By Ed Valentine

– Regional Editor

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Jan 2, 2012 – It is apparently an ugly day in Florham Park as the New York Jets deal with the aftermath of losing to the Miami Dolphins Sunday and falling short of the playoffs, as well as with Santonio Holmes’ bad behavior and benching near the end of Sunday’s season-ending loss.

Jason LaCanfora of the NFL Network tweeted that the Jets “are imploding on all levels right now — players, coaches and front office.”

Rex Ryan apparently cried this morning when addressing his team, pleading for unity that does not seem to exist.

The Santonio Holmes situation is one that won’t go away soon. One player said today that “He’s [Holmes] a cancer. It’s like dealing with a 10 year old.” Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post pointed the finger directly at Ryan for the Holmes debacle, since it was the coach who made the opinionated Holmes a team captain. Cannizaro wrote:

“Ryan giving Holmes the title of captain was like a father handing the keys and a bottle of booze to his 16-year-old son and telling him to “party on” with the new sports car.”

Then there was Bart Scott flipping off reporters on his way out of the locker room today, as well as Holmes being ushered out without being allowed to speak to the media.

The Jets may not be the ‘Big Brother’ of their playoff-bound city rivals, the New York Giants. What they definitely are, though, is the best circus in town.

Read More: rex ryan, Bart Scott (LB – NYJ), Santonio Holmes (WR – NYJ), New York Jets

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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.”

Dolphins running game vs. Jets run defense: Reggie Bush’s incredible rebound year has seen him set career highs in rushing yards (1,086) and total yards (1,382), but it is in the month of December where Bush has played like an NFL elite back, with an astonishing 519 rushing yards on 83 carries (6.3 yards per run). Even with the offensive line being hobbled significantly by injury, Bush has had his way, primarily because of the emergence of quarterback Matt Moore and the deep passing game. The question is how affected Bush will be by the injury that sidelined him toward the end of the loss to the Patriots. EDGE: Jets

Dolphins passing game vs. Jets pass defense: Matt Moore is getting the hard part done, completing beautiful throws in the vertical passing game. What is holding him back are the more fundamental aspects of quarterbacking (the center snap exchange, taking bad sacks with plenty of time to throw the ball away). Still, Moore, if he goes without an interception Sunday, will end up with the fewest interceptions by a Dolphin in a stretch greater than eight games with only three in his final nine games, and he owns a 103.8 passer rating in his past eight starts. Brandon Marshall needs 149 receiving yards to set a career single-season high. EDGE: Dolphins

Jets running game vs. Dolphins run defense: The Dolphins, who two weeks ago had the club mark for fewest rushing yards allowed in a season as an attainable goal, have allowed 232 rushing yards since then, and need a season-best 28 yards allowed or fewer to break the mark of 1,430 yards that was established by the 1994 team. The Bills’ C.J. Spiller and the Patriots’ Stevan Ridley both have gotten to the edge with success following the Dolphins’ loss of outside backer Koa Misi to a shoulder injury against the Eagles. EDGE: Dolphins

Jets passing game vs. Dolphins pass defense: The Jets’ Mark Sanchez has been awful the past two weeks, throwing 85 times for only 408 yards (a putrid 4.8 yards per pass attempt), while getting sacked nine times, throwing four interceptions and losing two fumbles. Another poor performance may seal his fate and have the Jets turning to someone else for 2012. Tight end Dustin Keller was targeted 18 times on Christmas Eve. EDGE: Dolphins

Dolphins special teams vs. Jets special teams: Speedster Clyde Gates has figured out kick returning since Thanksgiving. Since then, the rookie has averaged 32.2 yards a return with two that were a sliver away from being touchdowns. Meanwhile, Brandon Fields picked an awful time to have two of his worst punts of the season in Foxboro on Saturday, smack in the middle of the Pats’ rally. EDGE: Dolphins

Intangibles: A 6-3 finish to get to 6-10 with an elimination of the Jets would provide some optimism headed into the 2012 offseason. Jason Taylor, the Miami Dolphins’ greatest defensive player, plays his final game on Sunday. Hopefully, he will eventually join Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and John Elway as Hall of Famers who played their final career games at the stadium in Miami Gardens. EDGE: Dolphins

Prediction: Dolphins 28, Jets 17

MIAMI — Welcome to the AFC Least.

It’s a place where the first-place team has the NFL’s worst defense and the last-place team is the hottest in the division.

The two middle teams, well … let’s just say they personify the word “pretender.” Just three days after the New York Jets were upset by Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, the Bills also were embarrassed in an ugly, 35-8 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

Week 11 exposed the AFC East as a mediocre division. It’s late November and only one team — the New England Patriots (6-3) — has a winning record. The Jets (5-5) and Bills (5-5) mathematically remain in the playoff hunt. But there’s nothing to suggest either team is playoff bound or good enough to make a sustainable run down the stretch.

The Jets lost two games in five days. The Bills are 2-5 in their last seven and on a three-game losing streak. Buffalo has been outscored 109-26 the past three weeks.

“We’re not a team that [should] go out and get beat 35-8 and 44-7 last week,” Bills tight end Scott Chandler said. “I don’t know if there’s any team in the league that loses like that week in and week out. We’ve been embarrassed the past three weeks.”

The game was ugly for Buffalo. It included three straight touchdown drives allowed to start the game, two interceptions on dropped passes and a blocked punt for a touchdown.

Like the Jets a few days ago, bewilderment seemed to be the overall theme with the Bills. There’s a lot of questions why this is happening and no one seems to have any answers.

“I wish I could give you an explanation,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said bluntly. “I cannot give you an explanation.”

Here is our explanation: The AFC East is not good this season.

It starts with the quarterbacks. The quarterbacking in this division has been awful in the past month and average overall this season. Buffalo’s Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets’ Mark Sanchez had good moments early. But both are crashing hard in this crucial time. The pair have combined for just four touchdowns and 12 interceptions in their past three games.

Tom Brady has been terrific, as usual, for New England. He’s the biggest reason the Patriots are primed to win the division. New England usually falls when Brady has a bad game. The Patriots are too flawed in other areas to survive poor quarterback play on most weeks.

Miami’s Matt Moore is playing like the second-best quarterback in the division, which is telling for the AFC East. He’s not making any mistakes and it’s led to Miami’s third straight victory. Moore threw for 160 yards and three touchdowns Sunday. These are numbers Fitzpatrick and Sanchez would love to have at this point.

Buffalo and New York also have inconsistent defenses. The Bills can’t stop anybody and New York, although stout, hasn’t performed up to the level of the previous two years. This combination has led to mediocrity for both teams.

The good news is the Bills and Jets play each other next week at Met Life Stadium. Some AFC East team has to win that game in what probably is a playoff eliminator for the loser.

“At this point every game is a must-win game,” Bills safety Bryan Scott said. “We’re moving to the last quarter of the season. We have to put together a string of wins in order to compete and get to where we want to be.”

Chandler agrees.

“If you look at the big picture here, there’s not too many teams that will get in with six losses,” he said. “So, yeah, I think they’re all must-wins from here on out.”

Can the Jets or Bills suddenly run off a string of wins to get into the postseason? It will take at least 10 victories to make the playoffs in the AFC. That means Buffalo or New York has to go 5-1 the rest of the way. Even with relatively easy strength of schedules, I don’t see it.

But the last-place team in the AFC East is actually playing the best football. The Dolphins (3-7) now have won three straight with victories over Buffalo, the Washington Redskins and Kansas City Chiefs. Miami looks like the team fighting for a playoff spot, not the Bills or Jets.

Is it time to rethink Miami’s plan in 2012? Is Moore the long-term solution at quarterback? Should coach Tony Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland keep their jobs for another season? These are all questions for Miami — the AFC East’s bottom team — that will be resolved in time.

But we can draw one conclusion for the AFC East as a whole. It’s a division mired in mediocrity.

Read More: Nick Folk (K – NYJ), Mark Sanchez (QB – NYJ), Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins at New York Jets, Oct 17, 2011 8:30 PM EDT

Tick-tick-tick…

The play clock is slowly ticking away on Miami, who is staring down the barrel of an almost insurmountable 0-5 start to the 2011 season.

In fact, with all the dropped passes and up-for-grabs bombs from Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore, it’s almost surprising to learn the fish have been able to keep it a two-score game.

At the end of the third quarter, New York leads 17-6.

The Jets, who seemed to be picking up steam at the end of the first half, went 79 yards across 13 plays to get within field goal range, where Nick Folk would launch one from 28 yards out for the only score of the quarter.

In reality, with the amount of time Mark Sanchez has been afforded to throw the ball, this should be a blowout.

Unless New York runs away with it in the fourth quarter, some of the lingering questions that fans had heading into this game may still remain.

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