Who Are These Jets?

By Joe Brod

Well that was awful.

That pretty much sums up this past Sunday’s debacle against the Oakland Raiders. There’s really no need to go over the details.

But the question lingers. It is the same question I had about this team going into the season – Is this team really ready to take the next step and be dominant?

Unfortunately, and I hope like hell I am wrong, more and more the answer appears to be “no.”

I’ve had this sneaking suspicion for about six to eight months now, pretty much ever since the Jets lost the AFC Championship Game, that 2011 would be a disappointing season.

Don’t ask me why. I just haven’t been able to convince myself that this Jets team is ready to be champion. So far this season, I haven’t seen anything to convince myself otherwise.

In week one the Jets needed to pull off a miracle comeback to beat a very ordinary Dallas Cowboys team at home. In week two the Jets put on about the least impressive blow out win I think I’ve ever seen in my life over the Jacksonville Jaguars. And in week three, well, let’s not re-live the nightmare in the Black Hole.

If you asked me three or four months ago what I thought the Jets were going to do this year I would have told you the following:

I think the Jets are going to have a disappointing 8-8 or 9-7 season and most likely miss the playoffs. I think Mark Sanchez will show significant improvement over the course of the season but I think the defense will take a step back and the running game may not be as dynamic and they will lose some games they have no business losing and thus not take that last step to the Super Bowl – at least not this year.

I then would have told you that this outcome may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to this team in the long run.

A disappointing season will make the Jets focus on and address the weaknesses of their roster that desperately need to be addressed to really become a dominant force like the lack of depth on the offensive line, the deficiencies we have at safety and the lack of speed we have at outside linebacker.

In addition, the disappointing season will force Rex to address what few weaknesses he has as a head coach and tweak his approach as needed to ensure such a thing won’t happen again.

Then, in 2012, watch the hell out! This team will come out like gangbusters and blaze a path of heartache en route to the first of several Super Bowl titles.

Then again, maybe the Jets just needed one really bad game where they couldn’t pull off a miracle in order to wake them up and start playing like they are capable.

We will know a lot more about this team in two weeks, after tough road games at the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots. Hopefully what we know is that I don’t know what the hell I am talking about and that the 2011 Jets are the real deal.

Here’s to hoping the Jets prove me wrong.

Joe Brod

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