Bleacher Report - Articles by Justin Feuer

Jets-Patriots: Gang Green Poised to Stop Being Pat-Sies

Justin Feuer — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:48:24 -0500

The chess match has begun. Brett Favre says he knows it, Eric Mangini won’t mention it, and the Patriots are used to it—a big game, being played on a national stage, with probable playoff implications all but directly in front of them.

The Patriots have been there before, and they know what they are doing. They have always managed to win the big game. They come out and almost always execute better than the other team. They have been doing it for years. They have made a living of beating up on their own division and treating the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets like stepchildren, always punishing them.

The Jets, on the other hand, haven’t felt a game mean this much in almost two years and don’t have all that much success against New England. Belichick always seems to be one step ahead of his former coach in this chess match, but the tide could be quickly turning.

Don’t go looking for Eric Mangini to talk up the opponent though. In fact, he barely even mentions them as a factor, or as the force they have been over the past decade: “It’s a great position to be in and a great position to be in if you take advantage of it, do all the things you need to do to put yourself into position to win.”

Typical Mangini—not overselling the importance of the game, but acknowledging that the position the Jets are in is a special one.

On the other hand you have the open book Favre, who “knows exactly what this game means” and that he is “well aware what New England has done over the past decade or so.” You can see where both sides are on this situation.

Maybe a little emphasis is needed going into this game. Maybe the Jets need to realize what and where they are and what’s at stake, because for some of these Jet players, this is the biggest game of their lives so far. That’s not to say that winning this game tomorrow will catapult the Jets into the playoffs, but it will go a long way in helping them.

New York is still a team searching for a true identity, and through the first nine games of the season, they have found two. The first is one that plays 60 minutes of complete football on both sides of the ball and hammers their opponents into the ground, and the other being a team that doesn’t seem to be able to get out of their own way.

One can only hope that on Thursday the Jets of the last two weeks show up and not the ones who narrowly escaped the lowly Chiefs. Based on what I have seen, the Jets finally looks to be clicking on all cylinders and are poised and ready to take over control of the East.

This is a time for these Jets, led by Eric Mangini and the gunslinger in Favre, to prove they are a legitimate team in the AFC and serious contenders. Most of the current Jets haven’t been in this position before, the potential to have sole position of first place in the division this late in the season.

The last time they were in first after Week 11 was after the final game of the 2002 season, when they finished in a three-way tie with New England and Miami.

Over the last decade, the Patriots have been in control of the Jets, going 12-5 against them, with the Jets last winning on November 12, 2006 in a surprise upset, 17-14 in Foxboro. That was a shock to the Patriots, but this can be an even bigger one.

Brett Favre has played in New England this decade as a member of the Packers and came out on top, so he somewhat knows the field, but what he faces tomorrow is no normal game. He is also used to playing in bad weather, and the forecast is calling for a cold steady rain.

Ty Law, the newest addition to the Jets, has been on both sides of the rivalry and is ready to make an impact against the Patriots. The Pats have been decimated by injuries and might finally feel them all take their toll. Most situations seem to favor the Jets, but as I recall, they all did against the Raiders as well.

After winning three straight games the Jets are walking and talking with a level of confidence not seen or heard in a long while. They will need to take all of that into this game tomorrow night.

They will also need the 39-year-old Brett Favre to turn back the clock one more time and find his vintage form that made him who he is. This is what he was brought here to do, regardless of what anyone in the organization will tell you. They also need Eric Mangini to think like Belichick and beat him at his own game, in his backyard.

With all the momentum the Jets are riding right now, if they can go up to Foxboro, into the hostile pit they will be in, and come away with a victory, not only will Mangini receive the coldest handshake of his life, but the Jets will also assert themselves, in my opinion, as the team to beat in the East.

They will send a message to the Patriots that they will not be bullied around anymore, the way they have become accustomed to doing. The Jets will show they can win a big game, on the road no less, and shift the balance of power, finally out of New England.

So much for Mangini downplaying this game. This is a big game and it is a must win, because a loss tomorrow will make this just another typical Jet season, not the start of a new era.

Still Hope for Brett Favre and Co.?

Justin Feuer — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:57:43 -0400

In the 10 plus years that I have been watching the Jets, I have seen the same thing over and over. Since the last biggest hype to come into New York by way of Chad Pennington, the Jets have had two seasons where they started 3-3. They proceeded to win their next game and finished the season with the identical record, 10-6.

So what makes this year different? I have listened to all the hype, all the build up, and come to a miserable conclusion: there is a huge difference and it is on the sidelines in the form of Eric Mangini.

In the seasons prior, the Jets had a coach that made a team think, albeit maybe not the most conventional, but look at Tom Coughlin. The Jets had that in Herm Edwards. He mixed things up and he utilized all of the resources handed to him and always found a way to keep fighting.

As a Jet fan, watching the games in the stands or on television, even when the Jets were down, they kept me on the edge of my seat. They wouldn’t let me even think of getting up, because in the back of my mind, Edwards would always try something different, keep the defense on their toes, and that’s why after two seasons starting at 3-3, they went on to finish 7-3.

In those years, the coach wasn’t afraid to use Pennington and all of his abilities. This year, the Jets pulled off an amazing 11th hour trade for one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Brett Favre and have failed to use him to the best of his abilities. I look back to the game this past Sunday, in the black hole of Oakland, home to the lowly Raiders.

After two nice wins over low lying teams, I had all the hopes in the world this game would be another easy one. Instead, it turned into a game that the Jets didn’t want. One, they should have been able to put on the cruise control with Favre and pick the Raider defense apart. Instead, it took a fourth quarter two attempt field goal (thanks to the time out called by the Raiders as Feely was about to kick) to just tie the game and send it into overtime.

Then, what happened after, baffled me. I watched as the Jets took all the momentum in the world into that overtime period, won the coin toss, and then watched a scared coach call basically all running plays, which let the Raiders get THREE possessions and finally win the game on a field goal.

How could that happen? This is Brett Favre and company!! The all time leader in almost every offensive category for a QB and he’s handing the ball off? It was at that moment that I shook my head and realized this wasn’t like every other season, as everyone said.

But, it wasn’t for the reasons that they said. It’s because of a coach, who is more like a turtle, scared to peak his head out of his shell, rather than a man who has all the talent in the world at his fingertips and wants to use it.

Yet, when I look at the standings through week seven, the Jets are still in the thick of playoff contention, but a team looking to make it past the final week of December needs to pick apart these types of teams. The bottom-feeders, the teams that can’t get out of their own way, not play like them.

Every Jet fan has seen this before. All the preseason hype and talk that this is the year where the Jets show who they are. This year was no different, especially not with Brett Favre behind center. This is an unholy union that is probably a one-year venture. Favre is 39 and whether he thinks it or not, he is not getting any younger.

We all know he can still sling the ball like he always did and still move a team down field in such quick, swift fashion, defenses cant get out of their own way, but when will that be allowed to happen? When will I, as Jets fans, not have to worry what might have been and see what is?

This is the 40th anniversary of the lone championship for the Jets. At that point, they had arguably the best QB in the game. Again they have the best QB in the game. I am not nearly 40 years old, so I don’t even know what it’s like for the Jets to make it to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. This could still be the season, maybe.

The Jets still have time to right the ship though. They still have 10 games to show what kind of team they really are. Are they the team that runs all over the field for 56 points, or the team that needs to race down field with less than two minutes just to send the game to overtime against a team who can’t buy a win?

Only time will tell, but the season is short, with two games before the halfway mark and the Jets could be looking up at the standings wondering what might have been. If they don’t want to have that aspect on the season, then they need to beat up on lowly teams, such the Chiefs this week.

They also need to surprise a team like the Bills or Titans to show they are for real. If not, the Brett Favre experiment will have been a huge bust, just like Mangini, who needs to stick his head out of his shell and not be afraid to take chances.

Let’s hope this season really isn’t different at this point, because if it is, we are all in for a long, head scratching winter.