After Sundays 20-13 loss in Baltimore, Eric Mangini was asked if Chad Pennington was still his starting quarterback. Without hesitation the coach firmly announced, "Yes, Chad is our starter."
Coach, get ready because the rumors & whispsers have only just begun. In his first NFL start, Kellen Clemens showed signs of a bright future. After a lousy first three quarters, Clemens nearly brought NY back from 20-3 down. As a matter of fact, if either Justin McCareins or Lavernues Coles made a catch in the final minute, the Jets & Ravens likely would've gone to overtime. That said, you can also blame Clemens himself for missing a wide open McCareins in the end zone, throwing the ball too high. It was deflected by McCareins right into the hands of Ray Lewis.
Through a difficult first half, Clemens never flinched. He was poised and showed a lot of maturity when it would've been very easy to close shop and come back to Hofstra at 0-2. But something happened at the half. Mangini and his coaching staff made an adjustment with the offensive line and all of a sudden, instead of playing on his back Clemens had time to throw. And did he ever. How about 260 yards worth, with 217 of those yards coming in the second half? How about the connections to Jerricho Cotchery, who set a career high with 165 yards receiving? Mostly on yards after the catch.
What all this does is now give the fans who wanted Clemens to play more ammunition. Pennington said after the game that he was ready to go but the coaches decided against it. Smart decision in my mind. Give the ankle another week. If the Jets don't get off to a good start against Miami, at the Meadowlands next Sunday, the crowd will be rough. We already witnessed the lack of class when he was hurt last week & next Sunday would be no different.
Some things that need to be corrected:
The Pass Rush. For whatever reason this doesn't seem to be getting any better. Whether its Tom Brady or Kyle Boller, quarterbacks have all day to throw. Boller is not exactly Brady, and he was 23 of 35 yesterday.
Special Teams. Mike Westhoff must be beside himself because it's obvious that Mangini is. The Jets had more problems with kick & punt coverage again. Matter of fact, if it wasn't for an illegal block they would've given up a long punt return to Yamon Figurs, to go with his 61 yard kickoff return.
Run Blocking. Good to see that the offensive line started to click yesterday giving Clemens time to throw. Now they need to give Thomas Jones some room to run. Jones was bottled up on almost every run, going for just 2.8 yards per carry. Not good.
It was a nice ride, but stopping Peyton Manning is one of the most difficult tasks in sports and the Jets just fell short. I honestly don't think it was any one thing in particular that the Jets failed to do...
The AFC championship game. Am I really sitting here writing about the Jets taking on the Colts in the game that will decide who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl?
They are the only show left in town and you better hop on quickly because the bandwagon is filling up. As expected it was a very packed house on Wednesday for day 1 of the fun leading up to Sunday's AFC championship game in Indianapolis.
They’ve gone from improbable to the AFC Championship game. Not bad for a team that many said didn’t belong in the final 12. Two weeks ago everyone was yapping how LUCKY the Jets were to make the tournament and that maybe they didn’t deserve it...WRONG. So VERY WRONG.
There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness. For much of the season people have perceived this Jets team as an overly cocky group that had not yet earned the right to be talking such a big game. How about now?
Looking back to Week 12 when the 4-6 Jets were preparing to play the Panthers, things looked grim. There were MANY good seats available in the media room...
There was one wild card in Saturday's Jets-Bengals AFC wild card game and that was rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. Well, he is not a rookie anymore. Or at least he didn’t play like one...
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