THE Jets defense, which vacationed during the second half against Arizona, today begins a four-day break, to be followed by three games off against Cincinnati, Oakland and Kansas City.
Those three teams, which follow this week’s bye, are a combined 2-10, quite the combination to allow the 2-2 Jets to become 5-2 while telling us about as much about themselves as Eric Mangini tells us about their injuries.
They have beaten nobody yet. They won’t get a chance to beat a somebody until they go to Buffalo on Nov. 2. Only a Rich Kotite postseason guarantee would be softer than this schedule, but hey, Mangini doesn’t book ’em, he only prepares for them.
And not only was he 2-0 after byes in his first two seasons, but 12-5 against teams that finished with records of .500 or worse.
So it’s a good thing that his teams don’t take average to bad teams as lightly as we do the Jets’ accomplishments so far. In 2006, Mangini’s club, featuring Kimo von Oehlhofen and Andre Dyson as starters, went 10-6 by playing only three playoff teams. Even at 4-12 in 2007, the bad Jets beat up on worse Miami (twice) and Kansas City.
The 2008 Jets benefit by drawing the AFC West, featuring 1-3 Oakland and 1-3 Kansas City; and the NFC West, which features those 0-4 Rams, who come up for the Jets right after their string of set-ups ends at Buffalo Nov. 2.
After St. Louis, the schedule gets real with games at New England and Tennessee on successive weeks followed by a trip to Denver. But not for long with Seattle, San Francisco and Miami slated for three of the last four weeks.
Therefore, it is looking pretty good for looking pretty good, even if it turns out the Jets really aren’t.
No wonder why Brett Favre has announced he is happy to be here. No wonder there is so little alarm over the Jets giving up 48 (to San Diego) and 35 points the last two weeks.
“What I have liked is, a lot of times our defense has started in our own territory and we held them to no points,” Mangini said yesterday. “That’s what you want to see on those momentum shifts.”
When the momentum doesn’t shift, opponents drive the length of the field with alarming ease. The Jets spent big in the offseason on an immovable object in the middle (Kris Jenkins) and an irresistible force off the edge (Calvin Pace), so the defense should be better than this and at times it has been. Not enough times, yet. “We are stopping the run,” said Kerry Rhodes. “The flip side is you give up a few passing yards.
“The breakdowns are lack of communication. That happens because we change a lot, being a game-plan team.”
The plan needs some work. The schedule, the Jets should like as it is while they get on the same page.
Meanwhile, you might learn most about a team from the inside cover page of its media guide, where the schedule is.