“Flight or Fight”, What will the Jets Response Be?

November 18, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan looks on during the first half against the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

“Flight or fight”. It’s the choice we make when faced with conflict. Do we fight, or do we run from it? Animals make this decision daily, when confronted by other animals. They run, or they fight, you see it every day in the wild. Humans make the same decision. If they are confronted with a battle, they either stay with it, or they leave. That’s the human version of “flight or fight”.

The Jets are confronted with this same challenge going forward. The Jets are 4-7. Yes, they have a soft schedule coming up, no doubt. The Jets can win any, and/or all of these games. But, they also could lose any, and/or all of these games. We certainly can’t count on which Jets team we will see in the final five games, can we? Will it be the past Thursday New York Jets, or will it be the Jets that played the St. Louis Rams? The Jets from the Bills game, or the 49ers game? We just don’t know.

At 4-7 the Jets are basically out of the playoffs. Are they mathematically out? No, they are not. But even if they run the table to go to 9-7, the playoffs are not a lock. There are more than a couple of teams in front of them, so the leapfrogging that they would have to do to earn the final wild card spot is less than unlikely. It would take an epic miracle for the Jets to make the playoffs at this point. This is the point where the team is going to be basically playing for pride. We have heard this many times before, with many teams. Teams that are out of it, playing for pride, playing to be “spoilers” for other teams. So, will the Jets fight, or will they take flight?

We have seen both sides of this New York Jets team in 2012. In week one, they dropped 48 points on the Buffalo Bills. One month ago, they took the New England Patriots to overtime in their building. They came close to beating the Texans on Monday Night Football. On the other side of the coin, we saw the Jets “play” on Thursday night. We saw the game against the 49ers, as well as the game against the Dolphins. This team has been accused of quitting by opponents, on more than one occasion. We have seen both “flight”, and “fight”, from this New York Jets team.

As we said more than once, the Jets are 4-7, playing mostly for pride. Some think the Jets could sneak in at 8-8, but that seems unlikely. The Jets are playing for pride. Over the next five weeks, we are going to see just how much heart this Jets team has. Will they go out and play hard, maybe win 3 games, maybe more, and finish 7-9, 8-8, or God forbid, even 9-7? Or will they close up shop for the year, and take out the final five games, with a 4-12 or 5-11 record?

“Flight or fright”? What will the Jets response be? We will find out soon enough.