe his employer would trade him. He wouldn't have bought a six-bedroom Colonial near the team's new facility if he did. But to date, Mangini has proved only that he's an 18-21 NFL head coach, and a guy who appears to have benefited a lot more from his former boss, Bill Belichick, than Belichick ever benefited from him. So today in Orchard Park, N.Y., Mangini will begin the biggest month of his professional life. His five games in November include road dates with the Bills, the Patriots and the league's last unbeaten team, the Titans. The Jets will host the improved Rams and the division-leading Broncos. Mangini needs to go 4-1 this month, 3-2 at the worst. Anything short of that, and the Jets will be all but out of the playoff race in a Brett Favre season that likely will go down as one-and-done. You can't see Favre coming back if this is all there is, can you? You don't imagine him signing up for another 16 games of cruel and unusual punishment if he thinks his coach's playbook reads like the Greek alphabet, do you? Mangini has to repair the disconnect between his philosophy and Favre's ? assuming Favre has one ? and it will take more than a cute line about blackjack to get it done. "Don't hit on 20, you know what I mean?" Mangini said last week. "Sometimes it's OK to stay and see what the dealer has." In response, Favre joked that he's not much of a gambler, that he scares other blackjack players away from the table because they realize "that guy takes hits on everything." The old quarterback has a refreshing sense of humor. Even when he was fed to the Lions over the inside Packers information he gave Detroit, Favre was able to weather the storm with relative ease. But during the first real grilling on his quarterback sneak, at a news conference held 11 days back, Favre's most telling confession was lost in all the noise surrounding his Green Bay betrayal. "Learning this Jets' game plan has been difficult," he said that morning. More difficult than he fathomed when Mangini promised to name his son-to-be after Favre if the quarterback accepted a trade to the Jets. Zack Brett Mangini was born on Favre's birthday, Oct. 10. At the time, Favre was coming off his best performance as a Jet, a six-touchdown blitzing of the Cardinals that had everyone believing he was finally at peace with Mangini's Xs and Os. Only Favre has been an unruly interception machine ever since. He nearly handed Edwards' lousy Chiefs an upset victory in Giants Stadium, adding three degrees of urgency to his most recent weekly meeting with his coach. "You're not trying to reel him in and trying to coach him out of being a good player," Mangini said. "You're just trying to reinforce that everything needs to be a calculated risk." At 39, Favre isn't the all-time league leader with 457 touchdown passes and 299 interceptions for nothing. His idea of a calculated risk would be heaving one up for grabs with his left arm rather than his right. "I don't think that he's become anybody besides who he's been," Mangini said. In other words, Favre's been exactly what Mangini thought he was getting ? an untamed colt bent on taking the Jets for their wildest ride. It's the coach's job to identify Favre's strength and play to it, as the quarterback is the yield of the biggest trade in franchise history. Time is already running low. Favre might not return next year, and the Jets didn't spend more than $140 million in free agent money in the off-season to go 8-8. With Tom Brady gone, the division is wide open. With Peyton Manning down, the conference is wide open, too. A victory over the Bills, Favre said, "would do a lot for our psyche, character and things like that, but I don't know about put us over the hump." This could be the Jets' biggest game in Orchard Park since Bill Parcells clinched the franchise's first AFC East title there in 1998, the year his team also won at New England and at Miami and ended up one half away from the Super Bowl in Denver. "All the factors that go into winning and losing," Favre said, "are magnified that much more when you play away." Mangini is 2-9 in road games since the start of last year. If he doesn't start reversing the trend today, his career might take a turn he never believed it would take. Favre remains heavily favored to be the first Jet out the door. But over these five games in November, Mangini will determine if he'll be among the guys right behind him.
geez sign me up for 3-2, giving a 7-5 record...that would have to include a victory over a first place team - something we rarely see. 4-1 and i buy everyone a beer around here jil
Why would anything short of 3-2 knock us out of the playoff race? 2-3 would leave us at 6-6,teams have never gone 3-1 or 4-0 the last month? especially since the 2 tougher games we have are both at home. We SHOULD have a good final 4 games and if not I'm not ready to give up on Mangini. As frustrated as I am w/ him he is still an extremely young coach who has shown signs he can be really good and we cannot get back into the cycle of a new coach every few years. It's bad for the organization.
well said and I agree to a point. I just wonder if the futility continues, how long we can afford to go with him. He just does not seem to use his personnel to its best advantage. He seems hell-bent on copying the ways of his mentor- BELICHICK in NE. IMO I think he should develop his team according to the talent level he has on hand. STOP trying to be Bill, jr. Overall we are a win now team. Our high priced free agents are not young nor are they the future. Mangreeni must win- soon!
Mangini is not going anywhere...anytime soon! This man will be the Jets head coach for years to come, we should have a top 3-4 Defense for years to come with Mangini running the show, because the man understand the game of defense. I respect that. Just go ask Revis, Lowery, Jenkins, David Harris, Vernon Gholston, Calvin Pace... These are just some of the talented players that Mangini has signed and drafted. You can even ask Robertson and Vilma...They were not 3-4 Players and thats the reason why they are now playing for opposing teams. Does Mangini understand the trenches? Where games are won, you bet you ass he does...Just go ask Jenkins, Ferguson, Mangold, Faneca and Woody... What about having a nice 1-2 combo out the backfield? Thomas Jones and Leon Washington have all the talent in the world to dominate a game behind a solid O-Line. What about signing a veteran and future HOF QB in Favre? Mangini and the Jets front office seen that Pennington and Kellen were not going to take this Jets team to the next level...Anytime soon and you know what? They fixed the problem and now we have #4 as our QB. Say what you want about Mangini...This dude is a great coach and understands the game of football...
I think the only way I'm getting back on board with Mangini is if he gets rid of the coordinators, with the exception of Westhoff. Really, Schotty and Sutton are the speedbumps on this team, and he's gotta know that. Schotty is in way way over his head. Anyone remember the fear of losing him to an HC position before last year? The phones have been dead lately, and that's because the only way he could be worse is by becoming an HC. The guy is dreadful.
I agree, I think that the Jets could find a better OC, someone who understands an offense more than Marty's boy but I wont lie... Schotty has a football mentality, grew up around the game that he loves, and you know what? This guy has a bright future in this leage and as a coordinator or even a head coach one day... Shotty has potential and as a Jets fan, I'm not ready to quit on the man just yet. As for Sutton...Are you all kidding me? We actually have a 3-4 Defense with a talented front 7 and looks whats going on... Opposing teams struggle to gain yards on the ground...We are ranked like 4th against the run, only allowing 3.2 yards per carry and we have like 24 sacks in only 7 games! Sutton is sending the pressure when we need it and backing off in situations where we cant allow the other teams to beat us deep late in the games. We are ranked #4 against the run... Yeah we give up passing yards when we play the prevent Defense in the 4th Quarters of games but you know what? We are getting after the QB like crazy and it's just insane how Jet fans are still harping over this man... He's doing a great job with the young talent he has.
Surprise, surprise. The media has finally figured out that what Mangini got in the offseason was a vote of confidence and a sackful of free agents to make good on it.
Mangini is the speed bump. Sutton coached a 3-4 with lousy personnel for the scheme. Schottenheimer dealt with a deck stacked against him on offense in 2006 and 2007 and somehow produced an okay year alongside the lousy one you'd expect. Mangini is the one responsible for putting together the mix on the field in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Schottenheimer, Cotchery and Chad bailed him out. In 2007 no amount of bailing was going to keep that rowboat afloat. Now in 2008 the talent to do well for the season is on hand. If it doesn't jell it's not the coordinators who failed it's the head coach.
Gee look! I didn't even have to read more than a few words before knowing it was Ian O'Connor writing another crap piece of a story. It doesn't matter that this was about the Jets. Anything this guy writes about is almost always inaccurate and just what HE hopes will happen. O'Connor is the lowest of the low in NY area journalism, bar none.
as stated before, a great Hc must be able to win with the players he has on hand. He can not allow that team to play down to its competition. Accumulating great talent is wonderful but if it goes to waste, what good was it? I hope that MANGINI does well. I am tired of waiting for the Jets to be a great team! I refuse to settle for less! IMO Mangini must stop trying to be BELICHICK and just be himself! No need to copy NE. Make schemes designed for our players. Whytake FAVRE and turn him into a game manager? Why draft Keller and not use him the way he was drafted for? Lets just keep our fingers crossed and hope that we win!
Thats what Cleveland was saying about BB when he became the coach of the Browns... Now look @ the man, one of the best coaches to ever coach. And guess what? He's winning without Brady and that Defense has ALWAYS been elite under Bill. Say what you want about "Mangina" I believe that Parcells and BB had Mangini under their wing for a reason...And believe me-you...They have 4gotten more about Football than you will ever know. This is only Mangini's 3rd year as an NFL Head Coach... He took the Jets to the playoffs his 1st year with Herms team... And has the Jets one game away from 1st place within the AFC East so far this year... How is Herm Edwards doing in KC? Exactly.
Mangini isn't bad but hiring Schottenheimer was a terrible decision. We were all uncomfortable about it at the time, and we're proving to be right. You don't hire anyone from that family.
If he fails, we can fire him and hire someone else who will win immediately. That coach shouldn't even have trouble, since Mangini would be handing him the keys to a very talented team.
I have nothing bad to say about Mangini or Sutton, But I have to SAY the plays being called on the O-fence line look like the same plays every week we play. Where is the shuttle pass, the free flicker, the use of our tight end. Holy smokes quys lets mix it up a little PLEASE
After 40 years of not winning shit, why not take another 10 with yet another coach that needs OJT. As long as the fans drink the koolaid, buy the merchandise, buy the PSL's, demand nothing from the team and accept everything as golden, there's no pressure, no sense of urgency, no emotion, nothing.. Mangini just might catch lightning in a bottle. It took years for Belichek to become the HC he is. It will at least that long with Mangina so, the real question becomes just when will Jet Fans say "enough is enough"... Mangini is 3-9 on the road, 18-21 overall. Definetly HOF bound HC here..
