I would have liked to have been able to write my first post in some time from a different angle, a more positive, the tide has turned type angle, yhe cards have flipped and we now reign supreme type angle. Unfortunately, that's not possible today as we all wake up to the day after the night before.
John went through his post game comments and thoughts, and it's hard to disagree with a thing. However, as much as this was a humiliating beat down, it's always important to take a look at what this can do for us. I've heard a lot of people mention the 1986 Jets' loss to the Dolphins and collapse thereafter. The 45-3 loss to the Miami Dolphins in week 12, which was followed by 4 straight losses to the Rams/49'ers/Steelers and Bengals.
I think it's only natural to look at the worst case scenario after a night like last night, but a part of me thinks that this is the kind of wake up call we have needed. We seem to be doing just enough to win and sooner or later the slow starts were going to catch up with us. You can't play from behind in this league against the elite. We were 9-2 and some of the media were buying us (some were not), but it all seemed well.......a little bit flat.
I know that may be hard to believe after two OT victories, one coming at the death point, but we weren't playing like a Superbowl team even though we had the best record in the league. There is no way to paint this other than the Patriots giving us a butt kicking that a lot of us will remember for a long time.
However, it's now about what we can do to answer. We were coasting but now we have to take a step back and take a hard look at ourselves. As Rex said in the post match conference, we have a zillion things we need to correct, and for the first time in a long time, Rex Ryan/Pettine and his play-calling is one of them. Rex is a great mind, which makes last nights play calling even more mind boggling.
Rushing 3 on 3rd and 22, matching Drew Coleman and Wes Welker up in man coverage inside, blitz packages coming all up the middle. and not being able to adapt to Danny Woodhead out of the backfield. As much as we can blame Sanchez, we can blame Schotty.....Rex has to take a lot of the blame as well.
So here we are at 9-3, a position that a lot of teams would kill for, better than the Ravens, better than the Giants, better than the Eagles and the same as the Bears who people now seem to fear.
There is plenty of things to be negative about, but lets pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back to the drawing board. This is a kick up the back side that the team needed, the franchise needed and I would argue the fans needed. A season doesn't hinge on one bad performance just like it doesn't hinge on a great one. The Patriots lost to the Browns, but they got back up and now look at them. The Falcons lost to the Eagles, and have now won 6th straight. We know how to lose, we've been here before, the difference with this team is that I truly believe we can pick ourselves back up.
So stop with the feeling sorry for yourself, stop with the same old Jets (lets pretend like I expect us to lose now to avoid disappointment). In soccer teams will often chant to opposing supporters "You only sing when you're winning"...and that is a big sting to have directed at you. Let's not be that type of fanbase, so go to work as cocky as ever, as loud and as proud as ever. We lost, but that doesn't mean we'll lose again.