[The Green Titan]

I was just thinking. This game on Sunday worries me. Why? Because these are exactly the games that our team loses embarrassingly. You put them up against good teams like the Ravens and they play good football. They might not always win them but they are rarely embarrassed by them. Then you have the games like the one against the Broncos this year, where almost everyone picked us to win, and we walk away feeling like someone kicked our dog or run over piratepegs cat.

I can't think of any reason why the Jets should lose this game, yet many of us go into games like this and wonder which team will show up.

Many of us believe that the Jets play up or down to our opponents strengths.

I don't like describing an opponent as a "weak team" because there are other terms like "any given Sunday", unless it's a Monday or Thursday, or even a Saturday But what are the Chiefs if they are not their record. And why do the Jets play down to a weaker teams strengths. Why do we not crush these weaker teams the way the Patriots do. Maybe it's because we just don't have that type of offense, or as some would say QB. And maybe it's what we all think, maybe it's the OC.

But when it comes to games like these, I can't help but feel cursed. So do me a favor between now and Sunday. Let's do a little "knock on wood" and "rub the rabbit's foot" stuff and hope the right Jets team shows up on Sunday.

[changjet]

This is why I don't trust the team itself any given Sunday. Actually, to be honest, I went to the Redskins game thinking we were going to lose the game and was ready to do the walk'a shame to the car already.

Simply put, we always find a way to lose to the worst teams. Against KC we are by all statistics the better team but that doesn't mean anything because we, as a team, do not believe in consistency. This is especially true of our Offense system (schotty).

You know what worries me? The fact that we will probably stretch the playoff run ALL THE WAY until the last game against Miami. Now, tell me you feel confident that we'll win a do/die game against a moribund team to make it into the playoffs? I can just see it; we losing against Miami and there goes our season because we always find ONE way to lose to them even though we have been the better team when we played against them for the past five years.

Mark my words....

[johnjet]

Originally Posted by changjet

This is why I don't trust the team itself any given Sunday. Actually, to be honest, I went to the Redskins game thinking we were going to lose the game and was ready to do the walk'a shame to the car already.

Simply put, we always find a way to lose to the worst teams. Against KC we are by all statistics the better team but that doesn't mean anything because we, as a team, do not believe in consistency. This is especially true of our Offense system (schotty).

You know what worries me? The fact that we will probably stretch the playoff run ALL THE WAY until the last game against Miami. Now, tell me you feel confident that we'll win a do/die game against a moribund team to make it into the playoffs? I can just see it; we losing against Miami and there goes our season because we always find ONE way to lose to them even though we have been the better team when we played against them for the past five years.

Mark my words....

I felt the same way about Washington, but I feel a little different now. It feels like we are on a winning streak, and this one should be in the bag. The Eagles should be a win, and the Giants will be a tough one, but the Phins could be a bit scary.

[changjet]

Originally Posted by johnjet

I felt the same way about Washington, but I feel a little different now. It feels like we are on a winning streak, and this one should be in the bag. The Eagles should be a win, and the Giants will be a tough one, but the Phins could be a bit scary.

Meh, I'm too much of a skeptic. It has to do with Schotty though... case in point: Last week I saw Greene get 9 yards in 1st down... I told my gf and the guy (Redskins fan) next to me, we'd fail to get that last yard to get a first down. WELL, I was right!

Schotty called a 25 yd pass and then a 50 yd pass play...... I mean, is it that hard? Get that one yard and then try those plays.

Just sayin', stuff like that is what makes Schotty a bad OC which only hinders the production of our offense.

[peppep]

I don't think any of the upcoming games are in the bag, and this has nothing to do with us playing down to our opponents or anything. To put it another way, contrary to their records, these teams are not much 'weaker' than us. I'd say the Dolphins are the weakest team, but they are HOT right now.

The Chiefs have a pretty great D and a dangerous WR in Bowe. If they are able to run the ball on us and control clock we could be in real trouble.
the Eagles, as bad as they have been, still have the talent to match up with us, both defensively and offensively.
The Giants, well, they have a solid team and Eli's having a great year, they wil be very tough to beat...probably the toughest game.
The Fins are not very good but are on a hot streak and would like nothing more than to knock us out of the playoff race.

These are going to all be tough games and we have to stay on top of every aspect of OUR game to win out.

I'm very confident IF we win out we will get in the playoffs...
I'm NOT very confident that we WILL win out...even though we are playing much better football.

Let's just hope we stay focused. One game at a time.

[silentkillah123]

GT does makes valid points.
true super bowl contenders can beat down lesser teams on all fronts in their sleep.
so, are our jets....pretenders?
why do we struggle against these teams? could it be the players lack of interest or desire? could it be poor preparation on the coaches behalf? or a lethal mixture of both?
personally, would place a bet on it being the coaches fault. coaches are responsible for game planning,game management, teaching and motivation. do these properly and beating these teams should not be a chore, and you better believe that the coaches of these lesser teams love to hand "bubble teams" losses every chance they get. so they game plan,teach, motivate and manage the game like there's no tomorrow, but contenders must take this very same approach for every opponent, from the best to the worst. and watching the losses to these teams, one always has criticism of the lack of these elements in the teams performance.
great coaching staff's are key stones of great teams, can it be we have weak links on ours...besides schotty.
we hardly had problems vs these teams when tuna and his staff were here.
we're like those over confident boxers, that when pitted vs lesser fighters slack off in preparation and end up losing, Ala tyson vs douglas.

[Kilkenny]

They seem to make more mistakes when playing teams with losing records. Take a look at how many Jets mistakes there were by game.


Cowboys (7-5): 0 penalties, 2 turnovers

Jaguars (3-9): 7 penalties, 2 turnovers

Raiders (7-5): 7 penalties, 2 turnovers

Ravens (9-3): 9 penalties, 4 turnovers

Patriots (9-3): 8 penalties, 0 turnovers

Dolphins (4-8): 6 penalties, 1 turnover

Chargers (5-7): 8 penalties, 2 turnovers

Bills (5-7): 9 penalties, 2 turnovers

Patriots (9-3): 5 penalties, 3 turnovers

Broncos (7-5): 2 penalties, 2 turnovers

Bills (5-7): 4 penalties, 2 turnovers

Redskins (4-8): 6 penalties, 1 turnover

Against teams with winning records: 5.18 penalties per game, 2.16 turnovers per game

Against teams with losing records: 8 penalties per game, 1.66 turnovers per game


They commit much more penalties per game against bad teams with only slightly fewer turnovers. They definitely do seem to play down to the level of their opponent.

[Cheaterhater]

Originally Posted by Kilkenny

They seem to make more mistakes when playing teams with losing records. Take a look at how many Jets mistakes there were by game.


Cowboys (7-5): 0 penalties, 2 turnovers

Jaguars (3-9): 7 penalties, 2 turnovers

Raiders (7-5): 7 penalties, 2 turnovers

Ravens (9-3): 9 penalties, 4 turnovers

Patriots (9-3): 8 penalties, 0 turnovers

Dolphins (4-8): 6 penalties, 1 turnover

Chargers (5-7): 8 penalties, 2 turnovers

Bills (5-7): 9 penalties, 2 turnovers

Patriots (9-3): 5 penalties, 3 turnovers

Broncos (7-5): 2 penalties, 2 turnovers

Bills (5-7): 4 penalties, 2 turnovers

Redskins (4-8): 6 penalties, 1 turnover

Against teams with winning records: 5.18 penalties per game, 2.16 turnovers per game

Against teams with losing records: 8 penalties per game, 1.66 turnovers per game


They commit much more penalties per game against bad teams with only slightly fewer turnovers. They definitely do seem to play down to the level of their opponent.

Two comments. 1. after looking at Kk's post here I see that if you take out the game Romo gave us that have have not beaten noone with a winning record and the best team we beat was the Bills. 2. although Gt is right that we play down to bad teams, personally I think we played very poorly vs. the Cheatos this year concidering almost every other team they played scored more points against them then us. And last years and especially this years Ravens games were poor. I have never seen a qb pounded as bad as Sanchez on every play in that game. Before the game I was afraid he would get knocked out for the season. After the game I was amazed that he survived. Maybe we are just not as good as we (the fans and jet players) think we we are. That said if we beat all the teams with losing records we go 11-5 and might make the playoffs

[Bellows1]

I don't think it's a Jets curse exclusively, many teams fall the same way. I think the last couple of years we have benefited as much as we have suffered from it... Although we have not been a horrible team, we certainly beat teams much better than us, at least better on paper.