New York Jets: Disaster In New England Blip On The Radar Screen?

In his post game press conference, Rex Ryan referenced a 1985 Bears' blowout loss to Miami in a Monday night game as a comparable to Monday night's loss to New England.

He was hoping to instill the belief in his team, the gathered media, and his fans that this loss was a blip on the radar screen as that Bears loss was, and not a harbinger of things to come for the Jets. 

As the Jets make their preparations for a huge game with the Miami Dolphins this Sunday, they are left licking the wounds from that Monday night disaster.

More defeating than the loss itself was the manner in which they lost—an unconscionable 45-3 decision to Tom Brady's Patriots. 

The Jets came up empty on every key to victory.  They couldn't pass it against arguably the league's worst secondary, The Sanchez to Tomlinson connection was out of sync, the defense couldn't get consistent pressure on the future hall-of-famer Tom Brady, and was even worse against the run.

It was "one of those nights" for the Jets.

Despite Ryan's belief, the detractors are starting to come out of the woodwork, and a lot of veteran Jets' fans, who have seen collapses and disasters before, are ready to break out the old battle cry, "Same old Jets".

The Jets however, do sit at 9-3 just a game back of New England for the divisional lead.  And although the result last week looked really bad, it isn't like the Jets haven't made New England look bad in the past.

New York did indeed beat them in Week two, holding the Pats to just 14 points in the game.

But, the result this week has to raise some eye brows for even the most ardent Jets' supporters.  While it's nice to have your coach, Rex Ryan, speaking about Super Bowl championships, coming to the Jets to "kick Bill Belichick's ass", and high expectations, it does make bad results more glaring than they need to be.

It makes the date with the Jets a date other team's circle in the way NBA teams circle any date they may have with the Miami Heat. 

It puts every game in a microwave because the Jets have made a lot of enemies with their talk this season.

People are just waiting for this team to collapse.  Waiting to say, "See! I told you so".  "They don't win right" has been a cry this season.

Most teams get criticism for not beating the teams they should beat, the Jets get critique for needing comebacks to beat "inferior teams",

Most quarterbacks are lauded for fourth quarter comebacks, Sanchez is critiqued for not scoring early in the game and needing to play well in the end to make the comeback. 

The team has been called "not ready for prime time" by an associated press article written by Barry Wilner, not recognizing that this was a team that won two road playoff games against division winners last winter,

So yes, Monday's result was a disaster, and I agree the Jets and their fans need to take their abuse this week, but let's not overreact. 

This is still a nine win team with four to play, and still amongst the NFL's elite.