I really wasn't going to bother to address any negative articles tonight, to be perfectly honest, I didn't expect to find too many, the majority of the major networks all ran conventional game recaps. Praising the collectiveness of the team, the cool head of a rookie signal called in a play-off game and generally congratulating the Jets on a job well done. However like some other media personalities, one writer went for a attention grabbing headline 'J-E-T-S Fluke, Fluke, Fluke'. Job done, it grabbed my attention, and by the end of it I was left extremely confused.
The article in question comes courtesy of AOL Fanhouse's Terrence Moore, I have to be honest. I have never read AOL Fanhouse, and only briefly heard of it, and I have never read any article by Terrence Moore, at least not that I can remember. So I have no idea if he has any kind of animosity towards the Jets from past dealings. Considering he graduated from Miami and then worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer, perhaps his objective nature was lost tonight. He also worked covering the Oakland Raiders, so his judgement of what constitutes a good football team may well be a little murky.
The article seems to be of the schizophrenic nature, half pretty much outlining why the Jets are all luck, a fluky team that can't be taken seriously, and the other outlining all the categories the Jets lead the league in, however mainly ignoring them, instead of good execution, the victory was 'fluky' or maybe 'lucky':
Come on, now. Regarding the rest of the NFL playoffs, how can you take the New York Jets seriously?
You can't.
The operative word here is "fluke."
Either that, or "lucky," and I know what you're thinking. Sometimes, "lucky" and "fluke" will get you far in sports -- Miracle Mets, North Carolina State over Phi Slamma Jama, blah, blah, blah.It's just that these Jets haven't anything close to a Ron Swoboda or a Jim Valvano, but they do have a Joe Namath (as in the guy who predicted that his underrated Jets would shock the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III). The Broadway Joe for these Jets is their coach, Rex Ryan, because he likes to run his mouth. He even told reporters last week that these Jets are the team to beat along the way to this Super Bowl.
Apart from rehashing the same tired explanation of how the Jets got into the post season, he really doesn't offer much explanation as to why the Jets can not be taken seriously. He seems to use the fact that Feely punted the ball as a lucky omen, or that we were able to get Greene touches of the football in situations where Cincy had no answer.
So why can we not be taken seriously? Is it because we are coming off back to back wins against division champions? Maybe it's because we have won 6 of the last 7 games? Hold the NFL's best rushing attack? have the best statistical defense in the NFL? The best shutdown corner since Deion Sanders? A Quarterback who just had the highest QB rating of a rookie in the play-offs? No,no we can't be taken seriously.
I can say one thing, Terrence Moore might not be taking the Jets seriously, but you better believe that either the Colts or Chargers will be. Like Andrew Weiss said over at The Jets Blog tonight:
To all those brilliant prognosticators and sports gurus (let me reserve a special mention for Mike Francesa), shove it up where the sun doesn’t shine. The Jets beat the Bengals by ten today to advance to the playoffs with a 24-14 win.
The only thing not to be taken serious tonight, is the evaluation by Terrence Moore