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This could have been prevented, but as Cindy Lauper once reminded us, “Money changes everything.”
This game was very similar to the Jets win over Arizona.
Their defense played well enough to win, and they just needed a little bit from their offense.
In the Arizona game they got it.
In this game, they didn’t.
And this one is on the Jets brass – Mike, Rex and Woody.
For Greg McElroy to be inactive, for the last two games, is mind-boggling.
It was pure politics, and counterproductive.
The Tennessee defense isn’t very good.
A Nashville writer I was sitting next to at Rex’s presser described it as “awful” to me.
And the Jets could only manage 10 points?
Mark Sanchez turned the ball over five times against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
The script in this game should have played out similarly to the Arizona game.
Sanchez struggling, enter McElroy, and he provides enough offense for the win.
Well actually, there was a better script than that – McElroy was named the starter after the Arizona game.
But this is all about money and politics.
The Jets owe Sanchez so much money – $20.5 guaranteed this year and next, their brass is desperate to make this work.
As for the politics, they traded up for Sanchez in the draft, a blockbuster if you will, so they want it to work out very badly.
And another political aspect to this – Rex clearly has a bug up his butt about McElroy, after what the kid said on an Alabama radio station after last season about the dysfunctional locker room (which was accurate).
Is being right more important than winning? Is personnel pride more important than winning?
Look, I’m not putting McElroy in Canton.
Maybe he’s not the long-term answer, but it’s time to try and find out.
The Sanchez ship has sailed.
And if Mike, Rex and Woody don’t get off that boat, they are going to lose a lot of fans and ticket holders.
And maybe even the locker room.
“We left a lot of plays on the field,” Jeff Cumberland said after the game.
Enough said.
Also, I don’t know what to make of Tony Sparano.
With the running game working so well, why dial up these passes into coverage down field?
Sanchez doesn’t read defenses well.
Sparano needs to protect him more.
There were too many tough throws down field into double-triple coverage. Look, I know he’s not telling Mark to throw into heavy coverage, but these throws are asking for trouble.
I just don’t know about Tony’s feel for calling a game.
After Sanchez completed two nice passes in a row in the third quarter – 11 yards to Jeremy Kerley, and 22 yards to Jeff Cumberland, he puts Tim Tebow in the game, and he fumbles (recovered by Jets). Sanchez came in, and the drive went nowhere.
Tony needs to improve as a coordinator.
And perhaps another quarterback will help him do that.
While this game was tough on the Jets Nation
It might have been a blessing.
Rex, Mike and Woody need to forget about the contract, forget about the blockbuster trade, forget their egos.
It’s time for a change.
December 18, 2012
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