Unfortunately, the New York Jets’ magic carpet ride of a playoff run did not end in Super Bowl glory, like the Giants’ run did two years ago. But one thing is for sure, the Gang Green fans can go into this offseason, and their shiny new stadium come fall, knowing their team gave them everything they had this year and then some. The Jet franchise has a great leader in their coach Rex Ryan, a solid young running back/QB core in Sanchez/Green/Brad Smith, a defense which could be the most dominant in the league, and plenty to build on in seasons to come.

They were a solid team all around who made their opponents second-guess with head-spinning spectacular momentum-changing plays on both ends, and a defense who disrupted some of the league’s most trusted programs and systems. What a remarkable run it has been for the Jets and their fans.

The Jet fans who crowded the bars from Manhattan to the Bronx to the outlying areas of New Jersey and Connecticut did not spill out into a wild, car-honking Super Bowl celebration on the streets like they had hoped. They did not leave the bars in heavy-cursing disgust either, like their Massachusetts neighbors do from time to time. Instead, they stayed for one more beer, raised their glasses for one final toast to a team who gave them a spirited run and will appears to have a very bright future.

Throughout the first half and into the third quarter it seemed the Jets had the edge, dominating the second quarter and running away with 17 straight points, including spectacular passing plays courtesy of Mark Sanchez, Braylon Edwards (an 83-yard  passing TD, longest in Jets playoff history), and double-threat RB/QB Brad Smith. The defense produced two pivotal goal-line stands resulting in field goals.  Fans were starting to prematurely celebrate, even at halftime when the Jets were up 17-13. The Edwards TD pass and long 45-yard Brad Smith bootleg certainly brought the house down wherever the game was being shown.

But in the second half, Sanchez went cold, and with a long TD drive it seemed as if Peyton Manning and the Colts offense were on the verge of figuring out the Jets’ D. Coupled with a 53-yard Jay Feely FG miss, the momentum swung irreversably towards the home team, and they never looked back, taking command late, adding another TD to that lead, and sealing the victory with an interception of Mark Sanchez with 2 minutes remaining. Final score: Colts 30, Jets 17

The major story of the day was Peyton Manning’s offense weathering a Gang Green storm and coming back from an 11 point deficit to seize control of the game. But even by being there, the Jets made a strong statement to their fans, coaches and coordinators around the league, and those who had doubted them in weeks past.

I think it’s safe to say that even in the midst of an economic recession with no end in sight, Jets games next year at the New Meadowlands/New Jets Stadium will sell out handily and be the hottest ticket in town. For Jets owner Woody Johnson and all investors in the building of the new arena, that they can be sure of.

The fact that a rookie coach/rookie QB tandem could come from being “mathematically eliminated” from the Playoffs with 2 weeks to go in the season to shockingly ending the playoff hopes of a Super Bowl favorite in the Chargers and giving the high-powered Colts a huge scare in the AFC Championship game is nothing short of astounding. The memories from this season and the thrills the Jets gave to Gang Green Nation will live on. There’s definitely something to build on here, which will not go away as the calendar months towards training camp pass.

I called it. The New York Jets are now THE team to beat in this year’s playoffs. And they just might be going all the way. After an early Bengals score, the New York Jets’ D shut down the door for any chance of the Bengals getting anything going. Same as last week, the Jets’ run game pulled the momentum irreversably towards Gang Green, and as hard as the opposing fans tried, they could not slow down a determined Jet offense. The Bengals offense tried, and failed, and tried, and failed to get anything going.

Any doubts, any questions, any haters who STILL don’t think the Jets are for real, THINK AGAIN!! Many people thought the Jets would get manhandled today after their rout last week, but it was the Jets who controlled the tempo and flow of this game from the very beginning and took the fans out of it in the second half, as their offense took over and took hold of the game.

After Cincinnati’s Cedric Benson got the Bengals right back into it with a long running TD early in the 4th quarter, the Jets struck right back with a Sanchez bootleg to Dustin Keller for 35 yards, , a Shonn Green pounding first down run, and a Feely feild goal to ice the victory with 6 minutes left to go.

Or so they thought. The Bengals drove all the way down the field to knock on the doorstep of scoring a TD to cut the Jet lead to 3. BUT they missed another field goal from close range, giving the ball back to the Jets, with enough time to kill the clock and get the win.

Mark Sanchez, the Jets rookie quarterback, played like a seasoned veteran- fantastic clock management, completing 80% of his passes, keeping composure and flawlessly executing play-action fakes and tricky maneuvers, and acting like a true winner. And a winner he was, recording a victory in his very first career playoff game, as did Coach Rex Ryan.

And now, the Bengals are no more. Next up, San Diego, a team who has won 11 in a row. The Jets’ top-rated defense have already shown they can react to the league’s most high-powered offenses, including San Diego. If the Jet defense can get to Philip Rivers early in next week’s game, then they should roll over the Chargers and become one win away from getting to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since 1969. How bout that for an inspirational story: a rookie coach and rookie QB going all the way! So fire up that all-familiar chant for the little team in green who can… and did! J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets! WOOOO.

The New Year may have a new team of destiny. The New York Jets put together a convincing victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the final game at Giants Stadium, sending 80,000 freezing Gang Green fans, who had sat outside for five hours with a wind chill  of -5, home in victorious euphoria, and closing the NYC Metro palace of football on a memorably high note. Interesting- in a stadium named for the Giants, the Jets were the last team to send their fans home happy. Final score: 37-0

The crowd was hyped from the get-go, and Brad Smith gave them something to cheer about right away, with a 56-yard run setting up a Jet TD. 7-0. The momentum was for the Jets from the beginning, and they never looked back, converting third down after third down to start out with a commanding lead, to which the Bengals had no answer.

Then jack-of-all-trades Brad Smith tore the game wide open, with a resilient and powerful 30-yard touchdown run in which he broke many tackles, whipping the crowd into an absolute frenzy. 17-0. The Jets’ powerful D, ranked top 5 in the NFL, took it from there, shutting the Bengals down, with only a single first down conversion, an only 7 total yards of offense,  in the first half. 27-0 at HT. In the second half, the rout was on, as fans began to leave in celebration early. One week after the Giants sent their fans home disappointed and angry after being routed and out of playoff contention, the Jets did the routING this time around, sending the fans home happy and the team in playoff contention.

The parking lot after the game was the same as the tailgate: lots of “J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets! chants, a lot of building cheers going off and spreading through the masses as the capacity crowd walked back to their cars. And as they drove off, a wave of honking, which led to more screaming by the people inside their cars and from the masses migrating. For this is the last time these fans will ever leave the old Giants Stadium, a building which has given the Tri-State area over 35 years of football.

This team really is a remarkable story of a first-year coach in Rex Ryan and rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez turning many years of frustration into celebration, doubt into TDs, playoff shortcomings into a playoff berth, and making big plays for the world’s biggest city. So here they are, the Jets at 9-7, in the playoffs two weeks after they thought all hope was lost. They are an opportunistic bunch who played inspired, and as their stadium-mates the 2007 New York Giants can tell you, success in the playoffs is all about seeing, and seizing opportunity.

And who will be their opponent next week? None other than the very same team they destroyed tonight, the Bengals of Cincinnati. Will it be a similar result for Mark Sanchez & Co. in hostile territory? Do the Jets really and truly have the Bengals’ number? Will brash Bengals reciever Chad Ochocinco finally have something come of his trash talking other than embarrasment?

We will find out next week as the most improbable team in the playoff picture tries to become an improbable playoff success story for the ages. Playing in New York, home of Jay-Z and the World Champions of baseball, fate may very well be on their side. But that’s for next week. As for now, Jet fans can rejoice and let out that all-familiar chant one more time. Cause we won, and we’re in! A lot of teams aren’t.

If you think about it, the New York Jets have the easiest job out of any teams vying for an NFL playoff spot next weekend: “Win and you’re in”. Other teams, such as the Denver Broncos, have as many as 10 different possible scenarios of games next weekend which will result in them maybe or maybe not getting into the playoffs. That kind of situation can be confusing and frustrating for the fans. Jet fans don’t have any of that. They will either go home in celebration, or go home ah-well, we got something to build on for next year and move on.

The Jets/Bengals game, the final regular-season game at the old Giants Stadium, is generating a large amount of buzz and excitement among fans in the Tri-State area. The atmosphere at the Stadium on Sunday is sure to be electric.

For the New York Giants, an “electric” atmosphere at kickoff didn’t exactly translate into success on the field. But New York fans know they deserve better. And they have a young team right now in the Jets who is hopeful, confident, and prepared to make an exciting playoff run for these fans and this city, giving citizens from Manhattan to Secaucus to Westchester plenty of reason to blast Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” as part of another victory celebration, one which has nothing to do with baseball.

Frank D., a street vendor from Brooklyn, was wearing all Jets green walking around Manhattan yesterday. “We got the World Champions of Baseball, and now I really think this Jets team can make us the City of Champions” he said. Adds Frank, “This is New York. We deserve only the best.”

Gang Green is still buzzing after beating the previously 14-0 Colts after they rested their starters in the second half. It was a controversial victory, since the Colts put their team in cruise control. But a win is a win, and that win put the Jets in prime position to clinch a playoff spot, only two weeks after Coach Rex Ryan declared his team was not qualified for the playoffs yet.

The numbers speak for themselves, but the 65 million dollar investment Mark Sanchez is the only rookie quarterback from this year’s class who is leading a team into possible playoff contention right now.

When most New York fans think of football, the most inspiring recent memory is the 2007-08 Giants, who shocked the world by not only making the Super Bowl, but defeating the only team in NFL history with the possibility for a perfect 16 game season.  Coming into the playoffs, the G’Men were in a similar situation to where the Jets are right now. And THEY won the Super Bowl from the wild card slot, beating heavily favored opponents in every game. If THEY could do it, in this same city, there is hope.

James P, a football fan in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, was sporting Jets green for their game against the Colts Sunday, having changed uniforms after the Giants’ loss. “I’m a Giants fan because of what they did two years ago. My Giants aren’t an option right now, but we still got the Jets! Let’s go Green!” he yelled, before starting the bar in a chant of  ”Let’s Go Jets!” In a packed sports bar full of fans wearing a collage of different NFL team uniforms, no one disagreed. Only in New York.

The New York Jets were the last team anyone thought would end Indianapolis’ quest for a perfect season, but on Saturday they did exactly that, and stayed alive in the AFC East playoff race, with key defense and special teams play to give the previously undefeated Indianapolis Colts their first loss of the season in Week 16, 29-15 Jets!

If you are a Jets fan, this is a reason to cheer and be very excited for this team. Although Indianapolis has already clinched their division, their shot at history, a perfect 19-0 season, was thwarted by a determined, exciting, and resilient Jets bunch who kept coming up with huge special teams play after play, as their defense held Peyton Manning and the high-powered Colts offense to sit and stare for most of the second half.

It got started with a record 106-yard kickoff return for a TD to start the second half by Eric Smith. Then there was a key sack of Peyton Manning’s backup Curtis Painter and fumble, which was recovered in the end zone for a Jet TD which put them ahead 18-15. And from there, the momentum swung irreversably in the Jets’ favor, the D picked it up another notch, and Sanchez got the Jets down the field to add to their lead and eventually pull away.  It was one of two bookend statement wins for the Jets this year, the first being a stunner of the New England Patriots in the Meadowlands Week 2. The Jets are looking very, very likely to be in the Wild Card spot of he AFC East, with a Miami loss today.

If they win the final regular-season game at the Meadowlands next Sunday against the Bengals, they will without a doubt clinch the wild card spot. That soon to be torn down NY metro megadome known as Giants Stadium is sure to be a rockin’ house for a team that will most likely deliver that huge victory to send the crowd home in hysterics, and land all the world’s biggest city’s eyes on their new playoff darlings.

What a huge win for the esteem of the franchise, being THE team to knock off an undefeated. Also to rally the fans, and inject a huge dose of confidence into this young team, which could snowball into a huge playoff run.

If you’re a Jets fan today, you can’t help but shake your head. What the hell happened in today’s 10-7 loss to the Atlanta Falcons? After such a strong start, and promising comeback from rookie QB Mark Sanchez, who had missed the last week due to injury, the offense simply stopped. Three missed field goal opportunities led to Falcons momentum, and one of the dullest second halves in recent memory. The Jets’ lack of scoring and indecisive play-calling led to several hearty rounds of boos from the Meadowlands faithful in the second half. Their promising start, a spectacular TD reception from Sanchez to an in-stride Braylon Edwards, turned out to be the ONLY Jet points of the game. WHAT THE HELL? Now, the Jets’ still-alive playoff hopes are looking very grim. It was a game it seemed they had, and even though the Jets’ top-ranked D was still impressive save one Falcon TD, the offense simply could not punch it home or put it through the uprights. 3 missed field goals in total, were the deciding factor in the loss. Opportunities squandered, easy kicks missed. It’s safe to say that previously reliable Jet kicker Jay Feely made a few enemies today. He just wasn’t feeling it, as a blizzard-soaked crowd tried to get something going for the Jets but just could not.

But the Jets have now won three straight games and now are at 7-6, putting them right in the thick of the AFC East playoff race with four games to go, almost dead even with the Dolphins and Patriots.

The Jets defense has certainly turned a corner from embarrassments such as their two shootout losses to the Dolphins. Today they absolutely shut down an offense that is known even by their fans to be atrocious (hint: the biggest round of applause of the game was when they completed their first first-down three minutes into the second HALF).

The offense gelled from the get-go, spurred on by Thomas Jones, who had a couple HUGE runs including a 33-yard TD breakout that tore the game wide open for the Jets in the second quarter. And remember that guy in preseason Kellen Clemens? Well since Sanchez is out he is, for now, their starting quarterback, a job he wanted all along. And he got the win. Good things come to those who wait.

The New York Jets this year have kind of been on cruise control. There have been lingering questions. Mark Sanchez: is he worth the hype? The Jets’ D: Are they the real deal or a project? As the season has gone on, these questions have kind of drifted around our consciousness, but have never been answered.  As of today’s game against the Panthers, the Jets were kind of struggling, as were the Giants. The fans that showed up at the Meadowlands for the most part had an air of outright complacence. Fans of all New York teams are essentially one and the same, and ever since the Yankees wrapped up their 27th World Series earlier this month, there hasn’t really been much to talk about among the New York masses. In that same sports complex, there may be a team to set an NBA record for most consecutive games lost to open the season.

The Nets’ suckitude may have carried over to Giants Stadium, which will soon be trashed in favor of a new, shinier palace for fans of two football teams that right now seem to be caught in the middle. Both the Jets and Giants can boast an impressive victory once in awhile, like today’s 17-6 Jet drubbing of the Panthers.

But there are also painful losses, like the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of the Broncos over the Giants. Unlike fans of other cities, ahem, Bahston, when a New York team doesn’t offer something worthy of a rah-rah salute, the fans move on. They have business to do, career ambitions to fulfill, a life in the world’s biggest media market outside of sports.

With two minutes left in the game, with Jay Feely’s game-icing field goal, the majority of the fans headed for the exits, like a one-hit wonder had just played their only hit. An air of indifference settled back over the crowd, like eh, that was that, now back to life. That’s because the masses have been appeased by other teams in other sports, but these Jets, as impressive as they might appear once in awhile, may not be ready for prime time, ready for a glorious ticket-tape parade like the Yankees and G-Men have enjoyed in recent years.

In terms of the AFC playoff race, the Jets are in the middle. At 5-6, they do not appear poised to make a push the kind of which legends are born. For awhile early on it appeared that this would be a special year, with a special coach and a special young quarterback pushing the franchise to new heights. But like a lot of things in life, this season hasn’t exactly panned out being as special as the fans thought. After all, with the Knicks taking center court every night at Madison Square Garden, New Yorkers know plenty about having a team in a “rebuilding phase”.

If the Jets can build off today’s win and make a strong playoff push, maybe next time they win the New York crowd will not head for the exits so fast.

Ginn’s heroics were matched though, by equally impressive drives down the field led by Sanchez, with the newly acquired WR Braylon Edwards serving as an attractive and reliable target. But ultimate it was the Dolphins’ defense that was the deciding factor, making a pivotal 4-and-out after Sanchez and Edwards were able to rally the Jets down to the Dolphins’ 15 with less than a minute left down 5, before the Dolphins D was able to make the series of stops it needed to secure the win. What a heartbreaking moment for a group of giddy Gang Green fans.

‘The Hulk?’

C’mon, Sanchez, go green for us, baby!

The New York Jets rode high into the season with three, back-to-back, wins, but now with three losses, back-to-back, they look poised for a swift fall. The worst loss came Sunday in the loss to the last place Bills. Most commentators blame the rookie QB. And rightfully so; Sanchez threw five interceptions. And this was a game where, as reporter Nick Mordowanec put it, the Jets had the opportunity “to stop the bleeding and get a victory to get the train back on the tracks.” Moreover, in previous two games, against the Saints and Dolphins, Sanchez had trouble reading the field and making the big plays.

Yet, is it all Mark Sanchez’s fault? There’s plenty of shared blame; and not just poor playing (14 penalties in just the last game), but also injuries that will change the course of the season. In the first three games, the Jets gave up 33 points, total. In the last three games, they’ve cumulatively given up more than twice that, 71 points. What’s happened to the defense? To make matters worse, there’s now a big defensive hole, left by nose-tackle Kris Jenkins. Jenkins is out for the season after tearing his ACL during last Sunday’s Bills game. “That’s hard,” Rex Ryan said of his player. “There’s not many Kris Jenkins-es playing in this league.”
Commentators make it sound as though the rookie, Sanchez, was the only guy playing. They make it sound like the kid is a veteran pro player and that these kinds of mistakes don’t happen. Has this guy’s star fallen so low already? Really? He’s just gotten started. He’s impetuous and, yeah, he often bites off more than he can chew. This translates as the guy’s got guts. He has not only the ability but also the tenacity to carry the Jets through this season. Even if he doesn’t bring the Jets to the play-offs,

much less the Super Bowl, though I believe he can, Sanchez will impress. He may have hit the “rookie wall”, but isn’t it better he’s done it sooner rather than later? Sanchez is the type of guy who learns from victories, as well as mistakes. You know this if you watched him during his duel with Ainge and Clemens in the pre-season. This first round draft pick wasn’t chosen to be the Jet’s lead QB out of a lack of better choices. He fought for that role and proved to himself, coach Rex Ryan and most of us, that he is the best. In the upcoming game against the Raiders, given the opportunity, I bet Sanchez proves it again.

Fixing the defense, in light of the loss of Kris Jenkins, won’t be quite as simple. And the Jets’ defense has had plenty of injuries this season: CB Lito Sheppard returned against the Bills after missing the three previous games with a quadriceps injury and CB Donald Strickland sat out that same game with an ankle sprain, not to mention the noticeable absence of WR Jerricho Cotchery. Yet Jenkins will weigh heavy in Rex Ryan’s stratagems for the season, particularly against the Raiders, who will try to make gains on the Jet’s recent losses. On the other hand, this game and subsequent ones, against the Panthers, Buccaneers and Jaguars, may give coach Ryan the slack he needs to figure out the best way to regroup. And that’s just what’s needed…

The players have the skill; it’s up to Ryan to instill the mind and the will.