Wow Did I just gave up on them when they reached 4-6, I really thought you would have to need 10 wins in the AFC but some key losses of the other teams helped us a bit

Now this weeken was the Win and you’re In battle where we crushed the Bengals and of the key matchups was ofcourse Ocho Cinco against our shutout corner and they tweeted the whole week but today Chad did a tweet that’s going to be me favorite of the season :

Smh!! Lost on Revis Island

Merry Christmas and a

H ours of happy times with friends and family
A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know – dont’ worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A angels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

NFL analyist Phil Simms said that there are several “seasons” within a football team’s season.  I guess that puts things into context for The Mighty Jets.  After dream start put the name “Sanchize” into the collective lexicon, closely-fought losses to very good teams and divisional rivals led to a season on the brink, which gave way to our heroes circling the wagons and winning three straight to claw their way back into the playoff hunt at 7-6.

Attention now turns to the remaining three games.  Two are home games and definitely “winnable” -next week vs. Atlanta and the final week vs. Cincy.  Both opponents have quality teams but are fallible.  There could be an added plus that Cincy may have already clinched the AFC North title by the final weekend and may rest some starters when they face us.

Which leaves game 15 on our schedule – December 27th at currently undefeated Indy.  Reasons to believe we can win that game?  Desperation, the pressure of history weighing on Indy, they may decide to rest players (their home field advantage is clinched throughout the playoffs), and Rex Ryan has seen enough of Indy over the years to know how to cook up a winning defensive game plan against them.

If The Jets win all three games, do we make the playoffs?  Do we even need to win all three?  Let’s look at the competition:

8-5 Denver will most likely defeat Oakland and KC and lose to Philly and end up 10-6 and qualify for a wild card slot.  If the Broncos close out like this, they will have a better AFC and divisional record than we will so will own the tiebreaker over us.

7-6 Miami has the same record as we do but owns the tiebreaker over us.  They have three decent opponents (@Ten, Hou, Pit) and could certainly lose at least one of those games.  Since they swept us, we have to finish with a better W-L record to be ranked ahead of them.

8-5 New England hasn’t looked dominant lately.  Is it conceivable that they lose two of their remaining games  (@Buf, Jax, @Hou) and end up a game behind us at 9-7?  Yes, it is.  (They would own the tiebreaker over us with the better divisonal record.)

7-6 Jacksonville (owns tiebreaker over us) hosts Indy this Thursday which is tough.  Then they take a snowy road trip to New England and Cleveland.  One has to imagine a loss to Indy and a win over Cleveland; the NE game is the pivotal one for their dim wild card hopes.

7-6 Baltimore has the easiest remaining schedule (Chi, @Pit, @Oak) and owns the tiebreaker over Denver.  If they win their remaining games, they will own the tiebreaker over The Jets with a better divisional record.  Expect them to finish 10-6 and take the top wild card slot.

The analysis is, barring a miracle, Gang Green does need to win their remaining games.  Furthermore, unless the likes of Oakland and KC start playing like it’s the 70′s again, a wild card berth does not look like it will materialize for us this year.  This means we need to root against Miami and New England because our only road appears to be as AFC East champs. 

This is still do-able — stay positive!

First, great pictures submitted by Wouter.  I guess that after that photo was taken, Bush knew which turkey to pardon.

Since the standings haven’t been updated since 11/24, I’m declaring myself in first place claiming the absence of any news to the contrary.

Elsewhere — Rutgers parlays its 4th-place Big East finish into a berth in the St. Petersburg Bowl.  The winning team gets $1 million and the loser gets exiled to Siberia.  I didn’t even know they had football in Russia…what’s that?  Florida?  Oh…

This makes the 5th straight year that will culminate in a bowl game for the Knights and they are a field-goal favorite over UCF to claim their 4th post-season victory in a row.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased that we’re now recognized nationally but I also yearn to break into even the second level of bowl games.  So far we have been to:  The Garden State Bowl (1978), The Insight Bowl (2005), The Texas Bowl (2006), The International Bowl (2007), and The PapaJohns.com Bowl (2008).  This is the inaugural St. Pete Bowl as were the others with the exception of the Insight Bowl (started 1989) and the Int’l Bowl which was in its second year when we played in it.  It can be seen as an honor for new bowls to want us and our fanbase to help give them traction but I want more.

Here’s to hoping for the big breakthrough soon.  With the nucleus of young talent we have on offense, I think it’s not too far off.

And don’t forget to light a candle for those Jets playoff hopes…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, now bring on the turkey

Article from nj.com

Jets coach Rex Ryan said Monday that he’s going to take more of an active role in making sure that rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez understands the concept of ball security in the wake of Sanchez throwing four interception and losing a fumble in the Jets’ 31-14 loss to the Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

This season, Sanchez has thrown 16 interceptions, the second-most in the NFL to Chicago’s Jay Cutler’s 18. He has lost three of nine fumbles.

Ryan announced in his just concluded press conference that he’s going to be in Sanchez’s ear all game. Previously, Ryan had devoted nearly all of his attention on game day to the defense and he was criticized for being more of a defensive coordinator than a head coach.

“I’m going to take that responsibility on my shoulders,” said Ryan, who’ll also begin attending more offensive meetings. “If that’s all I bring to him, how to protect the football and make him understand he has to protect the football, that’s what I’m going to do. That is my job. I’m going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with (offensive coordinator) Brian (Schottenheimer).

“This isn’t a slight on Brian. I’m going to be standing there to support Brian. I’m new to this (being a head coach). I came in with more of a controlling interest in the defense. It’s not a threatening deal (to Schottenheimer). I have to oversee this whole football team.”

Thus, in addition to calling the defense on game day, Ryan will have a hand in the offense. Asked if that’s a lot on his plate, the XXXL-sized Ryan deadpanned, “There’s always a lot on my plate.”

Earlier this season, Sanchez had a five-interception game against the Bills and he had four turnovers in a loss to the Saints (three interceptions and a lost fumble).

No it’s not another article about the latest blockbuster of the King of Pop!! It’s the Jets season ofcourse WOW did our green dreams splattered again early this year! But were these dreams reality in the first place? We got off a 3-0 start and lose 5 of the latest 6, but with 1 remark 5 game scould have been won on the latest play of the game, so we also could have been 8-2………ok wake up now this is the Jets were talking about!!

Sanchize looked like a real rookie QB tonight, and unfortunately a bad rookie, but still I got high hopes on this kid. I like his work ethic, I like the coaching staff and I love Rex so we should be fine in the next couple of years.  Don’t forget we also had 2 huge holes in this team in losing Leon and Kris and ofcourse the hamstring injury of Vernon Gholston

I hope we can finish out this season at the .500 mark, I think that should be a good representation of this team. We are leading in a couple of stats (nr1 rushing in the league, and nr2 total defense) but we also look very poorly in a couple of stats (passing yards per game 29th and we gave up some big plays of special team). So hopefully Rex can guide this team to upgrade their weaks and keep on the key players for their strengths and hopefully we can play some games in January in the near future!!

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS

Thanks to last week’s 3-10 record on her part and an 8-5 on mine, I have overtaken Emma the Cat and moved into second place in the standings.  Oh, the joy to have the home bragging rights again!  I had better enjoy this while it lasts…

We’re seeing the typical FBH pattern again this year where the leader runs away from the pack.  We need a rally to make things more interesting in the second half of the season.  Sure it’s week 10 but, due to the bye weeks, at least 25% of the games still remain – plenty of time to close the gap.

Good luck to everyone!

Sorry for the laste post but I just wanted to share some true football happenings we had in the month of October. We actually have seen 4 weeks of live american football :

2nd of October Titans (Marks beloved team) @ Jaguars

11th of October MNF Jets (J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS) @ Seascum

19th of October Panthers (Eric Honcoop his favorite team) @ Buccaneers

26th of October Patriots (which we all hate) @ Buccaneers

I want to pick out 1 game in particular………………..yes ofcourse it’s the MNF!!!!!!! I can only say WOW, this was by far one of the most intense games I’ve ever visited. For a European guy if you say to me that there’s a rivalry between Ajax and Feyenoord or FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, I can understand that, I’ve been on the stands as well on a soccer match and believe me when I say : that’s a completely different world!! People are getting killed here during soccer matches (no kidding).  And we’ve sensed from Bob and Roy that there’s a huge rivalry between the Jets and the Fins but to be honoust we maybe slightly underestimated this.

We were in Miami and ofcourse in only one colour and that was GANG GREEN, and while the day progressed we actually met more Jets fans then Fins, people were chanting from car’s from South Beach , J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS and this was very good for our self esteem. 2 Exceptions there were some stores where people actually didn’t want to help us, 1 guy actually in Footlocker was so kind to say that we were going to get killed that night if we were still wearing that green. When I told that ignorant boy that I was from europe and that I’m used to soccer and he has to come up with something better than that, he actually calmed down and was somewhat kind to us, I think he tried

At one point I said to Leontine that the crowd maybe eventually could be divided.

WE WERE WRONG, altough I think there were around 10.000 people wearing green, there were still 65.000 people wearing some kind of mammal on their sleeve, and boy those mammal fans hate people who are from NY!!

That game was intense!! We were located in a corner endzonde and about 50 feet away from Steve Young and the MNF crew, and with 5 leadchanges in the 4th quarter it was a great game. This was actually the first Jets game we saw that we lost, our Jets record for live games is now 3-1. I had peace with the Jets losing that game, altough the D# probably was still on South Beach, we  had witnessed a great MNF game and everything was super, altough it’s never complete without a Bob & Ellen tailgate!! We truly missed you guys and ofcourse Roy, Mike, Steve and the rest of the tailgate guys!! (Hopefully 2010!!)

We lost the game but then you still have to get out of the stadium!! Can you guys guess how many people actually offered to burn my shirt for nothing? Really nice people overthere in Seascum country!! Or maybe this one : If you love NY so much then get the F*** back, this was said so many times that I actually thought at one point that it was a common sentence thing?? But the whole experience won’t stop us to wear our green proud even during away games

Here are some pictures from our experience

This is me in front of Miami Ink (very popular tv show in the Netherlands)

Leontine in front of the Miami Ink studio

The MNF crew Stuart Scott, Steve Young and Matt Millen

I don’t know these 2, the right one looks ridiculous BTW!!

Woody Johnson on the sidelines

The Sanchize BABY!!!!!!!!!

Even Obama is a JETS fan

Let the games begin!!

Hello everyone out there!

Being that Ralph’s annual Halloween issue took a hiatus this season, I thought it is only right that I spend some of my daylight-saved hour writing a few thoughts to you all.  As I am in second place in my own home to a quadruped, I have no authority to comment on the FBH standings.  As such, I have lined up the usual topics for some stream-of-consciousness barometer readings…

The Mighty Jets — Despite two divisional losses we might have expected to be wins, Jet Fans have got to be beside themselves with glee and giddiness.  Coach Ryan is a howl and his confidence is infectious.  Sanchez is a rookie (and, according to the calendar, should still be a senior in college) so we’re going to have to suffer through his inconsistency and learning curve but, once it’s all said and done, he’s going to challenge Curtis Martin and Joe Willie as greatest Jets of all time.  The Defense has looked downright intimidating at times (although I’d like to see the aggressiveness back more consistently starting this week against the scum).  We have taken a couple of body blows in losing Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington.  You don’t simply replace guys like that and move on with no ill-effects but, hopefully, some new guys emerge to carry us through this season and make the overall team better next year once those players come back.  As I said in other posts:  ”this year, we walk like men” and I’m going in to every game thinking we’re going to win.

Rutgers — At the 2007  Texas Bowl victory over Kansas State, Kim declared WR Tim Brown her favorite RU player.  Last night, he took a big stride on my list as he hauled in two TDs, the last an 81-yard catch and run with 22 seconds remaining to vault The Knights to a come-from-behind victory on the road at UConn.  True freshman QB Tom Savage, a halftime replacement in the first game of the season, now has 5 victories to his credit and we’re at 6-2 on the season (only 1-2 in the Big East, though, after losses to AP #5 Cincinnati and the very good Pitt Panthers).    Rutgers may only be going back to the Papa John’s Bowl (or something of the ilk) again this season but it is passing another serious test:  it has absorbed the loss of it’s first slate of NFL-caliber players (Kenny Britt, Ray Rice, Mike Teel, Jamaal Westerman, Brian Leonhard, etc.) and turned over the roster with quality replacements.  Rutgers continues to have the top-rated recruiting classes in the conference year after year.  Hey, we have even upgraded the old stadium.  All hail Coach Greg Sciano; we finally look like we’re “built to last” and that’s a big reason to be thankful!

Fantasy Sports — you know, I still have a hangover from baseball season.  Wasn’t it bad enough that Los Mets had a year from hell?  Wasn’t it bad enough that my baseball team, which qualified first for the playoffs despite six months of awful luck of its own, lost in the finals?  Now it’s the Yankees/Phillies in the World Series?  There have been good games but…for the love of Pete!

As I’m still somewhat stunned by America’s Pastime, admittedly, I have not fully engaged or emotionally invested in my pigskin squad and their performance has been lackluster (not necessarily a direct correllation).  My top two draft picks (Matt Forte and Calvin Johnson) have underperformed and the rest of the team hasn’t closed the gap and, after a 3-1 start, our record is now 3-4.  Boo.

Extra Point — While I’m griping, the NFL special uniform thing has gotten out of control.  Is the 50th anniversary of the AFL important?  Sure.  Do I even enjoy seeing the Bronco’s vertically-striped socks and the referees looking like they are dressed to go to work at Whataburger?  I do.  Here’s the deal, when it’s an exception it’s special and makes its point.  When a campaign goes on too long it loses its impact and becomes annoying (AKA counter-productive to the intended effect).  Uniform means uniform — “all the same” – which is the point.

While I fully support the cause of the Komen Foundation and appreciate what they have accomplished (they are even Dallas-based) and certainly my thoughts and wishes for healing and recovery go out to the millions and millions affected by the disease they are battling…

At this point, I cannot bear to see another pink sweatband or pair of shoelaces.  In the MLB, pink bats for one game out of 162 makes its point.  A full month on display is way, way, way over the top.

Sure, the NFL has huge power due to its visibility.  But just as they dilute the specialness of Sunday afternoon with so many alternate game times, they dilute the specialness of throwback jerseys or awareness for any of their pet causes by overexposing them (not that I’m against the overexposure of breasts, mind you).

Ironically, one place I would like to see more Pink is during the opening of Sunday Night Football.  No matter how many pairs of thigh-high go-go boots she wears, the bland Faith Hill is a snoozefest.

I have some other topics to cover (the new Cowboys Stadium experience and the Beatles Rock Band Party) but they will be featured separately as they have accompanying images.  So little kisses, little kisses and Love Love Love until the next post.