Read or listen to any analyst these days, and their talking points regarding the Jets are eerily similar. "This team is going nowhere. They have been terrible lately. Their secondary stinks. Brett Favre is showing his age and wearing down at the end of the year. This is not a contender." This is not to defend this team's recent play. Those talking points contain a lot of truth. The problem is the prognostication method. All of these predictions assume the Jets will keep playing this way for the rest of the year. While it is possible, there is no guarantee. This method of predicting has not exactly worked out that well for the media this year alone. Just consider how the talking points have changed.
Before the season: The Jets were expected to be vastly improved from the 4-12 trainwreck of a year ago. However, despite drastically making both lines and the quarterback position better, there was no way they could overtake the Patriots in the East. That is because the Pats were 18-1 last year, which automatically made them invincible this year. Then Tom Brady went down.
Before Week 2: The Jets became the team to beat in the AFC East. With Brady gone and Favre in New York, this team had a shot. Then came consecutive losses to the Patriots and Chargers followed by sloppy wins against the Bengals and Chiefs sandwiching a loss to Oakland.
After six games: This team was going nowhere. Its parts were not clicking. Favre looked washed up and probably regretted coming to New York. Then came road wins against AFC East contenders Buffalo and New England in addition to another at then unbeaten Tennessee and a home thrashing of the Rams.
After the Titans game: The Jets were riding a five game winning streak. They had soundly beaten quality opponents. Surely this team was going to the Super Bowl. Then came this rough three game stretch.
The moral of the story is that teams ebb and flow through the season. Just because a club is playing well or poorly does not mean it will continue on that path for the rest of the year. The Jets may finish with sloppy performances against Seattle and Miami, but it is just as likely that the team catches fire again, and the media is forced to revise its prediction one more time.