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One of these things is not like the other.
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New York Jets owner Woody Johnson's decision to keep head coach Rex Ryan and to fire general manager Mike Tannenbaum answers some questions, but it leaves a lot to wonder.

There was always a question as to how much say Rex had in personnel decisions as opposed to Tannenbaum. In firing one and not the other, Johnson gave his answer: He feels that Tannenbaum was more responsible for the shortcomings of the 2012 Jets than Rex was. 

Heck, Tannenbaum may even be more responsible for the potential shortcomings of the 2013 Jets as well, even though he will no longer be with the team.

Poor drafts were a major part of the problem, but coupled with the team's inability to evaluate their own talent, the roster was quickly crippled from the unit that went to two consecutive AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010 to the group that makes up the roster today.

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Well, that didn't take long. The New York Jets have kicked off what is commonly referred to around the NFL as "Black Monday" by announcing they are moving on without now-former general manager Mike Tannenbaum in 2013.

The announcement was made via the team's official Twitter account on Monday morning.

Just moments later, Johnson announced that the Jets would be hanging onto head coach Rex Ryan for next year.

Tannenbaum has enjoyed some success as the proverbial shopper-of-the-groceries for the Jets and was the man responsible for drafting cornerback Darrelle Revis, center Nick Mangold, left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson and linebacker David Harris. He also helped the team execute trades to land cornerback Antonio Cromartie and wide receiver Santonio Holmes.

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The Miami Dolphins sure would have liked to cap off their up-and-down season by finishing at or above .500 for the first time since 2008. A win on the road over the AFC East champion New England Patriots would have marked their first win at Gillette Stadium since that year and would have sent them riding into the offseason on a high note.

As it is, the loss serves as a great capstone on the season if only to help the Dolphins learn how they must build toward 2013.

For one, they might want to do a better job of protecting quarterback Ryan Tannehill. He showed enough promise to have confidence in him as the answer at the position, but not if he's being pressured on 30 percent of his dropbacks, as was the case leading into Sunday's game. He was sacked seven times by New England's defense.

He may have been the second-most accurate quarterback in the league under pressure headed into Sunday's game (with 74.7 percent of his passes under pressure either being caught or dropped, according to ProFootballFocus.com), but no amount of accuracy under pressure will help when he's being brought down that much.

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The New England Patriots defense played their best football of 2012 against the Miami Dolphins, with a season-high seven sacks and a season-low zero points allowed. The seven sacks were the team's best since hosting the Dolphins in Week 15 of 2007.

The shutout was their first since October 18, 2009, against the Tennessee Titans.

Most impressive, though, was the number of young contributors in this performance.

Rookie linebacker Dont'a Hightower recovered a fumble at the 1-yard line to keep the Dolphins off the scoreboard. Cornerback Derrick Martin had a sack of his own and was on the field a lot for New England's banged-up secondary.

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The Buffalo Bills' season started with an ugly loss to the New York Jets in Week 1. It ended with an ugly win over the Jets in Week 1 7.

There was a good deal of ugly in between, and there will surely be a lot of ugly in the coming days.

Either one of two things is going to happen: The Bills are going to completely gut the Chan Gailey era, which will probably also come with a change at quarterback, or they will continue on with Gailey. It will be an ugly offseason regardless.

If they don't move on, they will be continuing with a regime that is 16-32 (.333) in its first three seasons in Buffalo. General manager Buddy Nix has said that he doesn't want to change head coaches every three years. He said back in November (via The Buffalo News):

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The Star-Ledger-USA TODAY Sports

If you missed the New York Jets' offense this season, Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills summed it up pretty well.

Mental errors and sloppy technique led to missed opportunities, and the Jets offense was in a tailspin almost from the very beginning. 

It was a fitting end to the season, considering the reports of imminent change came before a single snap had been played...

...but it didn't take much longer to see all the reasons why so much change is called for in New York. Beyond the play design and play-calling, the game, as a whole, encapsulated a lot of the problems with the Jets offense.

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Ask any fan of the Buffalo Bills what they might change about the team, and while you'll get any number of answers, almost all of them will include one thing: giving running back C.J. Spiller the ball a bit more than he got it this season.

Spiller is like a volcano; he can go dormant for a bit, but given enough opportunities, he's bound to explode.

Spiller's 6.5 yards per rush attempt leads all NFL running backs, and his 9.4 yards per reception ranks third among running backs (only Raiders running back Marcel Reece and Patriots running back Danny Woodhead have a higher average yards per reception).

Despite that, Spiller has earned more than 20 carries just twice this year, with the second of those occasions coming this past week against the Miami Dolphins. While it proved that Spiller's carries are not the only thing standing between the Bills and league-wide dominance, he proved what kind of damage he can do to the Jets in their previous meeting.

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When wondering how on Earth the New York Jets could possibly turn back to Mark Sanchez as the starting quarterback following the concussion to Greg McElroy, a few things come to mind.

The first is that, as Rex Ryan said at his press conference, the announcement wasn't made until Thursday, leaving the Jets three days and two practices to prepare for the Bills with a different quarterback.

The second is his history against the Buffalo Bills, especially his recent history.

He got off to a bad start against the Bills in his career, with a five-interception game marking his first and only loss to Buffalo.

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Rex Ryan is not a quitter, and this latest report proves it—well, sort of, kind of, not really.

According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Rex wants a drastic overhaul to the Jets offense if he is brought back as head coach next year.

So Rex Ryan, the front-man for an organization in a tailspin, would willingly take millions to walk away if the Jets don't fix the offense?

Mehta clarified:

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The Miami Dolphins have grown a lot this year, and they have one more chance to prove just how much with a road game against the New England Patriots to close out the season.

Mainly, if the defense turns in a solid performance against Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and if Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill continues to play efficiently with the football, the Dolphins will have a lot to be excited for headed into the 2013 offseason.

Not just the players, though; the Dolphins coaching staff has grown, too, and has finally begun using Tannehill to his strengths. If they make sound adjustments based off their last game against the Patriots, Dolphins fans can get excited not just for the players, but for the ability of the coaching staff to maximize the skill set of those players—an important component in the growth of any team.

Will the Dolphins ask Tannehill to hang in the pocket, read the defense and make a throw as he did against the Patriots in the previous meeting?