New Jets, same Bill-Tom problem
HIM AGAIN. Them again. The driven traitor head coach, who walked out on the Jets and became a genius fourtime champion on the northern side of the hatefueled Border War.
The driven cheater quarterback, still tormenting Jets fans growing old as they wait for him to grow old, the same way Knicks fans grew old waiting for Jordan to grow old.
There have been fleeting successes — Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez beat these Evil Emperors once in the 2010 playoffs — but the light at the end of the tunnel is still a runaway train, engineered by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, barreling down yet again on a Super dream last realized on Jan. 12, 1969.
And now it is a rookie coach of the Jets, Todd Bowles, who gets his first crack at Brady and Belichick Sunday in Foxborough.
The season won’t end with a loss, and it won’t offer you a trip through the Canyon of Heroes if you win. But, it is a game that will tell you who and what you are and may be able to become.
Bowles is not unlike every other coach not named Mike McCarthy who brings a team into the belly of the beast: His quarterback cannot measure up to Belichick’s quarterback.
It remains the single biggest roadblock keeping Belichick standing between the Jets and the Lombardi Trophy.
It doesn’t mean the Jets can’t win this game with Ryan Fitzpatrick.
It doesn’t mean Bowles and the Jets have to play the part of Villanova against Georgetown and play the perfect game.
But it would sure help if they could.
Brady appears to be on some postDeflategate quest to defend his championship and have Roger Goodell hand him his fifth Lombardi Trophy, and lead the Patriots to their seventh consecutive AFC East crown by cutting a swath of destruction through Goodell’s NFL.
Bowles doesn’t blink, and doesn’t want a team that blinks. He isn’t here to talk about the past. And why would he anyway?
Look at where the Jets were a year ago, and look where Bowles has them now.
The 2014 Jets were 14 with a fourgame losing streak on their way to 412 following a 310 debacle in San Diego. Geno Smith went to the movies, lost track of the time, and missed the Saturday night team meeting. He was yanked at halftime for Michael Vick. It was after that game that the reign of general manager John Idzik began to come under raging fire. Ryan blamed him self and said: “First off, I apologize to our fans — those that are left.”
He returned home and fielded a Jets team that lost 3117 to Peyton Manning’s Broncos. Chris Ivory rushed eight times for 7 yards. Four nights later, the Jets dropped a 2725 heartbreaker in Foxborough.
Bowles will be bringing a disciplined, tough, smart, unified team to Foxborough. He will be bringing a pair of differencemakers who are among the best and brightest at their respective positions in Darrelle Revis and Brandon Marshall. He will be bringing a new and improved Ivory, Beast Mode East, rampaging behind a bludgeoning, feisty offensive line. He will be bringing a defensive front the likes of which Brady has never seen from the Jets.
He will be bringing a team that is not afraid of the big, bad Patriots, or intimidated by them.
Fitzpatrick has to play a clean game, or close to it, bottom line. The good news is he won’t have to concern himself with Revis. He is Brady’s concern again, in case you haven’t heard. Except that Brady (14:1 touchdowntointerception ratio) doesn’t take what the defense gives him, he takes what he wants. He’ll likely yawn, and target Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman and Dion Lewis when he feels like it, and dare Bowles to out-Belichick Belichick.
Yes, him again. Them again.