It is safe to say that not too many people saw the New York Jets as play-off contenders when the season began.
Stuck in a division that included the Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, as well as a couple of alleged rising contenders in the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, the Jets were coming off a 4-12 season and were testing out a new coach in Todd Bowles.
Surprise, surprise. The Jets are 10-5, riding a five-game winning streak and need only to beat the 7-8 Bills on Sunday to reach the post-season and complete a stunning turnaround performance.
Did we say “only” beat the Bills? The game has more angles than Venice, all adding to more than just a make-or-break game for New York.
Rex Ryan, the colourful and outspoken former face of the Jets, is now Buffalo’s coach. He was especially pumped up before the teams met at New York at midseason, and his players know how much that 22-17 victory meant to him then. Knocking the Jets out of the play-offs has the whiff of a mission for his players.
“We’re not going to the play-offs, so it’s the Super Bowl for us,” Bills running back Boobie Dixon told NFL.com last week. “To send them home packing, that would be great.”
It is really all the Bills have left.
Their pride and their coach’s ego have been bruised by their failed season. Expectations were heightened by Ryan, who “guaranteed” his team would make the post-season when he was hired.
“I just honestly believed that,” the humbled coach told reporters this week, saying he regrets his bravado. “I love the fact that people believed in me. I feel bad that I didn’t deliver.”
Then there is IK Enemkpali.
The Bills linebacker was in the Jets pre-season camp when he got in an argument with Jets starting quarterback Geno Smith, broke his jaw with a punch and was released.
Enemkpali was picked up by his former coach Ryan, and has been a marginal contributor in Buffalo.
Jets fans jokingly call him their “MVP” because the punch opened the door for Ryan Fitzpatrick to become the quarterback, and after a so-so first half of the season, the 33-year-old journeyman found his best form.
In the Jets five-game surge Fitzpatrick has completed 65 per cent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and just one interception.
In his finest moment last week, he moved the Jets 80 yards in five plays on the first possession of overtime to beat New England, 26-20 and set his team up for their “win and you are in” finale.
Of course, Fitzpatrick has a Buffalo connection, too, having started 53 games for the Bills from 2009 to 2012, the most for any of the six teams that have employed him.
Ironically, it is the Jets defence that has buoyed them this year after failing to perform for Ryan, a defensive-minded coach.
New York are the best team against the run (81.5 yards per game) and rank sixth in overall defence.
One does not need Fitzpatrick’s Harvard education to understand what the game means on both sides of the field, considering the multiple interconnections.
“It’s a crazy circumstance,” Fitzpatrick said.
“But that’s what it comes down to in Buffalo.”
Belichick an example of why teams should show more patience
When the Philadelphia Eagles fired Chip Kelly last week, he became the third coach not to reach the end of the season.
The others were Joe Philbin of the Miami Dolphins and Ken Whisenhunt of the Tennessee Titans.
None of them had as many as four full years in their jobs.
Of course, those three will soon have company. The day after the regular season has come to be known as Black Monday, for all the fired coaches.
Among those believed to be in danger are Chuck Pagano (Indianapolis Colts), Jim Caldwell (Detroit Lions), Tom Coughlin (New York Giants), Mike McCoy (San Diego Chargers), Mike Pettine (Cleveland Browns), Jim Tomsula (San Francisco 49ers), and the interim coaches at Tennessee, Mike Mularkey, and Miami, Dan Campbell.
Of them, only Coughlin and Pagano will have as many as four years at the helm. What’s the significance of four years? Last week, the longest tenured coach in the league and the most successful, with four Super Bowl victories, Bill Belichick noted that it took him four seasons to fully implement his system and shape the culture of the New England Patriots.
“There is no short cut to it,” he said. “A lot of people in this league think in two weeks everything is going to change. I don’t buy into that.”
Not that every coach eventually will be successful, even given 10 years. But if there is any truth to what Belichick says, on Monday a bunch of teams will be sabotaging
their own best chances to win.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
Minnesota Vikings (10-5) at Green Bay Packers (10-5), 5.30am Monday — The NFC North and a post-season home game are up for grabs. The Vikings are playing better right now, but haven’t won in Green Bay since 2009.
Seattle Seahawks (9-6) at Arizona Cardinals (13-2), 1.25am Monday — This clash of titans was supposed to decide the NFC West, but now it’s just for post-season positioning. How many starters play, and for how long, may depend on the competitiveness of the coaches.
THE REST
10pm Sunday kick offs
New Orleans Saints (6-9) at Atlanta Falcons (8-7)
Detroit Lions (6-9) at Chicago Bears (6-9)
Washington Redskins (8-7) at Dallas Cowboys (4-11)
Philadelphia Eagles (6-9) at New York Giants (6-9)
Baltimore Ravens (5-10) at Cincinnati Bengals (11-4)
New York Jets (10-5) at Buffalo Bills (7-8)
Pittsburgh Steelers (9-6) at Cleveland Browns (3-12)
Jacksonville Jaguars (5-10) at Houston Texans (8-7)
Tennessee Titans (3-12) at Indianapolis Colts (7-8)
New England Patriots (12-3) at Miami Dolphins (5-10)
1.25am Monday kick offs
San Diego Chargers (4-11) at Denver Broncos (11-4)
St. Louis Rams (7-8) at San Francisco 49ers (4-11)
Oakland Raiders (7-8) at Kansas City Chiefs (10-5)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-9) at Carolina Panthers (14-1)
Odds and Ends
— Indianapolis needs no fewer than nine games to go a certain way Sunday to overtake Houston for the AFC South title.
— Rookie Marcus Peters’ eight interceptions are two more than his Kansas City Chiefs totalled in all of 2014.
— Cleveland coach Mike Pettine, on why Johnny Manziel’s partying will keep him from starting at quarterback Sunday: “We want to make sure that all of our players are in good shape as people first, players second.”
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