In the wake of their season-shattering loss to the Giants, a defeat that all but dashed their playoff hopes, this is what the Jets saw when they woke up on Christmas morning and looked in the mirror: not only the most disappointing team in the NFL but the most disappointing team in New York sports.
Based on their bombastic approach and their trips to the AFC Championship Game the past two years, that’s what the Jets have been this season: the biggest bust of all.
Go ahead and make your argument for the “Dream Team’’ Eagles. But the fact is the 7-8 Eagles are only a game worse than the 8-7 Jets and they incorporated many new key faces to their team this year. The Jets should have been the beneficiary of continuity, considering their core remained the same.
At the start of this season, there was talk that “anything short of a Super Bowl’’ for the Jets would be considered a “failure.’’
I don’t buy into that. Getting to the Super Bowl takes not only talent but a lot of luck. It takes a special season. It’s not a crapshoot, but it’s close.
As far as New York disappointments, there’s nothing close at the moment.
The only argument you can make is for the Mets. But as bad as they’ve been, the Mets have hardly even been trying since their ownership was Ponzi-schemed, causing them to retreat financially.
The Jets brought this all on themselves, talking like nothing short of supplanting the Patriots and taking over the AFC East would suffice and raising expectations.
They made it sound like getting a home playoff game or two after being on the road for all six postseason games the previous two years was their ticket to taking that next step to the Super Bowl.
Instead, in what has turned out to be a slow bleed this season, the Jets have been exposed as frauds, culminating in Saturday’s 29-14 loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium.
What’s left for the Jets?
You would like to think they can salvage some dignity and not lose their season finale to the Dolphins on Sunday in Miami. If they win, they will see how the dominos fall for their faint playoff hopes.
After being embarrassed by the Eagles last week in Philadelphia and then embarrassing themselves on Saturday with their season on the line, it seems an injustice the Jets still have a chance at a postseason berth.
If they are going to pull a rabbit out of Rex Ryan’s XXL sweatshirt the way they did two years ago when it seemed like anything short of the parting of the Red Sea would get them eliminated, the Jets need to beat the Dolphins and have the Bengals, Titans and either the Raiders or Broncos lose to get in.
So, technically speaking, the life-support machine hums on.
But the reality is the Jets have as much chance of all those things falling into place as I had of my wife leading me out to the driveway yesterday morning and handing me the keys to a shiny new Lexus for Christmas like on the TV commercial.
“The best help we can have is to help ourselves, and that starts by getting better tomorrow,’’ defensive tackle and resident wise man Sione Pouha said in the quiet of the Jets’ shell-shocked locker room Saturday.
“We still have what it takes to make a playoff run,’’ running back LaDainian Tomlinson insisted. “We’ve got the right type of guys that want to win. But we ran into a team [the Giants] that wanted it more.’’
How’s that possible, though?
With due respect to the great pro Tomlinson is, if the Jets truly have the right type of guys in their locker room, how could they allow the Giants to “want it more’’?
“They were the better team, and they were the better team this year,’’ a humbled Ryan said of the Giants after the loss. “Clearly, I was wrong.”
Maybe, like the rest of us, Ryan was duped by his own players, but clearly he was wrong about a lot of things this year. Let the offseason changes and retooling begin.