Seattle. We were moving the ball fairly well down the field until Sanchez throws an INT with two receivers wide open. Colts. We went to ground and pound and won that game fairly easily. Houston. Once again, we held a potent Houston offense to two touchdowns and three field goals (one of them the result of an INT). We had the game plan to win that game. So that's two games in which we could have won had we not made bone crushing red zone interceptions. That put us at 8 and 6... Dumb? Undisciplined? Aren't they one of the least penalized teams in the NFL? We made two playoff appearances, not one....we also went 9-7 one year. Rex Ryan shares some blame, but he is nowhere near completely responsible for this mess.
The other argument for letting Rex go, and it's a real argument but not decisive, is that 9-7, 11-5, 8-8, 8-8 (or maybe 7-9) isn't normally followed up by a great run. If you look at the Jets realistically you realize that they were 7-7 in 2009 before getting handed two games by the Colts and Bengals. They were 8-8 in 2011 and about the same this year. 2010 is the only season that Rex had the team firing on all cylinders and even then they fell off at the end of the season some and only recovered in the playoffs. Rex did get this team to the AFC Championship game two years running but they didn't have a really good shot in that game either year. They didn't match up well against the Colts offense in 2009 and they were overpowered by the Steelers offense in 2010. That's not what you expect out of a great defensive team in the biggest game of the year.
Dude, you didn't answer my actual question. The Houston game was one where they came out flat and found themselves down, and couldn't overcome it. The Colts game started out slow as well. Yes, they ahve improved the penalties this year, no doubt. But they still get some bad penalties at bad times. ANd I'm not just referring to on the field - I'm referring to the complete lack of discipline in the locker room and with the media. And finally, the number of playoff appearances was a counterargument to how great a job he's done - it could be argued that he did a crappy job and got lucky, at which point we'd be saying he has only had one winning season and one playoff appearance. And if Caldwell doesn't call that ridiculous timeout, we lost to the Colts in 2010 and never make it to that classic NE game. The luck/what ifs go both ways.
Everyone that supports Rex loves to point to the New England game, and rightfully so. But without another bit of luck that hardly anyone talks about - the stupid timeout call by the Colts - the Jets never get to that game and after being 9-2, getting smoked in NE 45-3 and losing 3 of their final five, are one and done. A couple of things go the other way in '09 and '10 and we're having a much different conversation. Even in the two good years the Jets weren't ripping the league apart. We, for once, got the breaks we never seemed to get in previous years (decades) - probably the largest part of "we're not the same old Jets" that had people actually believing they weren't.
People forget that things broke so incredibly right for the Jets in 2009. It was a major accomplishment by Rex to take a team with a rookie QB to the AFC Championship game but just silly lucky things happened for the Jets along the way. The opponents went 0-5 on FG's in the two playoff wins. Nate Kaeding went 0-3 on FG's, missing from 36 and 40 yards in the process in a 3 point Jet victory. Was it a fluke? No. But anybody who points at that run as a thing of design and execution is missing the enormous amount of luck involved also. 99 times out of 100 the Jets don't get to the AFC Championship game from 7-7 given what needed to transpire. We got the lucky entry in that lottery. 2010 was legitimate and further advanced the aura around 2009. Without 2010 2009 just looks like a fluke event, like the Cardinals getting to the Super Bowl in 2008 only a step shorter.
I think I will get stoned for suggesting this, but I think, if Norv tags along, then McElroy can make it work. GMac, in my eyes at least, is the perfect QB for Ryan too. He is smart, (regardless of the academic environment, you don't get 3.85 in college by being stupid) accurate and is a gamer - i.e. he never lost as a starter in high school, and then some. (Was a part of undefeated Bama team also.) I don't know about you guys, but to me that counts a lot. Arm strength alone does not make the QB. It's what you got up in your head that makes the QB. He might not have that cannon of an arm everyone drools over, but he won't lose the game for you the way Nacho (TM) does every so often with his bone-headed INTs and ass fumbles. That's a good thing no matter who tags along as an OC. Moreover, if there is an offensive mind that knows how to get the most out of potential, that is Norv. (See how Lead Draw was conceived down there in Texas.) If the QB does not turn the ball over with every god damn chance he gets a la Nacho, then the offense has chance. Remember how many of Nacho's picks came in the red zone. Obviously Santonio needs to be gone. (Too costly.) Other than that, I think Fasano is going to be free agent after this season, and if he tags along with Keller, then it would make more sense to bring in Norv - and pray that he develops a good TE core out of Cumberland/Fasano/Keller. With Hill and Kerley, 2 TE set can work, don't you think? The RB is a problem, but I still maintain that Jets need to address OL first and foremost. Powell looks like a good RB too. Jets still have Mangold and Ferguson - that's a good start. They will need to find some OL and RB out of the late round picks, but Rex can't go all in on defense this season. Either of the top two has to go to offense. This is my concern too actually. You cannot consistently with a gimped team - I am hoping Ryan has learned his lessons by now. On top of that, Jets salary is concentrated on top 10 personnel. (Nacho and whatnot.) You cannot win consistently if the majority of the players you field are scrap heap quality. (I have posted about the salary cap issue in other posting - basically all starters are worth 5M, so if you want to shell out 10M on that player, you better have a good reason to justify that player taking two player worth of salary. Santonio is a piss-poor investment in that regard. Nacho? Don't even bother. Even the likes of Harris, Revis and Cro are not quite cost-effective.)
