Lots of Changes, Same Old Jets

"Every team we play against is good."

That's what Eric Manginihad to say after his team blew a huge chance to solidify their position in the AFC playoff race yesterday. He said it without any emotion, bore no distress about the loss and offered no thoughts about how the Jets need to do better in the future. It was just that simple, according to Mangini, the Raiders were a good team and, therefore, won yesterday's game 13-10.

Nonsense. The Raiders aren't a good team and didn't play like one yesterday. They had a young quarterback prone to mistakes, a team that couldn't stop shooting itself in the foot with penalties and couldn't take advantage of myriad Jet mistakes to put the game out of reach. That's not a good team, not good enough for a team with playoff aspirations to lose to, anyway.

The Jets, however, might not be a good team either. Good teams pressure their opponents into mistakes, something the Jets refused to do to JaMarcus Russell. They've refused to turn up the aggressiveness on defense all season, something that's helped them to a lofty ranking against the run but makes no sense when you've spent big money and a high draft pick on players to bolster the pass rush.

And, since we're on the topic of players the Jets brought in to help them win now (even against the good teams), what's going on with the Jets offense? Aggression has no place, apparently, nor does using what's working to inform what's going to be called in the future. The one drive that saw the Jets take the wraps off, using Brad Smith extensively, resulted in their lone touchdown. Otherwise it was plain vanilla drivel without the teeth you'll need to win against the actual good teams on your schedule.

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