Sunday could not have gone any better for the Jets.
First and foremost, no one got hurt in a game that meant absolutely nothing to the Jets. Even if they had lost to the Bills, that would have been enough to make Sunday a success. That a bunch of backups got a chance to strut their stuff and pound the Bills to the tune of 38-7 in a regular season finale that felt a lot more like a preseason tuneup made it all the more enjoyable.
The backup who probably feels the best about the way things unfolded is Joe McKnight, who became a laughingstock and then a pariah in short order this season. The laughs came when he threw up during a minicamp conditioning drill and when he was used as a comedic foil on "Hard Knocks" for his inability to stop making mistakes during training camp. No one was laughing when Danny Woodhead, cut to keep McKnight on the roster, turned into a productive back for the Patriots however.
McKnight finally got some regular season playing time on Sunday and was able to avoid vomit and fumbles en route to a nice performance. He ran for 158 yards, caught a couple of passes and returned kicks to give some hope that there might be better days ahead for the fourth round pick out of USC.
Otherwise, it was a game that everyone just wanted to get out of the way so that the Jets could move onto the playoffs. Once there, they'll try to regain the mojo that they found during last year's postseason and which has largely been missing from their bellies this season.
Rex Ryan and others will try to spin the 11 wins and back-to-back playoff trips as signs of a successful season. That only works to a point. After all the talking and all the offseason manuevering and so on and so on, the Jets have to make some noise in the playoffs to really sell the idea that they didn't, at best, tread water this season.
That wasn't really the plan, which means it is nice that there's still a playoff run to make things better.
Sports
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
