The Philadelphia Eagles have plenty of reasons to be bitter at the New York Jets. First the Eagles destroyed the Jets on Dec. 18 to get their hopes up for a miracle playoff run, and then the Jets ruined that by losing to the New York Giants on Dec. 24. But while Philadelphia fans are stewing in disappointment, they can take solace in how New York fans – also like myself – are equally disappointed in their team.

The Jets have gone from potential Super Bowl contenders to playoff long shots in the span of just a few weeks. What’s more, New York has lived through this situation before – which pretty much triggered the Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez era to begin with.

Before Ryan and Sanchez arrived in 2009, New York was just coming off the end of its stint in the Brett Favre soap opera. In 2008, the Jets had Super Bowl hype around them when Favre came to town, but they started slowly with a 3-3 record. Likewise in 2011, the team stumbled out of the gate to a 2-3 start. Yet in midseason, the 2008 and 2011 squads got on a roll and looked ready to make a big run.

The 2008 team was a bit hotter, as it won five straight games to go to 8-3. And since the defending champion Giants only had one loss at the time, hype for an all-New York Super Bowl was building up. However, once the Jets got their eighth win everything started to fall apart – like it has for the 2011 edition.

The outcomes aren’t completely similar, since Favre’s Jets did at least get a ninth win while Sanchez’s team is still stuck at 8-7. But in both cases, they had chances to lock up playoff berths and utterly collapsed in the month of December. Favre ran out of gas and was more hobbled up than usual, three years before Sanchez completely crumbled against the Eagles and Giants.

The 2008 Jets got so bad in their final two losses that it triggered a full scale makeover, as Favre “retired” again, Eric Mangini was fired and the Ryan era was ready to begin. New York seemed to get the better end of that deal with two straight AFC title game appearances, yet Ryan and Sanchez have now reached the low point of their tenure.

If the 2011 Jets complete their collapse and miss the playoffs as well, it might not get Ryan and Sanchez out of town like the 2008 downfall did to Mangini and Favre. However, after three years of talk and bluster and no Super Bowls for Ryan, and after another season of regression from Sanchez, their time is starting to run out. After this, New York might not forgive another year or two with this kind of ending – or any other ending before the first week of February.

In 2009 and 2010, the Jets proved to be experts at ending a season on a hot streak. But in between , there have been a pair of pretty ugly Decembers that have kept New York from January. The consequences for the horrible ending of 2011 may not be as severe as the ones from 2008. Yet Ryan and Sanchez’s window of opportunity is getting smaller, and that might be severe enough before long.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP)—Mark Sanchez has been knocked around all season,
battered by defensive linemen on the field and by critical fans and media
members off it.

It has been one trying year for the embattled New York Jets quarterback.
And, he acknowledges, he has brought a lot of it on himself. But he wants those
who criticize him to know this: You’re not going to drag him down.

“Win, lose or draw, I’m the luckiest guy in the world, I promise,” Sanchez
said Wednesday. “I’m lucky to be here. I’m lucky, fortunate, blessed, whatever
you want to call it. I’m thrilled about this job and about this opportunity this
week.”

Sanchez was referring to the chance he and the Jets (8-7) have to make right
all that has gone wrong this season, and there has been plenty. New York is
heading to play AFC East rival Miami (5-10) needing to win and also get plenty
of help from other teams to have a chance at a third straight playoff trip.

The Jets had control of their postseason hopes at this time a week ago, but
a miserable performance by Sanchez and his teammates in a 29-14 loss to the
Giants last Saturday took care of all that.

“Look, the game never worked out,” coach Rex Ryan said. “That’s not the
only game we’ve ever lost, but you’ve got to move on from it. You’ve got a
challenge right in front of you. We have an opportunity. The facts are this: I
know for sure that if we don’t win, we’re not in, so we better win, and we’ll
see what happens. We’ll do whatever it takes, light candles, we’ll do it all.”

But it could all come down to the play of Sanchez, who threw a career-high
59 passes last week—something Ryan says “there is no way” the Jets will do
again. It was much more than that, though: Sanchez threw two interceptions
against the Giants, lost a fumble near the goal line and was sacked for a safety
that sealed it.

“Have we played our best? No,” Sanchez said. “But it’s still the best
time I could possibly scheme up in my head. We just have to keep pressing, be
smart, win the game and see what happens.”

Despite two straight losses that have the Jets’ season teetering on the
brink, Sanchez appeared more upbeat than he has in weeks. He was almost sullen
while talking to the media previously.

Not on Wednesday. Sanchez answered every question as if he had snapped out
of a funk, seeming more confident and thick-skinned even while some outside the
team have wondered more than ever if he can lead the Jets to a Super Bowl. Not
only that, fans and media members are debating whether this is as good as
Sanchez will ever be.

He says there’s “no question” that he has “absolutely” improved in his
third season.

“Whether it’s defensive recognition or clock management and stuff like
that, understanding the offense and the system, I’m light years ahead,” he
said.

The numbers actually aren’t all bad. His career-high 24 touchdown passes are
the most since Vinny Testaverde had a franchise-high 29 in 1998. Sanchez is also
on pace to have career highs in completions, completion percentage, quarterback
rating and yards per game. But he also has been sacked a career-high 37 times
and lost eight fumbles, and his decision-making and ability to read defenses
have been questioned.

“I’m not out to prove anything like that to people,” Sanchez said of
whether he’s the quarterback of the future. “I just want to work hard for these
guys on the team. These guys know I’m leading by example, being vocal if I need
to. These are the guys I’m playing for right here in this locker room and in
this building.”

Sanchez has taken lots of the blame for the inadequacies and inconsistencies
of the offense, and so has coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Ryan said it should
ultimately lead back to him, not Schottenheimer or the guy he still deems a
franchise-type quarterback—even if few outside the organization do.

“That kind of stuff happens when you’re not playing as well as you’d like
to,” Sanchez said, “and when your team is not in control of their own destiny
in the playoffs and stuff like that. That’s natural and that’s a part of this
league, so you have to handle that stuff.”

Sanchez believes he “absolutely, no question” has the support of everyone
in his locker room. Players such as Pro Bowl center Nick Mangold and tight end
Dustin Keller say they are impressed by how Sanchez has dealt with the
criticism, and insist it’s not all his fault. They say the line could block and
protect better, the running backs could churn out more yards and the receivers
could run better routes.

“He works hard, things haven’t gone particularly well for him or us, but he
comes in and works hard every day,” wide receiver Plaxico Burress said.
“There’s no doubt about it that he’s going to get better.”

Sanchez believes he can start in that direction Sunday in Miami with the
season on the line.

“I don’t think we’ve hit our potential this year, that’s for sure,” he
said, “but that doesn’t mean that we can’t accomplish a lot of the goals that
we set out to accomplish. We have a chance.”

Notes: LB Garrett McIntyre has a sprained knee and didn’t practice. His
availability for Sunday’s game was uncertain. … Ryan said LB Ricky Sapp would
be promoted from the practice squad to fill the spot vacated when the Jets
waived WR Eron Riley on Tuesday.

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The Miami Dolphins appear to be limping into the season finale against the New York Jets.

Anthony Fasano returns to practice, and the Dolphins will need him against the Jets.

Not only is Todd Bowles’ team going to be playing without Pro Bowl left tackle Jake Long on Sunday – which makes John Jerry the man responsible for stopping Calvin Pace – but the Dolphins have a number of starters nursing significant injuries.

Starting tailback Reggie Bush was held out of Wednesday’s practice because of a right knee injury he suffered late last week’s loss to the Patriots. Bush is walking fine, and says he’s fine.

So the hope is that the team’s featured tailback, who has rushed for 1,086 this season, will practice later this week and be cleared to play.

Starting right tackle Marc Colombo missed Wednesday’s practice because of an ankle injury, but this 10-year veteran has sat out a number of Wednesday practices this season, and played on Sunday.

Inside linebacker Karlos Dansby missed Wednesday’s practice, but his absence wasn’t injury related.

Receivers Brandon Marshall (left knee) and Clyde Gates (groin) were limited. Marshall has been battling knee soreness for a couple of weeks but played through the pain.

Gates apparently re-aggravated a groin strain that sidelined him a few weeks in November. His status will be monitored.

Tailback Daniel Thomas, who suffered a knee injury against the patriots, wasn’t even on the injury report.

Starting cornerback Vontae Davis participated fully despite the elbow injury he suffered in last Saturday’s game.

Davis’ status will be critical considering he’ll probably be responsible for covering Jets receiver Santonio Holmes. The Dolphins also don’t have much depth at cornerback these days, especially since rookie Jimmy Wilson missed practice with a hamstring injury.

On the positive side…. tight end Anthony Fasano passed his NFL mandatory baseline concussion test and has been cleared to return to practice. He’ll likely play on Sunday unless he suffers a setback.

Fasano, a four-year starter, sat out last weekend’s 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots because of the concussion he suffered the previous week.

Fasano’s presence is critical against the Jets because New York’s aggressive 3-4 scheme struggles defending tight ends, especially in the red zone.

Fasano has contributed 22 catches for 237 yards, scoring four touchdowns in the eight games he’s played against the Jets.

Fasano needs 89 receiving yards to establish a career high. He has 440 receiving yards. Last year, he logged 528.

G.G.A.T.G.

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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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According to a Yahoo! Sports report, the Christmas Eve clash between the New York Giants and New York Jets actually matters for a change. “For all the history of these teams – the Jets have Joe Namath and Super Bowl III while the Giants have Lawrence Taylor, the David Tyree catch and three titles – none of it intersects,” says the author of the article, Jason Cole. But of the 11 times the teams played during the regular season over the past 42 years, five were highly entertaining and significant. Here’s a look back at the top five games in the Giants-Jets rivalry.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning
wikimedia commons

1) Nov. 1, 1981

The Giants and Jets were both in the midst of the playoff race by the midway point of the season, and the early November matchup between the squads would determine who was the top team in New York in the 1981 season. The Jets, featuring legendary Sack Exchange players Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam, sacked Giants quarterback Phil Simms nine times and held their offense to just seven points. The Jets came away with a 26-7 win.

2) Dec. 18, 1988

The teams squared off in the season finale of the 1988 season, with the Jets coming away with a 27-21 victory to knock the 10-6 Giants out of the playoff race. The Jets, who finished 8-7-1, were already eliminated from the postseason, but they showed plenty of heart in the affair. The Jets held a 20-7 lead in the third quarter, but Phil Simms hit Stephen Baker and Lionel Manuel for touchdown passes to give the Giants a 21-20 advantage. But with time winding down, Jets wide receiver Al Toon caught a touchdown pass to seal the victory for the Jets and end the Giants’ playoff hopes.

3) Nov. 2, 2003

The Giants would win their third straight game against the Jets in a wildly entertaining overtime affair on Nov. 2, 2003. New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington pushed the pace of the offense and led a late comeback charge, tying the game at 28-all in the waning minutes of regulation time. But Giants kicker Brett Conway booted a field game with four seconds left in overtime to earn a 31-28 victory for his team.

4) Oct. 7, 2007

The last time the Giants played the Jets in the regular season was in the 2007-08 season, the year they won the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots. The Giants would ultimately win their fourth consecutive game over the Jets in thrilling, come-from-behind fashion. The Giants found themselves behind, 24-14, but Eli Manning connected on touchdown passes to wide receivers Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress to put his team back on top. Aaron Ross then sealed the victory with a game-changing interception, ultimately helping the Giants come out on top, 35-24.

5) Nov. 10, 1974

The Jets earned a 26-20 win over the Giants for their first ever regular-season overtime victory. It was also the first time any regular-season NFL game ended with an overtime win, as this was the year that the league instituted overtime to non-playoff games. It was a back-and-forth affair, with the Jets tying the game in the fourth quarter on a quarterback sneak from Joe Namath. In the overtime period, Namath connected with Emerson Boozer to seal the win for the Jets.

Eric Holden is a lifelong New York Jets fan and he will be pulling for his team to knock Big Blue out of the playoffs on Christmas Eve. Follow the author on Twitter @ericholden.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Andy Reid and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles are
hoping the team they just whipped helps them out in a big way.

The Eagles (6-8) are still in the playoff hunt in a mediocre NFC East
following a 45-19 rout over the New York Jets on Sunday. Now they’ll need those
same Jets (8-6) to beat the New York Giants (7-7) on Saturday to keep them in
contention.

“I’m a big Jets fan this week,” Reid said Monday.

So is everyone else in Philly.

The Jets-Giants game should be over before the Eagles kick off against
division-leading Dallas (8-6) on Christmas Eve. So, there will be plenty of
scoreboard watching during pregame warmups.

“You control what you control,” Reid said. “You have to play the game
whether that team wins or loses.”

For the Eagles to repeat as NFC East champions, they must beat the Cowboys
on the road and defeat Washington at home on Jan. 1. They need the Giants to
lose to the Jets and then beat Dallas in their last game.

If all four scenarios work out Philadelphia’s way, the Eagles would win the
division in a three-way tie at 8-8 because they would have the best record in
the East at 5-1.

“It feels good that we are still alive,” tight end Brent Celek said.
“That is all you can ask for at this point. We are not where we wanted to be at
the beginning of the season, but we are doing all we can do with what we have.
We just have to play together as a team and go up there, fight and beat
Dallas.”

The Eagles weren’t supposed to be in a position where they had to scratch
and claw and hope to make the playoffs. Many experts picked them to contend for
the Super Bowl this season after an offseason spending spree brought several
star players to Philadelphia, joining an already strong core that included
Michael Vick, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson. Even management declared this an
all-or-nothing year.

But a 1-4 start doomed the Eagles and they’ve failed miserably to live up to
those enormous expectations. Consecutive lopsided losses to New England and
Seattle dropped the Eagles to 4-8 and seemingly ended their playoff chances.
Fans were calling for Reid to be fired, and for offensive line
coach-turned-defensive coordinator Juan Castillo to go with him.

Now it appears both Reid and Castillo have secured themselves another
season. Players have rallied around Castillo, saying they have more confidence
in his schemes and calls. The results support that. The defense has shown vast
improvement recently, holding both Miami and the Jets to under 250 total yards
and getting 13 sacks.

“You have to understand that we really didn’t have training camp,”
Castillo said. “And I think initially I started too fast and what I found out
is I had to go backwards with some of those guys because they had missed some of
that and we were making some mistakes just on fundamental stuff. You know, now
as we understand all of our packages, we’re able to add as we keep going. And
there is still a lot to add, but the first thing we have to understand is how to
handle our fundamental packages.”

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