It took Chad Pennington 260 passing attempts last season to throw 10 touchdown passes.
It took Kellen Clemens 250 attempts to throw five of them.
For those of you scoring at home, that’s a total of 15 touchdown passes thrown in 510 attempts for Jets quarterbacks in 2007.
Brett Favre has 12 touchdown passes 124 attempts through four games this season.
Any more questions about whether he’s still got it at age 38, whether he’s learned the Jets’ offense yet or whether he’s “in sync” with his receivers?
You can pass off Favre’s six-touchdown pass performance in the Jets’ 56-35 win over the Cardinals Sunday at Giants Stadium because it came against, well, the Cardinals.
But to be fair, the Cardinals entered the game allowing fewer than 16 points per game in their previous three games.
So take it for whatever you choose, but the reality is the Jets’ offense broke out in rather dramatic fashion Sunday and it gives them reason to be optimistic as they enter their bye week.
The Jets’ next three games after this week’s bye come against the dregs of the NFL – the 0-4 Bengals at home, the 1-3 Raiders in Oakland and the 1-3 Chiefs at home. Then, after a trip to Buffalo to play the 4-0 Bills, the Jets get the 0-4 Rams at home.
So, minus the game against the Bills, the combined current record of four of the Jets’ next five opponents is a sterling 2-16.
More reason for the 2-2 Jets to feel good about themselves this week – particularly after their offensive explosion Sunday.
Leave it, however, to the veteran Favre, who leads the NFL in TDs and passer rating (110.8) and is second in completion percentage (70.2), to temper enthusiasm – albeit while still projecting positive thoughts.
“I think it shows the potential of what this team has,” Favre said. “But it’s no reason to start going out and buying playoff and Super Bowl tickets. It’s just one game, but it’s a great start.
“Again, it shows a lot of potential, but I wouldn’t look into it more than that. It was a great game, a great win and hopefully something to build off of.”
The Jets hope to build off of this bye week the way they’ve built off the previous two byes in the Eric Mangini regime. This, however, is a different bye week position for the Jets, who’ve entered their bye week off of losses the last two years.
In 2006, the Jets came off a lackluster, underachieving home loss to the Browns, used the bye to refocus and beat the Patriots 17-14 in their next game.
Last season, the Jets entered the bye week having lost six consecutive games to fall completely out of playoff contention and they came out and beat the heavily-favored Steelers 19-16 in overtime.
Mangini yesterday preached his players having the same focus during this bye week despite coming off a win.
“To me, it should be viewed exactly the same way, because those have been productive weeks for us, and you get only one shot at this, you get only one chance to improve the team with this time,” Mangini said yesterday. “If you look at it any differently, based on a win or loss, you could end up losing that time, regretting it in the future.”
Favre said, “I think this week will be a good week for us to simplify what we’re doing right and get better at [those things], because there are a lot of things we can get better at – starting with me. The fact that I get to work with these guys one more week I think each week we can become better.”