Monday Night Meltdown For Jets

It wasn't about the result yesterday for the New York Jets when they lost 48-29 to the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. You can lose over there on the West Coast, especially against a Chargers team that had their backs against the wall and was playing to rescue their season after an 0-2 start. But the way the Jets played in the bright lights has to raise an armada of red flags, not only for next weekend's clash with the Arizona Cardinals but also for the entire season.

The night couldn't have started any better for the Jets as new starting safety David Barrett intercepted Phillip Rivers for a touchdown on the second series of the game. But from that point on, everything went south. An early onside kick didn't work, Favre looked like he played for the Chargers the way he was targeting their defensive backs and Thomas Jones fumbled right into San Diego's hands to give them a short field. Yet all of this wasn't nearly as bad as the injury to nose tackle Kris Jenkins. Believe it or not, the 6-4, 350 pound Jenkins is by far the most important player on this Jets team. Yes, including number 4, Ben Graham or Eric Smith (who had an atrocious game yesterday). With the man mountain in the middle, the Jets have the potential to be a top 5 run defense in the league and when they ever start to blitz again, a top 10 overall defense. Without Jenkins though, as we saw last night, the front seven looks like a high school team going up against Earl Campbell in his heyday. It was that bad. The Jets can scratch their heads about the offense all day long, if Jenkins is out for any longer amount of time, the season is over. If you want to be a contender with a 3-4 defense, you can't have some kind of journeyman like Sione Pouha playing nose tackle for you. Great teams are never made by their offense alone and as old the saying seems, defensive still wins championships. The Jets have a lot of pieces in place (above average linebacking corps, strong secondary) but without Jenkins, make your plans for an early January vacation.

While Jets fans have to keep their fingers crossed that big Kris Jenkins is healthy, last night's game puts a rest to those idiots who just wanted to unleash Brett Favre and let him throw the ball all over the place. This group includes the majority of ESPN's inept Monday Night Crew. Mainly Steve Young acted like a voice of reason and had his reservations, calling the idea of letting an unprepared Favre loose "foolish". That comment could be expanded to his pregame partner Emmitt Smith, who is just a notch below Tony Kornheiser in terms of Monday Night stupidity and lobbied for a heavy dose of Favre without giving any indication how that might look. A couple of hours later, Steve Young proved to be oh so right. I don't want to hear all that legend stuff and how great Favre was, is or will be. This isn't about Favre, this is about the New York Jets. He better learn the playbook quickly and gets held accountable for his mistakes. While he sure doesn't have chemistry with his receivers, you still don't have to throw a ball into triple coverage off your back foot. Sure, Favre has always been that way but he better develop some chemistry with his receivers at some point in the near future. The coaching staff has to do their part too, putting up some plays that favor Favre's ability like the vintage quick slant pass that we finally saw once last night. Now Favre is only one of the problems of the Jets offense. The offensive line has been far from good this season. While they looked ok in run blocking yesterday, Faneca and company had trouble keeping the pocket intact. You could expect more from a group that includes two recent first round picks and two big offseason additions. There were also some positive things on offense, like the expanded role for rookie tight end Dustin Keller (4 catches, 41 yards and a touchdown) and the continuing emergance of Chansi Stuckey (6 catches, 42 yards and a touchdown). The special teams were flat out spectacular with Leon Washington electrifiying the field with 198 return yards, a recovered onside kick by rookie Vernon Gholston and another great return by Jerricho Cotchery. But on a night where nothing else works out for you, such bright spots quickly get lost in the dark skies.

Something has changed with these Jets from 2006, Eric Mangini's first year in which they went a surprising 10-6. That team overachieved, though short on talent and personnel, and did everything imaginable to gain an advantage on their opponent (except for video taping of course). They ran trick plays, had a quick striking offense and blitzed all day long with a gigantic package of formations. Yesterday you saw a little glimpse of 2006 when Mangini ordered an onside kick with the game still close. Gutsy call, but somehow it seemed like a desperation move. This year so far, the Jets not only play conservatively and almost passive, no, they also seem to be unprepared. You see the two inside linebackers David Harris and Eric Barton trailing 5-11 scrub receivers on third and long, good blitzers like Kerry Rhodes are wasted in deep coverage, Leon Washington seems to only get the ball on special teams - it's just a long list of things that add up in the big picture and make it hard for this team to break out. On top of that, the Jets look lethargic and don't seem to play with a lot of fire. That includes Brett Favre, even though he already pointed out the Jets' lack of passion in the media. The bye week can't come quick enough for the Jets who have to develop a certain gameplan and an identity on the field. They have to work on chemistry, leadership and a lot of other things. Even though last night was tough, nothing has happened yet. You can lose at San Diego (even though the Chargers are far from anything special right now) but now the Jets face a ton of pressure against Arizona. Going into the bye 2-2 would be good but 1-3 might be something this team, that doesn't really show great resilliance, fire or character right now, can't come back from... especially without Kris Jenkins.