Sanchez, Rex & Jets Wilt in Buffalo Finale

BILLS 28
JETS 9

There is something to celebrate this season Jets fans! The season is over!!

The nightmare of a season that has been for the 2012 New York Jets came to fitting conclusion with Mark Sanchez once again playing the lead, and Rex Ryan, again ducking the media.

Sanchez was inept in butt-fumble fashion, turning the ball over twice in the Jets season finale. The only reason New York moved the football into field goal range on its opening possession to take a 3-0 lead was because of 42 yards the Jets pounded out on the ground; Sanchez never completed a pass on the drive. When Sanchez finally did rear back to throw, he threw a hedious interception to Bryan Scott (no relation to Bart) who rumbled 20 yards for a touchdown to give the Bills a 7-3 lead.

Every single time Sanchez and this offense touched the football, they couldn't do anything with it against a horrible Buffalo defense. All three of the Jets scoring drives died in Bills territory with Sanchez unable to complete crucial third down passes, forcing Gang Green to settle for three field goals.

The Jets inability to do anything offensively gave renewed life to the Buffalo ground attack. Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was dreadful to open the game, completing one pass in six attempts; yet he found the Bills right in the game, because the Jets couldn't put the Bills away. Down 9-7, Fitzpatrick completed his second pass of the day to C.J. Spiller who dashed up the middle for a 66-yard touchdown, to make it 14-9. Buffalo never looked back again.

Spiller had 131 total yards of offense, and to add insult to injury the Bills brought in former Jets wide-receiver/quarterback Brad Smith in to run the wild cat right down the Jets throats. With Buffalo poised to score on the Jets goalline, Smith took the snap in the shot-gun and pounded his way up the middle for the touchdown to basically ice the game 21-9.

Now that this miserable season is over, the real fun is about to begin for Gang Green. Reports are that offensive coordinator Tony Sparano has coached his final game with the Jets. Sparano's conservative game planning and terrible play-calling was the epitome of ineptidue for the Jets this season. Sparano was a hired gun by both Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum -- a guy Ryan wanted to add to his coaching staff after he was fired by Miami. As it turns out, now Ryan knows why the Dolphins got rid of Sparano a year ago.

More importantly the future of Ryan, Tannenbaum and quarterback Mark Sanchez is up in the air. Starting with Ryan; he knocked down rumors that he wanted to be fired unless Woody Johnson was willing to spend money on the offense, and is even more on the hot seat then he was a few weeks ago.

Ryan came to New York promising great things with Super Bowl titles and so much more. He has failed to deliver; instead this team has been on a steady decline the past two years under his watch. What might kill Ryan more than any of his broken guarantees is his handling, or lack thereof of the quarterback situation. He strapped himself to a failed quarterback in Mark Sanchez, defended him no matter how badly he played and kept him in games even when he fouled it up. The fact that he would never remove Sanchez for Tim Tebow played a huge roll in Ryan's demise this season.

No matter what you think of Tim Tebow, and the Tebow experiment, the way Ryan and company treated him was horrible. They shoved him so far down the pine that he never saw daylight. When they did bring Tebow into a game it was either as a punt protector or a wild cat option, which resulted in nothing. Tebow should have been given the chance to start a game for the Jets, but because of Ryan's bizarre loyalty to Sanchez it never happened.

While the handling of the Tebow situation was all on Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum and Woody Johnson deserve equal blame for bringing him here. Last spring they ignorantly gave Mark Sanchez a contract extension as a way to apologize to Sanchez for flirting with Peyton Manning. Then, days after giving Sanchez an extension, Tannenbaum and Johnson went out and traded for Tebow -- who never had a real place on this roster to begin with.

However, it will be Tannenbaum who will feel the axe. Johnson is not going to sell the team anytime soon. Beyond the Tebow and Sanchez disasters, Tannenbaum has done a horrible job on draft day -- drafting the likes of Sanchez, Shonn Greene, Vernon Gholston, Kendrik Ellis, Stephen Hill and Quentin Coples. Most of these guys either became incredibly unproductive, or never really contributed much to the franchise. Tannenbaum has to pay for this as well as his liberal use of the Jets salary cap, which is one of this highest in the NFL going into 2013. Salary Cap guru? I don't think so.

If Johnson is smart, and if he cares about his football team, he gets Tannenbaum out of the office and tells him to take his stooges with him, i.e. Terry Bradway. No GM candidate is going to come to New York with Tannenbaum in place in a demoted roll as a salary cap guru. He has to go as soon as the sun rises Monday.

Finally, there is Mr. Sanchez. For the past few years I have talked about how Mark Sanchez is not a franchise quarterback, and eventually the Jets have to go in another direction. Well, now is the time. Sanchez is horrible. His decision making is STILL at a rookie level. Whether it is his horrid inaccuracy, or the fact that he leads the NFL in turnovers the past two years with 52, this guy is a disgrace.

He is the main reason this offense has been a complete bust the past two years.

Let's remember that the only reason this team had success during Sanchez's first two years was because of the stout defense and strong running game they had; they won inspite of him. When the Jets asked Sanchez to do a little more and become THE guy, he couldn't do it.

Getting rid of Sanchez will be no easy task; if he is cut the Jets will face a $17 million cap hit. If they trade him the Jets will have to eat at least $6 million, and they probably won't get much in the way of draft picks for him either. No matter what, Sanchez can not be the Jets starting quarterback in 2013. He is the face of failure, and the sooner the Jets find a real franchise quarterback the better they are.

It is sure to be one heck of an off-season for Gang Green.

NOTES: No matter who the Jets quarterback, GM, or head coach will be next year, the Jets already know whom they will face in 2013. Other than facing the AFC East, the Jets will play the AFC North and NFC South. Since New York finished in third, they will also face the Raiders and Titans in 2013.

Home: New England, Miami, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Oakland.

Away: New England, Miami, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Carolina, Tennessee.