As nice a story line as Brett Favre and the Jets’ opening-week win over the Dolphins was, it’s worth noting — again — that the Jets probably didn’t deserve to win. The luck in their victory disguised the serious problems the Jets still have to solve. And all those problems were on display in the Jets’ 19–10 loss to the Patriots, a loss that wasn’t actually as close as the score suggested and pretty much secures that the Jets are never, ever gonna beat those guys.
Favre wasn’t terrible yesterday, save for one vintage Favre interception, but the real problem is the one that reared its head in week one: Favre and coach Eric Mangini have exact opposite viewpoints of the planet. Again, the Jets were in a position to directly take advantage of Favre’s gifts of improvisation, and once again, Mangini went conservative, running Thomas Jones into the line three times while facing first-and-goal, leading to a field goal. This, as the Daily News’ Gary Myers put it, “took the energy right out of the fans. And Mangini’s team.” The Jets never felt like they were in the game the rest of the way. And if the Jets can’t beat the Patriots in front of a theoretically charged hometown crowd, in Favre’s first game in East Rutherford, with Tom Brady out for the year … these guys don’t look like anything resembling a playoff team.
The Jets obviously have much work to do, but they don’t have a lot of time to work out the kinks. Next week they travel to face an 0–2 and angry San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football, and then they host the (fake?) resurgent Arizona Cardinals. With winnable games against Cincinnati, Oakland, and Kansas City after that, the Jets need to split the next two to avoid falling too far behind. Because the Patriots aren’t going away and the Bills, strangely, are looking like one of the best teams in the NFL. The Jets knew they’d have a learning curve with Favre. But it gets late real fast, and the Jets might already be running out of time.
Oh, and the Giants destroyed the Rams. But honestly, Rutgers would destroy the Rams.
