Jets Pull Out All the Stops and Come Up Short

Please, can we get off the subject of the onside kick? You’re playing the team regarded by many as the best in the league, you’re expected to get your butt kicked, and you know if you play out your usual conservative game plan, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So you try to throw in something unexpected, something to jolt your opponent and catch them off guard, and it doesn’t work. Now, to judge from the reaction online and on the radio shows, that’s the reason you lost the game.Let’s be clear on this. The failed onside kick that the Jets tried at the beginning of the third quarter in yesterday’s 10–0 loss to the Chicago Bears was not the reason they lost the game. For one thing, the Bears only got a field goal out of the cheap possession. For another, it sent Chicago a signal that the Jets were ready to pull out the stops on this one.Unfortunately, the Jets really had no stops to pull out. They played their hearts out in this one. On offense. they sent men in motion, they passed on second-and-short, they ran draw plays on second-and-long, and they alternated four-wide receiver with two-tight end sets. On defense, they stunted, blitzed — they even blitzed with Kerry Rhodes and got a sack out of it — and even tried jamming the Bears receivers at the line of scrimmage. They did everything they could to disrupt the Bears, but it was like a middleweight fighting a heavyweight. Still, more than midway through the fight, the middleweight was holding his own. It wasn’t until the fourth period when Chicago’s Mark Bradley slipped Drew Coleman’s tackle after taking in a short pass from Rex Grossman and took it all the way for a 57-yard touchdown that the Bears were able to put the game out of reach, 10–0.Take away that one play, and the Jets actually outgained the Bears, 264–227 yards. In fact, the Jets doubled the Bears offensive output in the first half, 156–79, particularly impressive considering that the Jets came into the game 31st in the league in yards allowed. Yes, they were playing above their heads, but they also exposed Chicago offensively; clearly if the Bears are going to go all the way it will have to be on the strength of their defense.And once again, it was the Bears’ defense that bailed them out in this game. Chad Pennington’s two interceptions were far more damaging than the failed onside kick, and Pennington looked particularly bad on both, as they were forced throws. The first one really hurt, coming on the end of a 13-play drive when Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher stepped in front of Jerricho Cotchery in the end zone and ran the ball back 36 yards. Pennington’s decision to throw looked like a poor one — it was in fact just the second interception of his career inside the red zone — but like the onside kick, it was a mistake forced by necessity. It wasn’t the kind of pass Pennington would have attempted if the Jets had been up, say 17–0, but it was the kind of gamble you have to take when you’re playing a team that’s probably going to beat you 17–0. I’d rather have seen Pennington try to force the touchdown in that situation than settle for the field goal, and I suspect most Jets fans, if they were being honest, feel the same way.So, if it’s important to learn from defeats, what have we learned about the Jets from this game? Probably that the Jets are not better than the Giants, but almost certainly that Eric Mangini is a better coach — a more flexible strategist and a better handler of available talent — than Tom Coughlin, whose team lost to the same Bears by 18 points on the same field a week ago. We also learned that the Jets aren’t a legitimate playoff team.That being said, there’s no real reason why the Jets can’t still make the playoffs. The Jets are now 5–5, and their last six games are with the Texans at the Meadowlands, the Packers at Green Bay but without Brett Favre, the Bills at the Meadowlands, the Vikings in Minnesota, the Dolphins in Miami, and, finally, the Raiders back at the Meadowlands. If the Jets go 4–2 against this underbelly of the NFL, they could make the playoffs, and since they will probably be favored at least by a point in most or possibly all of them, there’s no reason why they couldn’t be expected to go 5–1. Jets’ fans, I’m sure, would have no illusions that a 10–6 Jets team wouldn’t be the worst 10–6 team in the league, but it sure would beat the heck out of being a 6–10 team, which is what a team with their stats should be.Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”

Jets Pull Out All the Stops and Come Up Short

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