The official time of death for the Jets’ 2008 season was 7:04 last night.
That’s when the Ravens completed their victory over the Jaguars, officially eliminating the Jets from the playoffs.
But the Jets flatlined long before that – and long before their 24-17 loss to the Dolphins that ended 15 minutes later. The Jets’ season was lost with road defeats in Oakland, San Francisco and Seattle to dismal teams. The season was lost in a final stretch that saw the Jets fall four times in five games.
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The season was lost on the suddenly ancient arm of Brett Favre and the failure of coach Eric Mangini to find an answer as his team spiraled out of the playoffs.
The painful postmortem begins this morning after another Jets collapse. Was this the final game of Favre’s Hall of Fame career? Will Mangini follow him out the door?
Jets owner Woody Johnson, stopped in the Giants Stadium tunnel moments after the game, didn’t have the answers yet, but he didn’t give Mangini a vote of confidence either. Mangini said he believes he will be back.
This loss was made more bitter for the Jets because Chad Pennington returned to the Meadowlands and helped the Dolphins to an AFC East championship on his old turf. Pennington was his usual, efficient self, going 22-for-30 for 200 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
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Pennington was Favre’s foil. The two men the Jets essentially swapped in August could not have looked more different. Pennington made some mistakes, but Favre made Jets fans hold their breath every time he threw.
The 39-year-old was intercepted three times, bringing his season total to 22. After the second, an inexplicable screen pass that defensive end Philip Merling returned 25 yards for a touchdown, Favre looked hurt. He moved his arm in a circle, trying to drain some final drops of magic out of that right arm. Jets fans booed him as he returned to the field, an ugly end to the trade that seemed like a dream fit that August night in Cleveland.
Favre’s time with the Jets seems destined to end in an MRI tube today, instead of holding the Lombardi Trophy in a month like so many fans dreamed.
His finale was a dud. Favre finished with a quarterback rating of 45.1, completing 20 of 40 for 233 yards and one touchdown to go with the three picks.
“Down the stretch, it wasn’t good enough. I had no excuses,” Favre said. “I’m sure everyone’s gonna say ‘He’s old and washed up and all that stuff,’ and maybe they’re right. If I was an expert I wouldn’t have struggled down the stretch. Did I feel completely healthy? No. Did I start completely healthy? Probably not. But in my mind I did everything I could do, and it wasn’t good enough.”
The loss to Miami didn’t matter in the end. The Jets needed a loss from either the Patriots or Ravens to have a chance, and both won. Instead, this game was just an appropriate ending to this colossal collapse.
“Today was somewhat of a microcosm of what we had been experienc ing,” Mangini said. “We had opportuni ties and we couldn’t cap italize on them. We made some mistakes that ended up costing us the game.”
As the Jets gather today at their Florham Park, N.J., facility to clean out their lockers, they’ll face the frustration of having fallen apart after a five-game winning streak that left them 8-3 in November. Since winning in Tennessee, their only other victory was over Buffalo two weeks ago, and that one came only when Bills coach Dick Jauron and quarterback J.P. Losman handed it to them.
“I just thought we were destined to do something good this year,” receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. “I thought we were destined to do something great, actually. The point that we’re at right now I don’t know how we got to this point. You’re sitting on the highest of highs, then all of a sudden (to) just fall apart, it’s kind of mind- boggling.”
Dolphins 24 Jets 17