Keidel: Jets Can Make Noise In Playoffs, But They Need To Get There First
By Jason Keidel
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So I spent Sunday afternoon at oddly tropical MetLife Stadium and watched the Jets whip the Titans in all three phases of football. And while cynics will assert that the Jets just bullied a bad football team, there's no such thing as a gimme in the NFL.
Just ask the Broncos, who were supposed to whip the Raiders. Ask the Bengals, who were supposed to beat up the Steelers. Just ask the Jaguars, who were supposed to be the latest divisional doormat stomped on by the Colts.
The Jets handled their business, and MetLife morphed into a disco on Sunday. Gazing down from the stands, through the wide swath of sweaters and jerseys, it was like peering through a football time portal. Every generation was represented in all manner of attire, from Namath to Gastineau to Mo Lewis to Eric Decker.
Jets fans wore beads, helmets and Santa hats. They sang. They danced in the aisles. After every 10 yards the crowd chanted "first down!" in unison. It was as surreal as the 65-degree December day. Nary a fan wore a jacket. Between the Budweiser, celebratory cardio and Florida climes, there was no need for layers.
Wearing my Big Ben jersey, I heard a few R-rated taunts, "Go back to Pittsburgh, a**h***!" A couple of cups, sprinkled with ice, were tossed my way. A few shoulders accidentally found their way into my chest. I got some hard stares from adjacent urinals. But Jets fans were largely tolerant of my mutinous attire, and generally festive in light of their fortunes.
Gang Green (8-5) is suddenly looking good, and it currently owns the sixth and final playoff spot in the AFC.
Sadly, it ends in three weeks, and the Jets are hardly alone in the wild-card sprint. Kansas City (8-5) hasn't lost since the Civil War, and has the mojo and momentum to beat anyone. The Steelers (8-5) are playing the best offense in the NFL. And the Texans (6-7) have the tiebreaker over the Jets.
But if you look at the Jets objectively -- though few did inside a jubilant MetLife on Sunday -- they can do just about anything you need from a football team. Other than the dubious secondary -- which got a boost with the return of Darrelle Revis -- Gang Green does everything well. It has a bruising back in Chris Ivory and a line that can block for him. The Jets have one of the best WR tandems in the sport and a quarterback who can find them.
The Jets can stop the run and rush the passer. What you worry about is Tom Brady or Big Ben -- yes, my beloved black and gold is quite firmly in the mix -- shredding their secondary. As regal as Revis has been, he's on the wrong side of 30, with a serious knee injury that has clearly hampered his Spider-Man brand of blanketing wideouts. But he's still good enough to keep 95 percent of wideouts stranded on Revis island.
What you don't know, and can't possibly anticipate, is whether the team's history of self-implosion will return this year.
If the Jets beat the flatlined Dallas Cowboys this weekend, and can split their final two games against the Pats and Bills -- no, they won't win both -- they will finish a rather respectable 10-6, and will have to pray to the playoff gods for that final playoff spot.
Even if the Jets don't make it, you should still be proud.
After Woody Johnson jammed the eject button on John Idzik and Rex Ryan and replaced them with a neophyte head coach and GM, you would have signed for 10 wins in a New York minute.
When they were vaporized by the Texans, and DeAndre Hopkins dashed past Revis all day, it seemed like the Jets were being, well, the Jets -- their ancient penchant for self-destruction in full effect.
But just as beating the Jets in 2011 propelled the Giants into a Super Bowl run, it seems that the Jets' overtime win this year over their MetLife co-tenants has given them a new lease on playoff life. Maybe the Pats have things locked up by the time the two square off in two weeks, and they rest Gronk or Amendola, or both. Maybe the Bills will be out of the playoff picture entirely, with Rex Ryan's gaseous monologues finally falling on tone-deaf ears.
Maybe the Jets have a charmed, enchanted season before them. Maybe they squeeze into January and pull off an upset or two. Few expected them to be in this position, particularly considering the way the season started, with presumed starter Geno Smith falling from a Marvin Hagler hook in August.
For a fledgling coach, Todd Bowles has a vet's grip on the locker room. Decker and Brandon Marshall are gifted enough on the gridiron, and wise enough off the field, to keep a young club calm through the turbulence of December.
And Ryan Fitzpatrick has been a revelation, his sprawling stats matching his epic brain cells. A career football gypsy, Fitzpatrick gave you no reason to think he'd be this good this long. The Harvard man has shown the blue-collar grit that resonates in New Jersey, the five boroughs and beyond.
On the back end of the defense, Antonio Cromartie doesn't seem to have much life left in his long legs, and their safety situation is hardly safe. But the rest of their defense, combined with their newly-pyrotechnic offense, is just enough to make some noise after New Year's Day.
They just need an invitation to the party on New Year's Eve.
Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonKeidel.
