TNF Notes: Jets v. Patriots

I got tonight's game, thanks to my proximity to the Jets media market. It was startlingly entertaining, unlike the next few weeks of NFLN work, which prominently features AFC West teams. Ye gads, this is a network that's just trying to hurt you, really.

I've seen way too much Jet Football this year, both from the market proximity and the fantasy league over-reliance on Thomas Jones, Jerricho Cotchery and Leon Washington. So here's the key points from a game that you probably didn't see...

> The Jets took a big early lead (24-6) on the stength of a Washington kickoff return and some good red zone work by Favre. The Patriots then got a last-second touchdown before the half, as they exploited Jabbar Gaffney against the Jets' weak nickel backs, but the odd thing was how the Jets kept refusing to spy Matt Cassel, who wound up running 8 times for 62 yards tonight to lead the Pats. Honestly, the Jets' failure to adjust for Cassel picking up easy first downs was kind of amazing. Eric Mangini might have won a big game tonight, but his team did it, not his coaching.

> In the second half, the Pats played error-ridden football to make their comeback a hell of a lot harder than it had to be. A Ben Watson fumble stopped one drive just outside of the red zone. An oversnap in the shotgun led to a 23-yard loss and a failed drive. Meanwhile, the Jets were going three and out, forgetting to run the ball, and in general, just behaving dramatically unlike a team that was ready to step up and lead the division.

> Finally, Cassel found Watson at the end of the third for the touchdown, got the surprisingly early 2-point conversion to Gaffney, and then added a long field goal to tie it after another failed Jets drive. The Jets then responded with a long drive that was the kind of thing you thought they'd be doing all night: using their physical offensive line that is much, much better at run than pass blocking, buttressed by the occasional short safe throws from Favre.

After one questionable defensive holding call followed by a much more defensible one, Jones was finally able to punch it in from the one, giving me the fantasy football friendly evening that I needed to take over (temporary) first place in my league. Woo hoo! Go me! It's my birthday! It also looked like the dagger.

> After the kickoff, the Jets forced a three and out with a great Kris Jenkins sack, and things Absolutely Over, given Belichick's continuing shakiness with his timeouts... but the Pats held on a short third down, and wound up 65 yards away with 64 seconds left. Thanks to some truly regrettable prevent defense and some surprisingly competent two-minute drill work from Cassel, the game came down to a 4th and 1 from the 16 with eight seconds left.

Now, at this moment in the game, Randy Moss had two catches for six yards. He'd been open on a deep ball in the third that Cassel failed to keep in the field of play, one of those passes that makes Patriots Fan absolutely convinced that no matter what, this isn't their year. He was, basically, playing one of those trademark Randy Moss Isn't Very Interested Games, because a good corner does that to him with increasing regularity now, and the Jets have a very good corner in Darrelle Revis.

So, on the very last play of the game, after a defensive time out, the Jets put Ty Law on Moss instead.

Law, who was unemployed earlier in the, um, week, mostly because he's very old and very slow.

Who was then promptly beaten off the line by Moss, couldn't recover on a perfectly thrown out by Cassel, and then got to watch the booth review for a pointless few minutes before the catch was upheld.

Tie game and overtime.

Now, honestly, Mangini seems to be a tolerable coach. In two of his three years, he's managed to have his team play meaningful football. If he's had any input at all on the personnel decisions, that's also to the good; his defense is loads better than it was last year. Winning on the road in Foxboro, regardless of how wounded the opponent is, is a great win. Maybe Law had been having a good night up to then, but I kind of doubt it, given that Cassel wound up throwing for 400 yards.

But, um, seriously? You have a guy off the street covering what might be the best wideout in football, one on one, in a do-or-die situation with the division lead and your likely playoff life on the line, since a Patriots win would have given them a 2-0 heads-up edge in the tiebreaker?

That's not strategy, that's suicide. And that kind of unspeakable brain fart just isn't compatible with a team that comes anywhere near a title. Period.

> The Jets won the toss, and with the crowd giving the Pats' defense as much love as they are still capable of giving, gave up a a bad sack on Favre to force a 3rd and long. With all of us waiting for the Favre TAInt that is always looming in big games, the veteran instead took advantage of a non-existent three man pass rush and a wide-open Dustin Keller to convert for the first. Dramatically bad coverage on the part of the home team.

> After that, Favre kept feeding Keller with safe throws, backed up by occasional Jones runs. A big against-the-grain completion to Coles was the last unsafe play of the night, and it put the Jets in field goal position. After three last Jones carries to center the ball and get it closer, Jay Feely came out to add his signature drama on the event. A fluttering field goal snuck in past the left upright, and that was that. Give it up for Mangini here, in that if he had kicked on third down and from two yards further out, maybe Feely misses.

So the Jets move to 7-3, the Pats fell to 6-4... and I'm really having a hard time imagining the Dolphins not winning this division. And by the way, this would never have happened in Bill Belichick was alive. (Seriously, the man's lost the fastball. He's been brutal this year, first in the Colts game, and now this. You get the feeling that he's just not trying as hard as he usually does, because he can't get over the fact that all of his best players are hurt and the game just isn't as much fun when you are scoring 500 points a year. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, really.)

Oh, and finally, give the devil his due. Favre never made the big mistake that would have swung this game to the home team, and he made all of the throws he needed to win the game.

Expect to hear this, oh, a million times in the next week...