Jets Served Up as Turkeys on Thanksgiving

PATRIOTS 49
JETS 19

This Thanksgiving Day the New York Jets were in a very giving mood as the Gang Green Turkeys watched the New England Patriots take advantage of costly Jets' turnovers en route to a 49-19 smack down on Thanksgiving night.

The Jets were once again listless, careless and totally dreadful; New England ran up 21 points in a matter of 52 seconds in the second quarter building an insurmountable 35-0 lead; in fact, all 35 first-half points for New England came in that second quarter.

Typical of recent Jets performances, quarterback Mark Sanchez was at the forefront of the debacle. In a still scoreless game, Sanchez threw a costly interception with New York driving deep into New England territory. As a result, the Patriots took advantage of the Sanchez miscue and turned it into points when Tom Brady led New England on a 15 play, 66-yard drive culminating in a Wes Welker 3-yard score, giving New England a 7-0 lead.

Then, in a New York minute, the Jets went from typically inept to complete joke-dom. With the Jets facing a fourth and one at the Patriots 31 yard-line, New York decided to pound the rock up the middle; however, Shonn Greene forgot to hold onto the football.

Once Greene hit the hole and tried to extend the ball over the first down marker, the ball was swatted out of his hands into mid-air, rolled around the turf and into the clutches of Patriots safety Steve Gregory. The play was a poor display of simple fundamental football on Greene's part. Instead of trying to reach over a pile of people with the football exposed, Greene should have tucked it under his arms and dive for the first down. But fundamentals and New York Jets don't seem to mix.

It didn't take long for New England to respond. Brady hit a wide open Shane Vereen down the sideline at the Patriots 40, and the back-up tailback took it to the house, streaking down the sideline for an 83-yard touchdown to give the Patriots a 14-0 lead.

Finally, Sanchez stooped to a new low of ... well ... Sancheziness! The befuddled signal-caller decided to do his best Tebow impression, but, instead, crashed into the backside of guard Brandon Moore, slipped beneath him while flipping the ball skyward and into the hands of Gregory, who chugged into the endzone for another Patriots touchdown!

Watch it here! 

The fumble furnished the perfect blooper reel for what has become Sanchez's career with the Jets. The quarterback has now gone four years as the starter of this franchise and has become one of the worst quarterback's in football. Sanchez defenders keep pointing to lack of talent around Sanchez and blame the coaching staff for not doing a good enough job with him, but here is the cold hard fact: Sanchez stinks. This is the same quarterback who struggled to play well the past four years, and it has not gotten any better. It doesn't matter what talent the Jets have put around this guy; the results have always been the same: mediocritude of the first order.


The Jets are better off without Sanchez, yet Rex Ryan continues to sing the same ole' tune that goes: Sanchez is my starting quarterback. Apparently, Tim Tebow was not available last night because of an apparent rib injury. If that is the case, the Jets should have activated Greg McElroy whom everyone but the Jets thinks can do a better job with this team.

If Sanchez had gotten injured, and Tebow couldn't play, who would have stepped in to play quarterback, especially if McElory was deactivated? Nick Folk? 

But that was not all! After New England scored on the Sanchez fumble, the Patriots found themselves back in the end zone when Jets kick return man, Joe McKnight, fumbled the kick-off; Julian Edelman scooped it up and dashed in for the score to make it 28-0.

Finally, Brady put the night to rest with a 56-yard strike to Edelman, giving New England a 35-0 lead.

By that point, Jets fans started heading for the exits, and it wasn't even halftime.

The Jets problems go beyond the quarterback, of course. There are team-wide issues that date back to the beginning of the Ryan/Tannenbaum regime. There are too many people to pin blame on for this game; the truth is this Jets team smells. It is a shock that this team has won four games this year, because if one compares this team to the other dregs of the NFL: Kansas City, Jacksonville, Cleveland, to name but a few, the Jets are probably worse.

If the Jets continue to spiral out of control, I will reiterate here my point from a previous article: not only will Mike Tannebaum be out of a job, but Rex Ryan will be gone as well. It's time for Woody Johnson to step up and re-tool this franchise from top to bottom. He needs to clean out his football personnel and import REAL football people into the building who know the game and know talent. This administration has been a total failure, and it is time, time for them to go!