The New York Jets had no choice but to “play and pray” on Jan. 1. Unfortunately, the football gods weren’t there to answer their prayers, as a 19-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins, combined with the Tennessee Titans’ 23-22 win over the Houston Texans, mathematically eliminated them from the playoffs. With the Jets losing and Titans coming away victorious, the AFC playoff picture is a bit clearer.

The game was over when: Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, who threw three interceptions in the game, was picked off by Dolphins linebacker Marvin Mitchell with 2:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Jets were down 16-10 at the time, but just 10 yards away from taking the lead back with a touchdown pass. Instead, Mitchell jumped in front of Shonn Greene to grab the pick, and took it all the way back to the Jets’ 36-yard line, which set up a Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter for a 44-yard field goal to put his team up 19-10, essentially sealing the win.

The difference: Even though the Dolphins had one of the toughest defenses in the NFL to run against, the Jets reverted back to the ground-and-pound style of offense that made them so successful in 2009 and 2010. LaDainian Tomlinson, playing in what could be the final game of his career, put in a vintage performance and looked like a guy with plenty of gas left in the tank.

Tomlinson rushed for 33 yards on six carries in the first half alone, and he surpassed Jerome Bettis early in the third quarter for fifth all-time in rushing yards. The Jets also established Shonn Greene early on, utilizing his downhill, straight-up-the-middle rushing approach to wear the Dolphins out by the end of the first half. Greene had 10 carries for 38 yards by halftime. Greene finished with 55 yards on the ground.

But with the Jets falling behind in the second half and with time running down, they were forced to rely on their passing attack, and Mark Sanchez’s late-interceptions would ultimately do the Jets in. Sanchez’s final line was abysmal, as his 207 passing yards and two touchdown completions didn’t mean much in comparison to his three game-changing interceptions.

Overall: The first half was ugly on both sides. Manish Mehta, Jets beat writer for the New York Daily News, tweeted at halftime that “The Dolphins’ last four drives include three 3-and-outs and an INT. Not good.” Seconds later, Mehta tweeted “#nyjJets offense: Four 3-and-outs in six drives in the first half. Also, not good. #nyj.”

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez didn’t do much to quiet his critics, as his interception toss nine seconds before halftime resulted in a 58-yard field goal from Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter. With time winding down in the fourth quarter, Santonio Holmes was seen on camera screaming at one of his teammates in the huddle and was then benched. At his post-game press conference, he was asked if he wanted to return to the Jets next year and he responded by not answering the question, simply saying “Thank you guys” to the media on hand.

Even if the Jets won, they would have been out of the playoff chase with Houston falling short against Tennessee, but a well-played victory over the Dolphins could have been a nice springboard to propel them into next season. Now, after finishing 8-8 with three straight losses down the stretch, they have a long offseason to ponder what exactly went wrong this year.

Eric Holden is a lifelong New York Jets fan. Follow him on Twitter @ericholden.

Sources

www.nfl.com, NFL, player and team stats

www.twitter.com/thejetsstream, Manish Mehta tweets

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Looks like nobody stayed on script since mid-Fall in this Season at the Improv, when the Dolphins were in mid-free fall and first saw the Jets.

Matt Moore, who made his first Dolphins start that night, plays quarterback for the AFC offense with the most pass plays longer than 25 yards and featuring the Dolphins’ first 1,000-yard receiving and rushing combination, Brandon Marshall and Reggie Bush (but not Sunday). The Dolphins didn’t see their coach fired after an 0-7 start, but after their second loss in the next five games. With the playoffs in sight, the Jets got smacked around each of the past two weeks and have been less consistent than the Dolphins.

Now, New York’s green team comes to town needing a win to start the dominoes falling toward another in-by-their-heel-skin playoff berth.

OK, that you might have guessed. That’s typical of a game that features the Dolphins and Jets, who comprise the NFL rivalry that regularly pours the wacky sauce on an NFL weekend.

Season finales are no exception. Remember how Brett Favre’s season in New York, 2008, ended foiled by a leaping Ted Ginn touchdown catch and defensive end Philip Merling’s interception-return touchdown?

Take the situation of one of the two probable Hall of Famers possibly ending their careers Sunday, the Jets’ LaDainian Tomlinson and the Dolphins’ Jason Taylor.

Taylor has played the second-most games as a Dolphin behind arguably South Florida’s greatest sporting icon, Dan Marino. He has been a local community pillar, similar to Marino. And it’s entirely possible during the pregame ceremony honoring him — the Dolphins ask that fans be in their seats by 12:45 p.m. — he will hear boos from the Dolphins fans who can’t forgive Taylor for being a Jet during 2010.

“There are a lot of coincidences I guess,” Taylor said. “It’s great to end at home. It’s great to have a chance to walk away and do it in front of your home crowd in a city that means a lot to you against an opponent that you’ve had a tremendous history against.

“I want to win. I want to win the game. I don’t want to win the game so I can say I won my last game. This is not about Jason Taylor and my career and all that stuff. It’s not about that. There’s guys in this locker room that are fighting for jobs, fighting for their futures, auditioning for their next jobs, trying to improve and grow their game and their career, so I’m just a small piece of this team train.”

That train has gone on some serpentine tracks. Ask Dolphins players if this is the weirdest season they have been a part of and you get either “definitely” or a head-shaking “it’s football.”

Nobody’s saying the Jets marched in a straight line to their end, whatever that might be. Instead of a secure future with a quarterback settling into a groove, Jets coach Rex Ryan finds himself refuting questions about Mark Sanchez’s future and fielding a mediocre defense.

“I really think we can do some damage if we get into the playoffs,” Ryan said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, because I think we play excellent defense, I think we can run the football and I think that’s what you have to do this time of year.

“So, can we do some things if we can get in? I think we can. Are we better than the eight wins? I think you are who you are. Right now, we’ve won eight games.”

But, then in the next breath, Ryan said: “I’ll tell you what’s interesting. When you look at when we played Miami … 0-7 to start with, 5-3 their last eight games. I’ve always said that they were a better team than their record. I never thought there was any doubt. And the fact that they’re 5-3 in their last eight games I think proves that they’re a better team.”

Just like it all graphed out two and a half months ago.

MIAMI – Jason Taylor’s ready to hang it up, while the New York Jets are desperate to keep playing.

Taylor plans to retire after Sunday’s season finale for the Miami Dolphins. They’ll try to send him out with a win against the Jets, who need a victory to keep alive their slim hopes of making the playoffs.

Even if the Jets win, to earn a post-season berth they’ll also need losses Sunday by Cincinnati, Tennessee and either Denver or Oakland.

“This is the first time I have ever been in a situation like this,” said receiver Plaxico Burress, a 10-year veteran. “If we do get in, great. If things don’t work out, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

The Jets (8-7) lost control of their destiny when they were beaten last week by the Giants 29-14. Now the Jets are in danger of missing the playoffs after reaching the AFC championship game each of the past two years, and elimination could come at the hands of the AFC East rival Dolphins (5-10).

“It would be beautiful to ruin their playoff dreams,” Miami defensive end Kendall Langford said. “We’re playing for pride. They’re playing for a playoff spot.”

The teams meet in a regular-season finale for the first time since 2008, when the Dolphins won to clinch their only division title since 2000. That game eliminated the Jets from playoff contention.

This year the Dolphins have been consigned to a spoiler’s role since Halloween, thanks to their 0-7 start. Taylor’s retirement announcement this week provided some additional motivation for the last game.

The NFL’s active sack leader spent 13 of his 15 seasons with Miami, made the Pro Bowl six times and ranks with the greatest players in franchise history.

“His presence will be missed, not only in our locker room, but in this organization,” receiver Brandon Marshall said. “Those guys are once-in-a-lifetime guys. We would love for him to go out with a win.”

Coincidentally, Taylor played last season for the Jets before rejoining the Dolphins.

“He was a great teammate, and we loved having him here,” Jets tight end Dustin Keller said. “But they’re going to want to send him off with a big win, and we can’t let that happen. We know what kind of player he is and what he’s capable of, and we can’t let him disrupt the game.”

Taylor has 16 1/2 of his 139 1/2 sacks against the Jets, although he managed none when the teams met in October. New York won 24-6, and while the Dolphins have been a much better team lately, they’ll be without 1,000-yard rusher Reggie Bush because of a knee injury.

The Dolphins took a 17-point lead at New England last week before losing 27-24, which left them 0-5 in games decided by a field goal or less. The Jets’ loss to the Giants carried even more sting, because it may wind up costing them a playoff berth.

Coach Rex Ryan declared months ago that these Jets are even more talented than the two teams he took to the AFC title game. But New York has given up 74 points while losing the past two games, and the offence was so out of sorts against the Giants that Mark Sanchez was forced to throw a career-high 59 passes. The Jets rank 27th in the NFL in yardage, stirring speculation about offensive co-ordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s job security.

With typical bravado, Ryan insisted the season might yet be salvaged.

“We can do some damage if we get into the playoffs,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, because I think we play excellent defence, I think we can run the football, and I think that’s what you have to do this time of year.”

But getting to the post-season is now a long shot. Three of the other games that will determine the Jets’ fate are late starts Sunday, which means that if they win, the Jets will likely be flying home when they learn whether their season is over.

“We’re just focused on the things we can control, and that’s trying to play well against Miami and coming up with a win,” Sanchez said. “After that, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully we get a win and on the plane we find out everything worked out in our favour. But all we can control is winning.”

The Dolphins, meanwhile, are bound for another off-season of change. Coach Tony Sparano was fired Dec. 12, and the next coach will be Miami’s seventh since the start of 2004. With a losing record for the third consecutive year — the Dolphins’ first such stretch since the 1960s — a roster shake-up is likely, too.

Given his team’s situation, the 37-year-old Taylor decided the time was right to call it quits. He’ll do it after playing his 204th game for the Dolphins, more than anyone aside from Dan Marino.

“It’s great to have a chance to walk away in front of your home crowd in a city that means a lot to you against an opponent that you’ve had a tremendous history against,” Taylor said. “I want to win the game, but not so I can say I won my last game. This is not about Jason Taylor and my career. There are guys in the locker-room that are fighting for jobs, fighting for their futures, auditioning for their next jobs. So I’m just a small piece of this team train. I’m going to do my part Sunday to help win.”

By Ed Valentine

– Regional Editor

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Dec 23, 2011 – Let’s continue our position-by-position look at the New York Giants and New York Jets with a look at the special teams units for each team.

Giants

When the Jets let punter Steve Weatherford go after last season the Giants snapped up the veteran free-agent punter to avoid the disastrous inconsistencies experienced a season ago with rookie punter Matt Dodge. Weatherford has responded with a career year. His 46.3 yards per punt average is the best of his career by nearly three yards and his net average of 40.0 puts the Giants seventh in the league, a vast improvement from a season ago. 

Placekicker Lawrence Tynes is having an excellent season. He is 16-of-20 on field-goal attempts, with two of his misses coming from outside 50 yards. Thirty-three of Tynes’ 70 kickoffs have been for touchbacks, a percentage of 47.1. That puts Tynes, historically near the bottom of the league in kickoffs, in the middle of the pack for NFL kickers.

The problem for the Giants has been in the return game, where they simply have not generated any big plays all season.

The Giants’ average of 23.0 yards per kickoff return is 19th in the league and they have only one return longer than 40 yards all season. Devin Thomas handled the job early in the season, and rookie speedsters Da’Rel Scott and Jerrel Jernigan have been the primary returners recently.

Punt return has been even worse. The Giants average just 7.4 yards per return, 28th in the league. Aaron Ross handled those duties early in the season and Will Blackmon has taken over recently. The Giants are one of only two NFL (Carolina being the other) that does not have a punt return of 20 yards or longer this season.

Jets

The Jets replaced Weatherford with T.J. Conley and the rookie from Idaho has done a decent job. He has a 43.0 yards per punt average. His net average of 38.7 puts the Jets 17th in the league. Conley leads the league in forcing fair catches, with 25.

Placekicker Nick Folk is 18-of-23 on field-goal attempts, including thee-of-six from more than 50 yards. Folk’s difficulty comes on kickoffs, where only 16 of his 73 kickoffs (20.9) have gone for touchbacks. That puts the Jets 31st in the league in that category.

Where the Jets are clearly superior to the Giants is in the return game.

The Jets are third in the league with an average of 26.8 yards per kickoff return, and have a league-best of seven returns of 40 yards or longer. Joe McKnight leads all regular NFL kick returners with a 32.3 yards per return average and has five of those 40+ yard runbacks. Antonio Cromartie has the other two.

The Jets average 8.6 yards per punt return. Rookie Jeremy Kerley has been the primary return man, averaging 9.4 yards per return.

Advantage: Jets … based purely on the quality of their return game

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PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Nnamdi Asomugha was headed for Broadway when the
Philadelphia Eagles swooped in at the last minute and stole the All-Pro
cornerback from the New York Jets.

Too bad for him there are no do-overs in free agency.

Asomugha chose the Eagles over the Jets, thinking he could help the
defending NFC East champions reach the Super Bowl. That won’t happen this year.

The Eagles (5-8) are clinging to slim playoff hopes entering Sunday’s game
against New York (8-5). Maybe Asomugha should’ve picked that other team in green
instead.

“No, I don’t regret it at all,” Asomugha said. “The thing that has been
very difficult is not winning. I think the tough part about that is the fact
that the expectations were really high coming into it. Even if my expectations
were realistic, the expectations that were out there, I think, I kind of let
that get to me, as well, the expectations of everything will be and must be
perfect with this team now that they’ve acquired these players and blah, blah,
blah.

“I always have a realistic approach to it, but I kind of let that seep
through and then that made the losing of it all a little bit tougher, a little
bit more difficult to deal with. But no, I have never, have not and will not
regret it. Our story still isn’t over yet, so there is always something to learn
and we’re still fighting. That’s pretty much where I stand with that.”

The Eagles stunned the football world when they signed Asomugha to a $60
million, five-year contract shortly after the NFL’s lockout ended in July. A day
earlier, the Eagles had acquired two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Dominique
Rodgers-Cromartie in a trade from Arizona.

Asomugha, Rodgers-Cromartie and Asante Samuel, a four-time Pro Bowl pick,
were expected to form the best cornerback trio in the league. But they haven’t
come close to fulfilling those expectations.

Part of the problem for Asomugha has been fitting into a different defensive
scheme than the one he excelled in for years in Oakland. Defensive coordinator
Juan Castillo, who switched from coaching the offensive line, gave Asomugha far
more responsibilities than he was used to with the Raiders.

“It’s been completely different from what I was doing in Oakland,”
Asomugha said. “Obviously, in Oakland, when I was there it was about just
finding a guy, matching up with him and playing him one-on-one pretty much the
whole game. It’s just completely different than with the one-on-ones and
putting in some new things.

“He has also been just moving me around the field. He’s wanted me to be
sometimes the corner, wanted me to be sometimes the nickel, he’s wanted me to
play a rover, sometimes a free safety, and there are some challenges with that
because you basically have to learn the scheme and the coverages for every
single position that you have to play. That’s where I think that the biggest
challenge has come in, is knowing how you fit based off each call, depending on
what position you’re playing. Then, he has some different techniques that he has
guys playing.”

Perhaps things would’ve been different if Asomugha had picked the Jets. With
star cornerback Darrelle Revis shadowing the opponent’s top receiver on one
side, Asomugha may have been left alone to play man coverage against the No. 2
guy.

Jets coach Rex Ryan called Asomugha once the free agency period opened and
went after him hard during the recruiting process.

“I really liked the staff there in New York,” Asomugha said. “I was
really close with Rob Ryan, so I know that Rex, being his twin, would be very
similar to him. During the 48 hours or whatever it was that we were able to
talk, they were saying some really great things. I liked how the defense played.
They were doing a lot of the things that I had done throughout my career, so
there wouldn’t be much adjusting or anything like that. I was really close.”

Then, the Eagles called.

“The Eagles came in that 11th hour or whatever it was,” Asomugha said.
“All along, I had always admired the Eagles. They were always the team that, if
they were involved, that was where I wanted to be. At the end there, they did,
they came in, so I managed to flip back to how I was thinking in the
beginning.”

Asomugha spoke with Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and wide receiver DeSean
Jackson at the Pro Bowl last January. He knew several other players on the team
and was impressed with the way they talked about the organization.

“Obviously, no one is going to say anything disparaging about their
organization, but everything they were saying, I just took it to heart and
really liked it,” Asomugha said.