I'd Rather Get Beat Up in an Alley: Week 1, Too Close for Comfort

What I expected to see Sunday was Brett Favre struggling to run the Jets offense.  I expected the win but I also expected to see some growing pains for Favre.  Maybe an interception because of misscommunication, some confusion when calling audibles, some snap count mix-ups-  I figured they were inevitable and to be expected.

What I saw was Favre outplaying everybody around him.  This was a tough win but only because the Jets left so many points on the field.  The Dolphins are known for having a physical defense but Favre looked great carving them up.  Did you see that playaction bomb?  You knew it was coming.  Run.   Short pass.  Short pass.  Run.  Run.  Run- psyyyyke!  Bomb!!  Touchdown Jets!!!!! That was the first two drives in a nut shell. Good times that first quarter.

Favre was on target the whole game.  It’s too bad the recievers were’nt.   Coles dropped a touchdown and a bullet on a quick slant.  Cotchery missed a big 30 yard pass he just wasn’t expecting.  Do I need to bring up the kicking situation?  Somehow playing without a kicker didn’t seem like such a bad idea after Favre pulled a touchdown out of his butt on 4th and 13.  Of course I was wrong.  These are the Jets and the missed extra point and missed field goal were destined to come back and hurt us in the end.

Specifically they hurt my stomach.  I was so nervous I wanted to puke on my coffee table.

It was good to see Favre running around hugging and high-fiving everyone on the team after the touchdowns.  After the first one to Cotchery he looked like he had just won the lottery.  Even the coaches got some love.  The growing pains showed up but I’m sure Mangini’s going to continue to address them.  I’m not worried about Fanica continually committing false starts.  With a little time, that line’s going to be great.

Welcome to the Jets, Mr. Favre.  Your offense manhandled the other team and it was still a nail-biter.  This is how it’s going to be unfortunately.  Not only do you have to worry about the opposing lineman, you also have to play against fate conspiring against you.  If it’s not the kicker’s injury, it’s something else.  With the Green and White, there is always something else.

In retrospect it’s easy to say the Dolphins didn’t have much of a shot in the final drive.  They had burned all but one timeout (Chad Pennington had his own growing pains).  They needed a touchdown and had Pennington leading them with 1 minute 43 seconds left.  All of us know what happens when Pennington runs the two-minute offense in a must score situation.  He looks good as he dinks and dunks down the field.  When he goes endzone though, it’s an interception.  That’s exactly what happened.  The Jets protected the sidelines, they zoned out the endzone, and Darrell Revis came up with the aforementioned pick.  In case you hadn’t noticed, Revis is a stud.  While it was hard to stomach while it was happening, Pennington in a must score with no time on the clock is a safe place to be.  Mangini showed us the improved running game throughout the game and used it to leave Pennington in the all-too-familiar position.

Defensive note here.  The Dolphins running game which was supposed to be so awesome ended up getting stuffed.  Our boys held them to just 49 yards.  Ricky Williams got knocked around quite a bit- 24 yards on 10 carries.  This is an area where the Jets offseason acquisitions looked great.  Kris Jenkins and his 350 pound self looked very difficult to circumnavigate indeed.  Magellen would have trouble.   The secret to the 3-4 isn’t really a secret.  I guess maybe you just need a few enormous human beings.