Jets Enjoy Sunday Eve Fish Fry

For whatever the reason, the Jets otherwise superb defense takes a holiday when playing the Dolphins. The most points surrendered in any of New York’s last 8 regular season games were 15 points. Last night, the Fins put up 23 points on the board. Last year, the Jets uncharacteristically lost both encounters, the first by a score of 31-27 at Landshark Stadium, and the second at the Meadowlands, by a tally of 30-25. The second game featured one of the wildest third quarters in recent memory, including Miami’s Ted Ginn Jr. returning two kickoffs of over 100 yards for TD’s within the 15 minute period. In the first game, Miami QB Chad Henne had perhaps his greatest game yet as a pro; tonight he had his second best outing, throwing for 363 yards and 2 touchdown passes. Perhaps Gang Green, like many squads, has a difficult time coping with Miami’s humidity in September, or perhaps Head Coach Tony Sparano is pulling off his James Gandolfini imitation, and somehow deftly swiping the Jets defensive playbook. Whatever the case, a game that promised to be a defensive struggle developed into an entertaining offensive battle that wasn’t decided until the final seconds, when Chad Henne’s desperation pass was deflected and intercepted in the end zone. New York had just scored the apparent game winning touchdown, after a 12 play, 80 yard drive, capped off by a 1 ½ yard TD run by LaDanian Tomlinson, each week looking more and more like the key back in the Jets Ground and Pound offense. But with only 1:48 left on the clock, Miami struck back with a 3-play blitzkrieg, highlighted by a 30 yard pass to Brandon Marshall, who ravaged the New York’s secondary all night, and the Jets found themselves backed up on their own 11 yard line, with a minute left on the clock. But at that point, the Defense stiffened, and the Jets came away with their second divisional win in a row.

From the outset of the match the Jets took control, and some perhaps surmised the outcome to be a cakewalk. The first two possessions by Green and White were both long drives ending with touchdown passes from Sanchez to Dustin Keller. Sanchez continues to make headway in his aspirations towards becoming one of the elite QB’s in the NFL, and Keller is in the midst of a breakout campaign. He has the rare combination of size, speed, good hands, and blocking ability that causes Offensive Line Coaches to salivate, and which are the trademark of All-Pro Tight Ends. But the Dolphins proved a worthy opponent indeed, and fought back from a 0-14 deficit to take a 17-14 lead, mainly due to the efforts of Henne and Marshall.

However, it took the Jets only 18 seconds to recover the lead. Sanchez threw a sideline pass to Braylon Edwards, sans alcohol and beard, who embarrassed CB Jason Allen with a nifty juke, and gamboled 67 yards for a TD. Edwards, of course, had been the talk of the town all week, having blown a .16 B.A.L. when stopped by the police because his car windows were apparently too heavily tinted. He was lambasted by the press, as were the Jets, who have had a series of incidents since the exhibition season, including apparently ogling and making inappropriate statements to a female correspondent (who calls herself the “hottest Hispanic reporter in football”.) Coach Rex Ryan hollered at his football team, stating that he had had enough. “Quite honestly, I’m basically tired of dealing with some of these issues,” Ryan said he told the team. “I’m tired of the embarrassment to the owner.” Of course, what Ryan forgot to mention was that it was one of his own coaches who was flinging a football in range of the Latin hottie so he could get an upfront look, and it was Ryan himself, when the Jets last visited Miami in the summer, who saluted the fans with one half of the peace sign. Of course, the Oakland Raiders of the ‘70’s also had a rowdy group which won Super Bowls, but this is a different, more politically correct era, thus the media is that much more puritanical in its stance. One New York reporter made an analogy between Edwards DUI and Ben Roethlisberger’s bad boy behavior, including several allegations of rape, suggesting that Edwards should be given a 4 game suspension, which at least to this reporter seems frankly to be an inane equivalency. What seems clear is that the Jets appear to be able to keep focused despite the circus atmosphere. At any rate, GM Mike Tannenbaum stated that the Jets couldn’t suspend Edwards because of the players union, but they would “punish” him by not starting him. The punishment lasted all of one quarter. Edwards, suitably penitent, caught but two passes, but both were critical, and he averaged 45 yards per catch.

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Other observations: The Jets offensive line held up well in lieu of the fact that All-Pro center Mangold didn’t play due to injury. However, the ghost of Alan Faneca continues to haunt the team, as Matt Slausen was called for two holding penalties. As a team, the Jets were called for nine penalties, giving them 29 for the season, which is troublesome. The absence of Darrelle Revis, which didn’t seem to affect the play of the defense against the Patriots, was obviously deleterious this time around. One can only surmise how Brandon Marshall’s effectiveness would have been daunted had Revis been activated. The latest news is that Darrelle may not be available for next week’s contest against Buffalo. While one may not take the Bills seriously, they did manage to put up a beau-coup of points yesterday against the Pats. Finally, once again, the Jets effectively shut down the Dolphins running game. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams combined for only 82 yards.

By: Paul J. Nebenfuhr
ProFootball-fans.com New York Jets Correspondent