Thursday Night’s Game Should be a Wakeup Call for Jets’ Brass

Nov. 22, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets owner Woody Johnson before the game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

That was a failure of epic proportions on Thursday night. Not only did the Jets lose to the Patriots, they didn’t even show up. Has anyone ever seen a team score 21 points in :52 seconds? That had to be the most bizarre sequence I have ever seen in football. The score was 49-19, and the game was scoreless after one quarter! Think about that. All of the points that New England scored, were scored in three quarters. The offense had no life, and the Patriots scored essentially whenever they wanted to. But, if one thing should come out of this game, and smack owner Woody Johnson in the face, it’s this.

His team just isn’t that good.

I have made my feelings about Woody Johnson perfectly clear all year long. My opinion, ever since the Tim Tebow trade, has been that Woody is more interested in headlines and fame than winning football games. The trade, the comments he has made, have contributed to that opinion. Some agree, some vehemently do not. But is neither here nor there at this point. The point is, this game is something that should wake Woody up, and do it fast. He needs to realize right now, that his football team really doesn’t have that much talent on it. If he wants to deliver Jets fans a Super Bowl as much as he has said in the past, he needs to pay attention. He needs to do something. Change needs to come for this football team.

The Jets had a chance to really make a statement Thursday night, on national TV. Woody Johnson, apparently, WANTED the Jets to play on Thanksgiving. That part, is understandable, he wants his product to be seen on the national stage. But, if he really cares about winning, is THAT the product he wants to see on that stage? A product that can give up 3 touchdowns in less than a minute? An offense that has no life? I sure hope not.

Talk about injuries all you like, this football team has no depth. I don’t think we have to review the names, but look at that game from Thursday night. Do our weapons compete, even a little, with the weapons of the New England Patriots? You could fit probably three Clyde Gates’s and a Chaz Schilens in Wes Welker. You guys and girls all know by now that I am a Mark Sanchez fan, but on his best day, you could put five of him together and you MIGHT have Tom Brady. Even with Santonio Holmes, the Jets weapons on the outside aren’t that scary, take out Santonio Holmes, and the Jets group might not even make a lot of teams. And this, my friends, is the group that Mike Tannenbaum has said is “good enough”.

Oct. 8, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum walks on the sidelines before the game against the Houston Texans at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Mills/THE STAR-LEDGER via US PRESSWIRE

Where did this attitude come from with Mike Tannenbaum? This “good enough” attitude? Don’t we want the Jets to be better than “good enough? To his credit, Mike Tannenbaum did a good job early in his tenure as the GM. A lot of people want to credit moves to Eric Mangini, but I am not going to do that today. If we are going to give him grief for poor moves that have happened on his watch, he deserves credit for the good ones. And there have been good ones. Mike did draft Darrelle Revis, Nick Mangold, and D’Brickashaw Ferguson, among others. His reign has not been all bad.

But man, things turn South quickly. The last few years have not been kind to Mike Tannenbaum. Since the 2010 season, talent has left this team, as will happen in a league with a hard salary cap. The problem is that the talent has not been replaced. Neither the talent, nor the depth, on this team has improved vastly over the last two seasons, especially on offense. Despite the fact that the Jets want to be a ground and pound football team, you need to be able to score. This is not an NFL that you are going to have low scoring games in too often. A team has to be able to score points to win football games in the 21st century NFL. The Jets have not been equipped with enough weapons to score points, and that was brought out on Thursday night. In the end, talent wins the day. Thursday night showed how far and away, the Patriots roster is better than the Jets roster. Talent wins the day.

The Jets are loyal, sometimes to a fault. On defense, the Jets are loyal to aging players such as Bart Scott and Calvin Pace, and in some respects it is hindering the development of younger players. The Jets are loyal, and they are loyal to this general manager. Rex Ryan obviously has not had a great season, but he is doing what he can with the hand he has been dealt. He has not been dealt a great roster, and that is on the general manager, he can only do what he can.

Thursday night should have given Woody Johnson a huge wake-up call to this unfortunate set of facts. He needs to remove Mike Tannenbaum from his post, and either fire him, or demote him back to salary cap guru. The Jets need a talented personnel person to make the decisions, and give Rex Ryan more say in personnel. Change needs to come.

If no change comes, Woody Johnson will prove my previously mentioned opinion to be correct. That would be unfortunate.